Corée du Nord - North Korea
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Dear Members and Friends, North Korea officially launched their three stage long-range missile yesterday at 7:39am, 6:39pm eastern daylight time in the United States. The North Korean rocket propelled and completed its complete burnout of the first stage at 100 seconds, reaching 43 miles in altitude in the atmosphere while coasting upwards unpowered waiting for the second stage to ignite. The second stage appeared not to ignite and the fully fueled liquid rocket of the remaining two stages fell back towards earth increasing its speed due to the gravitational pull of the earth. The heat friction caused from the re-entry speeds on the light metal casing of the down spiraling rocket ignited the highly flammable liquid fuel contained in the remaining stages.
North Korean Failure
BEIJING—The North Korean leadership's appetite for imported luxuries, highlighted by three Lincoln limousines at Kim Jong Il's funeral, has spread to growing numbers of the country's elite, despite U.N. sanctions designed to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear-weapons program. Luxury goods are becoming a hot commodity in North Korea, and it's not only government officials who are buying them. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to Jeremy Page. An examination of U.N. and Chinese trade data reveals that exports to North Korea of products including cars, tobacco, laptops, cellphones and domestic electrical appliances all increased significantly over the past five years. Most items crossed the border from China. The data reveal glaring loopholes in the sanctions regime, demonstrating how China has stepped in as North Korea's main supplier of goods considered luxuries as other countries have clamped down on such exports.
Luxuries Flow Into North Korea - WSJ.com
Lowy Institute writings on North Korea
To help busy readers, I've pulled together a list of Lowy's best North Korea-related publications. Depending how the crisis evolved, and how key powers responded, a Korean strategic shock could contribute greatly to turning any of this paper's four scenarios – US or Chinese primacy, balance or concert – into a reality. Korea and what happens there could well prove to be the strategic pivot of Asia in the twenty-first century.
International attention is usually focused on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But Pyongyang’s growing chemical and biological weapons capabilities are worrying Seoul. North Korea’s latent nuclear weapons program is rightfully the main point of concern for its neighbors and the international community. But far less publicized is Pyongyang’s ongoing efforts to build upon its capabilities to produce and maintain chemical and biological weapons (CBW). North Korea’s expansion of these programs is no secret to intelligence agencies around the world, and there are a number of reports detailing sites across the country dedicated to the production of CBW.
North Korea’s Other Weapons Threat | The Diplomat
Kim Jong-il
North Korean foreign policy
Democracy Digest » North Korea’s cyber warfare threat exposed » Print
Posted Demdigest on June 1, 2011 @ 5:37 pm In Asia,Cyber Terrorism,National Endowment for Democracy,News,NGOs and Civil Society,North Korea,Tools and Technology | No Comments North Korea’s ‘No. 91 Office’, a unit dedicated to computer hacking. We have come a long way from the days when authoritarian regimes appeared content to erect filters to block access to the Internet and impose selective censorship. Cyberspace is now politically contested terrain [1] , so it is significant that China today joined democratic governments at an international conference on cybersecurity [2] to discuss collaboration against cyber crime and the appropriate balance between Internet regulation and online freedoms.
North Korea May be Plotting New Strikes, U.S. General Says
The commander of U.S. troops in South Korea on Wednesday said North Korea could be plotting to carry out new hostilities, Reuters reported (see GSN , April 6). "I do worry that there are additional attacks and provocations that are being considered within North Korea," Gen. Walter Sharp said at a Capitol Hill hearing. Pyongyang is believed to be behind the March 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship and the November shelling of the South's Yeongpyong Island. The two incidents killed 50 people. International observers believe the transfer of power in Pyongyang could lead to new attacks as part of dictator Kim Jong Il's effort to bolster the domestic status of his youngest son and heir apparent, Kim Jong Un.
North Korea missiles
Corée du Nord, RPDC, Constitution coréenne version de 2009, Digithèque MJP
La Constitution de la RPDC, adoptée le 5 septembre 1998, par l'Assemblée populaire suprême, a été révisée en avril 2009. La référence au communisme, mentionné trois fois dans le texte initial (art. 29, 40 et 43), a été supprimée, comme l'avait été auparavant la référence au marxisme-léninisme. Conformément à l'esprit de Djoutché , toute référence à une inspiration étrangère est ainsi bannie. En revanche, le concept de Songun , dû à Kim Jong-il, a été introduit à l'article 3 et à l'article 109, en complément au concept de Djoutché [Juche] dû à Kim Il Sung, pour inspirer l'action du parti et de l'Etat.
Yonpyong shelling
The official, Hwang Jang-yop, 87, was found dead in his bathtub here 10 days ago. News reports said that the authorities had concluded that he had died a day earlier after suffering heart failure while bathing, and then inhaling water. He lived under 24-hour government security, but still locked himself in every day for safety, so his body was not found for half a day, the reports said. The news broke the day was celebrating the 65th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party with a vast military parade. The authorities have maintained that Mr. Hwang died of natural causes, and said there was no connection between the death and the arrest.
Seoul Arrests Alleged N. Korean Spy - NYTimes.com
For the same reasons that President Obama has a tendency to take visiting dignitaries to my favorite hamburger restaurant in Arlington, VA, the North Koreans have designated “friendship farms” for countries the North Koreans enjoy or expect to enjoy cozy relations. Below I have identified a few for you to check out on Google Earth. I have also located friendship farms for: Laos, Poland, Cuba, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Germany, Palestine, Cambodia, Mongolia, India, Syria, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, New Zealand, Yugoslavia, and Pakistan.
North Korean Economy Watch » Blog Archive » Collective farm diplomacy
North Korea has consistently been reported as the least free country by Heritage Foundation in economic terms. But when entries for Liechtenstein and Iraq are omitted due to “lack of data”, how is Heritage gauging economic freedom in the DPRK?
NKNews.org
UPDATE 12 (2012-4-1): April will be a big month in the DPRK. The KWP conference will be held on April 11–this will be the fourth Party Conference (Previous: 1958, 1966, 2010). Rodong Sinmun reports that the 5th session of the 12th Supreme Peoples’ Assembly will be held on April 13th. Kim Il-sung’s birthday (Day of the Sun) will be April 15th. The Spring Arts Festival will take place sometime between April 10th and 23rd. And let’s not forget the Tongchang-ri rocket launch!
North Korean Economy Watch
Kim Jong Il's succession
North Korea & all sort of nuclear issues
Un régime autoritaire vu par lui-même - Le musée des Arts appliqués de Vienne (MAK) consacre une exposition à l'art contemporain nord-coréen, intitulée "Des Fleurs pour Kim Il-sung", jusqu'au 5 septembre. La plupart des oeuvres présentées n'étaient jamais sorties du pays.