GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The “Great Successor”, Kim Jong-un, has officially been named the successor to his father, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 69, who died Monday 19 December of a heart attack while traveling, according to media reports coming out of the country. The son, who is reportedly in his late 20s, surfaced as part of N Korea’s political picture in 2010, when he was appointed to several senior posts, including military ones.
He spent some of his time in early adolescence at a state school in Bern.
South Korea has put its military forces on high alert; the two countries have officially been at war for more than 60 years and N Korea in recent months has been the target of much criticism from the West for its nuclear programme.
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No immediate reaction from North Korea
South Korea’s military exercises on Yeonpyeong Island on the disputed maritime border with North Korea, which included the firing of live munitions, have ended. Residents on the island were ordered into bomb shelters and South Korea launched fighter jets which patrolled South Korean airspace in the event of an attack by North Korea. The exercises lasted 1 and 1/2 hours.
There was no immediate reaction from North Korea 20 December, which had warned that the drills would provoke a response similar to the one that resulted in 170 shells being fired at Yeonpyeong Island which killed 4 South Koreans last month. The North had warned of “catastrophic” consequences and said that the exercises could unleash a war on the Korean peninsula.
Former US ambassador to the UN and outgoing New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in Pyongyang at the invitation of the government and has helped to defuse tensions, according to CNN.
Links to other sites: ABC News, VOA
Source: Al-Jazeera
US President Barack Obama has ordered an aircraft carrier task force to hold joint exercises with South Korea’s naval forces, after North Korea pounded an inhabited South Korean island near the peninsula’s disputed western maritime border 23 November. Four people are confirmed dead in the artillery attack, two civilians and two military personnel.
South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak has come under strong domestic criticism for his measured response to the attack. He promised “stern retaliation” if North Korea continues its provocations. Major international leaders have called for calm in what is deemed the most serious incident between the two countries since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Obama says he is outraged by the attack, coming as it did after last week’s revelations of a significant increase in the North’s nuclear production capabilities.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal
Japan has apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule of more than four decades – 1910 to 1945 – over the country.
During the occupation, many South Koreans were forced into slave-labor, or were made to fight as front-line soldiers for the Japanese military.
Many women were also made to work as prostitutes in brothels operated by the Japanese military.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, “For the enormous damage and suffering caused by this colonization, I would like to express once again our deep remorse and sincerely apologize.” Japan will also handover many Korean artifacts taken during the occupation.
Seoul accepted the apology.
China is cautiously watching as North Korea (DPRK) a longtime friend, lashes out at the United Nations over its review of the sinking of a South Korean military boat, the Cheonan. Forty-six people died in the 26 March incident. Xinhua, the official news agency, carries several related stories Wednesday 16 June, after North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Sin Son-ho, held a rare news conference where he appeared to threaten military action if the UN condemns the North for the incident. The Security Council is reviewing reports on the sinking, which North Korea “has rejected as a ‘complete fabrication’” reports Xinhua, which carefully avoids condemning either Korea, as it notes that “the DPRK is vowing to respond with military measures if the UN Security Council releases any official document blaming them for the Cheonan incident.”
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that North Korean football fans watching delayed TV footage of the World Cup games were cheering for South Korea.
Links to other sites: ABC, Australia, NY Times, RiaNovosti, Russia, Xinhua
Five days of meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Hu Jintao Chinese president in Beijing have resulted in an agreement to strengthen their commercial ties and work more closely to foster security in the region, the Chinese government announced Friday 7 May. Official Chinese statements have the North’s leader reconfirming his commitment to denuclearization, but South Korean media were unhappy that official remarks made no mention of discussions over a boat that the South suspects the North of sinking.
Rescuers are fighting unusually cold waters and rough seas in their search for 46 sailors who are missing after the South Korean patrol ship Cheonan sank Friday at 21:45. Military officials were quoted in Korean media as saying that an explosion of unknown origin made a hole in the bottom of the ship, which was carrying 104 persons, of whom 58 were rescued. The South Korean government has virtually ruled out foul play by North Korea.
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three cities have officially put in their applications to bid for the 2018 Summer Olympic Games, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced. The cities are: Munich, Germany, Annecy, France near Geneva and PyeongChang, South Korea. The cities have until January 2011 to file their applications.
The winner of the 2018 Games will be announced in Durban, South Africa 6 July 2011.
China’s cold snap with high winds and heavy snows is set to continue, with the weather service giving a high-level orange alert for the third straight day. Temperatures are expected to plunge by as much as 18C, for a range of -20 to -32C in northern China and -10 to -18C in the south. The cold weather and largest snowfall in 60 years are closing airports and snarling traffic, with 15 highways including some around Beijing closed by heavy snow over the weekend. Thirty Beijing-Hong Kong flights were cancelled or suffered major delays due to Beijing’s snow and 1,200 flights were canceled or delayed Sunday alone in Beijing. The capital assigned 7,000 police officers to help direct traffic Monday morning and 5,000 volunteers to ensure that bus stops work smoothly.
South Korea was also badly affected by snow and cold, with the largest snowfall in 70 years.
Warships from South and North Korea have reportedly fired at each other, media from both countries are reporting. The cause of the incident, which the BBC says is the third exchange of fire in a decade, differs according to the two sides. South Korea claims the North’s ship crossed a disputed water boundary, while the North reports that one of its patrol boats that was checking on an unidentified object in its own waters was chased by a warship from the South. Tensions between the two have increased in recent months, largely over North Korea’s nuclear programme and missile tests.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg, Sindh Today
North and South Korea navy ships have exchanged fire along the countries’ disputed Western maritime border. The Northern vessel was reportedly hit by gunfire, and one North Korean was killed, and three injured, after it crossed a demaracation line Tuesday, 10 November, say several reports in Seoul, South Korea. CNN, Los Angeles Times.
Colombia may make a complaint to the United Nations and the Organization of American States, following Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ call Sunday, 8 November for his country to prepare for war, and prepare the people for war. Chavez has been irritated by Colombia’s newly signed bases agreement with the USA, which will allow a US military presence in Colombia. Chavez says that this is a preparation for an invasion of Venezuela. CNN, Reuters India.
China says it has executed nine people involved in the deadly rioting in Urumqi, in China’s Xinjiang province last July. The US urged China to ensure that detentions and judicial processes be handled “in a transparent manner”, according to US State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly. AFP, New York Times
Asian stocks rose Monday 26 October on news that Toyota had made an “unexpected profit” and South Korea posted the best growth figures for its economy in seven years, reports Bloomberg. The global economic picture remains mixed, with the UK Monday posting figures for July-September 2009 that show the recession on a par with that of 1979-81, says the FT. In the US, the Federal Reserve closed three more banks, bringing the number of closures to 100 for the year, the highest figure since 1992.
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North and South Korea will hold talks this week on preventing flooding along their common border and on family reunions, despite signs that North Korea will test more missiles. The news comes a day after the North fired five short-range KN-02 surface-to-surface test missiles 12 October. The government in Seoul condemned the launches, saying they violated several UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korea agreed last week to resume six-party talks to resolve the question of the North’s illegal nuclear programme if Washington DC agrees to bilateral talks first.
The need for talks between the two Koreas became more urgent after North Korea opened a dam 6 September and released millions of tonnes of water which swept away six people south of the border. BBC, Romandie News
North Korea says it is in the “final stages of uranium enrichment” and that extracted plutonium from spent fuel rods is “being weaponized”. Both technologies are steps in making a bomb. Experts outside the country believe Pyongyang may have enough plutonium to make about eight bombs.
In a letter to the UN Security Council the North says it is ready for dialogue, but that “if some permanent members of the UN Security Council wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue.” International sanctions have been tightened on the North, and North Korean ships have been trailed at sea and challenged. Recent overtures by the Pyongyang government have largely been ignored: two US journalists were released and a North Korean delegation was sent to the lying-in-state of deceased South Korean former President Kim Dae-jung. The US is trying to get North Korea to return to stalled six-party talks with South Korea, Russia, China and Japan to discuss its nuclear programme. BBC, CNN, Reuters
Two senior North Korean diplomats at the United Nations in New York were on their way 18 August to the US state of New Mexico for a two-day visit with Governor Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN in New York. Richardson is well known to the North Korean government and visited the country several times, most recently in 2007 when he obtained the return of the remains of US military personnel killed during the 1950s Korean war. The visit to New Mexico stokes speculation that North Korea is positioning itself to restart diplomatic talks about its illicit nuclear programme in the Six-party talks.
North Korea has also expressed a desire to send a delegation to the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, who died 18 August. Kim was instrumental in improving relations between the two countries earlier this decade and made an historic visit to the country in 2000. BBC, CNN,
North Korea has once again opened some areas to South Korean tourists, agreed to help reunite families and to provide access again to an industrial park, in the continuing dance between rapprochement and keeping a distance. South Korea remained wary, saying the agreements were on a civil and not at a government level. The news came on Monday, just a day before the death in Seoul of Kim Dae-jung, 85, former president of the South who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to create better ties between the two countries. JoongAng Daily, Reuters
International media are picking up speculation by South Korean television, based on what it says sources have told it, that the North’s leader, Kim-Jong Il, has pancreatic cancer that is putting his life in danger. The information is unconfirmed but is causing concern because of the instability that could be provoked in the North if he dies without a successor clearly in place. Swiss-educated younger son Kim Jong-un is rumoured to be in line to succeed him, but North Korea has not made an announcement to this effect, notes the Guardian, UK.
North Korea is coming under suspicion as the culprit in a series of major cyber attacks that began 4 July on South Korean banks and government web sites, as well as US sites, but some analysts question this and point instead to industrial spying or prankster hackers, Reuters reports, noting that “the attacks saturated target websites with access requests generated by malicious software planted on personal computers. This has overwhelmed some targeted sites and slowed server response to legitimate traffic.” AP, Time magazine
A woman accused of murdering three of her new-born infants and keeping two of them in her freezer went on trial in central France 9 June. Veronique Courjault was living in Seoul, Korea with her engineer husband when he discovered the bodies in the freezer in 2006 and alerted the police. His wife was vacationing in France at the time. She at first denied any knowledge of the situation, but after positive DNA tests proved that the babies were the couple’s, she confessed. Her husband has not been implicated. Courjault later confessed to killing another of her new-born children in France in 1999. The couple have two young sons. BBC, Tribune de Genève (Fre)
North Korea has declared the end to its truce with South Korea, but the UN Command says the armistice is still in place, reports, the BBC, as the international community continues to press the North to stop testing nuclear missiles. US and South Korean troops have been put on a high level of alert in the wake of the North’s announcement and are reportedly increasing surveillance operations. The truce ended the Korean War in the 1950s. The United Nations Security Council is debating a response to North Korea’s nuclear activities.
Late Monday the United Nations Security Council agreed to take steps to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear missile test, while US President Barack Obama and his counterparts in Japan and South Korea talked by telephone to ensure a coordinated response to the tests. The BBC reports North Korean leaders as saying, on their state television, “It is clear that nothing has changed in the US hostile policy against DPRK [North Korea]… even under the new US administration,” and that the government criticized recent US moves to relocate its fighter jets. Reuters says North Korea is ready to fire more test missiles. Unusually, North Korea’s allies, China and Russia, both condemned the nuclear tests. Reuters, Xinhua, Moscow Times, Voice of America
North Korea officially says it launched a satellite that is now “circling the earth transmitting revolutionary songs,” reports Reuters, but it has few believers, with the US, South Korea and Japan – over which the long-range rocket was launched – expressing outrage at the North’s behaviour, saying the launch appears to have been a ballistic missile test. The United Nations Security Council is meeting Sunday afternoon to discuss the launch but China and Russia, who have in the past supported North Korea, are calling for calm and restraint. The BBC refers to the activity as a failed launch, with the satellite not going into orbit and the US claiming payloads fell into the Pacific.
North Korean military are preparing a long-range missile test launch that violates existing United Nations sanctions Wednesday 24 March. These activities have heightened political tension with neighbouring countries and the US. North Korea’s last test rocket blew apart seconds after takeoff July 2006. Reuters, International Herald Tribune
US-led UN Command in South Korea and North Korean generals have held military talks in a border village, at the request of the latter, to reduce tensions, after N Korea “warned US troops to stop ‘provocation’,” reports the BBC. The talks are the first in six years.
China and Korea announced that their overall growth figures for the year 2008 are down sharply, in the case of China to the slowest rate of growth since 2001: 9% overall for the year, but only 6.8% for the last three months of the year. The country’s 2008 GDP (gross domestic product) was $4,421 billion. Xinhua The BBC reports that growth in South Korea shrank by 3.4% compared to a year earlier and that Japanese exports were down 35% in December 2008.
