Fatty Spoonbanger sabre rattling again - fires missile into Sea of Japan

Malaysia to release, deport N. Korean in nerve agent probe

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 02, 2017 — A North Korean man will be released from custody because of lack of evidence connecting him to the fatal nerve agent attack on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler, Malaysian officials said Thursday. In a major fallout from the assassination, Malaysia also announced it was scrapping visa-free travel for North Koreans.

Officials never said why they arrested Ri Jong Chol four days after Kim was attacked at Kuala Lumpur's bustling airport. On Thursday, Malaysian Attorney General Mohamad Apandi Ali said Ri will be released and deported because he does not have valid travel documents.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5005580-malaysia-to-release-deport-n-korean-nerve-agent-pr.html#.1258-stage-hero1-5

I don't expect Choi will have a long life ahead in North Korea - IMO, he will be executed for getting caught.

Malaysia files warrant for N. Korean worker

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 03, 2017 — Malaysian police say an arrest warrant has been issued for a North Korean airline employee accused in the fatal poisoning of the half brother of North Korea's leader.

National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said Friday that the warrant was issued for 37-year-old Kim Uk Il, who works for Air Koryo, North Korea's national carrier. Police say he arrived in Malaysia Jan. 29, about two weeks before Kim Jong Nam was attacked with the nerve agent VX in a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal.

Malaysian authorities have not said why they want to question Kim Uk Il. Earlier Friday they released another North Korean, citing of a lack of evidence. Police have said they believe Kim Uk Il is still in Malaysia.

I suspect that any North Koreans involved in this will have been disappeared by the regime, LL. Dictators don't normally leave witnesses.

Deported Korean says Malaysia threatened to harm his family

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 04, 2017— A North Korean chemist deported from Malaysia accused police of threatening to kill his family unless he confessed to the assassination of the half-brother of North Korea's leader, calling it a plot to tarnish his country's honor.

Ri Jong Chol spoke to reporters in Beijing early Saturday while on his way to Pyongyang. Malaysian authorities have said there's insufficient evidence to charge Ri over Kim Jong Nam's killing at Kuala Lumpur's airport on Feb. 13.

Ri was detained four days after the attack but police never said what they believed his role was. Two women — one Indonesian, one Vietnamese — have been charged with murder after police said they smeared Kim's face with VX, a banned nerve agent considered a weapon of mass destruction.

Ri said he wasn't at the airport the day Kim was killed but that police accused him of being a mastermind and presented him with "fake evidence." He said they showed him a picture of his wife and two children, who were staying with him in Kuala Lumpur, and threatened to kill them.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5008470-deported-korean-malaysia-threatened-to-harm-family.html#.1258-stage-hero1-5

Other mysterious deaths of North Korea's perceived enemies

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) March 04, 2017 — An outcast from North Korea's ruling family was killed with a weapon believed to belong to North Korea's chemical arsenal and several North Koreans are wanted for questioning. But with Malaysia deporting the only North Korean it detained in the airport assassination of Kim Jong Nam, many in South Korea see the secretive, dictatorial regime in Pyongyang escaping punishment for another mysterious killing.

The government in Seoul and human rights groups say Pyongyang has for decades acted to silence its perceived enemies, sending assassins after South Korean government officials, North Korean defectors and anti-Pyongyang activists.

And yet North Korea often takes out the targets without leaving evidence that would indisputably prove its involvement, South Koreans say. When suspicions were expressed, North Korea responded with silence or with wounded indignation.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5010198-mysterious-deaths-north-koreas-perceived-enemies.html#.1258-stage-hero1-4

Horrifying, LL - it reminds me of Stalin having exiled rivals like Trotsky bumped off. Not that Trotsky was any great loss to the world, having shed a fair amount of innocent blood himself.

Problem is, I simply don't see what the outside world can do without risking a truly horrifying conflagration. China may be displeased with Fatty right now, but that doesn't mean they will stand idly by if anyone in the West tries a bit of regime-changing.

Also, Fatty has nukes, and I have NO doubt he would try to use them on the South if backed into a corner.

IMO, the solution has to come from inside NK itself, or from China. I can't see any way round that that doesn't risk making matters 100 times worse.

Malaysia expels North Korean ambassador over Kim probe

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 04, 2017 — Malaysia said it expelled North Korea's ambassador on Saturday for refusing to apologize for his strong accusations over Malaysia's handling of the investigation into the killing of the North Korean leader's half brother.

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said a notice was sent to the North Korean Embassy at around 6 p.m. declaring Ambassador Kang Chol persona non grata. The notice said Kang must leave Malaysia within 48 hours.

Earlier in the week, Malaysia demanded that North Korea formally apologize for Kang's accusations over the investigation into the Feb. 13 killing of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur's airport, including that "the Malaysian government had something to hide and that Malaysia has colluded with outside powers to defame" North Korea, Anifah said in a statement.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5010666-malaysia-expels-north-korean-ambassador-kim-probe.html#.1258-stage-hero1-4

UN report shows North Korea using Africa to slip sanctions

JOHANNESBURG (AP) March 04, 2017 — North Korean weapons barred by U.N. sanctions ended up in the hands of U.N. peacekeepers in Africa, a confidential report says. That incident and others in more than a half-dozen African nations show how North Korea, despite facing its toughest sanctions in decades, continues to avoid them on the world's most impoverished continent with few repercussions.

The annual report by a U.N. panel of experts on North Korea, obtained by The Associated Press, illustrates how Pyongyang evades sanctions imposed for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to cooperate "on a large scale," including military training and construction, in countries from Angola to Uganda.

Among the findings was the "largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions" against North Korea, with 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades found hidden under iron ore that was destined for Egypt in a cargo vessel heading toward the Suez Canal. The intended destination of the North Korean-made grenades, seized in August, was not clear.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5010658-un-report-north-korea-using-africa-to-slip-sanctio.html#.1258-stage-hero1-10

I wish I could say I am surprised, LL. I don't like sanctions, the people at the top always get round them while those at the bottom suffer.

North Korea fires four ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan.

North Korea fired four ballistic missiles in the early hours of Monday morning, in what Japan's leader described as "an extremely dangerous action."
Military authorities in South Korea, Japan and the United States all confirmed the launch of four projectiles, which traveled almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. One US official said they were intermediate range missiles.

Three landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, which extends 200 nautical miles from its coastline according to international maritime law.

Speaking to the Japanese Parliament Monday, Abe said the launch was a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/05/asia/north-korea-projectile/

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5012844-seoul-north-korea-fires-4-ballistic-missiles-ocean.html#.1258-stage-hero1-5

Not good at all, LL.

bb1 wrote:Not good at all, LL.

Let us hope that this is just a 'show moment' - the Chinese are holding the National People’s Congress (NPC), the USA is occupied with other matters .... Fatty hates it when people ignore him .... LL

North Korea orders Malaysian ambassador out

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 06, 2017 — North Korea has ordered Malaysia's ambassador out of the country in a tit-for-tat after Malaysia expelled North Korea's envoy over the death of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur's airport.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that the Malaysian ambassador has been labeled persona non grata and ordered to leave within 48 hours. On Saturday, Malaysia ordered North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol to depart within 48 hours after he criticized Malaysia's handling of the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kang told reporters Monday as he prepared to leave at Kuala Lumpur's airport that Malaysia was taking "extreme measures" that would do "great harm" to bilateral relations. Malaysia had already announced on Feb. 20 that it was recalling its ambassador to North Korea "for consultations."

North Korea, Malaysia ban each other's citizens from leaving

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 07, 2017 — North Korea on Tuesday banned Malaysians from leaving the country, a move that dramatically escalated the bitter diplomatic battle over the death of the North Korean leader's half brother. Malaysia likened the ban to a hostage-taking and responded in kind, closing its borders to North Koreans who want to leave.

The tit-for-tat directives come as relations between the two countries disintegrate over the poisoning of Kim Jong Nam in a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. A Malaysian autopsy determined that VX nerve agent, a banned chemical weapon, killed him.

Although there is growing speculation that North Korea orchestrated the attack, Malaysia has never directly accused Pyongyang. Still, North Korea has slammed the investigation as flawed and biased. On Tuesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said that Pyongyang was banning Malaysians from leaving the country "until the safety of the diplomats and citizens of (North Korea) in Malaysia is fully guaranteed through the fair settlement of the case that occurred in Malaysia."

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5015338-north-korea-malaysia-ban-others-citizens-leaving.html#.1258-stage-hero1-4
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Malaysia PM: N. Korea holding citizens 'hostage'

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 07, 2017 — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has strongly condemned North Korea's move to bar Malaysians from leaving the country, saying it is "effectively holding our citizens hostage."

Najib said in a statement issued Tuesday that he has instructed police to prevent all North Korean citizens from leaving Malaysia "until we are assured of the safety and security of all Malaysians in North Korea." Earlier, Malaysian officials had said Malaysia's travel ban was limited to North Korean Embassy officials and staff.

Pyongyang issued its ban earlier Tuesday. Malaysia has said it affects 11 of its citizens currently in North Korea. There are believed to be some 1,000 North Koreans working in Malaysia. Relations between the countries have been disintegrating since Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korea's leader, was attacked with a nerve agent at a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal Feb. 13.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5013582-latest-malaysia-pm-n-korea-holding-citizens-hostag.html#.1258-stage-hero1-8

Oh great, they're holding each other's citizens hostage.

Malaysian police formally ID Kim Jong Nam in airport attack

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) March 10, 2017 — Malaysian police on Friday formally identified Kim Jong Nam as the victim of a fatal nerve agent attack at Kuala Lumpur's airport, an expected but significant development in a case that has broken down the once-warm ties between North Korea and Malaysia.

Kim is the long-estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler, and the North has refused to acknowledge he was the victim of the Feb. 13 murder. Instead, North Korea refers to him as Kim Chol, the name on the passport Kim was carrying when he was attacked in a crowded airport terminal.

"We have established that Kim Chol is Kim Jong Nam," Malaysian national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. "We have fulfilled the requirements of the laws on his identification." He refused to say how police identified Kim, saying "the safety and security of the witnesses" were at stake.

Malaysian authorities have asked for Kim's immediate family to provide DNA samples to identify the body, but nobody has come forward. Malaysia's prime minister has said they may be too scared. Khalid said Kim's relatives have been notified but have not claimed the body.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5025748-malaysian-police-formally-kim-jong-nam-airport-att.html#.1258-stage-hero1-10

Malaysia says Kim Jong Nam's body has been embalmed

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Tuesday that the body of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month, has been embalmed to better preserve it, and that about 50 North Koreans whose work permits have expired will be deported.

News of the deportations was a surprise as the countries have barred each other's citizen from leaving amid a diplomatic standoff over Kim's death. Malaysian authorities say the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was killed Feb. 13 after two women smeared his face with the banned VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur's airport. North Korea — widely suspected of being behind the attack — rejects the findings.

Zahid said Kim's body was taken out of the hospital morgue at a Kuala Lumpur hospital for the embalmment procedure and has been returned. He declined to say when it was done. "As it is kept in the mortuary, the body might decompose, so we did this to preserve the body," he told reporters in Parliament.

Health officials have said Kim's relatives will be given two to three weeks to claim his body before deciding what to do with it. North Korea has demanded the body back and objected when Malaysia conducted an autopsy. Pyongyang also has refused to acknowledge that Kim Jong Nam was the victim and has referred to him as Kim Chol, the name on the passport Kim was carrying when he was attacked in a crowded airport terminal.

https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5034170-malaysia-kim-jong-nams-body-embalmed.html#.1258-stage-hero1-11

Malaysia says it has family consent to decide on Kim's body.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A senior Malaysian police official said Thursday that the family of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month, has given consent to Malaysia to decide what to do with his body.

Officials say police confirmed Kim's identity using the DNA of one of his children. Kim was holding a diplomatic passport by the name of Kim Chol when he was attacked Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur's airport by two women who smeared the banned VX nerve agent on his face. He died within 20 minutes.

Deputy national police Chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim said Kim's family will let the government decide what to do with his body. "I was made to understand that they are leaving it to our government to deal with it (body)... yes, they have given their consent," Noor Rashid said.

He said any decision will be subject to negotiations between the two countries amid a diplomatic standoff over the killing. Kim was the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, and relations between Malaysia and North Korea have deteriorated sharply since Kim's death, with each expelling the other's ambassador.

North Korea has blocked all Malaysians from leaving the country until a "fair settlement" of the case is reached. Malaysia then barred North Koreans from exiting its soil. The two countries have also scrapped visa-free travel for each other's citizens.

Noor Rashid declined to comment whether the two women had been given different components that would form a binary version of VX, but described it as a "professional job." National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar separately told reporters that four North Korean suspects who are believed to have fled Malaysia on the same day of killing has been put on Interpol's red notice list, which is a request to locate and hold a person pending extradition.

Khalid did not confirm Noor Rashid's comments. Four of the seven North Korean suspects being sought by Malaysia are believed to have left the country on the day Kim was killed. Police say the other three, including a North Korean diplomat and an employee of Air Koryo, North Korea's state airline, are believed to be in the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

There are nine Malaysians in North Korea — three embassy staff members and their family members. About 315 North Koreans are in Malaysia. Although Malaysia has never directly accused North Korea of being behind the attack, many speculate that it must have orchestrated it.

Experts say the VX nerve agent used to kill Kim was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated state weapons laboratory, and North Korea is widely believed to possess large quantities of chemical weapons.

Thank you LL.

Yes, thank you, LL.

I find myself staring at this thread, and the Turkey one, in terror at what is going to happen next.

I understand what you mean, Bonny.  I just say as little as possible because it is scary.

North Korea tests newly developed high-thrust rocket engine

TOKYO (AP) March 19, 2017 — North Korea has conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un is calling a revolutionary breakthrough for the country's space program. Kim attended the test at the Sohae launch site, according to a report Sunday by the Korean Central News Agency, which said the test was intended to confirm the "new type" engine's thrust power and gauge the reliability of its control system and structural safety.

The KCNA report said Kim called the test "a great event of historic significance" for the country's indigenous rocket industry. He also said the "whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries" and claimed the test marks what will be known as the "March 18 revolution" in the development of the country's rocket industry.

The report indicated the engine is to be used for North Korea's space and satellite-launching program. North Korea is banned by the United Nations from conducting long-range missile tests, but it claims its satellite program is for peaceful use, a claim many in the U.S. and elsewhere believe is questionable.

North Korean officials have said that under a five-year plan they intend to launch more Earth observation satellites and what would be the country's first geostationary communications satellite — which would be a major technological advance.

Getting that kind of satellite into place would likely require a more powerful engine than its previous ones. The North also claims it is trying to build a viable space program that would include a moon launch within the next 10 years.

The test was conducted as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in China on a swing through Asia that has been closely focused on concerns over how to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

It's hard to know whether this test was deliberately timed to coincide with Tillerson's visit, but Pyongyang has been highly critical of ongoing U.S.-South Korea wargames just south of the Demilitarized Zone and often conducts some sort of high-profile operation of its own in protest.

Earlier this month, it fired off four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, reportedly reaching within 200 kilometers (120 miles) of Japan's shoreline. Japan, which was Tillerson's first stop before traveling to South Korea and China, hosts tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

While building ever better long-range missiles and smaller nuclear warheads to pair with them, North Korea has marked a number of successes in its space program. It launched its latest satellite — the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Brilliant Star 4 — into orbit on Feb. 7 last year, just one month after conducting what it claims was its first hydrogen-bomb test.

It put its first satellite in orbit in 2012, a feat few other countries have achieved. Rival South Korea, for example, has yet to do so.

N. Korean suspect in Jong-nam's murder is son of ex-envoy to Vietnam.

JAKARTA/ HANOI: A North Korean suspect in the killing of Kim Jong-nam is reportedly the son of a former top North Korean envoy to Vietnam, and he allegedly lured a Vietnamese female suspect to join the plot to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader.

Ri Ji Hyon, 33, is the son of former North Korean ambassador to Hanoi, Ri Hong, and had lived in Vietnam for about 10 years, Yonhap news agency quoted sources as saying on Wednesday.

Ji Hyon worked as a trainee diplomat at the North Korean embassy for more than one year and he also worked as an interpreter, according to the sources.

Using his fluent Vietnamese, he lured Doan Thi Huong into the plot to kill Jong-nam while the latter was waiting to board a flight to Macau at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) on Feb 13, according to Yonhap.

The Vietnamese woman and Indonesian Siti Aisyah allegedly smeared banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent on Jong-nam's face. They have been charged with murder but they claim they were told that the act was a prank on a reality show.

Ji Hyon is among four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day Jong-nam was murdered and they are believed to have returned to Pyongyang. Interpol has issued a red notice to track down and arrest them.

Malaysian police have also sought the North Korean embassy’s assistance to interview two other North Koreans, one of whom is an airline employee and the other a senior diplomat based in Kuala Lumpur.

But Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar conceded last month that while police could issue an arrest warrant for Air Koryo employee Kim Uk-il, they could not do the same for Second Secretary Hyon Kwang-song, who has diplomatic immunity.

Jong-nam is believed to have been assassinated on the orders of his estranged half-brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea missile launch fails.

A North Korean missile launch has failed, South Korean defence officials say, but it is unclear how many were fired or what exactly was being tested.

The US military said it detected a missile which appeared to explode within seconds of being launched.

North Korea is banned from any missile or nuclear tests by the United Nations.

However, it has conducted such tests with increasing frequency and experts say this could lead to advances in its missile technology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39300275