10 March 2010

Have you voted for LiNK today?

Not for the first time, China has announced that it has leased part of the North Korean port at Rajin, a move that would give China’s rust belt access to the Pacific. I’m just not going to find the time to write about this in detail, but you can read more about this here. Given recent reports that North Korea had canceled the last lease, you have to wonder how much this really means.

Two North Korean loggers have sought asylum at the South Korean consulate in Vladivostok. Kushibo has more here.

North Korea inaugurates a new military unit to handle a newly developed medium-range missile:

The North’s People’s Army recently launched a division supervising operational deployment of missiles with a range of more than 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) that it had developed in recent years, Yonhap news agency reported citing an unidentified South Korean government source.

The missiles could pose a threat to U.S. forces in Japan, Guam and other Pacific areas that are to be redeployed in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula, Yonhap said. [AP]

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On corruption and higher education in North Korea.

Don Kirk writes about Kim Jong Ryul, Kim Il Sung’s personal shopper.

North Korea’s new scam: re-exporting cigarettes. But is this illegal?