North Korea mass rallies: Kim Jong-un's soldiers gather in their thousands vowing to fight

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Music Video: Guess What? Dennis "The Worm" Rodman Has a New Dictator Friend

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North Korea vows to cancel Korean War cease-fire

foxnews

SEOUL, South Korea –  North Korea vowed Tuesday to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, citing a U.S.-led push for punishing U.N. sanctions over its recent nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean joint military drills.
Without elaborating, the Korean People's Army Supreme Command warned of "surgical strikes" meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula and of an indigenous, "precision nuclear striking tool." The statement came amid reports that Washington and North Korean ally Beijing have approved a draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for sanctions in response to North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear test. The draft is expected to be circulated at the U.N. this week.
Such heated military rhetoric and threats are common from North Korea as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, and Pyongyang's recent nuclear test and rocket launches, and the push for U.N. punishment that have followed, have increased already high animosity between the North and Washington and ally Seoul.
The United States and others worry that North Korea's third nuclear test pushes it a step closer toward its goal of having nuclear-armed missiles that can reach America, and condemn its nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea's largely destitute people.
North Korea says its nuclear program is a response to U.S. hostility that dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.
North Korea warned it will cancel the armistice agreement on March 11 because of ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that began March 1 which the statement called a "dangerous nuclear war targeted at us."
North Korea said Washington and others are going beyond mere economic sanctions and expanding into blunt aggression and military acts. North Korea also warned that it will block a communications line between it and the United States at the border village separating the two Koreas.
"We aim to launch surgical strikes at any time and any target without being bounded by the armistice accord and advance our long-cherished wish for national unification," the statement said.
North Korea lays the blame for its much-condemned nuclear weapons programs on the United States.
A rich vein of North Korean propaganda fueled by decades-old American threats holds that the North remains at risk of an unprovoked nuclear attack. Washington and others say brinksmanship is the North's true motive for the nuclear push.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/north-korea-vows-to-cancel-korean-war-cease-fire/#ixzz2MgCu56Td

South Korea reportedly confirms Kim Jong Un’s wife gives birth

foxnews

im41.com

There’s a new Kim in town.

South Korea ended months of speculation by verifying that the wife of North Korea’s dynastic dictator Kim Jong Un secretly gave birth late last year. The newborn, whose gender is not known, could become the fourth-generation to lead the communist dictatorship, but Pyongyang watchers believe the baby is most likely a girl.

“If it was a boy, [the North Koreans] would have made an announcement,” Michael Madden, editor of the online newsletter North Korea Leadership Watch, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, was rumored to be pregnant after official photos showed what intelligence analysts said appeared to be a baby bump. She is widely seen as a rising force in the Pyongyang leadership hierarchy and believed to have a strong influence on her husband, who inherited the reins when his father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011 after a 17-year run.

The birth of the latest Kim is considered significant because the communist regime in Pyongyang has evolved from a Soviet-installed Marxist-Leninist regime in the 1950s to an Asian family dynasty where the ruling communist Workers Party shares power with a powerful military clique.

Kim Jong Un, who last week hung out with guest and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, has ratcheted up the saber-rattling his father was known for, with multiple tests of nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as the release of several provocative videos depicting the U.S. under attack. Rodman, who went to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters and an HBO camera crew, raved about the dictator, who lives in lavish luxury while most of the people in his nation are starving.

On Sunday, Rodman told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the diminutive dictator who recently threatened Washington with “miserable destruction” wants President Obama to call him.

“He said, ‘If you can, Dennis – I don’t want [to] do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me,” Rodman told the network.

Although Rodman’s resume is heavy on rebounds and reality TV and light on diplomacy, the mere fact that he spent time with Kim Jong Un makes him unique in the West.

“There is nobody at the CIA who can tell you more personally about Kim Jong Un than Dennis Rodman, and that in itself is scary,” Col. Steve Ganyard, former deputy assistant secretary of state, told ABC.

Rodman did not mention Ri, who is believed to be a singer who has broken tradition by appearing in public in short skirts with expensive jewelry. Wives of Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather were rarely seen in public.

Ri is believed to be in her early 20s. Defectors say she was trained as a singer and met the future leader in 2010. Kim placed her in his favorite band, the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, with whom she performed in late 2010 before then-leader Kim Jong-Il.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/04/south-korea-reportedly-confirms-kim-jong-uns-wife-gives-birth/#ixzz2MafouaoP

Propaganda, parades promote nuclear North Korea

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From North Korea to Cuba: How to Embolden Tyrants

capitolhillcubans

Last week, it was revealed that senior U.S. administration officials traveled to North Korea in 2012 to hold secret talks with the new regime of Kim Jung Un.

Apparently, they thought young Kim was a "reformer" and wanted to engage him in negotiations.

The result?

Long-range missile launches and North Korea's third nuclear test.  Not to mention unchanged brutality and repression.

Now, we have a U.S. Congressional delegation in Cuba -- led by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) -- looking to do the same with Raul Castro.

Of course, a Congressional delegation is different from an Administration delegation, for it's not necessarily empowered with negotiation authority (per se).

But the result is the same.

It emboldens the criminal behavior of these tyrants.

Want to "pressure" the Castro regime to release American hostage Alan Gross?

Then just cut off the non-essential travel spigot.

Yes, some "people-to-people" travelers would have to miss their salsa lessons and mojito binges -- but it would be worth it.

N.Korea makes progress at rocket site: images

spacewar

Already under fire for its latest nuclear test, North Korea has been making preparations at a launchpad that could pave the way for firing a long-range missile, a US think tank said Thursday.

38 North, a blog of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, analyzed satellite photos that it said showed possible assistance from Iran at the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in northeastern North Korea.

38 North said that a commercial satellite photograph taken on January 5 showed "important progress" since the area was hit with typhoons last year and indicated activity that was consistent with preparations for a launch.

But the website said there was not enough evidence to support speculation that North Korea could raise the stakes by testing its KN-08, a new missile with potential intercontinental range first displayed in a parade in April.

The website said that North Korea likely was preparing to test much larger rockets by the time the site is completed in 2016. The launchpad was last used in April 2009 for a long-range test widely seen as a failure.

The area has a new flame trench covering, which would protect large rockets from exhaust gases, that has a design similar to one used at the Semnan launchpad in central Iran, the website said.

It said that the satellite photos showed that three storage tanks were built last year that can hold 439,100 liters (116,000 gallons) of fuel, a level far above North Korea's capacity during its most recent launch.

38 North said that it also observed a conduit through which technicians and electrical and communications lines can pass, even though Tonghae is accessible only by a dirt road.

North Korea defiantly carried out its third nuclear test on Tuesday, saying it was responding to US "hostility" after the UN Security Council condemned its last launch two months earlier.

On December 12, North Korea launched a rocket from its separate Sohae site that, according to experts, managed to reach near the Philippines and to put a small satellite into orbit.

The United States and its allies condemned the launch, fearing it was part of efforts to refine a longer-range missile.

North Korea Nuclear Test in Conjunction with Iran?

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 

Security experts are now wondering if North Korea's nuclear test on Tuesday was carried out for Iran's benefit.

Bar-Ilan University's Dr. Alon Levkowitz says there's no information to confirm such a collaboration yet but warns that it Iran could be conducting tests in secret:

The most disturbing question is whether the Iranians are using North Korea as a backdoor plan for their own nuclear program. The Iranians didn't carry out a nuclear test in Iran, but they may have done so in North Korea. There is no official information on this. But Iran may have bypassed inspections via North Korea.

You will recall that cooperation between Iran and North Korea is not uncommon on matters like this. Not only has North Korea sold missiles to Iran in the past, but Iranian scientists have been present in North Korea for major weapons tests along the way. 

As Levkowitz put it, if Tuesday's nuclear test was in fact Iranian or for Iran, "this is a very worrying development."

China walks fine line on nuclear North Korea

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Experts Say North Korea Nuclear Test Shows Advancement in Technology

foxnews

Experts say North Korea's successful detonation of a miniaturized nuclear device is concerning because it indicates the country may be getting closer to the ability to put a nuclear device on a missile.
North Korea drew worldwide condemnation Tuesday after it announced it had successfully conducted its third nuclear test, in direct defiance to U.N. Security Council orders to shut down its atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation.
It claims the test was its "first response" to perceived U.S. threats and warns it will continue with unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity" if the United States maintains its hostility.
North Korea expert Andrei Lankov tells Fox News that possession of such a "miniaturized" device would be necessary to create a nuclear warhead.
"It shows they are advancing their nuclear technology," Lankov said.
He also noted the significance of the timing of the test, which came just months after North Korea's successful intercontinental ballistic missile test.
"It seems they are very close to being able to put a device on a missile," Lankov said.
Peter Beck, an expert for Asia Society, tells Fox News the blast appears to be "significantly greater" than North Korea's past nuclear tests. He, too, said the test "...shows a greater commitment by North Korea to marry the missile and nuclear programs."
President Obama was one of many world leaders to speak out against the test early Tuesday, calling it a "highly provocative act" and warning that the international community would act in response.
"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure," the president said in a statement. "Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."
North Korea's official state media said the test was conducted in a safe manner and is aimed at coping with "outrageous" U.S. hostility that "violently" undermines the North's peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites. North Korea faced sanctions after a December launch of a rocket that the U.N. and Washington called a cover for a banned missile test. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.
Earlier Tuesday, South Korean, U.S. and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies said they detected an earthquake in North Korea with a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.2.
Annika Thunborg, who works for the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear monitoring agency the CTBTO, confirms to Fox News the blast was larger than past tests, measuring 4.9 seismically on the Richter scale. The country's 2006 test, which was widely seen as a failure, measured 4.1 and the 2009 test measured 4.5.
Thunborg also says they are trying to find out if enriched uranium was used in this test. This would be significant as the first two tests used North Korea's plutonium stocks which are being depleted. Uranium could be derived from a new nuclear method and those supplies could be renewed.
The North said it used a "lighter, miniaturized atomic bomb" that still has more explosive force than past tests. North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker. However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to miniaturize warheads.
The timing will be seen as significant. The test came hours before President Obama was scheduled to give his State of the Union speech, a major, nationally televised address. It's also only days before the Saturday birthday of Kim Jong Un's father, late leader Kim Jong Il, whose memory North Korean propaganda has repeatedly linked to the country's nuclear ambitions. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
The nuclear test is North Korea's first since Kim Jong Un took power of a country long estranged from the West.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect North Korea's goal of building nuclear warheads small enough to be placed on long-range missiles. This atomic test is North Korea's third since 2006.
The test will likely be portrayed in North Korea as a strong move to defend the nation against foreign aggression, particularly from the U.S., North Korea's longtime enemy.
North Korea's rocket launches and nuclear tests largely are seen by analysts as threats designed to force the United States to confront the issue of military tensions between the foes 60 years after the end of the Korean War.
Following the announcement of the nuclear test, North Korean state television played a song with lyrics bragging that the country always carries out what it is determined to do. In the background were scenes of a North Korean long-range rocket blasting off and short-range missiles being fired into the sky.
The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea announced last month that it would conduct a nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over the December rocket launch.
North Korea's National Defense Commission said Jan. 23 that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.
Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media that the country had built a missile capable of striking the United States, but did not provide further details.
The decision to push ahead with a test will be a challenge to the U.N. Security Council, which recently punished Pyongyang for launching the long-range rocket. In condemning that launch and imposing more sanctions on Pyongyang, the council had demanded a stop to future launches and ordered North Korea to respect a ban on nuclear activity -- or face "significant action" by the U.N.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Tuesday's nuclear test in a statement. The Security Council met later to discuss its response.
The test will likely draw harsh censure and more sanctions from the United States and other countries at a time when North Korea is trying to rebuild its moribund economy and expand its engagement with the outside world.
North Korea cites the U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years on July 27, 1953, with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect the ally.
Fox News' Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/12/experts-say-north-korea-nuclear-test-important-step-towards-weaponization/#ixzz2Khe7lCLd

North Korea gives John Kerry his first "3 AM" call

security

By Elise Labott, with reporting by Barbara Starr

North Korea's nuclear test set off a diplomatic scramble for America's new Secretary of State as the U.S. national security community began working with other countries to try and determine what North Korea truly achieved. The test was was not a total surprise, senior administration officials said. North Korea warned the United States and China on Monday that it would be undertaking a nuclear test, two senior administration officials tell CNN. The warning came in the form of a message through the “NY channel,” which is the U.S. mission to the United Nations. This is the typical way North Korea passes messages to the United States. The warning was not specific on timing, but the officials said the U.S. took it to mean the test could happen at any moment. After the test was detected late Monday night, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with South Korea's foreign minister. He is also expected to talk with Chinese, Japanese, Russian ministers. The U.S. began coordinating its own response with inter-agency calls between Washington and Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and Beijing. US Ambassador to South Korea Sung Kim and General James Thurman, Commander of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command, met with the South Korean defense minister. The U.S. intelligence community and military began the process of assessing the test and North Korea's claims and by morning concluded an underground nuclear test had probably been conducted. World reaction to the test "The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues." according to a statement released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Nuclear monitoring by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization will calculate what was released by the explosion. The U.S. will likely try to get additional readings from aircraft equipped with sensors and satellites and attempt to match with seismic data to calculate what the explosion was. Officials said it will be several days before the US has a handle on the actual size of the explosion, payload and the success, or lack thereof, of the test. Bottom line, successful or not, these tests do help North Korea learn and continue to perfect the technology. North Korea's rocket-fueled obsession Senior administration official says one of the the things the U.S. will be trying to determine, is whether the North Koreans tested a uranium weapon for the first time. The past two tests were plutonium. The U.S. and its allies will also be trying to figure out what type of technology and engineering was used to pull off the test and what, if any, help and materials North Korea may have received from other countries, like Iran. In addition to the analysis of data, the U.S. is currently analyzing North Korea's statement. At first glance, the part about using a “miniaturized” nuclear weapon is concerning, because that would mean the North Koreans may have mastered the technology to fit a nuclear weapon on a long range missile which could possibly reach the U.S.. North Korea successfully demonstrated it could launch a long range missile through its rocket launch last December, but questions remain about its ability to aim it towards a long range target or even repeat the launch success. United Nations Security Council members meet Tuesday morning and officials say the American playbook will be pretty familiar. The officials all said Washington will seek a “tough, swift reaction” from the UNSC. Obviously what comes out of the council will depend on what China and Russia will sign on to. But one official said “there is a pretty strong commitment to go with a seriousness of purpose” to the UN. How does the test work? Officials said administration is also looking at what other kinds of sanctions can be slapped on North Korea, probably the most sanctioned entity in the world. They are looking at the playbook for Iran sanctions – shipping, insurance, more sanctions against financial transactions, designations of individuals. “There is plenty to do,” another senior official said.

North Korea says it successfully conducts nuclear test

Kim Kwang Hyon / AP

On a large television screen in front of Pyongyang's railway station, a North Korean state television broadcaster announces Tuesday that North Korea has conducted a nuclear bomb test.

By Ian Johnston, Eric Baculinao and Arata Yamamoto, NBC News

North Korea declared Tuesday that it had carried out a test of a nuclear bomb after the detonation was detected by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The explosion was registered as a 5.1-magnitude seismic event by the USGS at 9:57 p.m. ET Monday.

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement that the "intelligence community" was aware of "a seismic event with explosive characteristics in North Korea and we are evaluating all relevant information."

In a statement, President Barack Obama described the test as a "highly provocative act."

He said that -- following a "ballistic missile launch" by North Korea on Dec. 12 -- the test "undermines regional stability, violates North Korea's obligations under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, contravenes its [international] commitments … and increases the risk of proliferation."

"North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security," Obama said. "The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region."

He said North Korea's "provocations do not make North Korea more secure" and the communist state had "increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community," Obama said, adding the U.S. would work with the international community to "pursue firm action."

'Unacceptable threat'South Korea's government said in a statement that "the nuclear test poses a direct challenge to the whole international community as well as an unacceptable threat to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."

"Standing firm on its consistent principle that it will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea, the [South Korean] Government … will cooperate closely with the international community and seek all necessary measures including actions by the United Nations Security Council in order to have North Korea abandon its nuclear ambition,” it added.

South Korea is president of the Security Council this month.

The statement added that South Korea would maintain "a high readiness posture against any possible provocation by North Korea."

It said the government would "also accelerate expanding its military capability, including deploying at an early stage its extended-range missiles, currently being developed, which cover all of North Korea."

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test was "extremely regrettable and we strongly protest this act."

Japan launched several planes to test for nuclear particles in the air, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said. He described the test as a "major provocation not only towards the safety of our country but also against the international community."

Keep reading on Nbcnews >>

North Korea and Cuba: Not so different

babalublog

By Alberto de la Cruz

Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of Eric Schmidt, one of Google's founders, accompanied her father and Gov. Bill Richardson on a trip to North Korea. She took some amazing photographs and amongst her many observations documented on a site she created, this one in particular sounds eerily familiar:

It's impossible to know how much we can extrapolate from what we saw in Pyongyang to what the DPRK is really like. Our trip was a mixture of highly staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments. We had zero interactions with non-state-approved North Koreans and were never far from our two minders (2, so one can mind the other).
The longer I think about what we saw and heard, the less sure I am about what any of it actually meant.

Sounds a lot like those "people-to-people" contact Cuba vacations made possible by the Obama administration, doesn't it?

Here's another observation:

Looks great, right? All this activity, all those monitors. Probably 90 desks in the room, all manned, with an identical scene one floor up.
One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in--a noisy bunch, with media in tow--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.
Of all the stops we made, the e-Potemkin Village was among the more unsettling. We knew nothing about what we were seeing, even as it was in front of us. Were they really students? 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.

Of course, the communist propaganda favorite; The Potemkin Village. We have plenty of those in Cuba as well.

Read Sophie Schmidt's entire report HERE.

Kim Jong-Un and the Mysterious Smartphone

foxnews

Bet the Hardy Boys couldn’t solve this one.
A picture of North Korea’s leader holding a lit cigarette with a black smartphone near to hand has the tech world in a tizzy -- but the mysterious maker of the phone remains an enigma.
South Korean smartphone giant Samsung has distanced itself from the gadget, according to AFP, denying any connection to the device.
"It's not a Samsung phone," a company spokesman told AFP, adamantly denying that one of its flagship Galaxy models had turned up across the border.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper suggested politics was behind the brand choice.
"It must have been politically uncomfortable for Kim Jong-Un to use products made by the U.S. ... and he can't publicly endorse the fact that the South is more technologically advanced," the daily said.
But it’s not even clear whether Kim Jong-Un himself owns the phone or is merely near it. South Korean government officials said they believe it his, but did not confirm that fact.
"It's believed that the smartphone belonged to Kim given that the device was placed right next to the documents he was looking at," a Seoul government official told AFP.
The Seoul government official said the picture had been analyzed by the South's intelligence agency, which concluded that HTC was the likely manufacturer.
But the Taiwanese firm declined to identify the device, saying in a statement that the company appreciated the "support of all users."
For more information on Kim Jong-Un’s mysterious phone, read the full story on news.com.au.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/02/05/kim-jong-un-and-mysterious-smartphone/#ixzz2K3k8Wdmg

North Koreans among 40 dead at Iran nuke plant

WND/ Reza Kahlili

The explosions at Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility Jan. 21 killed at least 40 people, including two North Koreans, WND learned Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamic regime is labeling WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” for its exclusive reporting of the blasts.

The bodies of 11 of the technicians and scientists are beyond recognition, a member of the security forces at the facility told WND. According to the source, 60 others are in critical condition and have been transferred to the central base of the 27th Division of Mohammad Rassool Allah. The base, between Tehran and Qom, is equipped with a modern medical facility.

At the time of the explosions, the source said, 203 Iranian scientists and technicians along with 16 North Koreans had been logged in at the site, though the initial report listed 240 people.

The day before the explosions, the North Koreans had brought in new equipment, described by the source as touch-screen monitors the size of TVs that were installed in the monitoring room and some new parts that were installed in the centrifuges before the start of the enrichment process.

Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.”

The explosions were reported exclusively by WND Jan. 24, with updates Jan. 27, Jan. 29, Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.  WND previously reported the trapped workers included 16 North Koreans: 14 technicians and two military attaches.

The source said many of the centrifuges have been destroyed and rescuers have still not accessed the reserves of the stock of 20-percent enriched uranium to assess the level of radiation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not visited the site since the explosions despite media rumors, the source said. Because the regime’s Ministry of Defense covers the project at Fordow, officials of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization were allowed to visit it Jan. 5.

In an unusual move, the IAEA issued a brief statement Jan. 29: “We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations.”

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor emailed that response to reporters. However, when pushed by WND, Tudor could neither confirm nor deny the incident had taken place and did not say whether inspectors had visited the site after the explosions, despite media reports.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, representatives of the supreme leader and intelligence officers from both the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards have visited parts of the site that have been cleared as secure. A counterintelligence committee has been formed to investigate the incident, which already has been called an act of sabotage, with Israel the prime suspect.

The regime is debating how to explain the incident at a later date depending on the level of destruction, the source said. But because of internal rifts among President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Majlis (parliament), Ahmadinejad or others connected to his team will soon reveal the incident.

Regime media have solely based their denial that the explosions occurred on a statement by White House spokesman Jay Carney, who told reporters Jan. 28: “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the (WND) report, and we do not believe the report is credible.”

However, the Islamic regime’s official news agency, IRNA, in a report Jan. 30, called WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” and its reporting mere propaganda by the West before the start of renewed negotiations between Iran and the 5-plus-1 powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany.

IRNA’s report said: “WND, which publishes under the direct control of the CIA, on Thursday, Jan. 24, reported that an explosion took place at Fordow that destroyed much of the facility and trapped 240 personnel. WND in its report interestingly touches on the previous sabotage at Fordow and in a coordinated effort, the White House denies having information and the Israelis state their happiness of such an event. The propaganda by the West continues with the BBC reporting that Iran has denied the report put out by Reza Kahlili, a former CIA spy in the Revolutionary Guards.”

IRNA, in its extensive report, covered all the recent WND revelations about Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s involvement. It said, “Two days prior to the publication of the explosion report, WND reported that an Iranian spy in the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, has informed the Islamic republic that Tel Aviv and certain Western countries have plans on covert ops for the destruction of Iranian nuclear sites. This news agency (WND) in another report states that the recent negotiations between the IAEA and the Iranian counterparts for the inspection of the Parchin military site was a failure and that Iran will resort to publication of documents from the Shah era to further pressure the U.S.”

IRNA concluded that “the West knows this is psychological warfare (and it) will not disrupt the goals of (Iran) in the negotiations, but it tries to fill that void with propaganda against clear and logical policies of the Islamic Republic, which is the result of their hatred against the government of Iran.”

The regime media have also attacked Hamidreza Zakeri, the former officer of Iran’s ministry of intelligence, now living in Europe, who has provided information on the Fordow explosion and other valuable insights into the regime’s illicit activities.

The Fordow nuclear site was central to the regime’s nuclear bomb program, built 300 feet under the belly of a mountain where over 2,700 centrifuges were enriching uranium to the 20 percent level. That level could within weeks be further enriched to nuclear-weapons grade.

In a letter to the IAEA two days after the reported explosions, Iran said it planned to install thousands of its upgraded centrifuges at the Natanz facility. The source stated the move was a direct result of the explosions at Fordow.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/north-koreans-among-40-dead-at-iran-nuke-plant/#pVZh2MwCyYfmQDQl.99

Cannibalism in North Korea

globalpost

A customer reads the menu on the "Pyongyang Express" food truck in Los Angeles, Calif., July 16, 2010. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Emily Lodish

Just when you thought North Korea couldn't get any more disturbing.

A leaked official police document reportedly details at least one case of cannibalism.

Photos: Daily life in Pyongyang

If true, the report would validate what has been rumored in the North for quite some time: that people are so hungry they are eating other people.

According to the Korea Herald:

"The report, later obtained by South Korea's Caleb Mission, provided a rare look into the alleged cannibalism and other crimes, but it did not say whether cannibalism has become a widespread practice.

In one account, a male guard who could not bear his hunger killed his colleague using an ax, ate some of the human flesh and sold the remainder in the market by disguising it as mutton, the report said, without giving any further details such as when the alleged crime occurred."

The confidential, 791-page document, called a "Manual for workers in law enforcement," chronicles 721 criminal cases. The majority of cases involved food.

Five of the cases, according to the International Business Times, involved cannibalism.

While there is some doubt as to the veracity of everything described in the report, its official nature leads experts to believe most of its contents can be taken as fact.

“I have been studying North Korean laws for the last forty years and have never seen anything like this inner document of the North Korean law enforcement unit,” said Jang Myung-bong, a specialist in North Korean laws.

“It is a very critical resource in which we can take a peek on important changes of North Korean law and vividly depict the real life within the society.”

There can be no doubt that much of North Korea is hungry. But a recent report suggests the famine may not be widespread.

Read More: North Korea isn't alone: 6 infamous cases of cannibalism

The findings of a U.S. team led by Robert King, U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights, apparently say that there isn't a full-blown crisis, though some parts of the country are experiencing drastic shortages, according to the South Korean publication, Dong-a Ilbo.

Based on this assessment, Washington is likely to recommend that food assistance is necessary for certain regions in the North where food is in particularly short supply.

But those places in need, according to the North Korean report of cannibalism, are perhaps worse off than anyone thought.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has issued a secret order to put the country under martial law..irony

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http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130131/179151454/NKorea-Imposes-Martial-Law-Ahead-of-Nuclear-Test–Media.html

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has issued a secret order to put the country under martial law in preparation for a third nuclear test in its history, a South Korean newspaper reported on Thursday.

Kim Jong-un convened an emergency meeting with top defense and security officials last Saturday and supposedly said: “The country will be under martial law starting from midnight on January 29, and all the frontline and central units should be ready for a war,” Korean Joongang Daily reported, citing an unidentified source.

The paper also speculated that the new nuclear test could be held either on February 16, the birthday of former leader Kim Jong-il, or February 25, the inauguration day of South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye.

North Korea vowed on January 23 to strengthen its military capabilities and step up its controversial nuclear program shortly after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on the country over the December rocket launch.

Pyongyang also pledged to end any efforts at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and to withdraw from six-party talks.

Satellite images have shown that the reclusive communist regime has been digging a new underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country’s northeast, where it conducted two previous nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009.

North Korea has been subjected to several rounds of UN Security Council sanctions since it declared itself a nuclear power in 2005.

Sucesion: Conclusion

Google releases detailed map of North Korea

By Chico Harlan/

Until Tuesday, North Korea appeared on Google Maps as a near-total white space — no roads, no train lines, no parks and no restaurants. The only thing labeled was the capital city, Pyongyang.

This all changed when Google, on Tuesday, rolled out a detailed map of one of the world’s most secretive states. The new map labels everything from Pyongyang’s subway stops to the country’s several city-sized gulags, as well as its monuments, hotels, hospitals and department stores.

Screenshot: Washington Post

(See a before and after map comparison of North Korea.)

According to a Google blog post, the maps were created by a group of volunteer “citizen cartographers,” through an interface known as Google Map Maker. That program — much like Wikipedia — allows users to submit their own data, which is then fact-checked by other users, and sometimes altered many times over. Similar processes were used in other once-unmapped countries like Afghanistan and Burma.

In the case of North Korea, those volunteers worked from outside of the country, beginning from 2009. They used information that was already public, compiling details from existing analog maps, satellite images, or other Web-based materials. Much of the information was already available on the Internet, said Hwang Min-woo, 28, a volunteer mapmaker from Seoul who worked for two years on the project.

Screenshot: Washington Post

North Korea was the last country virtually unmapped by Google, but other — even more detailed — maps of the North existed before this. Most notable is a map created by Curtis Melvin, who runs the North Korea Economy Watch blog and spent years identifying thousands of landmarks in the North: tombs, textile factories, film studios, even rumored spy training locations. Melvin’s map is available as a downloadable Google Earth file.

Google’s map is important, though, because it is so readily accessible.  The map is unlikely to have an immediate influence in the North, where Internet use is restricted to all but a handful of elites. But it could prove beneficial for outsider analysts and scholars, providing an easy-to-access record about North Korea’s provinces, roads, landmarks, as well as hints about its many unseen horrors.

Screenshot: Washington Post

In the country’s northeast, for instance, Google has labeled what it calls the “Hwasong Gulag.” One street, called Gulag 16 Road, cuts through it. And at the end of Gulag 16 Road is a train station. Beyond that, little else around the gulag is marked.

The map’s publication comes just weeks after the visit to North Korea of Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who toured the country in a series of highly staged encounters that included a stop at a computer library, which Schmidt’s daughter later described in a blog post as the “e-Potemkin Village.” Schmidt’s visit was unrelated to the map roll-out, a Google spokesman said.

Google, in its blog post about the new North Korea map, acknowledged that the information is “not perfect.”

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North Korea says it is bolstering its war defenses

foxnews

m.cbsnews.com

North Korea vowed Monday to strengthen its defenses amid concerns the country may conduct a nuclear test as a follow-up to last month's long-range rocket launch.

Citing U.S. hostility, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a memorandum that North Korea will "continue to strengthen its deterrence against all forms of war."

The memorandum carried by state media did not say what action North Korea would take to defend itself. However, North Korea has claimed the right to build atomic weapons to protect itself from the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea.

North Korea sent a satellite into space on Dec. 12 aboard a long-range rocket, a launch that the U.S. and its allies have criticized as a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

In 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang conducted atomic tests after being slapped with U.N. Security Council condemnation and sanctions for similar launches of long-range rockets.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry urged the Washington to dismantle the U.S.-led U.N. Command, which oversees an armistice signed at the close of the Korean War in 1953. It accused the U.S. of trying to turn the U.N. Command into a NATO-like regional military bloc.

"Whether the U.S. immediately dismantles the U.N. Command or not will serve as the acid stone in deciding whether the U.S. will maintain or not its anti-(North Korea) hostile policy," said the memorandum, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Korean War armistice was never replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war 60 years later.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/14/north-korea-says-it-is-bolstering-its-war-defenses/?test=latestnews#ixzz2Hxr8UDKE