North and South Korea exchange gunfire at border: Seoul

North Korean troops fired multiple gunshots towards the South in the DMZ dividing the peninsula on Sunday, prompting South Korean forces to fire back, Seoul said.

The rare exchange of gunfire comes a day after North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks following an absence that triggered intense speculation about his health and fears about the stability of the isolated nation.

A South Korean guard post was hit by several shots from the North, the joint chiefs of staff (JCS) in Seoul said in a statement, adding no casualties were reported in the South.

"Our military responded with two rounds of gunfire and a warning announcement," the JCS said.

The South Korean military later said the North Korean gunshots were "not deemed intentional", according to the Yonhap news agency.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said he believed the shots had not been fired on purpose, telling ABC's "This Week" it was likely they were "accidental".

The two neighbours remain technically at war, after fighting in the Korean War was halted with an armistice in 1953.

Despite its name, the demilitarized zone is one of the most fortified places on earth, replete with minefields and barbed-wire fences.

The last time the two sides exchanged fire on the border was in 2014. North Korean soldiers also shot at a defector in 2017 but the South did not fire back.

- Swirling health rumours -

Easing military tensions on their border was one of the agreements reached between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a summit in Pyongyang in September 2018.

But most of the deals have not been acted on by North Korea, with Pyongyang largely cutting off contact with Seoul.

North Korea's discussions with the United States over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal are also at a standstill, despite three meetings between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

The uncertainty around the process would have increased had Kim been incapacitated or dead as rumoured in recent weeks.

Speculation about Kim's health has been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.

His absence triggered a series of unconfirmed reports over his condition, while the United States and South Korea insisted they had no information to believe any of the conjecture was true.

However, North Korean state television on Friday showed Kim walking, smiling broadly and smoking a cigarette at what it said was the opening of a fertiliser factory.

A senior South Korean presidential official on Sunday brushed off rumours that Kim had undergone surgery during his absence, saying they had enough grounds to believe he had not.

Trump on Saturday welcomed the leader's return.

"I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" the president tweeted.

Before Kim's reappearance, Pompeo said last month that he remained hopeful a nuclear deal could be clinched with North Korea.

"Regardless of what transpires inside of North Korea with respect to their leadership, our mission remains the same -- to deliver on that commitment that Chairman Kim made with President Trump... (the) verified denuclearisation of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters.

"We are still hopeful that we'll find a path to negotiate that solution to get the outcome that is good for the American people, good for the North Korean people and for the whole world."

Agence France-Presse

Mattis warns of bumpy road to US, North Korea nuclear summit

SINGAPORE — It will be a "bumpy road" to the nuclear negotiations with North Korea later this month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned Sunday, telling his South Korean and Japanese counterparts they must maintain a strong defensive stance so the diplomats can negotiate from a position of strength.

Mattis was speaking at the start of a meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on the final day of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference. He said allies must remain vigilant.

"We can anticipate, at best, a bumpy road to the negotiations," Mattis said. "In this moment we are steadfastly committed to strengthening even further our defense cooperation as the best means for preserving the peace."

Plans are moving forward for a nuclear weapons summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore. And Mattis repeated the U.S. position that North Korea will only receive relief from U.N. national security sanctions when it demonstrates "verifiable and irreversible steps" to denuclearization.

Through an interpreter, Song said that this is a great turning point as North Korea takes its first steps toward denuclearization.

"Of course, given North Korea's past, we must be cautious in approaching this," he added that some of North Korea's recent measures "give us reasons to be positive and one can be cautiously optimistic as we move forward."

source: philstar.com

Diplomacy heats up before summit, with trips by US, North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Diplomacy accelerated Tuesday ahead of a potential summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a team of American diplomats involved in preparatory discussions left a Seoul hotel, possibly to continue talks with their North Korean counterparts.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol planned to head to the United States, potentially for more talks to set up the summit. He would be the most senior North Korean official to visit the United States in 18 years.

Yonhap said Kim Yong Chol's name was on the passenger list for a flight Wednesday from Beijing to New York. It earlier reported that he was heading straight to Washington, but later said he changed his flight to New York. South Korean officials couldn't immediately confirm the report. Kim was seen in the Beijing airport Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Kim is a former military intelligence chief and now a vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party's central committee tasked with inter-Korean relations. A visit to the United States would mark the highest-level North Korean official visit since 2000, when late National Defense Commission First Vice Chairman Jo Myong Rok visited Washington, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.


In South Korea, it wasn't immediately clear whether the American officials, including Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to Manila, were heading to the Korean village of Panmunjom, which straddles the border inside the Demilitarized Zone, where they met with North Korean officials on Sunday. Sung Kim is a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and was a top negotiator with North Korea in past nuclear talks.

Trump withdrew from a planned June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un last Thursday, citing hostile North Korean comments, but has since said the meeting in Singapore could still happen. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has lobbied hard for nuclear negotiations between Trump and Kim, met with the North Korean leader in a surprise meeting on Saturday in an effort to keep the summit alive.

In their second meeting in a month, Moon said Kim expressed willingness to cooperate to end confrontation and work toward peace for the sake of a successful summit with Trump. But Kim also said he was unsure whether he could trust the United States over its promise to end hostile policies against North Korea and provide security assurances if the country does abandon its nuclear weapons, according to Moon.
Despite Kim's apparent eagerness for a summit with Trump, there are lingering doubts about whether he will fully relinquish his nuclear weapons, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival. Moon has insisted Kim can be persuaded to abandon his nuclear facilities, materials and bombs in a verifiable and irreversible way in exchange for credible security and economic guarantees.

U.S. and South Korean officials haven't confirmed the details of the pre-summit negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang at the border.

The officials may discuss bridging the gap between Washington and Pyongyang on what a deal on the North's nuclear weapons would look like. There's also speculation that American officials are trying to persuade the North Koreans to export a certain number of its nuclear warheads overseas at an early stage as proof of its commitment to denuclearize.

U.S. officials have talked about a comprehensive one-shot deal in which North Korea eliminates its nukes first and receives rewards later. But Kim, through two summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March and May, has called for a phased and synchronized process in which every action he takes is met with a reciprocal reward from the United States.

Seoul has been advocating an alternative approach in which the North's comprehensive commitment and credible actions toward denuclearization are followed by a phased but compressed process of inspection and verifiable dismantling. Before he canceled the summit, Trump did not rule out an incremental approach that would provide incentives along the way to the North.

source: philstar.com

NKorean leader Kim watches performance by SKorean pop stars

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on yesterday watched a rare performance by South Korean pop stars visiting Pyongyang, media reports said, amid thawing ties between the rivals after more than a year of heightened tensions over the North's nuclear program.

A South Korean artistic group including K-pop singers flew to Pyongyang on Saturday for two performances in the North Korean capital. Their trip comes before Kim is to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village on April 27 and with President Donald Trump in May in separate summits.

South Korean media pool reports from Pyongyang said Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, watched yesterday's performance by the South Korean group at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater. The reports said Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, and other top officials, including nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, were also present.

Kim clapped his hands during the event, and he shook hands with South Korean performers and took a group photo with them after their performance, according to the reports.

South Korean pop singers performed in the North during a past era of detente, but it was the first time for a North Korean leader to attend such a South Korean performance. Before yesterday's performance, South Korea last sent a pop singer to North Korea in 2005.

The pool reports cited an unidentified South Korean official as saying that Kim had initially planned to watch the second performance, set for Tuesday, but changed his plan due to a scheduling conflict. On Tuesday, the two Koreas plan to hold a joint performance.

The ongoing cooperation steps between the rivals began after North Korea took part in February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. During the games, a North Korean art troupe performed in South Korea, and Moon and his wife watched it with visiting senior North Korean officials including Kim Yo Jong, who became the first member of the North's ruling Kim family to visit the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

source: philstar.com

Surrounded by military leaders, Trump talks of ‘calm before the storm’

WASHINGTON — After discussing Iran and North Korea with U.S. military leaders on Thursday, President Donald Trump posed for a photo with them before dinner and declared the moment “the calm before the storm.”

“You guys know what this represents?” Trump said after journalists gathered in the White House state dining room to photograph him and first lady Melania Trump with the uniformed military leaders and their spouses. 




“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” he said.

What storm?

“You’ll find out,” Trump told questioning reporters.

Classical music played in the background and tables were set in the nearby Blue Room for a fancy meal.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request to clarify Trump’s remark.

Earlier in the evening, while seated with the top defense officials in the cabinet room, Trump talked about the threat from North Korea and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“In North Korea, our goal is denuclearization,” he said. “We cannot allow this dictatorship to threaten our nation or our allies with unimaginable loss of life. We will do what we must do to prevent that from happening. And it will be done, if necessary, believe me.”

During his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump said the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea if needed to defend itself or U.S. allies.

The president on Thursday also had tough words for Iran, saying the country had not lived up to the spirit of an agreement forged with world powers to curb its nuclear program.

A senior administration official said on Thursday

that Trump was expected to announce soon he would decertify the landmark agreement.

Trump has filled top posts within his administration with military generals, including his chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, and national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster. McMaster, who normally dresses in civilian clothes at the White House, wore his uniform for the meeting.

Without being specific, Trump pressed the leaders to be faster at providing him with “military options” when needed.

“Moving forward, I also expect you to provide me with a broad range of military options, when needed, at a much faster pace. I know that government bureaucracy is slow, but I am depending on you to overcome the obstacles of bureaucracy,” he said during their cabinet room meeting.

source: interaksyon.com

Trump cranks up North Korea threats as Pyongyang holds anti-U.S. rally

SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS – U.S. President Donald Trump dialled up the rhetoric against North Korea again at the weekend, warning the country’s foreign minister that he and leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer”, as Pyongyang staged a major anti-U.S. rally.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” Trump called Pyongyang’s leader a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

“Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” Trump said on Twitter late on Saturday.

Trump and Kim have traded increasingly threatening and personal insults as Pyongyang races towards its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States – something Trump has vowed to prevent.

Analysts say the escalation in rhetoric is increasing the risk of a miscalculation by one side or the other that could have massive repercussions.

source: interaksyon.com

South Korea ‘will block war by all means’ – president

SEOUL — South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday there will be no military action upon the Korean peninsula without Seoul’s consent and that the government would prevent war by all means.

“Military action on the Korean peninsula can only be decided by South Korea and no one else can decide to take military action without the consent of South Korea,” said Moon in televised comments.

The president was making an annual speech to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the nation’s liberation from Japanese military rule that began in 1910 and ended in 1945.

“The government, putting everything on the line, will block war by all means,” Moon said.

Previous presidents before Moon, who took office in May, have traditionally made North Korea the core of their speeches, mainly focusing on policy to engage Pyongyang.

Moon also urged the North to come to the dialogue table, saying sanctions against Pyongyang aim only draw it out to talks.

“I call upon the North Korean government: without international cooperation and co-existence economic development is impossible,” said Moon. “If you continue on this path there will only be international isolation and a dark future.”

Tension on the Korean peninsula has increased in recent months over concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon.

North Korea and the United States exchanged threats of military action last week, with Pyongyang saying it will develop a plan to fire missiles to land in waters near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

Earlier on Tuesday, North Korea said it would keep fire-ready regarding its Guam plans while watching the actions of the United States for a while longer.

source: interaksyon.com

North Korea hacking focused more on making money than espionage – South Korean study

SEOUL — North Korea is behind an increasingly orchestrated effort at hacking into computers of financial institutions in South Korea and around the world to steal cash for the impoverished country, a South Korean state-backed agency said in a report.

In the past, suspected hacking attempts by North Korea appeared intended to cause social disruption or steal classified military or government data, but the focus seems to have shifted in recent years to raising foreign currency, the South’s Financial Security Institute (FSI) said.

The isolated regime is suspected to be behind a hacking group called Lazarus, which global cybersecurity firms have linked to last year’s $81 million cyber heist at the Bangladesh central bank and the 2014 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio.

The U.S. government has blamed North Korea for the Sony hack and some U.S. officials have said prosecutors are building a case against Pyongyang in the Bangladesh Bank theft.

In April, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab also identified a hacking group called Bluenoroff, a spinoff of Lazarus, as focused on attacking mostly foreign financial institutions.


The new report, which analyzed suspected cyberattacks between 2015 and 2017 on South Korean government and commercial institutions, identified another Lazarus spinoff named Andariel.

“Bluenoroff and Andariel share their common root, but they have different targets and motives,” the report said. “Andariel focuses on attacking South Korean businesses and government agencies using methods tailored for the country.”

Pyongyang has been stepping up its online hacking capabilities as one way of earning hard currency under the chokehold of international sanctions imposed to stop the development of its nuclear weapons program.

Cyber security researchers have also said they have found technical evidence that could link North Korea with the global WannaCry “ransomware” cyberattack that infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries in May.

“We’ve seen an increasing trend of North Korea using its cyber espionage capabilities for financial gain. With the pressure from sanctions and the price growth in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum — these exchanges likely present an attractive target,” said Luke McNamara, senior analyst at FireEye, a cybersecurity company.

North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cyberattacks against other countries. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment.

ATMs, online poker

The report said the North Korean hacking group Andariel has been spotted attempting to steal bank card information by hacking into automated teller machines, and then using it to withdraw cash or sell the bank information on the black market. It also created malware to hack into online poker and other gambling sites and steal cash.

“South Korea prefers to use local ATM vendors and these attackers managed to analyze and compromise SK ATMs from at least two vendors earlier this year,” said Vitaly Kamluk, director of the APAC research center at Kaspersky.

“We believe this subgroup (Andariel) has been active since at least May 2016.”

The latest report lined up eight different hacking instances spotted within the South in the last few years, which North Korea was suspected to be behind, by tracking down the same code patterns within the malware used for the attacks.

One case spotted last September was an attack on the personal computer of South Korea’s defense minister as well as the ministry’s intranet to extract military operations intelligence.

North Korean hackers used IP addresses in Shenyang, China to access the defense ministry’s server, the report said.

Established in 2015, the FSI was launched by the South Korean government in order to boost information management and protection in the country’s financial sector following attacks on major South Korean banks in previous years.

The report said some of the content has not been proven fully and is not an official view of the government.

source: interaksyon.com

North Korea missile fears in Japan: 'Whatever will be, will be'

FUSSA, Japan — Residents living near US military bases in Japan are facing a fresh reality: Their neighborhoods are on the frontline of North Korea's dispute with America and if Pyongyang were to attack they would have just minutes to shelter from incoming missiles.

"It's impossible. There is no way we can run away from it," said Seijiro Kurosawa, a 58-year-old taxi driver in Fussa, near Yokota Air Base. "We don't have bunkers, shelters or anything like that."

His company recently instructed drivers to park their cabs and take immediate refuge in the event of an attack, but he isn't sure where he could go. "All we can do is run into a department store perhaps," he said.

A possible missile strike and what to do about it have dominated TV talk shows and other media in Japan in recent weeks as regional tension has spiked, with the North Korean regime continuing to test-fire rockets and President Donald Trump sending an aircraft carrier to nearby waters in a show of force.

North Korea has yet to reach its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the US mainland, but its current arsenal is capable of striking the 50,000 US troops stationed across Japan.

The government raised caution levels in March after Pyongyang said four ballistic missiles that landed a few hundred kilometers off Japan's coast were meant to simulate a nuclear strike on US bases there.

While Japanese tabloids and television programs have reported on nuclear shelters ordered by a handful of rich people or touted gas masks as a more affordable option, it's largely business as usual in Fussa, a town of 58,000 people in Tokyo's western suburbs.

"Whatever will be, will be," said 34-year-old Jumpei Takemiya, who runs a shoe repair shop across from Yokota Air Base. "Just think calmly about it. Is Yokota really going to be the first one to be hit? I doubt it, and frankly I'm not so nervous," he said.

Looking out his shop window, he added: "As you can see, there is no heightened security or any other unusual development around here."

For 75-year-old Yoshio Takagi, the talk of North Korean missiles brings back memories of World War II, when he had to temporarily relocate to a rural village to avoid American bombs falling in and around Tokyo that killed his two older brothers. He remains opposed to the use of weapons, but is also realistic about current circumstances.

"Tension has escalated and the situation has become more unpredictable under Trump," he said. "But Japan relies on the US military and there is a base here. I think we just have to accept the consequences."

Visits to a government crisis management website surged to the millions in April from a previous record of tens of thousands in March, as the government tweeted and put out fresh instructions for what to do in the event of a missile attack.

The instructions are simple: If you are outdoors, take refuge in strong buildings or underground shopping arcades and if no such facilities are nearby, drop to the ground and cover your head. A chemical weapon is possible, so the instructions advise covering your nose and mouth with a cloth and shutting doors and windows.

A first-ever missile attack drill was held in March in Akita prefecture in northern Japan, and the government recently instructed all 47 prefectures to draw up plans quickly for similar drills. So far, only two others — Yamagata in the north and Nagasaki, home to Sasebo naval base, in the south — have started to make concrete plans for drills in the coming months.

"We need to plan carefully in order to raise awareness, not to scare off the public," said Keiko Nakajima, a Tokyo crisis response official.

Some think the risk is overblown.

North Korea is "mostly bluffing its military capability, and the missile scare is further hyped up largely by TV," said Hiroki Fujii, a 40-year-old utility employee who lives near Yokota.

Akinori Otani worries more about a US military plane crashing in the area. At bases around Japan, residents have raised concern about the safety of the tilt-rotor MV-22 "Osprey" aircraft.

"Ospreys are actually flying around," said Otani, a 42-year-old resident of Hamura, another town near Yokota. "I'm more concerned about them than a missile that I think is unlikely to hit us."

In the southwestern town of Iwakuni, home to a US Marine Corps air station, residents began asking about attack response plans after the area was mentioned on TV among possible targets, said Yuji Yamaguchi, an emergency response official there.

He questioned whether it is possible to predict a missile's course and issue an alert before it reaches Japan and said that without such information, drawing up an evacuation scenario is difficult.

It is believed that it would take about 10 minutes for a North Korean missile to reach Japan, yet when the four missiles landed off the coast in March, it wasn't until 20 minutes after that the government notified local fishermen.

For Reiko Naya, who runs a gift shop just outside the Yokota base, she is concerned that the tension may be used by the government as a justification to bolster Japan's military capability.

"Japan has renounced war, but it seems we are gradually getting embroiled into a conflict," she said. "We thought North Korean missiles would never reach Japan, but after all these tests, they now seem routine. Eventually, one of them might come flying."

source: philstar.com

UN to begin work on new sanctions vs North Korea

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Security Council agreed on Friday to immediately begin work on a new raft of sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test drew global condemnation.

During a meeting behind closed doors, the council strongly condemned the test and agreed to begin drafting a new resolution under article 41 of the UN charter, which provides for sanctions.

"The members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures under article 41 in a Security Council resolution," New Zealand's Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who holds the council's rotating presidency, told reporters after the urgent talks.

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China all condemned the blast at the Punggye-ri nuclear site, the North's most powerful yet at 10 kilotons.

The council met at the request of Japan, South Korea and the United States to agree on a response, despite resistance from China, Pyongyang's ally, to calls for tougher measures.

After the meeting, China's Ambassador Liu Jieyi sidestepped questions about Beijing's support for sanctions.

"We are opposed to testing and we believe that it is more urgent than ever to work together to ensure denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Liu said.

"All sides should refrain from mutual provocation and any action that might exacerbate the situation."

North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

Holding the world hostage

After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test, the council in March adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date targeting North Korea's trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions.

Work on that resolution took two months, with the United States engaged directly with China on the sweeping measures.

Since that measure was adopted, North Korea has carried out 21 ballistic missile launches, US Ambassador Samantha Power said, describing those tests and Pyongyang's second nuclear detonation this year as "more than brazen defiance."

"North Korea is seeking to perfect its nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles so they can hold the region and the world hostage under threat of nuclear strike," Power said.

France backed plans for a new resolution to make clear to Pyongyang that its actions will have consequences.

"We believe new sanctions are indispensable," French Ambassador Francois Delattre said.

Pyongyang's state media said the nuclear test had realized the country's goal of being able to fit a miniaturized warhead on a rocket.

"Our nuclear scientists staged a nuclear explosion test on a newly developed nuclear warhead at the country's northern nuclear test site," a North Korean TV presenter said.

The first indications of an underground explosion came when seismic monitors detected a 5.3-magnitude "artificial earthquake" near the Punggye-ri nuclear site.

"The 10-kiloton blast was nearly twice the (power of the) fourth nuclear test and slightly less than the Hiroshima bombing, which was measured about 15 kilotons," said Kim Nam-Wook of the South's meteorological agency.

North Koreans gathered around public screens to watch the official announcement of the test -- which came on the 68th anniversary of the country's founding.

A challenge for China

The test came as American and South Korean forces staged a re-enactment of the Incheon landing, 66 years after the start of Operation Chromite, the battle that turned the tide in the Korean War.

North Korea's nuclear program has accompanied a series of ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Monday as world powers gathered for a G20 meeting in China.

This week's events pose yet another challenge for China, which has been under pressure to rein in its increasingly aggressive neighbor.

Beijing strongly condemned the test, but has limited room to maneuver. Its priority is to avoid the regime's collapse, which would create a crisis on its border and shift the balance of power on the Korean peninsula toward the United States.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called for further pressure on North Korea, but said China bore "responsibility" for tackling the problem.

"China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it," he said.

"It's important that it use its location, its history and its influence to further the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and not the direction things have been going."

source: interaksyon.com

Google chief’s daughter on ‘very strange’ North Korea visit

SEOUL — The teenage daughter of Google chairman Eric Schmidt has shed some light on her father’s secretive trip to North Korea, writing a first-hand account of the visit to a “very, very strange” country.

In a blog posting at the weekend entitled “It might not get weirder than this”, Sophie Schmidt provided a candid take on the controversial three-day trip earlier this month that was criticised by the US government.

Schmidt, 19, had accompanied her father on the visit as part of a delegation led by Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations.

On their return, the two men answered a few questions about the nature of the visit, but Sophie Schmidt’s informal account was in many ways far more revealing.

“Our trip was a mixture of highly-staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments,” she wrote.

“We had zero interactions with non-state-approved North Koreans and were never far from our two minders.”

While much of the blog posting is taken up with the sort of observational musings common to any first-time visitor to Pyongyang, it had some interesting insights into the official side of the delegation’s trip.

In particular, it fleshed out the main photo-opportunity of the entire trip when they visited an e-library at Kim Il-Sung University, and chatted with some of the 90 students working on computer consoles.

“One problem: No one was actually doing anything,” Schmidt wrote.

“A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in… not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli.

“They might as well have been figurines,” she added.

One of the world’s most isolated and censored societies, the North has a domestic Intranet service with a very limited number of users.

Analysts say access to the Internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1,000 at most.

On his return, Eric Schmidt said he had told North Korea it would not develop unless it embraces Internet freedom — a prospect dismissed by most observers as inconceivable.

Sophie Schmidt’s description of the “unsettling” e-library visit suggests the delegation was all too aware that it was being shown a facade.

“Did our handlers honestly think we bought it? Did they even care? Photo op and tour completed, maybe they dismantled the whole set and went home,” she wrote.

And her top “take-aways” from the whole experience?

1) Go to North Korea if you can. It is very, very strange.

2) If it is January, disregard the above. It is very, very cold.

source: interaksyon.com

Govt gears for North Korea rocket launch; warns vs. sea, air travel

The government is gearing for the planned long-range ballistic missile test of North Korea, which will start next week, announcing that it will close down airways and advised against sea travel in parts of Northern Luzon.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said the projected path of the missile will be 190 nautical miles northeast of Sta. Ana, Cagayan and 140 nautical miles east of Polilio Island, Quezon, well within the exclusive economic zone of the country.

North Korea is planning to launch its missiles between April 12 to 16, between 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. (or between 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Manila time), despite of protests from various countries.

NDRRMC executive director Benito Ramos appealed to fishermen and other sea vessels in Northern Luzon to refrain from venturing out to sea, particularly in the areas of Batanes, Calayan group of islands, Babuyan group of islands, Aparri, the coastal towns of Isabela, Baler, Casiguran and Polilio Islands.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines will also close affected airways during the projected period of the missile launch. A no-fly zone will be implemented from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. Manila time, or an hour before and two hours after the launch, from April 12 to 16.

Ferdinand Tienzo, assistant chief, air traffic control of CAAP, said about 20 international flights to and from Japan and South Korea will be diverted to other routes to avoid the path of the rocket.

CAAP said it has already informed the airlines and private aircrafts of the advisory.

"Don't venture out to sea, don't fly out," Ramos stressed during a coordinating conference on Tuesday. "We do not have the capability to shoot down the missile."

The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) said that there is no nuclear threat in the missile launch, but it will remain prepared. Dr. Alumanda dela Rosa, PNRI chief, said they are nevertheless ready to activate its "RAD" (national radiological emergency preparedness and response) plan in case of a nuclear threat.

"Out team is ready in case of a nuclear threat," dela Rosa said.

The Philippines reiterated it has no capability to shoot down the North Korea rocket and will have to rely on other countries that have the capability.

Gazmin hopeful, but . . .

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the government remains hopeful that North Korea will heed calls from various countries to stop the missile launch, but admits that "based on historical facts, Korea does not listen to the majority."

"We have done our part, the next thing that we should do when the launch is effected is we have to prepare for the emergencies that will happen just in case it lands, the debris will [fall on] the land area of our territory. We have alerted the NDRRMC to give the necessary information and to do whatever there is to do in order to protect ourselves. We have also given instructions to the Philippine Navy to instruct ships to be out of the path, probable path of the missile test and also the airspace will have to be protected," Gazmin said.

source: interaksyon.com