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Post by Admin on Dec 17, 2020 19:36:51 GMT
Video released by the French presidential palace shows Ivanka Trump seemingly awkwardly jumping into a conversation between foreign leaders at the G-20 summit in Japan. The moment generated the hashtag #UnwantedIvanka, prompting social media users to Photoshop the first daughter into famous moments from history and pop culture. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took aim at President Trump for bringing his daughter along instead of a "qualified" envoy.
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Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2021 19:29:06 GMT
North Korea’s ambassador to Kuwait defected to the South in an ongoing sign of rebellion against Kim Jong Un. Ryu Hyun Woo actually reached South Korea in September 2019, but it has only just been revealed by Tae Yong Ho, a fellow defector from the Hermit Kingdom who is now a lawmaker in Seoul. “I decided to defect because I wanted to offer my child a better future,” Ryu said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Maeil Business newspaper. Ryu had led North Korea’s embassy in Kuwait since former Ambassador So Chang Sik was expelled after a 2017 UN resolution sought to scale back the country’s overseas diplomatic missions. It is seen as a key posting because Kuwait is a major source of foreign currency for Pyongyang, which has sent thousands of laborers there. Ryu is also the son-in-law of Jon Il Chun, who once oversaw a Workers’ Party bureau responsible for managing the ruling Kim family’s secret coffers, dubbed Room 39. His defection could be a sign that the North Korean elite who shore up Kim’s power base are drifting away from him, Tae said. About 30,000 North Koreans have fled repression and poverty under the Communist regime and settled in the capitalist South, according to AFP.
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Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2021 19:50:15 GMT
Three North Koreans have been indicted in the crippling 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack and a wide-ranging scheme to steal and extort more than $1 billion in cash and cryptocurrency from banks and companies based across the globe, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The indictment comes more than two years after prosecutors filed charges against one of the men, Park Jin Hyok, a computer programmer working for North Korea’s military intelligence team, who was allegedly part of a team of hackers who helped carry out the cyberattack on Sony. The attack erased a vast trove of data, divulged confidential emails among top Hollywood executives and forced the company offline until it could rebuild its computer network. Authorities believe the motive for the attack was retaliation for Sony’s production of the 2014 film “The Interview,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco that ridiculed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and included the portrayal of an assassination plot against him. Justice Department announces charges against North Korean hackers The indictment describes a vast and multilayered scheme that went well beyond the Sony attack, targeting international banks and cryptocurrency companies. The defendants deployed malicious cryptocurrency applications and developed and fraudulently marketed a Blockchain platform, striking financial institutions and companies in multiple continents, prosecutors said. "The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison for the Central District of California said in a statement. “The conduct detailed in the indictment are the acts of a criminal nation-state that has stopped at nothing to extract revenge and obtain money to prop up its regime.” The 33-page indictment unsealed Wednesday charges Park, Jon Chang Hyok and Kim Il with criminal conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Prosecutors said the defendants were part of North Korea’s military intelligence agency called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, or RGB. The agency was was headquartered in Pyongyang, but the trio traveled to and worked from other countries, including the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, prosecutors said. The indictment was made public two months after it was returned by a Los Angeles grand jury.
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Post by Admin on Mar 27, 2021 4:57:07 GMT
If North Korea wanted to get America's attention, it seems to have worked. This week Kim Jong Un's regime fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, describing them early Friday as a new type of tactical guided weapon. Having brushed off two smaller missile tests less than a week ago, this time President Joe Biden condemned the ballistic missile launches, which were in violation of a United Nations resolution. "We're consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses," Biden said during his first news conference as president Thursday. "If they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly."
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Post by Admin on May 2, 2021 19:11:17 GMT
North Korea warned on Sunday that the United States will face a grave situation if it continues to pursue its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang's nuclear program. The statement, attributed to Kwon Jong Gun, head of the Foreign Ministry's department of U.S. affairs, comes as the Biden administration is set to unveil a new strategy to deal with the isolated Asian nation. The statement said President Biden made a "big blunder" when he called North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs a security threat during a speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Biden said he would work with allies to address the threats with "diplomacy and stern deterrence." The statement, published on a government news site, warned that North Korea could respond with "corresponding measures." On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration had completed a "thorough, rigorous and inclusive" policy review of North Korea. She said the administration's goal is aimed at completely denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula — something she noted the past four administrations had not achieved. The administration will not focus on achieving a grand bargain or rely on strategic patience, she said.
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