North Korea at it again

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

So have they actually quieted down in the past week, or is it just more proof that the media picks which stories are important. We were on the verge of nuclear war until some assholes bombed Boston. Now it's as if NK doesn't exist.

[LoneStar]

Shack

[TheGuardGuy]

"Panama says finds weapons on North Korean ship coming from Cuba"

https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-panama-northkorea-idUSBRE96F0N120130716

Exactry what they pranned.....

[HU&W]

American military Korean War veteran detained in Pyongyang.

(CNN) -- It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for Merrill Newman, a Korean War veteran who had long wanted to go to North Korea. It ended, according to his family, with the detention of Newman, 85, when he was pulled off a plane at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport five minutes before it was to depart. Newman, of Palo Alto, California, has not been seen nor heard from since October 26, the day he and a traveling companion wrapped up a 10-day organized tour of North Korea, his son, Jeff Newman, told CNN.

[Hodor]

First thing, why would you ever want to go to North Korea? It's not some quaint midcentury communist amusement park.

Second thing, that poor guy is probably going through hell on Earth, made even worse by surviving that hellish war only to be captured by them some 60 years later.

[Kilgore Trout]

Hopefully dude did his SERE refresher before going. It would be terrible if he let them know if he fought against them for the Americans in the Korean War...

[Fud]

First thing, why would you ever want to go to North Korea? It's not some quaint midcentury communist amusement park.

Second thing, that poor guy is probably going through hell on Earth, made even worse by surviving that hellish war only to be captured by them some 60 years later.

I read this article yesterday and had the same question. I'm not sure why anyone would want to go there after viewing this...

https://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3

Not sure if this had been posted before, but it's a pretty good short documentary.

[Hodor]

I'm pretty sure they know now.

Yup. I'm pretty sure that the family and the news inadvertently screwed to pooch on that one. It's always the media.

And Vice has a lot of awesome documentaries like that. The DPRK one is probably one of the best.

[Steve Davies]

Yup. I'm pretty sure that the family and the news inadvertently screwed to pooch on that one. It's always the media.

And Vice has a lot of awesome documentaries like that. The DPRK one is probably one of the best.

The day before Newman was to leave North Korea, he and his tour guide met with "one or two Korean authorities," his son said.

During that meeting, Newman's service record was discussed, he said.

"I understand my dad was a bit bothered," Newman said. But neither he nor his traveling companion believed there was an issue.

But, yeah, you're right. Totally the media's fault.

[Hodor]

Oops. My selective article skimming didn't come across that nugget.

pip pip

[Fuzz]

"North Korea claimed Saturday that an elderly U.S. war veteran detained for more than a month has apologized for "hostile acts" against the state during a recent trip and alleged crimes against the country during the Korean War."

https://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/30/north-korea-says-detained-american-committed-hostile-acts-against-country/?intcmp=latestnews

[TreeA10]

A) Beotches be crazy. North Korean beotches be insane crazy.

B) Death by mortar firing squad....now there's something you don't see everyday.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10517906/The-women-behind-the-throne-in-North-Koreas-empire-of-horror.html

[M2]

Fuck yeah!

'Glorious Leader' video game pits N. Korea dictator against U.S. forces

There are multiple video games that promise realistic military tactics, weapons, soldiers and scenarios — the Army even makes one of them.

But rarely are U.S. forces cast as the bad guys. And rarer still do they do battle with a portly North Korean riding a unicorn.

“Glorious Leader,” an upcoming offering for your PC and Android smartphone, allows you to take on U.S. forces as Kim Jong-un in a side-scrolling retro shoot-’em-up that will cause some flashbacks for 30-somethings who spent a few afternoons in front of an old-school Nintendo.

“ ‘Contra’ and ‘Metal Slug’ were the two big influences,” said Jeff Miller, whose Moneyhorse game-production company hopes to release “Glorious Leader,” its first offering, in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Military gamers seeking the appropriate number of rounds for their M4 or realistic flight paths for ordnance should probably steer clear — “Glorious Leader” will lean much, much more on fantasy and satire than on weapons specs, Miller said.

“I’m not trying to stick close to military hardware,” he added. “The Statue of Liberty is a giant robot who attacks you. ... There’s going to be intentionally some stuff that is off with it; we’re trying to think of it as if it’s made by the North Koreans, and they seem to be wrong about quite a few things.”

A YouTube trailer gives a glimpse into the game’s less-technical nature: Kim on a unicorn, using its horn to impale enemy combatants; Kim on a zipline, shooting down paratroopers before they land; Kim pumping rounds of ammunition (represented by glowing white spheres, per 80s-game tradition) into a tank, causing it to explode.

One screen shot from the Moneyhorse press kit shows Kim shooting up CVN 79 — bad news for the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, set to be commissioned sometime around 2020. It’s unclear how he got on board, but another screen shot shows “Dear Leader” riding what appears to be a narwhal through a minefield while holding what appears to be a submachine gun.

Oh, and a multiplayer option allows a second gamer to play as a tall black man with dyed hair wearing a red basketball uniform. For legal reasons, it could be anybody.

“I really wanted to walk a fine line with the satire, but I knew that not everybody would appreciate it,” said Miller, whose work has been written up by several major media and gaming outlets. “But [the feedback has] been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve talked to about five soldiers who said they are actively serving or just finished serving and they said, ‘This game is really great.’ I haven’t gotten anything negative from a soldier yet.”

Gamers can visit www.moneyhorsegames.com or follow the company on Facebook to get updates on availability. Miller said the price hasn’t been determined but will be “affordable,” and that “Glorious Leader” could be the first part of a game trilogy.

[Steve Davies]

Totally going to buy it.

[Prozac]

Fuckin' sweet. Please tell me we get to feed Hans Brix, I mean Blix, to sharks.

[mcbush]

https://time.com/2921071/kim-jong-un-seth-rogen-the-interview-james-franco/


Kim Jong Un Swears ‘Merciless’ Retaliation if New Seth Rogen Film Released

“The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership… is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable...”

[338skybolt]

https://time.com/2921071/kim-jong-un-seth-rogen-the-interview-james-franco/

Kim Jong Un Swears ‘Merciless’ Retaliation if New Seth Rogen Film Released

“The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership… is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable...”

If the Donger went to war over this, then at least the Obama admin. could accurately claim it was a video that pissed them off.

[herkbum]

If the Donger went to war over this, then at least the Obama admin. could accurately claim it was a video that pissed them off.

Well played

Herkbum

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

[HU&W]

Air Force C-40 lands in Pyongyang to pick up prisoner.

Link

[jcj]

To a casual modestly interested civilian observer it seems like the DPRK has been acting less crazy than usual lately. Is it maybe an actual trend towards a thawing of relations or just another oscillation in the "winter's coming & we need oil & food" cycle?

[BFM this]

To a casual modestly interested civilian observer it seems like the DPRK has been acting less crazy than usual lately. Is it maybe an actual trend towards a thawing of relations or just another oscillation in the "winter's coming & we need oil & food" cycle?

1) Behave and/or make conciliatory gestures

2) Negotiate aid, which will go directly to the military

3) Nearing the end of the aid package, rattle sabre / lob rockets over Japan into the pacific / underground nuke test

4) Get additional aid with the condition that you'll stop acting like a meth addict

5) Lather, rinse, repeat

Been repeating the same Nick At Nite episode since the Soviets left.

[deaddebate]

https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/n-korea-experts-us-must-apologize-to-free-detainees-1.309807

"In order to return the prisoners to their country, the United States must make an official apology and request their release," said Sok Chol Won, a professor of international law at Pyongyang's Academy of Social Sciences.

Seems to be the going rate.

[deaddebate]

https://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5525

Dave Martin, CBS: Kim Jong Un has seems to have toned down his rhetoric, since the early months of coming to power. Has there been any substantive change in North Korean behavior over that time? And what is your assessment of his disappearance?

General Curtis Scaparrotti, USFK/CC: Well, you know, his rhetoric has toned down some if you go back to, say, December '12, '13 and the time period where we had the third nuclear test, et cetera, and coming into this last year when I took command. And they have probably reached out more. They sent a representative to the U.N. to speak. They've reached out to other countries. I think that has probably been a bit of a change. But I would tell you, David, right underneath that at the very same time, they've continued apace their development of missile systems, their nuclear systems, other asymmetric means, working very hard at that. And then secondly, they've picked up what I would term provocative actions in the northwest islands region and also along the DMZ. In the year here that I've been in command, we've had 10 missile events, which are violations of UNSCR. They've been more aggressive along the DMZ and northwest islands region. We've had several brushups there with -- with rounds exchanged.

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/kerry-says-no-apology-to-n-korea-to-free-americans-1.310113

[...]North Korean legal experts have some unusual advice to offer: that Washington formally apologize to Pyongyang, and the country's autocratic leader will consider pardoning the other two.

"We have made it clear that no apology or other statement is in the offing," Kerry told a news conference after talks between the top diplomats and defense officials of the U.S. and South Korea. "Our hope is they will recognize the goodwill that could be built and the gesture it would offer to the world of their willingness to try to open up a different diplomatic track," he said.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dry-spell-korea-farms-good-harvest-26417991

The nation, which suffered a near cataclysmic famine in the 1990s, has since managed to increase its agricultural production to what international organizations believe is closer to the self-sufficiency level than the country has seen in years.

[Warrior]

Either we are slipping or I missed this being posted in another thread.

https://deadline.com/2014/12/sony-hack-timeline-any-pascal-the-interview-north-korea-1201325501/

Does this make anyone else really want to go see The Interview?

[Roswell]

Either we are slipping or I missed this being posted in another thread.

https://deadline.com/2014/12/sony-hack-timeline-any-pascal-the-interview-north-korea-1201325501/

Does this make anyone else really want to go see The Interview?

I think if I were Sony I would release The Interview on-line and for free to give the whole world unfettered access...