Korea 2013... War Game or political game changer?

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
There is so much happening right now In the North/South Korean Area that I Felt it might be Woth while to start a Thread dedicated to the Current Events happening there. As always remember the Forum Rules of Engagement No politicking, No hitting below the belt. Please re frame form biting.
South Korean banks and media report computer network crash, causing speculation of North Korea cyberattack
Published March 20, 2013
| Associated Press
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SEOUL, South Korea – Computer networks at major South Korean banks and top TV broadcasters crashed simultaneously Wednesday, paralyzing bank machines across the country and prompting speculation of a cyberattack by North Korea.
Screens went blank at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT), the state-run Korea Information Security Agency said, and more than seven hours later some systems were still down.
Police and South Korean officials couldn't immediately determine responsibility and North Korea's state media made no immediate comments on the shutdown. But some experts suspected a cyberattack orchestrated by Pyongyang. The rivals have exchanged threats amid joint U.S.-South Korean military drills and in the wake of U.N. sanctions meant to punish North Korea over its nuclear test last month.
The network paralysis took place just days after North Korea accused South Korea and the U.S. of staging a cyberattack that shut down its websites for two days last week. Loxley Pacific, the Thailand-based Internet service provider, confirmed the North Korean outage but did not say what caused it.
The South Korean shutdown did not affect government agencies or potential targets such as power plants or transportation systems, and there were no immediate reports that bank customers' records were compromised, but the disruption froze part of the country's commerce.
Some customers were unable to use the debit or credit cards that many rely on more than cash. At one Starbucks in downtown Seoul, customers were asked to pay for their coffee in cash, and lines formed outside disabled bank machines.
Shinhan Bank, a major South Korean lender, reported a two-hour system shutdown, including online banking and automated teller machines. It said networks later came back online and that banking was back to normal. Shinhan said no customer records or accounts were compromised.
Another big bank, Nonghyup, said its system eventually came back online. Officials didn't answer a call seeking details on the safety of customer records. Jeju Bank said some of its branches also reported network shutdowns.
Broadcasters KBS and MBC said their computers went down at 2 p.m., but that the shutdown did not affect TV broadcasts. Computers were still down about seven hours after the shutdown began, according to the state-run Korea Communications Commission, South Korea's telecom regulator.
The YTN cable news channel also said the company's internal computer network was paralyzed. Footage showed workers staring at blank computer screens.
KBS employees said they watched helplessly as files stored on their computers began disappearing.
Last year, North Korea threatened to attack several news companies, including KBC and MBC, over their reports critical of children's' festivals in the North.
"It's got to be a hacking attack," said Lim Jong-in, dean of Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security. "Such simultaneous shutdowns cannot be caused by technical glitches."
The Korea Information Security Agency had reported that an image of skulls and a hacking claim had popped up on some of the computers that shut down, but later said those who reported the skulls did not work for the five companies whose computers suffered massive outages. KISA was investigating the skull images as well.
An official at the Korea Communications Commission said investigators speculate that malicious code was spread from company servers that send automatic updates of security software and virus patches.
LG Uplus Corp., which provides network services for the companies that suffered outages, saw no signs of a cyberattack on its networks, company spokesman Lee Jung-hwan said.
The South Korean military raised its cyberattack readiness level but saw no signs of cyberattacks on its networks, the Defense Ministry said.
No government computers were affected, officials said. President Park Geun-hye called for quick efforts to get systems back online, according to her spokeswoman, Kim Haing.
The shutdown raised worries about the overall vulnerability to attacks in South Korea, a world leader in broadband and mobile Internet access. Previous hacking attacks at private companies compromised millions of people's personal data. Past malware attacks also disabled access to government agency websites and destroyed files in personal computers.
Seoul believes North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit aimed at hacking U.S. and South Korean government and military networks to gather information and disrupt service.
Seoul blames North Korean hackers for several cyberattacks in recent years. Pyongyang has either denied or ignored those charges. Hackers operating from IP addresses in China have also been blamed.
In 2011, computer security software maker McAfee Inc. said North Korea or its sympathizers likely were responsible for a cyberattack against South Korean government and banking websites earlier that year. The analysis also said North Korea appeared to be linked to a 2009 massive computer-based attack that brought down U.S. government Internet sites. Pyongyang denied involvement.
The shutdown comes amid rising rhetoric and threats of attack from Pyongyang over the U.N. sanctions. Washington also expanded sanctions against North Korea this month in a bid to cripple the government's ability to develop its nuclear program.
North Korea has threatened revenge for the sanctions and for ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies describe as routine but which Pyongyang says are rehearsals for invasion.
On Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected military drills in which drone planes hit targets and rockets shot down mock enemy cruise missiles. Kim told officers the North should "destroy the enemies without mercy so that not a single man can survive to sign a document of surrender when a battle starts," according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Last week, North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea warned South Korea's "reptile media" that the North was prepared to conduct a "sophisticated strike" on Seoul.
North Korea also has claimed cyberattacks by the U.S. and South Korea. The North's official Korean Central News Agency accused the countries of expanding an aggressive stance against Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and persistent virus attacks."
South Korea denied the allegation and the U.S. military declined to comment.
Lim said he believes hackers in China were likely culprits in the outage in Pyongyang, but that North Korea was probably responsible for Wednesday's attack.
"Hackers attack media companies usually because of a political desire to cause confusion in society," he said. "Political attacks on South Korea come from North Koreans."
Orchestrating the mass shutdown of the networks of major companies would have taken at least one to six months of planning and coordination, said Kwon Seok-chul, chief executive officer of Seoul-based cybersecurity firm Cuvepia Inc.
Kwon, who analyzed personal computers at one of the three broadcasters shut down Wednesday, said he hasn't yet seen signs that the malware was distributed by North Korea.
"But hackers left indications in computer files that mean this could be the first of many attacks," he said.
Lim said tracking the source of the outage would take months.


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North Korea's Kim supervises "drone attack" drill

11:40am EDT
By David Chance
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a drone attack on a simulated South Korean target on Wednesday, Pyongyang's KCNA news agency reported, and the armed forces shot down a target mimicking a cruise missile.
North Korea has stepped up its military exercises in response to what it regards as "hostile" joint drills by South Korea and the United States after Pyongyang was sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for a nuclear test in February.
It is not known if North Korea possesses drones, although a report on South Korea's Yonhap news agency last year said that it had obtained 1970s-era U.S. target drones from Syria to develop into attack drones.
"The (drone) planes were assigned the flight route and time with the targets in South Korea in mind, Kim Jong-un said, adding with great satisfaction that they were proved to be able to mount (a) super-precision attack on any enemy targets," KCNA reported.
It is extremely rare for KCNA to specify the day on which Kim attended a drill. It also said that a rocket defense unit had successfully shot down a target that mimicked an "enemy" Tomahawk cruise missile.
North Korea has said it has abrogated an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.
Although North Korea currently lacks the technology to carry out such an attack, the U.S. said it would deploy anti-missile batteries in Alaska to counter any threat.
The KCNA report said that Kim, 30, the third of his line to rule North Korea, would give orders to destroy military installations in any war zone and also U.S. bases in the Pacific if the North was attacked.
North Korea's missiles have the capacity to hit bases in Japan and on the island of Guam.
Earlier in the day, KCNA denounced U.S. moves that it said were aimed at staging a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" on North Korea, citing the deployment of a U.S. B-52 bomber over the Korean peninsula as well as what it said were nuclear-armed submarines.
The U.S. and South Korea say their drills are defensive.
Tensions have mounted on the Korean peninsula since North Korea staged its first successful long-range rocket launch in December. It followed this up with its third nuclear weapons test in February.
Pyongyang is barred from developing missile and nuclear-related technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after previous nuclear tests.
Earlier on Wednesday, China's new leader, Xi Jinping, said he would offer to promote "reconciliation and cooperation" on the Korean peninsula.
Most military experts say that the North will likely not launch an all-out war against South Korea and its U.S. ally due to its outdated weaponry.
Pyongyang is viewed as more likely to stage an attack along a disputed sea border between the two countries as it did in 2010 when it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.
Such a move would provide a major test for new South Korean President Park Geun-hye who took office pledging closer ties with the North if it abandoned its nuclear push.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)

On a lesser Note two Lesser Known NK small arms
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asif iqbal

Lieutenant General
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

someone should tell that little chubby checks he should refrain from threatening to nuke other countrys as if its a board game, he might end up in a whole load of trouble

South Korea, Japan and Americas combined resources would make North Korea non-existant in a matter of seconds, China should act as cheif Negotiator and help solve this crazys mans illness
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

One Should always Remember Just who One is dealing With.
4959762341_6362806a8b_z.jpg

Kim Jung Eun Reviews the Troops.

North Korea is a State That Frankly has been mishandled by both China and The US.
The Chinese Bribe it and allow it to gain strength so they can use it for applied Pressure on the West, and Convince the US that The best way is use them to negotiate. Well making Demands on The US policy's in the Asian Region. This allows China to look like the good player well also Forcing the US to make Concessions. All The While China Fails to realize They have absolutely No control over North Korea. The North Use the opportunity to shake Sanctions and Continue Crimes and actions that would even make the Worst of the PRC leaders disgusted. Still the PRC Leader ship thinks they have a Strong hand Being just about the only Economic player willing to Trade With them Even if It's
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to Down Right
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The US has
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and Tried too play Like this is a Sane Responsible nation For decades and every time they go though China, The North will back off for a little While and then be back to make Demands Ratchet up Tensions and build a bigger Bite, and more Punch in there aim too Retake the South. The only things Holding the North back are The Southern military's technological state and The American Units backing them.

The North Korean government can not allow stability. It's counter to there Very existence. They need to play these Games as The moment Tensions Drop and Stability sets in the Kim Jong Clan is a goner.
I am of the Opinion That the best case is Forced Reunification with South Korea taking the peninsula. that however would require the Cooperation of The US, PRC and South Korea. Even if that cooperation is a simple Agreement that The PRC will not Repeat History and Cross the Boarder so long as South Korean and American Forces do the Same and respect the Chinese Boarder.
But it's Unlikely at best that any thing other then The same failed Policy of Containment will Continue Despite the fact
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.
So I expect more of this

North Korea Issues Fresh Threat To America
By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent Skynews
North Korea has threatened to attack American airbases on the Japanese island of Okinawa and the Pacific island of Guam.

A statement by Kim Yong Chul, the spokesman of the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army warned of "military actions".

"The US should not forget that the Anderson Air Force Base on Guam where B-52 bombers take off and naval bases in Japan and Okinawa where nuclear-powered submarines are launched are within the striking range of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) precision strike means," the statement read.

"Now that the US started open nuclear blackmail and threat, the DPRK, too, will move to take corresponding military actions."

The words mark the latest escalation in a lengthy stand-off as North Korea defies calls from the rest of the world to halt its dual nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
The American government has not yet responded to the threat.

British diplomatic sources speaking to Sky News from Seoul have said the UK Government "takes any threats seriously and there is some concern over the more harsh rhetoric coming from the DPRK".

However, the source insisted that there was no panic or alarm among diplomatic circles and that UK travel advice to South Korea remains unchanged.

The latest threat from North Korea is a direct response to a series of joint military exercises involving the US and South Korea.

On Tuesday, the US Air Force deployed its giant B-52 bombers from their base on Guam. The planes, which are capable of carrying and deploying nuclear bombs, flew sorties over the Korean peninsula as part of the military exercise.

The Pentagon in Washington confirmed the B-52 deployment. Spokesman George Little said the US wanted to underline its commitment and capacity to defend South Korea against an attack from the North.However, the flights were condemned by Pyongyang as "an unpardonable provocation".

"The US is introducing a strategic nuclear strike means to the Korean peninsula at a time when its situation is inching close to the brink of war," the North Korean statement added.

The North Korean military does have rockets capable of reaching both Okinawa and Guam.

The surprisingly successful rocket launch in December followed a trajectory similar to that which any strike against Okinawa would take.Okinawa is 600 miles due south of the Korean peninsula. Guam is further away, to the east of the Philippines.

While Pyongyang has proved it has the range capability, it is not clear whether or not their missiles are accurate enough to hit a specific target. And the country does not yet have the ability to carry out a nuclear strike at this range.

Earlier this month, the UN imposed the toughest sanctions yet on North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un reacted with anger, threatening to attack America, South Korea and Japan. The young and unpredictable leader toured military units calling for them to prepare for 'all out war'.Meanwhile, Wednesday's unusually large cyberattack in South Korea, which brought down banks and broadcasters for one hour, has been traced to China.

Experts in Seoul claim the simultaneous attacks all bore the same IP address, which was traced to the Chinese mainland.

Many of North Korea's internet and computing operations are tied to China. There is no suggestion that the Chinese government had any involvement.
[video=youtube_share;it0wsPvkwZU]http://youtu.be/it0wsPvkwZU[/video]

And this
U.N. starts inquiry into torture, labor camps in North Korea

1:28pm EDT
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations launched an investigation on Thursday into what it said were widespread and systematic human rights violations in North Korea, some of which "may amount to crimes against humanity".
The U.N. Human Rights Council unanimously passed a resolution brought by the European Union and Japan, and backed by the United States, condemning alleged North Korean torture, food deprivation and labor camps for political prisoners.
The 47-member forum set up a three-member commission of inquiry for one year and called on Pyongyang to cooperate with the team of experts, including Marzuki Darusman, its special rapporteur on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"The creation of the commission of inquiry sends an important message that the global community is paying close attention to the situation in the DPRK, not just on the nuclear front, but also especially on the human rights front," U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told reporters in Geneva.
The investigation will "help focus the spotlight of sustained international scrutiny on one of the world's darkest and most secretive regimes", she said.
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called in January for an international investigation into what she said may be crimes against humanity, including torture and executions of political prisoners in North Korean camps.
She said Pyongyang's network of political prison camps is believed to confine at least 200,000 people and has been the scene of rapes, torture, executions and slave labor.
Neither North Korea's closest ally, China, nor Russia are currently members of the Geneva forum, and thus have no vote.
More U.N. sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang this month in response to its third nuclear test on February 12, including tougher financial penalties to try to curb its nuclear arms program.
During the Human Rights Council debate, North Korean Ambassador So Se Pyong rejected the resolution as "an instrument that serves the political purposes of the hostile forces in their attempt to discredit the image of the DPRK".
"As we stated time and again, those human rights abuses mentioned in the resolution do not exist in our country," So said, warning that the sponsors should be held accountable "for all serious consequences".
North Korea said earlier on Thursday it would attack U.S. military bases in Japan and on the Pacific island of Guam if provoked, a day after leader Kim Jong-un presided over a mock drone strike on U.S.-allied South Korea.
"FULL ACCOUNTABILITY"
Irish Ambassador Gerard Corr, speaking on behalf of the EU, said the commission of inquiry would work "with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity".
"The EU and Japan have not taken such a step lightly," Corr said. He added that North Korea had not heeded the Council's calls over the years to improve the situation and cooperate.
Japan's envoy, Takashi Okada, denounced disappearances in North Korea, including the abduction of foreign nationals.
Activists welcomed the establishment of a U.N. inquiry similar to the one on Syria, which aims to document war crimes committed by both sides in a civil war to build a case for future prosecution.
"This long-awaited inquiry will help expose decades of abuse by the North Korean government," Julie de Rivero, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Rajiv Narayan, North Korea Researcher for Amnesty International, said: "U.N. member states have today sent a clear message to the North Korean authorities that those responsible for crimes against humanity will ultimately be held to account.
"Millions of people in North Korea suffer extreme forms of repression. Hundreds of thousands, including children, remain in political prison camps and other forms of detention where forced hard labor, torture and other ill treatment is systemic."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
And this
Hacking highlights dangers to Seoul of North's cyber-warriors

6:30am EDT
By Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) - A hacking attack that brought down three South Korean broadcasters and two major banks has been identified by most commentators as North Korea flexing its muscles as military tensions on the divided peninsula sky-rocket.
Officials in Seoul traced Wednesday's breach to a server in China, a country that has been used by North Korean hackers in the past. That reinforces the vulnerability of South Korea, the world's most wired economy, to unconventional warfare.
China's Foreign Ministry said that hacking attacks were a "global problem", anonymous and cross-border.
"Hackers often use the IP addresses of other countries to carry out their attacks," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
One government official in Seoul directly blamed Pyongyang, although police and the country's computer crime agency said it would take months to firmly establish responsibility.
Jang Se-yul, a former North Korean soldier who went to a military college in Pyongyang to groom hackers and who defected to the South in 2008, estimates the North has some 3,000 troops, including 600 professional hackers, in its cyber-unit.
Jang's alma mater, the Mirim University, is now called the University of Automation. It was set up in the late 1980s to help North Korea's military automation and has a special class in professional hacking.
The North's professional "cyber-warriors" enjoy perks such as luxury apartments for their role in what Pyongyang has defined as a new front in its "war" against the South, Jang told Reuters.
"I don't think they will stop at a temporary malfunction. North Korea can easily bring down another country in a cyber-warfare attack," Jang said.
Like much about North Korea, its true cyber capabilities are hard to determine. The vast majority of North Koreans have no access to the Internet or own a computer, a policy the regime of Kim Jong-un strictly enforces to limit outside influence.
The nominee to be the next South Korean intelligence chief told MPs recently the North was suspected of being behind most of the 70,000 cyber-attacks on the country's public institutions over the past five years, local TV channel YTN reported.
North Korea recently threatened the United States with a nuclear attack and said it would bomb South Korea in response to what it says are "hostile" war games in the South by Washington and Seoul.
Threats to bomb the mainland United States are empty rhetoric as Pyongyang does not have the capacity to do so and its outdated armed forces would lose any all-out war with South Korea and Washington, military experts say.
That makes hacking an attractive, and cheaper, option.
"North Korea can't invest in fighter jets or warships, but they have put all their resources into raising hackers. Qualified talent matters to cyber warfare, not technology," said Lee Dong-hoon, an information security expert at Korea University in Seoul.
However much of North Korea's limited funds go into its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
LIMITED ATTACK
Wednesday's attack hit the network servers of television broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS as well as two major commercial banks, Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank. South Korea's military raised its alert levels in response.
About 32,000 computers at the organizations were affected, according to the South's state-run Korea Internet Security Agency, adding it would take up to five days to fully restore their functions.
It took the banks hours to restore banking services. Damage to the servers of the TV networks was believed to be more severe, although broadcasts were not affected.
South Korea's military, its core power infrastructure and ports and airports were unaffected.
Investigations of past hacking of South Korean organizations have led to Pyongyang.
"There can be many inferences based on the fact that the IP address is based in China," said the South Korean communication commission's head of network policy, Park Jae-moon. "We've left open all possibilities and are trying to identify the hackers."
North Korea has in the past targeted South Korea's conservative newspapers, banks and government institutions.
The biggest hacking effort attributed to Pyongyang was a 10-day denial of service attack in 2011 that antivirus firm McAfee, part of Intel Corp, dubbed "Ten Days of Rain". It said that attack was a bid to probe the South's computer defenses in the event of a real conflict.
However, the hacking attack on Wednesday doesn't appear to be state sponsored, security vendor Sophos said, noting the malicious software it detected was not sophisticated.
"It's hard to jump to the immediate conclusion that this was necessarily evidence of a cyber-warfare attack coming from North Korea," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
North Korea last week said it had been a victim of cyber-attacks, blaming the United States and threatening retaliation.
"North Korea is able to carry out much bigger attacks than this incident such as stopping broadcasts or erasing all financial data that could panic South Korea," Lee of Korea University said.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Narae Kim, Hyunjoo Jin, Joyce Lee, Se Young Lee in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by David Chance and Nick Macfie)

And of Course
[video=youtube_share;Qd1qR66gcLQ]http://youtu.be/Qd1qR66gcLQ[/video]
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

China tightens border searches to punish North Korea as US asks for sterner measures
Published March 23, 2013
| Associated Press
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BEIJING – China is trying to punish ally North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests, stepping up inspections of North Korean-bound cargo in a calibrated effort to send a message of Chinese pique without further provoking a testy Pyongyang government.
Freight handlers and trading companies at ports and cities near the North Korean border complain of more rigorous inspections and surprise checks that are raising the costs to doing business with an often unpredictable North Korea. Machinery, luxury goods and daily necessities such as rice and cooking oil are among the targeted products, the companies said, and business is suffering.
"Some business orders we don't dare take. We don't dare do that business because we fear that after the orders are taken, we will end up unable to ship them," said a Mr. Hu, an executive with Dalian Fast International Logistics Co. in the northeastern port city of Dalian, across the Yellow Sea from the North Korean port of Nampo. Hu said the company's business is off by as much as 20 percent this year.
North Korea's economic lifeline, China is showing signs of getting tough with an impoverished neighbor it has long supported with trade, aid and diplomatic protection for fear of setting off a collapse.
The moves to crimp, but not cut off trade with North Korea come as Beijing falls under increased scrutiny to enforce new U.N. sanctions passed after last month's nuclear test, Pyongyang's third. Targeted in the sanctions are the bank financing and bulk smuggling of cash that could assist North Korea's nuclear and missile programs as well as the luxury goods that sustain the ruling elite around leader Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang has reacted with fury and threatening rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S.
U.S. officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement said Friday that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the U.S. officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.
"There's reason to believe the Chinese are looking at the threat in a real way," Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen told reporters.
China's change of tack with North Korea unlikely foreshadows a total end to Beijing's support. For Beijing, North Korea remains a pivotal strategic buffer between China and a U.S.-allied South Korea, and Chinese leaders worry that too much pressure could upend an already fragile North Korean economy and cause the Kim government to collapse, leaving Beijing with a security headache and possible refugee crisis.
But North Korea watchers said between blind support and complete abandonment there's much Beijing is doing and can do to try to rein in Pyongyang.
"We have to get away from the binary thinking that either they support North Korea or they pull the plug. That's not the way the world works," said Jonathan Pollack of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank. "The interesting thing is not what happens at the UN but what happens beneath the radar in terms of what Chinese provide in economic aid and energy assistance."
Over the past decade, as previous nuclear and long-range missile tests and other provocations saw the UN, the U.S., South Korea and Japan impose sanctions and reduce trade and assistance to North Korea, China has stepped into the breach. By 2011, China provided nearly all of North Korea's fuel and more than 83 percent of its imports, everything from heavy machinery to grain and electronics and other consumer goods, according to statistics from the International Trade Center, a research arm of the United Nations and World Trade Organization.
Though Pyongyang could look to other trading partners like Russia, Iran or Kuwait for fuel and some other goods, China's proximity — their shared 1,400-kilometer (880-mile) border — makes it indispensable. Chinese companies, often with backed by the government, are enlarging North Korean ports and building roads, helping to underpin growth after more than a decade of famine and economic decay.
Such was the Chinese support that U.S. politicians and UN experts complained that Beijing was failing to enforce previous rounds of sanctions, particularly on luxury goods. The $169,000 worth of pleasure boats imported by North Korea last year all came from China, the ITC data show, as did most of the liquor and cigarettes.
As China upped its investment, it became disillusioned with Kim Jong Un. Since coming to power after the sudden death of his dictator father, Kim has refused to heed Beijing's prodding to engage in economic reform and return to negotiations over its nuclear program.
Beijing's unhappiness began to show in December, around the time of North Korea's latest long-range rocket launch but before the nuclear test. It was then, traders and cargo companies said, that orders for tightened inspections appeared.
At Complant International Transportation in the port of Dalian, customs inspectors began opening containers and packages with equipment or luxury goods or anything they deemed sensitive rather than just scan them, said a company executive who identified himself only by his surname, Zhang.
"That was since the end of last year. Now they're even stricter," Zhang said.
Companies in the border city of Dandong on the Yalu River said North Korean-bound goods have to be stored in bonded logistics centers for inspection by customs authorities. Banking restrictions mean North Korean traders have a hard time getting hard currency.
"Due to the lack of cash, North Korean companies tend to pay with minerals or coal, but we only trade with those able to pay in cash," said Yu Tao, vice general manager of the Dandong Import and Export Co. Yu said the company trades daily consumer goods and has been reducing its trade with North Korea because of the risks.
Banking is one area where China has been tightening controls, but the U.S. would like Beijing to do more. "China remains the name of the game when it comes to financial sanctions against North Korea," said Jo Dong-ho, an expert on the North Korean economy at Seoul's Ewha Womans University.
In late 2011, Beijing forced the China Construction Bank to close accounts opened by the Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. in Dandong and the Golden Triangle Bank in Hunchun, another border city, to comply with previous U.N. sanctions. Still, with tens of thousands of North Koreans having fled to China, many just for short-term work, plus traders, the yuan is used inside North Korea, and smuggling of large amounts of the Chinese currency across the border has become common.
Cohen, the U.S. Treasury official, said he urged China to follow the U.S. lead and impose sanctions on North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank. The bank serves as the main foreign exchange bank for North Korea, wiring and receiving funds to facilitate trade, most of which goes through China, so sanctions would in effect further force more North Koreans to turn to cash.
"North Koreans will have no choice but to carry a large amount of cash by themselves," said Kim Joongho, a senior research fellow at South Korea's Export-Import Bank. That will cause "inconvenience on the Pyongyang elites' economic lives."
__
Associated Press researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing in Beijing and reporters Sam Kim and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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N.Korean Diplomats 'Sell Millions of Dollars Worth of Drugs'
North Korea sent a large amount of illegal drugs to its embassy in an East European country last December and ordered diplomats there to sell it for cash by early April, a diplomatic source here claims.

"South Korean intelligence obtained the information from a North Korean agent who defected recently," the source said. "Similar orders were delivered to other North Korean embassies."

North Korea has ordered each diplomat to raise US$300,000 to prove their loyalty and mark the birthday of nation founder Kim Il-sung on April 15.

Each North Korean diplomatic mission overseas is required to send back around $100,000 to the North each year, the agent-turned-defector allegedly said. They used to complain that new leader Kim Jong-un is too demanding.

Each North Korean diplomat is estimated to have been given up to 20 kg of drugs, so the North Korean embassy in the East European country may seek to sell around 200 kg.

Under the guidance of Room 39, a secretive agency that managed the private coffers of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the North has been producing various types of illegal drugs and selling them abroad. South Korean authorities estimate North Korea's annual output of illicit drugs amount to 3,000 kg that translate into revenues of between $100 million and $200 million.

North Korea mass-produces the illegal drugs in factories in Chongjin and Heungnam under tightly regulated conditions, and as a result the quality is top-notch, said one intelligence official here. "North Korean drugs are highly sought-after overseas."

A large amount of illegal drugs in circulation here is North Korean in origin and smuggled through China.

"Drugs are sent from North Korea several times a year by ship or trucks," the diplomat quoted the defector as saying. "An embassy staffer meets up with smugglers at a secret location to get them."
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And Now A Correction.
South Korea says hacking not from Chinese address
By K.J. Kwon and Jethro Mullen, CNN
March 22, 2013 -- Updated 1124 GMT (1924 HKT)
CNN.com

Members of the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA) check on cyber attacks at a briefing room of KISA in Seoul on March 20, 2013.
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The suspected cyberattack that struck South Korean banks and media companies this week didn't originate from a Chinese IP address, South Korean officials said Friday, contradicting their previous claim.

The Korea Communications Commission, a South Korean regulator, said that after "detailed analysis," the IP address that was thought to be from China was determined to be an internal IP address from one of the banks that was infected by the malicious code.

It said, though, that "the government has confirmed that the attack was from a foreign land."

An IP address is the number that identifies a network or device on the Internet.

Cybersecurity concerns for China, U.S.
The attack Wednesday damaged 32,000 computers and servers at media and financial companies, South Korea's Communications Commission said.

It infected banks' and broadcasters' computer networks with a malicious program, or malware, that slowed or shut down systems, officials and the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency said.

The military stepped up its cyberdefense efforts in response to the widespread outages, which hit nine companies, Yonhap reported, citing the National Police Agency.

Government computer networks did not seem to be affected, Yonhap cited the National Computing and Information Agency as saying. A joint team from government, the military and private industry was responding.

How the hackers got in and spread the malicious code remains under investigation, and analysts are examining the malware, a South Korean official close to the investigation said.

Read: International cyber attacks on the rise

Blaming North Korea in the past

South Korea has accused the North of similar hacking attacks before, including incidents in 2010 and 2012 that also targeted banks and media organizations. The North rejected the allegations.

The outages come amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the North angrily responding to a recent U.N. Security Council vote to impose tougher sanctions on Pyongyang after the country's latest nuclear test last month.

Last week, North Korea invalidated its 60-year-old armistice with the South. It has threatened to attack its neighbor with nuclear weapons and has also threatened the United States.

The armistice agreement, signed in 1953, ended the three-year war between North and South but left the two nations technically in a state of war.

The United States has deployed B-52 bombers to conduct high-profile flyovers of its South Korean ally and announced that it will deploy new ground-based missile interceptors on its West Coast against the remote possibility that North Korea could strike the United States with long-range weapons.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

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Warning the Fallowing interview is regarding NK internment camps and may not be suitable too weaker stomachs
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

I dislike double posting. So I was sittting on these.
U.S. sends B-2s to S. Korea for military drills
By Hyung-Jin Kim and Sam Kim - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 28, 2013 7:37:38 EDT
SEOUL, South Korea — In a show of force following weeks of North Korean bluster, the U.S. on Thursday took the unprecedented step of announcing that two of its nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped munitions on a South Korean island as part of joint military drills.

The announcement is likely to further enrage Pyongyang, which has already issued a flood of ominous statements to highlight displeasure over the drills and U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month. But there were signs Thursday that it is willing to go only so far.

A North Korean industrial plant operated with South Korean know-how was running normally, despite the North’s shutdown a day earlier of communication lines ordinarily used to move workers and goods across the border. At least for the moment, Pyongyang was choosing the factory’s infusion of hard currency over yet another provocation.

U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement that the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home. It was unclear whether America’s stealth bombers were used in past annual drills with South Korea, but this is the first time the military has announced their use.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the joint military drills.

The announcement will likely draw a strong response from Pyongyang. North Korea sees the military drills as part of a U.S. plot to invade and becomes particularly upset about U.S. nuclear activities in the region. Washington and Seoul say the drills are routine and defensive.

North Korea has already threatened nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul in recent weeks. It said Wednesday there was no need for communication in a situation “where a war may break out at any moment.” Earlier this month, it announced that it considers void the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

But Pyongyang would have gone beyond words, possibly damaging its own weak finances, if it had blocked South Koreans from getting in and out of the Kaesong industrial plant, which produced $470 million worth of goods last year.

South Korean managers at the plant reported no signs of trouble Thursday.

Analysts see a full-blown North Korean attack as extremely unlikely, though there are fears of a more localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999.

The Kaesong plant, just across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that separates the Koreas, normally relies on a military hotline for the governments to coordinate the movement of goods and South Korean workers.

Without the hotline, the governments, which lack diplomatic relations, used middlemen. North Korea verbally approved the crossing Thursday of hundreds of South Koreans by telling South Koreans at a management office at the Kaesong factory. Those South Koreans then called officials in South Korea.

Both governments prohibit direct contact with citizens on the other side, but Kaesong has separate telephone lines that allow South Korean managers there to communicate with people in South Korea.

Factory managers at Kaesong reached by The Associated Press by telephone at the factory said the overall mood there is normal.

“Tension rises almost every year when it’s time for the U.S.-South Korean drills to take place, but as soon as those drills end, things quickly return to normal,” Sung Hyun-sang said in Seoul, a day after returning from Kaesong. He is president of Mansun Corporation, an apparel manufacturer that employs 1,400 North Korean workers and regularly stations 12 South Koreans at Kaesong.

“I think and hope that this time won’t be different,” Sung said.

Technically, the divided Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war. North Korea last shut down communications at Kaesong four years ago, and that time some workers were temporarily stranded.

North Korea could be trying to stoke worries that the hotline shutdown could mean that a military provocation could come any time without notice.

South Korea urged the North to quickly restore the hotline, and the U.S. State Department said the shutdown was unconstructive.

North Korea’s latest threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang. North Korea’s moves at home to order troops into “combat readiness” also are seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father’s death in December 2011, strengthens his military credentials.

The Kaesong complex is the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. Other rapprochement projects created during a previous era of detente stopped as tension rose in recent years.

At the border Thursday, a trio of uniformed South Korean soldiers stood at one side of a gate as white trucks rumbled through, carrying large pipes and containers to Kaesong. At Dorasan station, a South Korean border checkpoint, a green signboard hung above the trucks with the words “Kaesong” and “Pyongyang” written in English and Korean.

The stalled hotline, which consists of two telephone lines, two fax lines and two lines that can be used for both telephone and fax, was virtually the last remaining direct link between the rival Koreas.

North Korea in recent weeks cut other phone and fax hotlines with South Korea’s Red Cross and with the American-led U.N. Command at the border. Three other telephone hotlines used only to exchange information about air traffic were still operating normally Thursday, according to South Korea’s Air Traffic Center.

In 2010, ties between the rivals reached one of their lowest points in decades after North Korea’s artillery bombardment of a South Korean island and a South Korean warship sinking blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. A total of 50 South Koreans died.

There is still danger of a confrontation or clash. Kim Jong Un may be more willing to take risks than his father, the late Kim Jong Il, said Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at Korea University in South Korea.

Although North Korea has vowed nuclear strikes on the U.S., analysts outside the country have seen no proof that North Korean scientists have yet mastered the technology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

President Park so far has outlined a policy that looks to re-engage North Korea, stressing the need for greater trust while saying Pyongyang will “pay the price” for any provocation. Last week she approved a shipment of anti-tuberculosis medicine to the North.

Since 2004, the Kaesong factories have operated with South Korean money and know-how, with North Korean factory workers managed by South Koreans.

Inter-Korean trade, which includes a small amount of humanitarian aid sent to the North and components and raw materials sent to Kaesong complex to build finished products, amounted to nearly $2 billion in 2012, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

Associated Press writer Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.

N. Korea says it has cut last military hotline
By Hyung-Jin Kim - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013 14:48:32 EDT
SEOUL, South Korea — Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul on Wednesday, saying there was no need to continue military communications between the countries in a situation “where a war may break out at any moment.”

The hotline — a dedicated telephone link between the two militaries — was used mainly to arrange for South Koreans who work at an industrial complex in the North to cross the heavily armed border. When the connection was last severed in 2009, some workers were stranded in the North.

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N. Korea puts forces at top combat posture (3/26)

Normal direct telephone communications do not exist between the two countries.

The shutdown of the hotline is the latest of many threats and provocative actions from North Korea, which is angry over U.S.-South Korean military drills and recent U.N. sanctions punishing it for its Feb. 12 nuclear test.

GUAM GOVERNOR SAYS NORTH KOREA ATTACK UNLIKELY

HAGATNA, Guam — Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo says people in the U.S. territory should not be distracted by threats from North Korea to launch a nuclear strike.

Calvo said at a news conference Wednesday in Guam that an attack is unlikely, and the region is adequately protected.

Calvo also says he spoke Wednesday with Rear Adm. Tilghman Payne, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Marianas, and is maintaining close communications with Payne and the Pentagon.

Calvo says the Defense Department cannot detail military operations, plans or intelligence. But he says the country is ready to defend Guam and other U.S. territories, as well as its allies. — AP

A senior North Korean military official informed the South that all regular military dialogue and communications channels would remain cut until South Korea halts its “hostile acts” against the North.

North Korea recently also cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korea and another with the U.S.-led U.N. command at the border between the Koreas.

The link severed Wednesday has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South. It was used to arrange for cross-border shipments and for workers going north and returning to South Korea.

There was no immediate word about the impact on South Korean workers who were at the Kaesong industrial complex.

Outside North Korea, Pyongyang’s actions are seen in part as an effort to spur dormant diplomatic talks to wrest outside aid, and to strengthen internal loyalty to young leader Kim Jong Un and build up his military credentials.

North Korea’s action was announced in a message that its chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks sent to his South Korean counterpart.

“Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications,” he said. “North-South military communications will be cut off.”

Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which is in charge of relations with the North, called the move an “unhelpful measure for the safe operation of the Kaesong complex.”

The Unification Ministry said only three telephone hotlines remain between the North and South, and those are used only for exchanging information about air traffic.

South Korean officials said about 750 South Koreans were in Kaesong on Wednesday, and that the two Koreas had normal communications earlier in the day over the hotline when South Korean workers traveled back and forth to the factory park as scheduled.

Workers at Kaesong could also be contacted directly by phone from South Korea on Wednesday.

A South Korean worker for Pyxis, a company that produces jewelry cases at Kaesong, said in a phone interview that he was worried about a possible delay in production if cross-border travel is banned again.

“That would make it hard for us to bring in materials and ship out new products,” said the worker, who wouldn’t provide his name because of company rules.

The worker, who has been in Kaesong since Monday, said he wasn’t scared.

“It’s all right. I’ve worked and lived with tension here for eight years now. I’m used to it,” he said.

Kaesong is operated in North Korea with South Korean money and know-how and a mostly North Korean work force. It provides badly needed hard currency in North Korea, where many face food shortages.

Other examples of joint inter-Korean cooperation have come and gone. The recently ended five-year tenure of hard-line South Korean President Lee Myung-bak saw North-South relations plunge. Lee ended an essentially no-strings-attached aid policy to the North.

North Korea last cut the Kaesong line in 2009, in a protest of that year’s South Korean-U.S. military drills. North Korea refused several times to let South Korean workers commute to and from their jobs, leaving hundreds stranded in North Korea. The country restored the hotline and reopened the border crossing more than a week later, after the drills were over.

North Korea’s actions have been accompanied by threatening rhetoric, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and a repeat of its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a “sea of fire.” Outside weapons analysts, however, have seen no proof that the country has mastered the technology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

In a sign of heightened anxiety, Seoul briefly bolstered its anti-infiltration defense posture after a South Korean border guard hurled a hand grenade and opened fire at a moving object several hours before sunrise Wednesday. South Korean troops later searched the area but found no signs of infiltration, and officials believe the guard may have seen a wild animal, according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry.

Associated Press writers Sam Kim and Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.
 

s002wjh

Junior Member
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

North put rocket on standby. i wonder if north push to far, will there be a pre-emptive strike before north put all their artillery/troop/rocket ready. this is getting tense

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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

Just a lot of swagger and posturing by both sides. Just my opinion.. this has been on going for years.

The North Korean government can not allow stability. It's counter to there Very existence. They need to play these Games as The moment Tensions Drop and Stability sets in the Kim Jong Clan is a goner.

applause.gif
100% correct in my opinion..
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Korea 2013 War, Game or political game changer

North put rocket on standby. i wonder if north push to far, will there be a pre-emptive strike before north put all their artillery/troop/rocket ready. this is getting tense

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That all depends on the joker in the deck young Kim Jong Eu.If the supreme leader is wise if will only let things go through a war of words, if if however is a true little nutcase then they may get the first hit but the last round fired will be into him.
 
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