DPRK

The situation in the DPRK is drawing attention towards an individual who has apparently already been “chosen as Kim Jong-un’s successor”.
In fact, nothing has been decided for sure. But, in recent years, Kim Yo-jong has been rising up the career ladder fairly quickly, and amid individuals who are on average twice her age, the young woman has unsurprisingly garnered attention from the public.

North Korea is considered to be one of the poorest countries and many believe that it is behind the rest of the world in the IT sphere. But is this true?
Mobile phone and computer penetration

The deadline, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2017, for ensuring all DPRK workers employed abroad return home was on December 22, 2019. As a result, all North Korean restaurants in Moscow closed down, and up until December 20, the Air Koryo airline had increased the number of flights between Pyongyang and Vladivostok from two to five per week. By November 19, 23,200 workers from the DPRK had come back home.

On November 28, 2019, North Korea conducted a “thirteenth, anniversary, missile launch”: a major multiple rocket launchers (MRL) weapons test, when two large-caliber short-range projectiles were launched from its South Hamgyong province into the Sea of Japan. Yonhap News Agency later clarified that the two projectiles traveled a maximum distance of 380 km at an altitude of approximately 97 km, quoting a press release given by the South Korean army’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

On 7 November 2019, South Korea handed over two DPRK citizens to North Korea for the first time. They requested political asylum but, back home, the two had been accused of mass murder. The first deportation (or extradition) of North Korean defectors, who expressed their desire to remain in the ROK, has become the subject of heated and politically charged debates within communities and among human rights advocates.

On 7 November 2019, South Korea handed over two DPRK citizens to North Korea for the first time. They requested political asylum but, back home, the two had been accused of mass murder. The first deportation (or extradition) of North Korean defectors, who expressed their desire to remain in the ROK, has become the subject of heated and politically charged debates within communities and among human rights advocates.

On 2 October 2019, North Korea carried out yet another (11th since the start of the year) missile launch, which has caused a much bigger uproar than the test firing of short-range missiles or of a “super-large” multiple rocket launcher (MLRS) that we had reported on earlier this summer.

September 16, 2019
By Stephen Gowans
The US Treasury Department has accused North Korea of stealing “around $700 million in the last three years and” attempting “to steal nearly $2 billion” by means of cyber operations.
The accusation, by itself, is evidence of nothing. North Korea may have done this, or not.
Here are three reasons to doubt the Treasury Department’s allegation: