Internet Addicts Let Their Baby Starve to Death

File Photo

When the death of their daughter interrupted the gaming fantasy they’d been sucked into, a South #Korean couple was actually caring for a virtual #child in 12-hour online binges.

Kim Jae-beom told the police he wasn’t sure what killed his daughter, and that “she was a premature baby from the beginning.” But the cause of death determined by authorities was less vague: The baby had died of malnutrition as a result of her parents’ online gaming addiction.

So begins the tale of Kim and his wife, Kim Yun-jeong, a South Korean couple whose all-consuming video game habit led them to neglect their 3-month-old baby. When real life shockingly interrupted the gaming fantasy they’d been sucked into, the couple was actually caring for a virtual child in 6- to 12-hour online binges. She was a cooing and cherubic mini-avatar called Anima, which players earned after reaching a certain level in the game Prius.

South Korea’s gaming obsession threw shockwaves across the world when, in September 2009, the couple was arrested for the death of their baby girl. Sarang, which means “love” in Korean, starved to death while the Kims went on all-night gaming binges. It was the first known fatality from gaming addiction. The subsequent trial raised a previously unheard of legal precedent: Could online gaming be grouped with gambling, drugs, and drinking as an addition that impairs a person’s judgment enough to make such a fatal mistake?

Though the case is now five years old, the issue hasn’t remained an anomaly. Just this past April, a 22-year-old father was arrested for leaving his 2-year-old son to starve at home while he played games for 10 days.

In Love Child, an HBO documentary airing on July 28, director Valerie Veatch seeks an explanation for such horrific negligence in a country where an estimated 2 million are addicted to gaming. “The virtual space isn’t going away, but the way we use it and what we are accomplishing by spending time in this space will transform as we understand how to design technologies that support our human-ness and our social institutions, like family,” she tells The Daily Beast.

Sang Yoon Han, a veteran detective, describes the scene at the Kims’ home as “terrible.” The underweight girl—who had dropped from 6.4 lb. to 5.5 lb. since her birth—was lying straight in a crib, blanket pulled over her, in a messy room.

According to police, the child’s mother had never gone to the hospital until it was time to deliver. She had never received vaccines or checkups. She fed the baby spoiled milk and was, the investigator says, “completely ignorant” of how to raise a child. After the infant’s death, the parents, afraid to alert police, had done online searches for funeral arrangements before calling the authorities. “A typical parent would weep in this situation, but they showed no emotion,” he remembers in the documentary. “None of us believed it at first.”

In the 1990s, South Korea poured money into broadband, building an infrastructure for Internet connectivity that would become considered the world’s finest. All-night gaming rooms proliferated, offering those unable to pay for high-speed Internet a chance to play in their favorite virtual realities.

Talented gamers can make a solid living in South Korea by competing in championships or selling the virtual money for real cash. This “gold farming” was the main source of income for the Kims. They would go to PC Bang, a gaming cafe, for blocks of time because it was cheaper that way. For the price of seven hours, their lawyer says, they could play for 10 hours. They “were trying to save money.”

On a boulevard with stacked neon-lit signs blanketing the buildings, Veatch finds the gaming arcade frequented by the Kims. “They were so happy lost in this game together,” an employee remembers. The gaming companies made South Korea happy as well. At that time, the industry was worth $5 billion—it’s worth nearly $8 billion now.

During the couple’s first hearing, they confessed to charges of involuntary manslaughter. “I think of our baby in heaven,” the father said in the trial. “I will be guilty until the day I die.”

Perhaps virtual reality so invaded their minds that they were imagining the wrong could be undone as it is on one high level of Prius, when the “Anima” is killed but revived by cashing in gaming points.

Now South Korea is attempting to tackle addiction in the highest level: outlawing children under 16 from gaming between midnight and 6 a.m., and drawing up legislation to group gaming in with other anti-social addictions. It’s a restriction that the gaming industry sees as detrimental to business, but also, ironically, to society. “Through these experiences we could understand each other more,” the head developer of Prius argues in Love Child. “I think that serious games are functional and meaningful enough if they enable people to gain not only info and knowledge but also empathy.”

Across South Korea, addicts can seek treatment at a growing number of clinics. At one in Seoul, researchers show their patients 10 minutes of peaceful nature scenes, a gaming video, and then a clip that solicits negative feelings. This “makes the patient have a more negative attitude toward games,” one specialist says.

“There is not a one-stop answer to ‘Internet addiction,’ instead I think it is a dialog between users, technology companies and infrastructure policy bodies that will help us understand how to sustain our human attributes as we have increasingly meaningful experiences in virtual spaces,” Veatch says.

But one of the police interrogators isn’t convinced that an addiction can explain such negligence as was displayed in the Kims’ case. “It’s not as simple as addiction and treatment,” he says. “It’s a basic responsibility as a human to feed her own baby. It’s not something to be taught.”

In the four years since the trial, the couple’s game of choice, Prius, has slipped from popularity and been discontinued, surely replaced by hundreds of competitors vying for the 60 minutes of daily game time consumed by an average Korean.

But its impact on South Korea had far-reaching consequences. With addiction as a defense, the court lessened the prosecution’s requested five-year sentence and gave Kim Jae-beom two years behind bars. His wife didn’t serve time but received a three-year suspended sentence. At the time of their trial she was pregnant with their second child. But this time, their lawyer promises in Love Child, they won’t let anything happen to their real-life baby. They’ve sworn to never play games again. The Daily Beats

Five killed as helicopter crashes in South Korean city

A fire department helicopter crashed Thursday near an elementary school in a residential district of the South Korean city of Gwangju, killing five people on board.

People stand before flaming wreckage directly following a helicopter crash in Gwangju. (AFP/Yonhap)

SEOUL: A fire department helicopter crashed Thursday near an elementary school in a residential district of the South #Korean city of Gwangju, killing five people on board, officials said. There were no reported fatalities on the ground, but one high school student was injured by flying debris when the helicopter crashed shortly before 11:00 am (0200 GMT), narrowly missing nearby apartment blocks in the southern city.

Yonhap news agency said the crew were returning from a mission to help in the search for missing victims of April's ferry disaster off the southern coast. "Five people were on board and all are presumed dead," local fire chief Moon Ki-Shik told reporters at the scene, adding that the cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Television footage showed the wreckage burning by the side of a main road. The aircraft was identified as a Eurocopter Dauphin 2, a twin-engine chopper produced by Airbus Helicopters. Channel News..

Rescue services gather by the wreckage of a helicopter crash in Gwangju. (AFP/Yonhap)

Family of woman abducted by North Korea hopes talks will bring closure

Tokyo (CNN) -- As diplomats in #Beijing discuss reopening the investigation into a string of unsolved kidnappings of Japanese citizens by North Korea, the families of those abducted anxiously wait and hope.

For years, they've been seeking answers in the mysterious disappearance of their loved ones. The bulk of the abductions took place nearly four decades ago and the families of those taken have endured the agony of uncertainty, never knowing what truly transpired.

Now, with talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang scheduled to begin today in the #Chinese capital, those left behind to wonder what happened to their disappeared relatives are hopeful that they will finally get some answers.

Spate of abductions

According to the Japanese government, North Korean operatives kidnapped at least 17 Japanese citizens in the late 1970's and early 1980's, possibly dozens more.

Some were kidnapped alone, while walking to and from school. Others were taken in pairs while out on dates, including a couple snatched from the beach after walking to see the sunset.
In 2002, North Korea admitted to the kidnappings for the first time but allowed only five abduction
victims to return home to Japan. Information on the remaining 12 was sketchy at best.

One victim's story

One of those still missing is Yaeko Taguchi, who disappeared from Tokyo on June 12, 1978.
The 22-year-old divorced single mother was working nights as a hostess at Tokyo's Cabaret Hollywood, which remains open 36 years later.

"When (Taguchi) disappeared, we thought she just quit and left," says general manager Sueji Kikuchi, who has worked there for over 50 years. "Things like that happened a lot so we never would have thought that she had been abducted."

At the time, Kikuchi didn't know that North Korean operatives were canvassing the cabaret, a fact police later disclosed to Taguchi's older brother, Shigeo Iizuka.
Ideal candidate

"At the time, North Korea had a specific agenda, (and) abducted people that would further this agenda," Iizuka said.

"Yaeko was thought to have known everything that was needed to know about being a Japanese woman; she had experienced marriage and childbirth, and knew about cosmetics and feminine magazines and other trends at the time. At the time, being 22 years old, she had been singled out."

Iizuka didn't know the truth about his sister's abduction for nearly a decade. He and his wife adopted her son, Kouichi, and told him they were his real parents. They never mentioned Taguchi. Her daughter was adopted by another couple, and has never spoken publicly about the situation.

"I promised myself when her son turned twenty, I would tell him the truth," Iizuka says.
Secret revealed

But in 1987, the bombing of a Korean airliner revealed the truth. 115 people died when Korean Air Flight 858 exploded in mid-air, and a North Korean spy, Kim Hyun-Hui, was arrested. She confessed to planting a bomb on the plane, and also revealed the biggest clue yet in Taguchi's disappearance.

"After the bombing, (Kim) testified that she was trained by a Japanese woman," Iizuka says. "Police thoroughly investigated and found her teacher was my sister."

It was later revealed that North Korean agents abducted Taguchi and took her to North Korea by boat.
"I feel anger and hate I can't put into words," Iizuka says. "Why would she be taken (to North Korea)? She was a hard-working single mother who never did anything wrong."

The Japanese government says North Korea claims Taguchi died in a car accident in 1986, but hasn't provided proof, according to her son.

Alive or dead?

"The evidence given by North Korea was questionable," the younger Iizuka says. "There is no clear proof that she's dead. There were no names on the documents submitted.

"There is no clear, accurate proof. North Korea said that she passed away on June 29th, 1986 but there are witnesses that say that she's still alive."

He believes his mother is still alive and is hopeful renewed talks in Beijing between Japan and North Korea could bring answers about his mother. But he fears the North Koreans won't be truthful and won't allow his mother to leave, because she knows too much about the secret training of North

Korean spies.

'I just want to come home'
Former abductees told Taguchi's brother and son she's still alive and they say she begged to go home, often weeping for her children.

"I just want her to come home to Japan as soon as possible," her son says. "I haven't seen her since I was born. I only have an image in my head."
CNN has contacted North Korean embassies and missions in nine countries, but has never received responses to inquiries.
North Korea has promised to look into the kidnapping issue before before failing to follow through, most recently in 2008. BBC News

South Korean police storm compound in search for ferry owner in huge raid

South Korean policemen stand guard in front of the main gate of the Evangelical Baptist Church premises, as church believers sit in front of the police barricade, in Anseong. REUTERS Photo

Thousands of South Korean police forced their way into the compound of a splinter religious group June 11 in their search for a fugitive businessman wanted in connection with April's ferry disaster.

Live television reports showed police officers, many in full riot gear, streaming into the sprawling church and farming complex in a morning raid in Anseong, 80 kilometers south of Seoul. A spokesman for the Gyeonggi province police force said 6,000 officers were involved.

The huge operation came a day after President Park Geun-Hye urged police and prosecutors to step up a manhunt for Yoo Byung-Eun, 72, a leading member of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Korea.

Yoo is the patriarch of the family behind the Chonghaejin Marine Co. - the company that owned and operated the 6,825-tonne Sewol passenger ferry which sank on April 16 with the loss of 300 lives, most of them schoolchildren.

"Yoo must be brought to justice," Park told a cabinet meeting. He is wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, as prosecutors investigate the extent to which the Sewol disaster was caused by a lack of safety standards and regulatory violations.

The raid netted three church followers suspected of helping Yoo evade a nationwide dragnet put in place after he defied an official summons to surrender to prosecutors last month.

Police were searching for 10 more alleged accomplices identified in a warrant that was "also aimed at getting hold of Yoo and his son," a prosecutor told AFP.

Huge reward if caught

Yoo has no direct stake in Chonghaejin, but his children and close aides control it through a complex web of holding companies. A reward of 500 million won ($490,000) has been offered for information leading to the capture of Yoo and 100 million won for that of his eldest son, Yoo Dae-Kyun.

Police had raided the church complex in Anseong three weeks ago but came away empty-handed, amid reports that Yoo may have fled overseas.

The church followers erected a barricade at the entrance to the complex, but made no move to block the police Wednesday after they forced their way through.

More than 100 members staged a sit-down protest outside the main gate of the complex, singing hymns and chanting slogans.

One spokesman argued that Yoo was being set up as a fall guy for the Sewol disaster, because the government was unwilling to accept responsibility for regulatory failings that contributed to the tragedy. "(Prosecutors) should fully investigate the true cause of the accident before arresting Yoo," he said in statement read out to reporters.

"Our church will give 500 million won for those who reveal the truth behind the accident," he added.

Yoo has described himself as an artist and photographer, and was once convicted of fraud when a company under his control went bankrupt. The Sewol's regular captain, who was off duty on the day of the accident, has told prosecutors that Chonghaejin Marine Co. "brushed aside" repeated warnings that the 20-year-old ship had stability issues following a renovation in 2012.

Five Chonghaejin officials have been arrested on various charges, including criminal negligence and breaches of maritime safety laws.

The police operation also came a day after the trial opened of 15 of the Sewol's surviving crew. The captain and three of his senior crew members are charged with "homicide through wilful negligence" and could face the death penalty if convicted. Hurriyat 

South Korea ferry police target Yoo Byung-eun in enormous raid

Thousands of South #Korean police have raided a church in search of a #fugitive billionaire wanted over April's Sewol passenger ferry disaster.

Some 6,000 officers stormed the church in Anseong city belonging to Yoo Byung-eun, who is thought to own the firm that operated the sunken ferry.

Three church followers were detained on charges of assisting his escape.

At least 292 people died in the ferry disaster. Fifteen crew members went on trial over the deaths on Tuesday.

Ferry captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, and three others face the most serious charge of "homicide through wilful negligence".

A separate trial of senior executives blamed for procedural lapses is due to start later this month.

South Korean police officers in riot gear surrounded the church in the manhunt for Yoo Byung-eun

A nationwide manhunt for ferry company owner Yoo Byung-eun is currently under way

The trial in Gwangju District Court proved to be emotional for many family members still in mourning

President Park Geun-Hye this week urged police and prosecutors to step up a nationwide manhunt for Mr Yoo.

"Yoo must be brought to justice," Ms Park said.

Mr Yoo is wanted as part of an ongoing investigation into embezzlement and tax fraud.

Investigators are also questioning whether corruption or mismanagement within the ferry company led to poor safety standards.

Mr Yoo, 74, a leading religious figure, is believed to own the Chonghaejin Marine company that operated the sunken ferry.

Hundreds of church followers built a blockade in front of the compound but did not try to stop the police from entering the premises, Yonhap news agency reported.

The followers were said to have been staging a sit-in, arguing that the church had nothing to do with allegations raised by investigators.

A similar raid of the church's main compound in May turned up no trace of him.

South Korean authorities have raised the reward for information on his whereabouts to almost $500,000 (£300,000). BBC

South Korea bus terminal fire kills seven

Firefighters said they suspected the fire was started by sparks from underground welding work

Seven people have been killed and 20 others injured in a fire at a bus terminal in South Korea, officials say.

The fire occurred on Monday morning in Goyang city, northwest of the capital city, Seoul.
Firefighters believe welding works at an underground construction site in the building started the blaze, which was brought under control in 20 minutes.

The incident left two people in critical condition, emergency officials said.
Several people suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital for treatment, said the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.

This photo taken by a Goyang resident shows smoke rising from the bus terminal

Bodies were found at the basement construction site, Yonhap news agency reported.
The incident has come at a time of grief and national mourning as South Korea struggles to recover from a ferry sinking in April that left more than 300 people dead or missing.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has formally apologised to the nation for the disaster, promising to improve safety standards.

Two subway cars also collided in Seoul in early May, injuring dozens of people.
BBC News

11 injured in subway explosion near Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An explosion at a subway station south of Seoul injured 11 people Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The news agency provided no other details, and the YTN TV network said that operations later resumed at the station.

An official for the operator of the nation's train network told The Associated Press that "about 10 people" received minor injuries in an incident at a station in the city of Gunpo, but couldn't verify whether there was an explosion. He said that a part of the train's electrical insulation device was damaged.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The incident comes as South Korean media ramped up their focus on allegations of widespread safety negligence in the country following a ferry disaster that left more than 300 people dead or missing last month. There is suspicion that the ferry set off with far more cargo than it could safely carry and that crew members abandoned passengers in need.

Earlier this month, a subway train plowed into the back of another train at a station in Seoul, inflicting mostly minor injuries to more than 240 people.

The series of incidents threw a spotlight on the infrastructure and safety as South Korea rose rapidly from the destruction of the 1950-53 Korean War to Asia's fourth biggest economy. -- AFP

South Korean President to Break Up Coast Guard Over Ferry

South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally apologized on Monday for a ferry disaster last month that killed about 300 passengers, mostly school children, and said she would break up the coast guard because it had failed in its rescue mission. 

The coast guard's rescue duties will be transferred to a national emergency safety agency to be set up and the national police will take over its investigative function, Park said in a televised national address.

"I apologize to the nation for the pain and suffering that everyone felt, as the president who should have been responsible for the safety and lives of the people," Park said. 

The Sewol, with 476 passengers and crew members on board, capsized and sank on April, killing at least 286 people. Eighteen people remain missing after South Korea's worst civilian maritime disaster in 20 years.

Of the passengers, 339 were children and their teachers on a 

field trip from a high school on the outskirts of Seoul. Only 172 people were rescued, with the rest presumed to have drowned. 

Some of the crew, including the captain, were caught on videotape abandoning ship while the children were repeatedly told to stay put in their cabins and await further orders. 

Park has apologized in person to many family members of the victims but her administration has faced continued criticism and nationwide anger for its handling of the disaster, when a faster initial response could have saved more lives. 

She said the coast guard had not only failed in its search and rescue duty but that, in its current form, it would be unable to prevent another large-scale disaster. 

"The coast guard continued to get bigger in size but did not have enough personnel and budget allocated for maritime safety, and training for rescue was very much insufficient," Park said. 

All 15 surviving crew members were indicted last week, including the captain and three senior crew members on homicide charges. The remaining 11 crew were also indicted for negligence. 

The prosecution says the ferry was structurally defective after a remodeling to add capacity and was massively overloaded with cargo. A sharp turn then caused it to list and capsize, they said. 

The Sewol had been on a supposedly routine journey from the mainland port of Incheon south to the holiday island of Jeju.
Source: NBC News

North Korea say sorry After lethal Apartment Building Collapse

SEOUL - North Korea has apologized to bereaved families after an apartment building collapsed in Pyongyang last week, possibly killing hundreds, the official KCNA news agency said, a rare admission of fallibility from the reclusive state. 

Pyongyang's expression of "profound consolation and apology" was the first official news of the disaster, which happened in the Phyongchon district of the North Korean capital on Tuesday. 

"The construction of an apartment house was not done properly and officials supervised and controlled it in an irresponsible manner," said the statement from KCNA, which is better known for its strident attacks against South Korea and the United States. 

The KCNA statement also said the collapse of the apartment building "claimed casualties" but did not give any indication of how many may have been killed or injured. It said a rescue operation ended on Saturday.

An official from South Korea's unification ministry confirmed on Sunday that a 23-storey apartment building had collapsed in Pyongyang on Tuesday, although he would not say from where the information had been obtained. 

Downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, is seen in 2011. The portraits are of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, left, and the late leader Kim Jong-il.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the building was presumed to have held 92 households, or families. "Hundreds are presumed to be dead, assuming that each family has an average of four members," he said. 

A spokeswoman for the unification ministry said it was presumed there were four households on each story but she also said it was not known exactly how many were in the building at the time.

The KCNA statement said North Korean authorities put emergency measures into place to rescue people from the collapsed building and to treat the injured. 

It said that Choe Pu Il, North Korea's Minister of People's Security, had "repented," saying he had failed to supervise the project adequately, "thereby causing an unimaginable accident."

 Source: NBC News

US, South Korean health experts team up to contain North Korean pandemic risk

JUPITR will provide an assessment of a variety of environmental field sensors to determine the best product for biological detection and identification by U.S. Forces Korea, as well as integration of sensors to demonstrate a chemical and biological early warning capability.U.S. Army

North Korea is at it again, threatening to conduct its fourth atomic test in the face of international pressures to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Yet despite the communist nation’s inflammatory rhetoric and defiant weapons testing, an even bigger threat than nuclear power may be lurking within the country’s borders:
The threat of deadly disease.

In 2010, a report from Amnesty International painted a grim picture of North Korea’s crumbling health care system, with witnesses and health care workers recounting barely-functioning hospitals, multiple medication shortages and epidemics caused by malnutrition.  These findings fell in line with the World Health Organization’s estimates from 2006, which revealed that North #Korea spends less on health care than any other country in the world – less than $1 per person.

Given the country’s extreme medical deficiencies, U.S. military officials soon grew concerned over the possibility of a lethal pathogen originating within North Korea, as the nation’s health care officials would be nearly powerless to stop the spread of infection.  And if such an illness were to continue to expand, a global pandemic could likely occur.

In order to prevent such a catastrophic event, the #U.S. army launched in October the Joint United States Forces Korea Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition program – also known as JUPITR.  A collaboration between American and South Korean doctors, JUPITR utilizes advanced technologies to monitor the border between North and South Korea for potential disease agents that could become serious health hazards.
“North Korea being right up against South Korea, it’s an area we’re concerned about,” Peter Emanuel, the JUPITR ATD Lead and division chief of the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center BioSciences, told FoxNews.com. “A disease doesn’t pay attention to a line drawn on a map.  They move in their own set of rules.  [For them,] the world is ‘flat,’ and diseases recognize they can move wherever they want.”
JUPITR acts as one big red flag, alerting officials stationed in South Korea of emerging bio-threats in the area. Emanuel noted that the program is broad in focus, with the ability to identify both naturally occurring diseases – such as avian flu and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – as well as state sponsored biological warfare, such as anthrax or plague.

To do this, the program has four main legs that all work together in disease-detecting harmony. The first of which is the biosurveillance portal – web-based technologies that attempt to expose a disease pandemic at its earliest stages before it becomes a global issue. JUPITR’s biosurveillance programs track all sorts of information that may be related to public health, including everything from the migratory patterns of birds to emerging health trends on social media.

“These surveillance programs might put two and two together and see something that might be coming,” Emanuel said. “They look at the number of times people say the word ‘vomit’ on Facebook, to outbreaks being reported in certain regions, to the number of bottles of Pepto Bismol being sold at Wal-Mart.  [It helps provide] a more informed, common operating picture – an attempt to bring everything together in a way you can digest and make a decision about it.”

The program’s second leg is biological identification capability sets (BICS), or in other words, on-site laboratory testing.  Currently, if doctors believe army personnel have been exposed to a disease agent, bio-samples must be shipped to labs thousands of miles away for analysis.  #BICS aims to bring high quality laboratory capabilities to the field, closer to where forces are stationed, so that doctors can get answers in as little as four hours and respond quickly if necessary.

The third and fourth legs of JUPITR revolve around advanced environmental sensor technology, such as radar and antibody-based technology that can detect biological agents in the atmosphere.  In the coming months, program officials will test 10 different environmental field sensors to see which ones are best at sensing and identifying potential health risks; those that perform the best will be transported to Korea and integrated into various perimeter defense systems.

“The outcome we hope to get – the best case outcome – is a combination of technologies that gives [us] vigilance, that gives [us] the ability in a cost effective manner to analyze survey and inform commanders of any impending threats,” Emanuel said.

JUPITR’s technologies are currently located in four bases in South Korea, but Emanuel said they hope to expand the program within the Korean peninsula – and eventually to other countries around the world.  Emanuel noted that JUPITR is meant to serve as a pilot program for biosurveillance technologies in general, as the military hopes to start similar projects in U.S.-occupied nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, whose neighbors may pose similar pandemic threats.

“The medical capacity of a country is of great interest.  If you have healthy countries that have the ability to respond to situations, they make good neighbors.  But if a disease springs up and gains a foothold in a neighboring country, then it will quickly move over into your country,” Emanuel said. “… So the earlier you can apply counter measures…you minimize casualties and minimize loss.”
Source: Forbes

North Korea Threatens To Conduct Nuclear Test

North Korea

#SEOUL, #South #Korea (AP) — North Korea issued its latest nuclear threat on Saturday, two days after South Korea's defense minister said Pyongyang was making final preparations to conduct its fourth nuclear test.
North Korea has "clarified its resolute stand that it would take countermeasures including nuclear test to protect the sovereignty and dignity of the" country, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported, citing the ruling party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

The Institute for Science and International Security think tank said in a report Saturday that satellite imagery from Friday showed ongoing activities at North Korea's nuclear test site, including movement of possible vehicles, trucks and containers. The think tank said the exact timing of a test was difficult to tell.
On Thursday, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said that North Korea was making final preparations to conduct its fourth nuclear test. Kim, however, said it could be a bluff and did not elaborate on what the final step of the North's preparations would be. Seoul has warned that Pyongyang would face serious consequences if it conducts a nuclear test.
A fourth test would mark another defiant response to U.S.-led international pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. The North conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Recent months have seen animosities flare up on the Korean Peninsula, with Pyongyang conducting a barrage of rocket and missile tests and resuming fierce rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.
In late March, in a show of defiance to the U.N. Security Council's denouncing of Pyongyang's rocket-launching drills, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the country was "fully ready for next-stage steps which the enemy can hardly imagine" and that "it would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up its nuclear deterrence."
The two Koreas have been divided along the world's most heavily armed border since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Source: The Huffington Post

South Korea says crashed drones came from North

The drones took pictures of border areas,
military bases and the presidential palace in Seoul [EPA]

South Korea has said it has proof North Korea flew spy drones into its territory in a "clear military provocation", after an analysis of the wreckage of three crashed vehicles.

Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South's defence ministry, said the provenance of the unmanned aerial vehicles was confirmed after a joint South Korea-US study of the GPS coordinates stored in their systems.
The drones were recovered from three separate locations near the inter-Korean border between March 24 and April 6, the ministry said.

"We have confirmed that all three UAVs originated from North Korea," Kim said.

"North Korea's action is a clear military provocation that violates the armistice and the South-North non-aggression agreement," the ministry said in a statement.

One crashed due to an engine problem, while the other two ran out of fuel.

Although extremely rudimentary in design, they were all equipped with cameras and had taken pictures of border areas, major military installations and the capital Seoul, including the presidential palace.

North Korea has denied any connection to the drones, and accused Seoul of fabricating a link in order to smear Pyongyang.

Photographs unearthed by the North Korea Tech blog showed a drone made by a Chinese company with an almost identical size and shape to some of the drones found in South Korea, the Reuters news agency reported.

South Korea's defence ministry said in April some of the parts in the recovered drones were made in China, Japan, the Czech Republic and the US, but it offered no further details.

The South in 2011 said it wanted to buy drone vehicles from the US. In 2012, the US agreed to sell Seoul four "Global Hawk" spy drones, after the Obama administration vowed to help the South counter its northern rival.

Arms control advocates expressed fears that the deal would increase instability and stir a regional arms race, as well as provide diplomatic cover for an expansion of such exports by Russia, China and others.

North Korea had displayed a set of basic drones during a military parade held in Pyongyang last July marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean war.

In March 2013, state media reported leader Kim Jong-un overseeing a military drill using "super-precision drone planes".

Photographs of the exercise, broadcast on state television, showed what resembled air force target drones being flown into a mountainside and exploding.

Court removes Thai PM Yingluck from office

BANGKOK - Thailand’s Constitutional Court Wednesday dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine ministers for abuse of power, leaving the government clinging to power but the nation still locked in a political crisis.
The cabinet swiftly appointed a deputy premier - Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan - as Yingluck’s replacement as the ruling party struggled to regain its footing after the judicial blow. The court, which has played a key role in deposing Shinawatra-linked governments in recent turbulent years, ruled unanimously that Yingluck acted illegally by transferring a top security official in 2011.
‘Therefore her prime minister status has ended... Yingluck can no longer stay in her position acting as caretaker prime minister,’ presiding judge Charoon Intachan said in a televised ruling. Nine cabinet ministers who endorsed the decision to transfer Thawil Pliensri were also stripped of their status.

But fears that the court ruling would wipe out the entire cabinet proved unfounded. Niwattumrong, who is also commerce minister, was quickly promoted to the role of caretaker premier, said Phongthep Thepkanjana, another deputy prime minister. Ruling party officials vowed to press ahead with a planned July 20 election to establish a new government. That poll date has yet to be endorsed by a royal decree.
While short of a knockout blow to the government, the court ruling does nothing to ease Thailand’s prolonged political uncertainty. Anti-government protesters are still on Bangkok’s streets and the promotion of a Shinawatra-loyalist may make Yingluck’s dismissal a hollow victory. ‘Red Shirt’ supporters also threaten to rally to defend the government and press for elections, raising fears of clashes. They will mass on Saturday in a Bangkok suburb.

Jubilant anti-government demonstrators blew whistles outside the court to mark Yingluck’s removal - a key demand of their movement, which is seeking to curb the influence of Yingluck’s billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin lives overseas to avoid jail for corruption convictions, but is accused of running the country by proxy through his sister. ‘I am happy even though the whole cabinet has not been removed. People who do not respect the law should be thrown out,’ protester Linjong Thummathorn told AFP.
The kingdom has been bedevilled by a bitter political schism since 2006 when an army coup deposed former telecoms magnate Thaksin as prime minister. He is reviled by the Bangkok elite, middle class and royalist southerners who say he has sponsored nepotism and widespread corruption and who perceive him as a threat to the monarchy. But he is loved in the poorer north and northeastern regions and among the urban working class for recognising their burgeoning political and economic aspirations.
They have returned Shinawatra-led or linked governments to power in every election since 2001. In a defiant press conference Yingluck reiterated her innocence of the abuse of power accusation. ‘I am proud of every minute I have worked as prime minister because I came from a democratic election,’ she said, at times fighting back tears. Six months of street protests have left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded in gun and grenade attacks, kindling fears of wider clashes between rival political sides. Anti-government demonstrators are likely to reject the latest poll date. They want an appointed premier to enact loosely-defined ‘reforms’ to curb the influence of the Shinawatras before any new election.

A general election called by Yingluck in February to shore up her besieged government was disrupted by protesters and boycotted by the main opposition party. It was later annulled by the Constitutional Court, enraging Red Shirts who said the judges effectively stole their vote. The ruling party has accused the court of railroading Yingluck’s case through because it is biased against the Shinawatras.

The Constitutional Court oversees cases of violations of Thailand’s charter, which was rewritten after Thaksin’s removal. In 2008 it forced two Thaksin-linked prime ministers from office. Yingluck will also find out over the coming days if she will be indicted by anti-graft officials for neglect of duty in connection with a costly rice subsidy scheme.

An unfavourable ruling could see her banned from politics for five years. With both sides convinced they can prevail, the ongoing battle for ‘Thailand’s soul’ looks set to drag on, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. ‘Somehow both sides have to think that they cannot win it all - that’s when we will see some compromise... but right now we are likely to see things get much worse before things get better.’

Original Article: Nation News