I'm in no mood to cry about it, but....
"North Korea earlier threatened to cancel the reunions in anger about annual military drills between Seoul and Washington that it calls a preparation for invasion.
I can't imagine why they would ever think that, can you?
The North let the reunions proceed after high-level talks with South Korea, though the drills went ahead as scheduled. In an apparent protest of the drills, South Korea said North Korea fired four short-range Scud missiles into the sea on Thursday. Analysts said the launches were not expected to raise tension as the North routinely tests short-range missiles. Last week, North Korea also presented to the media a South Korean missionary who it said was arrested last year for allegedly trying to establish underground Christian churches in the country."
Christian missionary is intelligence agency cover.
Related:
N. Korea missile firing seen as protest
N. Korea shows off ‘criminal’
Missionary describes interrogation in North Korea
Sorry I'm cutting these articles short.
"The tests were seen as Pyongyang’s latest show of force as the United States and South Korea conduct annual joint military exercises."
How absolutely Orwellian!
"In a separate development Monday, Japanese and North Korean Red Cross officials met in Shenyang, China, in what Japan hopes will be a step toward future talks on the return of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Analysts say the North’s recent charm offensive toward South Korea is largely aimed at helping lure foreign investment and aid to help revive the country’s troubled economy."
Who is the troublemaker in the region?
"North Korea skillfully evades sanctions, UN panel says" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times Syndicate, March 12, 2014
SEOUL — Recent inspections and seizures of banned cargo have shown that North Korea is using increasingly deceptive techniques to circumvent international sanctions, a panel of specialists said in a report to the UN Security Council published Tuesday.
After a series of nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests by North Korea during the past decade, the Security Council has adopted resolutions calling for increasingly vigorous sanctions aimed at crippling the North’s financial and technical capability to build weapons of mass destruction.
In its latest annual report, posted on the UN website, the panel of eight analysts said North Korea has persisted in defying those resolutions not only by continuing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs but also by engaging in illegal arms trade....
Related: The Point to Silly Panama Story
We got it, we got it.
The panel said the case of the North Korean cargo ship Chong Chon Gang had provided unrivaled insight into some of those techniques. The vessel was stopped by the Panamanian authorities in July 2013 while carrying undeclared weapons that had been hidden under 10,000 tons of sugar from Cuba.
Except they didn't find that, they found old Soviet radar parts that were being serviced under contract and something that aroused no suspicion the year before! What's with the deceptive revision!?
An investigation showed that the North Korean crew had used secret codes in communications, falsified the ship’s logs, and switched off an electronic system that would otherwise have provided real-time information on the ship’s location to the international maritime authorities, the panel said.
It added that it suspected the North Korean embassies in Cuba and Singapore of helping to arrange the arms shipment.
Suspected?
--more--"
Then the NSA global surveillance mission and grid is useless, huh?
Related: Quick Trip Through the Panama Canal
I don't think the Korean tanker will get there anyway.
As for the vote in North Korea:
"More a political ritual than an election by Western standards, voters in the election have no choice whom to vote for — there is only one candidate’s name on the ballot for each district."
Lot of those here, too -- and even if there are two candidates it's from the same party, the War Party!!
Also see:
N. Korea’s human-rights woes warrant renewal of sanctions
Where is our shame?
Where is yours?
