North Korean art troupe arrives in South Korea for Olympic celebrations

Wearing red coats and black fur hats, female members of the group showed up at a train station in Pyongyang, a photo released by North Korea’s news agency showed. Courtesy KCNA.kp.

UDATE: Art Troupe Arrives Safely:

SEOUL/DONGHAE, South Korea, Feb. 6 (Yonhap) — North Korea’s art troupe arrived in South Korea by ferry Tuesday to perform in celebration of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as Seoul temporarily lifted its ban on North Korean ships’ travel.

The North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the Samjiyon art troupe came to the South’s Mukho port on the east coast at around 5 p.m.

North Korean vessels are not allowed to visit South Korea under Seoul’s unilateral sanctions banning inter-Korean exchanges, which were imposed on May 24, 2010 to punish the North’s sinking of a South Korean warship.

But the government has decided to make the art troupe’s sea travel for the Winter Games an exception to the sanctions.

SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Yonhap) — A North Korean art troupe is set to arrive in South Korea by ferry Tuesday on a rare trip for performances to celebrate the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the North’s 140-member Samjiyon art troupe arrives at the South Korean eastern port of Mukho on Feb. 6, 2018. The troupe will perform in the Olympic sub-host city of Gangneung and in Seoul to mark the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. (Yonhap)

Members of conservative civic organizations scuffle with the police at the South Korean eastern port of Mukho while protesting the entry of the North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the North’s 140-member Samjiyon art troupe on Feb. 6, 2018. The troupe will perform in the Olympic sub-host city of Gangneung and in Seoul to mark the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. (Yonhap)

The two Koreas have engaged in a flurry of sports diplomacy after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un extended a rare olive branch to Seoul in his New Year’s message after a year of tensions sparked by the North’s nuclear and missile provocations.

The North’s art troupe, which includes an orchestra, dancers and singers, plans to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Games, on Thursday and in Seoul on Sunday.

Hyon Song-wol, the head of the all-female Moranbong Band, will lead the Samjiyon art troupe. The band was created by an order of Kim Jong-un and features Western-style music and outfits, but it is not known whether other members of the band are included in the art troupe.

Hyon, an alternate member of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), visited the South last month to check performance venues in the two cities.

North Korea’s state-run radio station reported Tuesday that the art troupe left Pyongyang a day earlier for the eastern port city of Wonsan to visit the South on the ferry.

The report said the group was greeted by senior party officials including Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un, and Pak Kwang-ho, the director of the WPK’s propaganda and agitation department.

The Mangyongbong-92 is a 9,700 ton cargo-passenger ferry that is named after a hill in Pyongyang near the birthplace of late founder Kim Il-sung.

It transported the North’s cheering squad for the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the South’s southern port city. It was also used to accommodate the cheerleaders.

The ferry will be used as the art troupe’s accommodations when it holds the concert in Gangneung.

Details about the performances have not been made public, but the North informed the South last week that many South Korean songs will be included in the programs.

This file photo shows the North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 at South Korea’s southern port city of Busan when the North sent a cheering squad for the 2002 Busan Asian Games in the South. (Yonhap)

White Paper on Human Rights Violations in U.S. in 2017 Issued in DPRK

Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) — The DPRK Institute of International Studies Tuesday released the “White Paper on Human Rights Violations in U.S. in 2017”.

According to the white paper, soon after being inaugurated as president, Trump filled the important posts of his administration with billionaires, who had “contributed” to his election campaign, and their mouthpieces.

Secretary of State Tillerson, Secretary of Commerce Ross and also the secretaries of Treasury and Defense are all billionaires from conglomerates. The total assets of public servants at the level of deputy secretary and above of the current administration are worth of 14 billion US$.

The anti-popular policies the Trump administration pursued openly in one year were, without exception, for the interests of a handful of the rich circles.

In the U.S., where genuine freedom of the press and expression does not exist, intervention in and crackdown on the press grew more intensified over the past one year.

In 2017 the cases of searching and confiscation against journalists accounted for 12 and the cases of violation against them for 11. Moreover, 19 persons in the domestic press circles and four foreign journalists were arrested or detained.

Racial discrimination and misanthropy are serious maladies inherent to the social system of the U.S., and they have been aggravated since Trump took office.

The racial violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 is a typical example of the acme of the current administration’s policy of racism.

In the U.S. the absolute majority of the working masses, deprived of elementary rights to survival, are hovering in the abyss of nightmare.

As a result, during the first week of March, 241 000 persons joined the large contingent of the unemployed; in May 9 000 public servants were fired from governmental agencies; in September the number of the unemployed increased by 33 000 as compared to that of the previous month.

In particular, unemployment of young people has become a matter of serious social concern; currently the unemployment rate of young people under 25 is 7.9%, and 31% of graduates from high schools do not have proper jobs.

According to what the U.S. administration made public, in 2017 the homeless numbered 554 000, about 10% increase as compared to that two years ago, and number of the poor families, living in rented rooms devoid of elementary facilities for living, is on the steady rise.

The soaring school expenses are plunging the students into the hell of loans.

Those who are diagnosed with a disease but cannot afford to pay their medical fees total 50 million. Flu, lung diseases and asthma cause 36 000, 40 000 and 150 000 deaths, respectively, on an annual average.

On the other hand, health-hazardous disqualified products are on sale across the country, which often leads to an outbreak of infectious diseases.

The U.S. is one of the world’s two countries that have yet to embrace paid maternity leave.

Over the past decade the proportion of American women who live below the poverty line has risen from 12.1% to 14.5%, and they usually receive 25% less salary than their male colleagues of the same post.

A woman is sexually abused every 89 seconds.

According to basic statistics, about 61 100 gun-related crimes took place in the U.S. last year, leaving 15 488 dead and 31 058 wounded.

According to data, the number of marijuana users in the U.S. was more than 20 million, a 3% increase as compared with that a decade ago; and over 90 people lose their lives on a daily average from drug abuse.

In the U.S. where crimes and evil are rampant, the number of imprisoned criminals tops 2.3 million and 70 million are ex-offenders.

The U.S., “guardian of democracy” and “human rights champion”, is kicking up the human rights racket but it can never camouflage its true identity as the gross violator of human rights, the white paper said.

North Korea abruptly calls off Olympic event at Mt Kumgang; Blames Biased Media Reports

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) — North Korea has called off a joint cultural event scheduled to be held in its country to celebrate the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, Seoul officials said Monday.

The abrupt notification came in a telegram sent to South Korea at 10:10 p.m., saying the North was canceling the event scheduled to be held Feb.4, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.

The communist state was known to have cited what it claimed to be “biased” media reports about the upcoming event.

The unification ministry said the North also took issue with South Korean reports about its “internal event,” apparently referring to reports about a possible military parade marking the 70th anniversary of its military on Feb. 8, one day before the start of the Winter Olympic Games.

North Korea to mark Army Founding Day February 8, Day Before PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea Announces

The Seoul government expressed disappointment, noting the North’s decision may undermine what it earlier called a “hard-earned” chance to improve inter-Korean relations.

“It is very regrettable that an event agreed by the South and the North will not be held due to North Korea’s unilateral notification (decision),” the ministry said in a statement. “What has been agreed must be implemented under the spirit of mutual respect and understanding as the South and the North have only taken a hard-earned first step toward improving the South-North relationship.”

The event at Mount Kumgang was to be part of a series of events to be held in the divided Koreas ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The agreement to hold such events came after three rounds of talks between the two Koreas that also marked the first inter-Korean dialogue in more than two years.

North Korea has also agreed to stage art performances and taekwondo demonstrations in South Korea to commemorate its participation in the Winter Olympics.

Many local news outlets here, however, have voiced concerns over the joint events in that they may be in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions currently in place against the communist North for its military provocations, including six nuclear tests.

The North is also set to host a group of South Korean skiers for a joint training session with its own athletes at its Masikryong Ski Resort on the east coast, reportedly from Wednesday.

Whether the other events will be held as scheduled could not immediately be confirmed. The scheduled events include art performances by a North Korean art troupe in Gangneung, near the host city of the Winter Olympic Games, and Seoul.

North Korean Olympic Cheering Squad Expected to be “Army of Beauties”

N. Korean cheering squad to support S. Korean athletes during PyeongChang Olympics

2018/01/27 16:40

In this file photo taken on Sept. 5, 2005, Ri Sol-ju (C), currently wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, leaves South Korea from Incheon International Airport after attending the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon as a member of the North's cheering team. (Yonhap)

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) — North Korean cheerleaders, who are set to visit PyeongChang for the Winter Games, will support South Korean athletes in addition to their own Olympians, a senior organizing official said Saturday.

The North offered to send athletes, a 230-member cheering squad and an art troupe to PyeongChang, host of the first Winter Olympics in South Korea. They also agreed on a unified women’s hockey team, with 23 South Koreans joined by 12 North Koreans.

But the cheering team could steal the athletes’ thunder. Pyongyang has yet to disclose details on how the cheering squad will be composed. But given past athletic competitions in the South, the North may send a group of elite female supporters, who fascinated their southern compatriots in the past with their good looks, charming demeanors and well choreographed moves.

Members of the team are reportedly picked through a vigorous examination of family background, appearance, skills and loyalty to the government.

Not every North Korean cheering squad going outside of the country is composed of young, beautiful women. The North sent a team of mostly middle-aged women and men to cheer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In this file photo taken Oct. 1, 2002, members of a cheering squad from North Korea show support for their athletes at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. (Yonhap)

But the Kim regime is expected to send to PyongChang an elite team fit for a mission to embellish its image in the eyes of South Koreans and the wider world.

“As the Olympics is an event that draws the world’s attention, North Korea may want to imprint a positive image through visual effects,” said Kim Young-soo, a political science professor specializing in North Korea issues at Sogang University in Seoul.

Kissinger rejects ‘freeze-for-freeze’ with North Korea

EPA file photo shows former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — South Korea could push to indefinitely postpone joint military exercises with the United States in exchange for North Korea taking steps to denuclearize, a U.S. expert said Tuesday.

The allies earlier agreed to suspend the annual drills for the duration of the PyeongChang Winter Games. North Korea views the exercises as an invasion rehearsal and has protested with various provocations in the past.

2018/01/26 01:47

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Thursday he does not believe North Korea will abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for a suspension of U.S. joint military exercises with South Korea.

Kissinger, who served under the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s, spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the security challenges facing the U.S.

“The most immediate challenge to international peace and security is posed by North Korea,” he said in his opening statement, posted on the committee’s website. “Paradoxically, it is only after Pyongyang has achieved nuclear and intercontinental missile breakthroughs, accompanied by threatening assertions and demonstrations, that measures to thwart these activities have begun to be applied.”

Kissinger acknowledged some success in the Donald Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions, but added there has been no breakthrough.

“North Korea acquired nuclear weapons to assure its regime’s survival; in its view, to give them up would be tantamount to suicide,” he said. “An outcome that was widely considered unacceptable is now on the verge of becoming irreversible.”

Kissinger called for an agreement on Korea’s future through the revival of the now-stalled six-party talks or a separate forum led by the U.S. and China. That, he said, would be the best road to the denuclearization of the peninsula.

A “freeze-for-freeze” under which the U.S. and South Korea would suspend their regular military exercises in exchange for the North halting its nuclear and ballistic missile testing “will not … fulfill this purpose or even advance it.”

“That would equate legitimate security operations with activities which have been condemned by the U.N. Security Council for decades,” he said. “And it would encourage demands for additional restraints on, and perhaps the dismantling of, America’s alliances in the region.”

A freeze, pushed by China and Russia, would also give legitimacy to North Korea’s nuclear establishment and results of its previous tests.

“Interim steps towards full denuclearization may well be part of an eventual negotiation,” Kissinger said. “But they need to be steps towards this ultimate goal: the dismantlement of Pyongyang’s existing arsenal.”

The mistake of past negotiations, which only helped North Korea buy time to advance its weapons development, must not be repeated, he added.

North Korea seeks ability to simultaneously fire multiple nuclear missiles: CIA chief

This AP file photo shows U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. (Yonhap)

2018/01/24

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — North Korea is pushing to acquire the capability to fire multiple nuclear missiles at the same time, increasing the threat posed to the United States, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency said Tuesday.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, CIA Director Mike Pompeo also said the U.S. mission is to extend that timeline as much as possible.

“Kim Jong-un will not rest with a single successful test,” he said, referring to the North Korean leader. “The logical next step would be to develop an arsenal of weapons that is not one, not a showpiece, not something to drive on a parade route … but rather the capacity to deliver from multiple firings of these missiles simultaneously.”

Pyongyang last year conducted its first tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. It also detonated its sixth nuclear bomb.

Pompeo has repeatedly said that North Korea is just months away from having the ability to nuke the U.S.

“I want everybody to understand that we are working diligently to make sure that a year from now I can still tell you they are several months away from having that capacity,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis, Pompeo added, but “we are equally, at the same time, ensuring that if we conclude that is not possible, that we present the president with a range of options.”

The CIA chief also noted that Kim appears to seek Korean reunification on his terms, not just protection of his regime, by pursuing the nuclear capability.

North Korea to mark Army Founding Day February 8, Day Before PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea Announces

Photos are a sampling of past military parades released by KCNA.

2018/01/23

SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Tuesday that it has designated Feb. 8 as the new founding anniversary of its army and will prepare “practical” steps to mark the “historic” occasion, which will come one day before South Korea opens the Winter Olympic Games.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report monitored in Seoul that it has changed the anniversary date of the establishment of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), which previously fell on April 25.

“Feb. 8 will be marked as the Army-Building Day,” the KCNA said. “The Cabinet and other relevant organs will take practical steps to significantly mark the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army.”

The KCNA didn’t provide details on what steps will be taken. It has been reported that the North might be preparing a large-scale military parade that will require mobilization of troops and diverse weaponry.

A South Korean government official said earlier that the mobilization of around 13,000 troops and some 200 pieces of equipment have been detected near an airport in Pyongyang for what appears to be a rehearsal for a military parade.

During a Saturday parade commemorating its founder’s birthday, North Korea rolled out what appeared to be new intercontinental ballistic missiles. The country has been warned against having such weapons.

The KCNA, meanwhile, said that the North will mark April 25 as the anniversary of late leader Kim Il-sung’s establishment of the “Korean People’s Revolutionary Army,” which is considered to be a prototype for its KPA.

The new Army-Building Day is just one day before South Korea is to host the Winter Olympics in its eastern town of PyeongChang. The North plans to join the Feb. 9-25 sporting event by sending athletes, an art troupe and officials.

North Korea’s advance team wrapped up its two day stay in South Korea on Monday, after inspecting performance venues. South Korea will send its own inspection team to the North on Tuesday to inspect the venues where the two Koreas will hold joint cultural and sports events.

NORTH KOREA’S ANNOUNCEMENT IN STATE MEDIA:

Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) — The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Monday announced the decision to mark February 8 as the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army (KPA).

According to the decision, Feb. 8, Juche 37 (1948) is a historic day when the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army developed into the regular revolutionary armed forces to declare the birth of the KPA.

Considering the foundation of a strong regular army to be essential for the building of an independent and sovereign state after the liberation of the country, President Kim Il Sung founded the KPA, the Juche-type revolutionary regular armed forces, which inherited the anti-Japanese tradition, in a span of less than three years with his outstanding idea of army-building and energetic leadership.

The Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK decided as follows to add luster to the revolutionary feats of the President, the founder and builder of the heroic KPA:

February 8, Juche 37 (1948) when the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung developed the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army into the regular revolutionary armed forces will be marked as the founding anniversary of the KPA.

In this regard, April 25, Juche 21 (1932) when he founded the first revolutionary armed forces will be marked as the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army.

February 8 will be marked as the Army-Building Day.

The Party organizations at all levels will conduct politico-ideological education and significantly hold diverse events for making the service personnel, Party members and other working people deeply grasp the feats of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung for building of the regular revolutionary armed forces on the occasion of Feb. 8 every year.

The Cabinet and other relevant organs will take practical steps to significantly mark the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army. –

Films, newspapers, magazines and intranets and other media spread decadent ideologies, cultural poisoning

Photo courtesy KCNA.

North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun Calls for Foiling Ideological and Cultural Poisoning by Imperialism

Date: 20/01/2018 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) — For all the nations aspiring to independence and opposing imperialism to combat the poisoning of decadent ideologies and culture of every description precisely means a fierce struggle to defend their sovereignty and dignity, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Saturday.

The article goes on:

The imperialists regard the reactionary ideological and cultural poisoning as the most effective way for attaining their aggression and predatory aims with ease.

The degenerate reactionary ideology and the American outlook on value, which were employed as a guide to aggression, play the main role in aggression at present.

The imperialists consider the rising generation as the main target of their corrupt ideological and cultural poisoning.

Through films, newspapers, magazines and intranets and other media which the young people enjoy very much, the imperialists make them corrupt and degenerate and spread illusions about imperialism.

Those young people infected with luxury and enjoyment are reduced to renegades of their countries and stooges of imperialism unwittingly.

North Korean Defector: Return DPRK to State Sponsored Terrorism List

Some countries witnessed regime changes and government falls and the young people took the lead in causing such abnormal situations. That is because they were infected with the imperialist ideological and cultural poisoning.

The struggle in the ideological and cultural field is a war without gunfire. And a wrong struggle results in the worse consequences than the defeat in war.

The bourgeois ideological and cultural poisoning is more dangerous than a formidable enemy coming in attack with guns.

Any hesitation and concession to the ideological confrontation would give way to the bourgeois ideological and cultural poisoning and then it would make mess of the destiny of a nation and country.

The Amazing Kims: Mythology and the Cult of Personality in North Korea

North Korean Media: Americans Suffer from Nuclear-phobia, think everything’s a bomb

Pyongyang, January 19 (KCNA) — Nuclear-phobia by the nuclear force of the DPRK has now caused a tragicomedy in the U.S.

On January 16 a meteor fell from the sky between Ohio and Michigan with a great bang, brightening the sky.

This sparked off the explosive postage of stories about the “fireball in the nocturnal sky” on the U.S. internet websites.

Internet users admitted that they worried the meteor in question could have been a nuclear bomb flown from north Korea.

A twitter user posted words that when meteor brightened the sky between Ohio and Michigan, all internet network users hoped that it would be a meteor, not north Korea’s missile.

Another twitter user wrote that it was sad to have taken the meteor as a bomb flown from north Korea and to have hurried the car in fear.

Lots of people were reported to have greatly worried about it, taking the meteor as an attack from north Korea.

A people said that it was greatly relieving that the meteor did not pass the sky last weekend when there was a misinformation about the flight of a nuclear bomb.

What was all the more irony was the fuss in Hawaii on January 13.

At 08:07 citizens and tourists on Hawaii received all at the same time the ballistic missile threat warning which urged them to evacuate as there was ballistic missile threat and which stressed that it was not just training.

The citizens and tourists in great disarray went busy evacuating amid the heightened fear and delusion of persecution about the nuclear force of the DPRK.

What is all the more ridiculous is that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission put it that the ballistic missile attack evacuation warning which threw the whole of Hawaii in a great chaos was caused by a mistake of a man who pressed the button during shift period.

The field repercussion is that it is quite natural that the whole state was thrown into fear as the citizens and tourists were fed the warning message as serious as the one warning of “imminent and actual drop of missile” which could be the most dreadful moment in life.

In recent days the U.S. forces in south Korea and their families were informed to leave south Korea by messages sent through hand phones or broadcasting means which made them get flurried in fear that a war may break out. In the U.S. people caught in extreme fear vied with each other to buy frozen foods, gas masks and goods for emergency use, indicative of the pain suffered by the Americans stricken by war-phobia.

The consecutive fuss in the U.S. and fear caused by even the natural phenomenon being mistaken as a rocket from the DPRK are the natural outcome of the acts done by the U.S. itself.

North Korea Abruptly Cancels Trip to Prepare for Olympics: Now Reschedules

This photo, provided by South Korea’s unification ministry on Jan. 15, 2018, shows Hyon Song-wol, the leader of the all-female Moranbong Band, attending inter-Korean talks on the North’s plan to send an art troupe to the South during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. (Yonhap)

UPDATE: NK has now rescheduled and the visit to South Korea is back on.

SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) — South Korea on Saturday demanded North Korea explain the abrupt canceling of a visit by its team in preparing for performances during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month in the South.

“We sent a document (to the North) at around 11:20 a.m. via the Panmunjom communications channel demanding an explanation for the North’s cancellation to dispatch its cultural advance inspection team,” Unification Minister Cho Myung-gyon said in a press briefing at the ministry.

The minister’s remarks came as the North notified the South late Friday that it will suspend the seven-member team’s trip originally slated for earlier Saturday to check the venues for its proposed art performances in the South.

The two-day trip was originally arranged after Pyongyang said it would send a team led by Hyon Song-wol, leader of the North’s all-female Moranbong Band. The band was created by order of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in July 2012 and features Western-style music and outfits.

Meet the Moranbong Band: NK’s All Female Pop Group & Dennis Rodman Favorite

In working-level talks with the South held Monday, North Korea agreed to send a 140-member art troupe, consisting of an orchestra, singers and dancers, for concerts in Seoul and Gangnueng, 260 kilometers east of the capital, during next month’s Winter Olympics.