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NEWS FLASH

Experts Say North Korea Parade Missiles Were Fake | Known to construct seemingly prosperous Potemkin villages for show on its southern border, North Korea also apparently mocks up missiles for military parades. That’s what two German missile experts conclude in a paper posted online by the blog Ams Control Wonk. Mounted atop mobile carriers with alleged Chinese roots, six large missiles — large enough to be intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) — on display in Pyongyang carried six different model warheads. “(T)he observed variety of warhead designs only makes sense if the missile program is more show than real threat,” wrote Markus Schiller and Robert H. Schmucker. “For now, the ICBM presentation was nothing else than a nice dog and pony show.”

Security

Panetta On North Korea Missile Program: ‘I’m Sure There’s Been Some Help Coming From China’

By Ali Gharib on Apr 19, 2012 at 5:08 pm

Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee today, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta suggested that, while specific intelligence is incomplete, there might be something to rumors and accusations that China provided equipment for North Korea’s ballistic missile program in violation of U.N. sanctions. Media reports about the possibly Chinese-designed and -made mobile missile carrier come in the same week as a provocative — and ultimately failed — attempt by North Korea to launch a large rocket that portends development of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Washington Times first raised the latest issue on Monday based on photographs from a parade in Pyongyang that appeared to show a mobile missile carrier that closely matched a Chinese design. On Tuesday, Foreign Policy reported that Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asking for more information about the allegations.

Today, Panetta was asked about the equipment by Turner and dodged on specifics. He did note, though, that “there is growing concern about, you know, the mobile capabilities that were on display in the parade recently in North Korea.” While he said the U.S. needed to get better intelligence, he added:

I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China. I don’t know, you know, the exact extent of that. I think we’d have to deal with it in another context in terms of the sensitivity of that information. But clearly there’s been assistance along those lines.

Watch the video:

If the allegations are true, they would constitute a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 which prohibits arms sales to North Korea. Asked about the report, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said, “China is always against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

The Nelson Report, a widely-read and well-sourced daily newsletter about Asian affairs by foreign affairs analyst Chris Nelson, reported that a source confirmed the truck was of Chinese origin:

Tonight, sources we absolutely rely on have come forward with information the carrier is new and cannot have appeared in [North Korea] without the explicit permission of [China]. As our source comments, with understatement: “The political implications of the appearance of Chinese missile transporters at the 15 April parade in Pyongyang are huge. ”

And the source’s source claims Beijing is fully aware of the implications of what it’s done, and that, the source argues, is why China approved stronger language than it’s ever before accepted, in Monday’s UNSC President’s statement.

Nelson comments that China’s embarrassment and quick accession to the Security Council’s unanimous but non-binding Presidential Statement that included a threat to ratchet up sanctions undermines criticisms of the Obama administration and the U.N. that the statement was all bark and no bite.

NEWS FLASH

U.N. Security Council Condemns North Korea Missile Test | The U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea’s rocket launch and urged tightening of existing U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang in a statement issued today. “The Security Council demands that the DPRK (North Korea) not proceed with any further launches using ballistic missile technology and comply with (Security Council) resolutions … by suspending all activities related to its ballistic missile program,” said a “presidential statement” from the council. China, a veto-wielding Security Council member frequently seen as North Korea’s defender at the U.N., backed the statement. “The Security Council expresses its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further DPRK launch or nuclear test,” warned the 15-nation panel.

NEWS FLASH

North Korea Agrees To Suspend Nuclear Activity | North Korea has agreed in principle to halt uranium enrichment and missile tests, according to U.S. officials. The agreement, reported by the Associated Press, would impose a moratorium on both nuclear and long-range missile tests. The International Atomic Energy Agency would be allowed into the country to verify that North Korea is not enriching uranium, and to ensure that the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon is disabled. In exchange, the United States will donate 240,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea, which faces chronic food shortages. A statement from the State Department says both sides will meet soon to finalize the details of that delivery.

-Zachary Bernstein

By Guest Blogger on Feb 29, 2012 at 9:43 am

NEWS FLASH

North Korea Warns Citizens Using Mobile Phones Will Be Branded ‘War Criminals’ | The Telegraph reports today that the new North Korean regime under Kim Jong-Un — son of the late Kim Jong-Il — issued a warning that any citizen caught trying to defect to China or using a mobile phone during the 100-day mourning of Kim Jong-Il’s death will be branded a “war criminal.” The move has been interpreted as North Korea’s leaders trying to ensure stability of the new regime. The Telegraph adds that those caught trying to flee “usually end up in the North’s network of hard labour camps, human rights groups have reported, while repeat offenders can expect to be executed.” (HT: FP Passport)

NEWS FLASH

Associated Press Opens Bureau In North Korea | In 2006, the Associated Press (AP) cut a deal with North Korea to allow a video bureau to operate in the capitol, Pyongyang. Now, less than a month after the death of leader Kim Jong Il, AP is expanding its presence in the impoverished but nuclear-armed country to include photojournalism and writing. The right-wing dictatorship there holds the monopoly on media, likely enabling some of its sway over the population, which is often described as operating like a personality cult. Recently, some news began to emerge from amateur reporters working with a Japanese outlet, but the AP’s will be the first permanent international presence in the country. “The world knows very little about [North Korea], and this gives us a unique opportunity to bring the world news that it doesn’t now have,” said AP CEO and President Thomas Curley, who was in Pyongyang to open the office. Here’s a photo of Curley speaking to North Korean press in Pyongyang:

NEWS FLASH

North Korea Releases New Kim Jong Un Propaganda Film | Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s new leader, is shown overseeing military drills, touring factories and visiting an amusement park in a new film, “Succeeding the Great Work of the Military First Revolution.” The documentary appeared on North Korea’s state television on Sunday, Kim Jong Un’s birthday, and shows some of the first scenes of the twenty-something leader assuming a leadership role following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, last month. Watch a Reuters excerpt of the documentary:

NEWS FLASH

Reuters Source: North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Will Share Power With Military | Power in North Korea will shift to a coterie of senior leadership including Kim Jong-Un‘s uncle and the military, according to a Reuters source. Kim Jong-Un will head the group. The source, who Reuters describes as having “close ties to Pyongyang,” says a coup is “very unlikely” and “the military has pledged allegiance to Kim Jong-un.” If true, the reclusive country will be governed by a group of people for the first time since its founding in 1948.

Alyssa

Tyrants, Art, And The Power Of Joy

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Dec 20, 2011 at 9:52 am

Portrait of the tyrant as a young director.

As many people have noted, there’s something fitting about the fact that Vaclav Havel, the playwright who became a liberator, and Kim Jong-Il, the tyrant who used his power to force people to produce movies for and with him, died on the same day. Kim Jong-Il’s movie mania may seem like just another hokey obsession and claim to greatness in a life full of them. And while one of the characteristics of repressive governments is that they crack down on free speech and on artists who produce “subversive” works, he’s hardly the only dictator to seek validation through art he produced himself or through relationships with artists.

There’s Hitler’s collaboration with Leni Reifenstahl on Triumph of the Will, of course — he collaborated and starred in the movie, and was an executive producer. Who needs the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and mawkish watercolors when you can participate in the creation of a groundbreaking work of cinema? Stalin, too, dabbled in movies, keeping an eye on the production of Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible movies. He also made socialist realism the official artistic movement of the Soviet State with a declaration entitled “On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations” in 1932. Saddam Hussein wrote cheesy historical romance novels that were meant to be metaphors for his own reign. Ferdinand Marcos hired actress Dovie Beams to play his love interest in a movie about his war exploits, had an affair with her that produced a sex tape scandal (which became an excuse to crack down on his political opposition). Before he ruled Egypt, Hosni Mubarak apparently cameoed in an Egyptian movie, Farewell at Dawn. A critical point in Juan Peron’s rise to power in Argentina was the fundraising efforts he lead in relief of the San Juan earthquake, which happened in collaboration with the country’s creative industry.

Cracking down on artists, and treating their speech as if it functions in the same way as other political speech is a first-level realization for tyrants. If you truly acknowledge and appreciate the particular power art has, of course you want to exploit it to your own ends. And if you’re creating a cult of personality or a cult of the state, it makes sense that you want your people to believe that joy and uplift emanates from the Leader and from the state. This is a reason that dictatorial art is bad, or sentimental: because it’s premised on an idea that isn’t true, that isn’t even really plausible.

Making movies about your own greatness, your historical roots, your role in upholding distinctly Filipino values, doesn’t actually make it so. Providing temporary distractions from the miseries you cause your people doesn’t ameliorate those miseries, or cause them not to matter. Vaclav Havel’s art worked in the opposite direction, becoming a crucible for refining the ideas and principles that informed his dissent, and later his governance. Unsurprisingly, truth makes for more humane politics, and for better art.

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