Open Sources, September 14, 2013

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MADE IN NORTH KOREA: NK News has done us a service by identifying a factory in North Korea that’s making Land’s End clothing, which the Chinese subcontractor then sells as “Made in China.” I suspect there’s more of this going on than we know. Land’s End ought to terminate all relationships with the Chinese supplier.  If it doesn’t, it implies tolerance of illegal violations of North Korea sanctions, and immoral exploitation of North Korean workers.

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CHARM OFFENSIVE UPDATES:

  • THE ANSWER IS YES. Next question.
  • A hacking group with suspected links to North Korea has conducted cyber espionage on a number of South Korean government agencies over the past three years, a local computer security firm said Thursday.”

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AGREED FRAMEWORK III WATCH, a corrected headline:  “U.S., China to ask North Korea to just pretend that it’s willing to disarm.” 

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BLIMPS ALONG THE DMZ: These will be used to give the ROK army early warning of North Korean attacks, but blimps would also work for broadcasting a signal into North Korea, to allow ordinary North Koreans the ability to text each other.

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ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES: It’s hard to wrap my head around why people would want to imitate me on Twitter–complete with uploading my images and tweeting my content, all without my permission–but if you really want to follow me on Twitter, here’s the actual OFK Twitter feed. And if you have the real thing, there isn’t much point in following an imitation, is there?

1 Response

  1. Before having Land’s End jump on canceling contracts, we should consider if the photos are legit. We’ve certainly seen staged photos before where products are purchased abroad and brought in, placed on a fake production line, and then held up as an example of fine North Korean craftsmanship. Granted, while they may do that with tablet computers due to lacking the technical manufacturing capability, they certainly have the ability to produce clothing with a quality acceptable for Lands’ End.