Thus dimming prospects for the resumption of talks:
"North Korea said Saturday that its leader, Kim Jong Un, had overseen the test-firing of a new antiship missile, weeks before planned joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States that the North has protested. “The intelligent rocket precisely sought, tracked and hit the ‘enemy’ ship after taking a safe flight,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday (New York Times)."
"North Korea Rules Out Any Talks With U.S. ‘Gangster’ State" by Andrew Davis, Bloomberg News | February 3, 2015
North Korea said it won’t agree to talks with the U.S. and is now focused on its ability to destroy the country with conventional, nuclear and cyber-warfare attacks.
Sigh. I'm so sick of this war-mongering shit from the propaganda pre$$.
Kim Jong Un’s regime accused the U.S. of “inching closer to the stage of igniting a war of aggression” by stepping up its sanctions, holding military drills with South Korea and predicting the future collapse of the administration, the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing a statement from the National Defense Commission.
“Since the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are blaring that they will ‘bring down’ the DPRK, oblivious of its poor plight facing adverse fate, the army and people of the DPRK cannot but officially notify the Obama administration of the U.S.A. that the DPRK has neither need nor willingness to sit at negotiating table,” KCNA said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Well, they got that right. The whole world sees it.
The rejection of talks comes after a rush of diplomatic activity by the U.S. and North Korea’s ally China to prod the regime back to the table, potentially for bilateral talks and eventually six-country negotiations that offered aid in return for an end to its nuclear program. Kim raised expectations of progress when he suggested in a Jan. 1 speech he’d be open to meeting South Korea’s President Park Geun Hye.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported Jan. 28 that Kim would make his first foreign trip in May since coming to power three years ago, to attend celebrations for the 70th anniversary of Russia’s victory in World War II. Park may also attend, setting up what could be the first meeting between two Korean leaders since 2007.
Related: Russian 'round the World
The statement focuses on the U.S. and doesn’t close the door to individual talks with China or South Korea. China’s Defense Minister Chang Wanquan is on a three day visit that started Tuesday to South Korea, and meets his counterpart Han Min-koo Wednesday to discuss issues including North Korea.
Looks like AmeriKa is being cut out of things!
It also comes after North Korea said Feb. 1. the U.S. rejected an invitation for a senior official to visit. The regime asked Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy, to Pyongyang during his trip to Asia last month, KCNA said, but the talks didn’t occur because the U.S. refuses to engage in dialogue unless North Korea first agrees to give up its nuclear program.
S.O.P.
Kim faces United Nations allegations of human rights abuses and tighter U.S. economic sanctions after a cyber-attack on a Hollywood studio in November blamed on North Korea.
The pinning of the $elf-$erving cyber attack on Sony is a lie, and the U.N. witness retracted amidst contradictory testimony.
“If the U.S. ignites a war of aggression against the DPRK by conventional forces, it will fight it by conventional forces of its style,” KCNA said in its latest report. “If the former unleashes a nuclear war against the latter, it will counter it through its own nuclear strikes, and if the former tries to bring down the latter through a cyber warfare, it will react to it with its own preeminent cyber warfare and will thus bring earlier the final ruin of the U.S.”
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"Ex-Korean spy chief guilty in poll case" Associated Press February 10, 2015
SEOUL — A former South Korean spy chief was sent to prison Monday after being found guilty of ordering an illicit online campaign to support Park Geun-hye in his winning campaign for president in the 2012 election, court officials said.
Except he is a she.
They can't even get that right, readers.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Won Sei-hoon to three years in prison for violating an election law and a law banning the National Intelligence Service from engaging in local politics, said court spokesman Chae Dongsoo.
Both Won and prosecutors have one week to appeal, Chae said.
The spy service has previously defended itself, saying its agents were trying to cope with North Korean cyberwarfare by posting comments meant to counter messages that praised the North and spread groundless rumors about South Korean government policies.
We live in a ma$$ media matrix of government propaganda and official lies, and the sooner you see that fact the better.
Park, a conservative, beat liberal opposition candidate Moon Jae-in by 1 million votes and took office in early 2013 for a single five-year term.
It’s not clear if the online campaigning affected the election. Park has not been accused of wrongdoing.
All elections are fixed.
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