Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com On the heels of the Party Congress in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un presented a five-year economic plan, North Korea has kicked off tougher “work-harder campaigns.” North Koreans, already struggling with hunger and the stresses of survival in the repressive society, are being mobilized for new construction […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is moving to improve ties with China that have been strained during much of the young leader’s brief tenure, officials and sources here say. The motive is said to be economic urgency in Pyongyang which continue to see its commercial ties […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea has prepared a massive military parade and most likely military provocations in a bid to stabilize the ruling elite and the public, military and government sources here said. The intent is to offset public disruptions and group defections spurred by leader Kim Jong-Un’s reign […]
Special to WorldTribune.com EastAsiaIntel.com Two months after South Korea’s intelligence agency tellingly disclosed the shocking execution of Kim Jong-Un’s defense chief Vice Marshal Hyon Yong-Chol by close-range anti-aircraft gun fire, Pyongyang officially dispelled the last thread of doubts about the seemingly unbelievable story. On July 11, the DPRK’s army Gen. Pak Yong-Sik was officially mentioned […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com North Korea has from the outset been dominated by the monolithic leadership of the “suryong (chieftain).” In the totalitarian environment created in the northern half of the Korean peninsula after World War II, that combines Marxist-Leninist ideology and religious Confucian tradition, the No. 2 man who might become […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea is seeking Chinese capital to improve its poor infrastructure for tourism, on which it is banking as a much-needed source for hard currency. North Korea has been building a special tour zone, jointly with China, on its side of Amrok (Yalu) River that flows […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea’s youthful leader Kim Jong-Un has used expensive fireworks to “show off” to the people the “bright future” he wants them to think his leadership will bring, sources and officials here said. Despite its chronic economic troubles, the North put on a massive fireworks display […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea’s state-run cyber war operations have expanded hacking attempts on South Korean nuclear power plants, city gas networks, subways and railways, according to intelligence officials and defectors. The cyber attacks are made by North Korean hackers operating overseas who rout traffic through other nations to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea’s youthful leader Kim Jong-Un has focused attention on the Air Force while piloting an allegedly indigenous light plan and boosting Air Force personnel. Kim made an inspection tour of a factory manufacturing the country’s own light aircraft on April 1, according to Pyongyang’s official […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com Cash-strapped North Korea has unilaterally granted a raise to its workers employed by South Korean companies at the inter-Korean joint industrial complex. The wages paid its workers is actually a major hard currency revenue stream for the North Korean regime. South Korean firms pay the wages in U.S. […]