Bartle Doo Article Archives

Celebratory fire turns Iraq football win into nightmare

July 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Thirteen-year-old Moqtada went outside his house to set off fireworks after a victory by Iraq’s football team, but ended up a victim of celebratory gunfire, with a bullet lodged in his back.

When Iraq beat South Korea in the U-20 World Cup quarter-finals this month, Baghdad erupted with the sound of gunshots, fired individually or in automatic bursts.

But while some were gleefully firing in the air, others were paying the price. Security and medical officials said at least four people were killed and around 21 wounded by gunfire after the match.

Celebratory shooting adds yet another danger to a country which has been hit by the worst violence since 2008. More than 2,600 people have been killed in attacks so far this year.

At a house in central Baghdad, Moqtada, a slightly-built boy with black hair, rested on his stomach on a narrow bed, a large bandage covering his wounded lower back.

“I went out … to play with fireworks” and “was hit in my back,” Moqtada said in a quiet voice.

He intially thought he had been struck by a firework, but it soon became clear it was something more serious.

“I was sitting at home watching the match, which Iraq won. We were happy,” said Moqtada’s uncle Rahim. “Then they called saying your nephew was hit by a shot.”

Rahim said Moqtada was taken to a public hospital in Baghdad, but they refused to operate, saying it was too risky.

So the wounded boy had to be moved to a second public hospital.

It seemed the operation would be performed there, but doctors eventually decided it should be done at a third, privately-owned hospital, where the bullet was finally removed.

The boy’s father Ali later told AFP Moqtada was recovering well from the gunshot and walking again.

But the operation, unlike treatment at public facilities, came at a steep cost — 2.5 million Iraqi dinars (about $2,080) — a huge expense that the family could ill-afford. They pooled money to pay the bill.

It was “all because of the match,” Rahim said. “Clap, dance, celebrate, but not with shooting.”

As for an upcoming match, he added: “I hope that Iraq will lose, it is better, I swear to God.”

No victory would mean no celebratory shooting.

Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AFP that people who fire weapons in the air can face arrest and the confiscation of their firearms.

“If you want to celebrate, you can celebrate in a modern way,” Maan said. “Anything else except using guns.”

But celebratory shooting, which also occurs at some weddings and funerals, is still common in Iraq, and security forces are sometimes part of the problem.

The night Moqtada was shot, one witness saw federal policemen in the Zayouna area of Baghdad firing a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a machinegun into the air, though an officer came and called them to account.

People usually fire into the air at an angle, meaning that “the bullet will come back to earth on a parabolic curve with some residual velocity,” said Ronald Scott, a US-based forensic consultant on firearms, ballistics, and …read more

Pakistan sack hockey coach after league flop

Pakistan sacked their hockey coach Monday over the national team’s poor finish in the World Hockey League, which raised fears they will not qualify for next year’s World Cup.

Hanif Khan, a gold medallist from the 1984 Olympics, served as coach during this month’s League in Malaysia where Pakistan dropped to seventh after topping the group phase.

“We have replaced Khan with Tahir Zaman, our consultant, as coach while Akhtar Rasool will remain the head coach and manager,” Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Asif Bajwa told reporters.

The top three teams — Germany, Argentina and England — from the league qualified for the World Cup, to be held in the Netherlands next year.

Pakistan now must win next month’s Asia Cup — also scheduled in Malaysia — to earn a berth in the World Cup, an event introduced to field hockey in 1971.

“We took into account manager’s report as Khan failed to achieve an easy task,” said Bajwa of the League, where Pakistan lost to South Korea in the quarter-finals.

Zaman, a member of Pakistan’s last World Cup win in 1994 is a certified coach of the International Hockey Federation.

Khan lashed out at the decision to sack him.

“For the past two months there were efforts to displace me,” Khan told AFP. “I will hold a press conference to tell everyone about the politics in the PHF and of reasons for my ouster.”

Pakistan have won three Olympic gold medals in hockey and been world champions four times but have slumped at international level in the last few years.

They finished at their worst 12th and last in the 2010 World Cup held in India and were eighth and seventh respectively in the last two Olympics.

India, who also failed to qualify for the World Cup from a separate round of the league in the Netherlands, sacked their Australian coach Michael Nobbs earlier this month.

Besides Pakistan and India, South Korea, China, Malaysia and Japan will feature in the Asia Cup.

S.Korea enforces smartphone app to curb military leaks

South Korea’s defence ministry said on Monday it has ordered its staff to install a smartphone application that restricts key functions like the camera in an attempt to prevent military leaks.

The ministry said that, from Monday, its 1,500 staff are no longer allowed to bring smartphones into their offices without installing the app, called “Mobile Management Device”.

The order caused a long queue at the gates of the ministry on Monday because some 20 percent of the staff had failed to install the app, officials said.

The ministry declined to confirm a report by Yonhap news agency that some staff had refused to install the app due to concerns about privacy.

Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters that the app, which restricts the use of cameras and audio recording, prevents leaks through smartphones and stops outsiders from hacking into the devices of defence ministry officials.

“We’ve developed a system to restrict the core functions of smartphones because of concerns that our work could be leaked through them,” he said.

For now, the app only works in the ministry compound. Officials said all South Korean soldiers would be ordered to install it later.

The ministry promised to upgrade the app after an operational flaw emerged.

Users of Samsung’s Galaxy and other Android phones can receive and make calls and text messages, but iPhone users can only receive calls and text messages.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed air force lieutenant colonel as saying: “Even if I bring my iPhone 4 that passed the security review, I can only receive calls and text messages. What can I do with the dumb phone?”

About 70 percent of South Korea’s 50 million people have smartphones — the world’s highest penetration rate.

Asiana Airlines to sue TV station over fake pilot names report

Asiana said Monday that it will sue a San Francisco TV station that damaged the airline’s reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed earlier this month in San Francisco.

An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air Friday and then apologized after a break. The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phony names listed alongside a photo of the burned-out plane that had crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring dozens.

Video of the report has spread widely across the Internet since it was broadcast.

The National Transportation Safety Board has also apologized, saying a summer intern erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew.

Asiana has decided to sue KTVU-TV to “strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report” that disparaged Asians, Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said. She said the airline will likely file suit in U.S. courts.

She said the report seriously damaged Asiana’s reputation. Asiana hasn’t determined whether to launch a similar suit against the NTSB, Lee said.

Neither the station nor the NTSB commented on where the names originated.

The four pilots, who underwent questioning by a U.S. and South Korean joint investigation team while in the U.S., returned to South Korea on Saturday. South Korean officials plan to conduct separate interviews with them, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Sunday.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Koreas meet again for talk on restarting factories

Officials from North and South Korea are meeting for the third time this month to discuss how to restart a stalled inter-Korean factory park which was a key symbol of cooperation between the countries.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry says Wednesday’s talks are taking place at the North Korean border town of Kaesong where the factory complex is located.

In their previous talks, the countries agreed on a desire to revive the complex but couldn’t agree on how to do so.

Operations at the Kaesong complex were suspended in April when tension ran high in the wake of North Korea’s February nuclear test.

The park opened in 2004 during a period of rapprochement between the Koreas. It blends South Korean capital and management skills with cheap North Korean labor.

Third Chinese girl dies from injuries in SF crash

July 13, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

A girl who had been in intensive care since the crash-landing of an Asiana Airlines flight has died, hours after authorities confirmed one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the disaster was hit by a fire truck speeding to the crash site.

The disclosure about the Chinese teenager raised the tragic possibility that she could have survived the crash only to die in its chaotic aftermath.

No one knows yet whether the two teens lived through the initial impact at the San Francisco airport. But police and fire officials confirmed Friday that Ye Meng Yuan, 16, was hit by a fire truck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777.

“The fire truck did go over the victim at least one time. Now the other question is what was the cause of death?” police spokesman Albie Esparza said. “That’s what we are trying to determine right now.”

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said the results of his initial inquiry into the deaths would likely be released sometime next week. He would not comment on the police investigation.

Her close friend Wang Linjia, also 16, was among a group of injured passengers who did not get immediate medical help. Rescuers did not spot her until 14 minutes after the crash. Wang Linjia’s body was found along with three flight attendants who were flung onto the tarmac.

The other girl, also from China, died Friday morning. San Francisco General Hospital said she had been in critical condition since arriving Saturday after the accident. Officials did not identify the girl at the request of her parents. Her age was also withheld.

Moments after the July 6 crash, while rescuers tried to help passengers near the burning fuselage, Wang Linjia and the flight attendants lay in the rubble almost 2,000 feet away. A group of survivors called 911 and tried to help them.

Members of the group — martial arts athletes and their families returning from a competition in South Korea — said that after escaping the plane, they sat with at least four victims who appeared to be seriously hurt. They believe one of them was one of the girls who died.

Cindy Stone, who was in that group, was recorded by California Highway Patrol dispatchers calling in for help: “There are …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

NGOs in dilemma over rescuing N.Koreans in Myanmar

July 13, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

South Korean NGOs face a dilemma over how to rescue 64 North Koreans held by Myanmar rebels and forced to work on a drug farm, an activist said on Saturday.

The North Koreans have been taken to a rebel camp northeast of Tachilek, a town along the border between Myanmar and Thailand, over the past nine years, Pastor Kim Hee-Tae told AFP.

The refugees were caught while attempting to travel on their own through rebel-held territory to Thailand in order to defect to South Korea after fleeing their poverty-stricken homeland.

“We’re in a great dilemma over how to rescue them”, Kim said, adding the rebels were asking for $5,000 ransom for each of the hostages.

He said NGOs were unable to launch a campaign to raise the money or to ask for Seoul to intervene as the hostage takers were extremely publicity shy.

“We need very quiet negotiations to pull it through”, he said.

About 80 percent of the North Koreans were women and were forced to work at alcohol manufacturing or drug processing plants. “Some of them are forced into prostitution”, he said.

Male captives were used to grow poppies.

A South Korean foreign ministry official said the ministry was investigating the case.

Myanmar is the world’s second largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient for heroin — after Afghanistan, accounting for 10 percent of global production, according to UN data.

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, some 25,000 North Korean refugees have escaped and settled in the South.

Most begin their journey by crossing into China, where they face repatriation if caught.

They then try to reach a second country, with Thailand the most popular choice, from where they generally seek permission to resettle in South Korea.

Those who are caught and deported back to the North face severe punishment, including being sent to a labour camp, rights groups say.

Hurdles to talks high after North Korea threats

April 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

After weeks of fiery rhetoric, military posturing and threats that it’s willing to strike back hard if provoked, North Korea appears to be taking a bit of a breather. The U.S.-South Korea war games it despises are winding down, and feelers are out in diplomatic circles that it might be best to open up some avenue for dialogue. If that sounds familiar, it should — it’s a pattern that has been repeated for decades.

So here’s the question: Can we talk?

From back-door channels to multinational conferences, dialogue has repeatedly been tried in a long-running effort to get North Korea to put the brakes on its development of nuclear weapons. Generally, hopes sputter and fade when North Korea‘s talking partners are presented with what they consider impossible demands. North Korea, meanwhile, has moved slowly but surely ahead with its nuclear program.

The current crisis has played out with the added uncertainty of just how far North Korea‘s new leader, Kim Jong Un, is willing to take the brinksmanship.

Amid continued fears it may test-launch a mid-range missile, North Korea two weeks ago opened the door, just a tiny crack, to talks. First it laid out a list of conditions for dialogue. Then it eased up on the near-daily war threats that had characterized its public statements, possibly signaling a willingness to dial the tensions back, particularly after the U.S.-South Korea drills, which were set to end Tuesday.

In a subtle shift in tone, North Korea issued these preconditions on April 16 for resuming talks: the lifting of U.N. sanctions, the end of the U.S.-South Korea military drills, the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear strike capabilities from the region and a halt to criticism of North Korea. It then reiterated a demand to South Korea to apologize for offending its leadership before any talk of dialogue to defuse tensions.

South Korea‘s Foreign Ministry called North Korea‘s demands illogical, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it was “at least a beginning,” though “not acceptable, obviously.” The U.S. remains open to “authentic and credible negotiations,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters soon afterward, but he noted that the U.S. has not seen any commitment from North Korea that it is willing to end its nuclear program.

Getting North Korea to do that seems highly unlikely, especially now that it is claiming nuclear weapons are an essential part of its national defense. But advocates of diplomacy say it still must

Malaysia's opposition banks on new economic deal

April 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

With less than a week to general elections, Malaysia‘s opposition alliance is banking on the promise of bold change to end the governing coalition’s 56-year rule. It says a new economic playing field will strip away decades of race-based policies that it believes bred corruption and hampered growth

The three-party opposition alliance led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says it cannot be business as usual in Malaysia, where affirmative action policies that favor majority ethnic Malays in business, jobs and education have polarized the country and suppressed its economic competitiveness.

Despite posting robust economic growth in the past decade, the opposition says the cost of living has surged in Southeast Asia‘s third largest economy, outpacing rise in wages. The country is lagging behind many of its Asian peers such as Taiwan and South Korea, as its race-based policies fueled a brain drain abroad. Corruption is endemic, and the government ran a budget deficit for the last 15 years, swelling the national debt.

Anwar’s People’s Alliance promises a more competitive merit-based system and a clean break from what it calls a corrupt past if it wins May 5 national polls.

Its election manifesto says it will end monopolies in sectors such as telecommunications, rice and sugar that kept prices high. It will review suspicious government concessions, abolish highway tolls, cut taxes to lower car prices and free up civil liberties.

“This election offers a possibility of a political transition of power. The campaign will come down to who can deliver more genuine and fundamental reforms and who will give them a better deal,” said Bridget Welsh, a political science professor at Singapore Management University.

Anwar’s alliance surged into political prominence in 2008 elections when it won more than a third of seats in the federal parliament and gained control of several states. It was the biggest blow for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s National Front coalition since independence from Britain in 1957 and was spurred by discontent about corruption and racial and religious discrimination.

The keystone of the opposition policies is reform of preferential treatment started in 1971 to lift Malays, who account for 60 percent of Malaysia‘s 29 million people, from poverty after race riots. The policies are credited with enlarging the Malay middle class and putting 20 percent of corporate wealth in Malay hands, but the opposition says the system has been abused to enrich the well-connected elite and distorted the economy. Many contracts go to businesses

By Kevin Chen, The Motley Fool

Automobiles

ETC: These are the overloaded cars of South Korean workers fleeing North Korea

April 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Zach Bowman

Filed under:

Around 175 South Korean workers have been forced to pack up their belongings and leave a group of jointly operated factories in North Korea after tensions continued to escalate between the two countries. The workers piled tools and finished products high onto the roofs of regular passenger cars as they evacuated as quickly as possible.

North Korea says the ongoing talks with its southern neighbor geared toward keeping the factory complex operational were “deceptive” given that the US and South Korean armed forces continue to practice joint drills nearby. South Korea, meanwhile, was concerned that workers could be deprived of food or medicine if the situation continued to sour.

The evacuation has placed the future of factories operated jointly by the two countries into question and marks the most significant casualty of the continued degradation of relations between the neighbors. It is unclear when or if the facilities will reopen.

These are the overloaded cars of South Korean workers fleeing North Korea originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

China: America's Third Largest Export Market

April 28, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Filed under: Investing

In a new report, The U.S.-China Business Council reaffirmed China‘s importance to the U.S. economy. While China‘s GDP growth slows, dragging U.S. export growth down to 6.5%, the U.S. still shipped $109 billion in exports in 2012. Looking over the past decade, exports to China saw an average annual growth of nearly 17%, totaling $81 billion, or a 294% increase in exports to China from 2003 to 2012.

Source: U.S.-China Business Council: U.S. Exports to China by State, 2003-2012.

China‘s export markets’ importance continues to grow. The only countries that beat China for the United States‘ top export markets were Canada and Mexico — U.S. neighbors and NAFTA trade partners. The council notes that exports to China supported a broad range of American sectors, from crop production to transportation equipment, illustrating that not only are U.S. companies and producers competitive in the global market, but they’re also increasingly important to growing markets like China.

Source: U.S.-China Business Council: U.S. Exports to China by State, 2003-2012.

While growth in exports to China continue to grow rapidly, the report cautions that the U.S. should do better. Although China continues to be the third-largest destination for U.S. exports, the U.S. share of imports into China has fallen from 10% to 7% from 2000 to 2012. In 2012, the U.S. was the fourth-largest source of Chinese imports. The U.S. did surpass Taiwan in terms of imports to China, but it remains significantly behind other international competitors. The European Union, Japan, and South Korea all ranked higher.

Source: U.S.-China Business Council: U.S. Exports to China by State, 2003-2012.

The report concluded that the U.S. should aim to reclaim 10% of China‘s import market by 2015. By doing so, America would strengthen its competitiveness in China, boosting overall U.S. sales and its global competitiveness. As the council put it: “The US-China trade relationship strengthens America’s economy and creates well-paying jobs for American workers across the country.”

The article China: America’s Third Largest Export Market originally appeared on Fool.com.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Sovereign day in Japan, another nationalist move

April 28, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Japan has officially marked the day it regained sovereignty 61 years ago following its World War II defeat, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s government steps up its nationalist campaign.

Abe is shifting to a more conservative agenda from economic policy. Sunday’s event is seen as a step to drum up support for revising Japan‘s U.S.-inspired pacifist constitution.

During Sunday‘s ceremony, Abe pledged to make Japan a stronger country with national pride.

Visits by several ministers and nearly 170 lawmakers to Tokyo‘s war shrine this month have enraged China and South Korea. Abe’s remarks perceived as whitewashing Japan‘s wartime aggression further infuriated those countries.

Abes’ conservative party also pushes for recognizing Japan‘s defense troops as national military and for revising school texts to be less apologetic to Japan‘s wartime atrocities.

Last groups of South Koreans leave shuttered North Korean factory

April 28, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

The final group of South Koreans working in a shuttered factory park in North Korea is expected to leave Monday after their government ordered them to leave the border city, as Pyongyang issued a new threat to shut down the last symbol of detente.

The group will follow a similar group that left Saturday after stuffing their cars with as much as they could take from their factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong, located just on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.

A total of 125 South Koreans left Saturday, and the last 50, including those who manage the facilities, will leave Monday, the Unification Ministry said.

Once the last South Koreans leave, what will become of the jointly run factory park remains unclear.

“It is only a matter of time” before the complex shuts down for good, an unnamed spokesman for North Korea‘s General Bureau for Central Guidance said Saturday. “We treasure the Kaesong industrial complex but won’t bestow favors on those who return evil for good.”

Until earlier this month, 53,000 North Korean workers were managed by 800 South Koreans at more than 120 South Korean-run factories in a special economic zone in Kaesong. The decade-old arrangement provided Kaesong with work and salaries, and the South Koreans with cheap labor.

But as tensions flared between Seoul and Pyongyang over North Korea‘s nuclear ambitions, joint U.S.-South Korean military drills and other perceived slights, Pyongyang pulled its entire work force out on April 9 and banned South Koreans from crossing the border to bring food and supplies.

With factories suspending operations and food supplies dwindling, Seoul issued a Friday deadline for North Korea to agree to talks on Kaesong.

After Pyongyang dismissed the call as an insufficient show of sincerity, Ryoo Kihl-jae, South Korea‘s top official on relations with North Korea, announced that Seoul would pull the rest of the South Koreans from Kaesong out of concern for their safety.

Han Jae-kwon, head of the association of South Koreans managing factories in Kaesong, expressed regret that the government made the decision without notifying them first. Speaking in front of businessmen running factories in Kaesong, he called on Seoul to continue to pursue dialogue with Pyongyang over the industrial park.

“I came down for the time being with the hope that the Kaesong industrial complex would reopen later,” Lee Byung-yun, a South Korean worker, said after crossing the border on Saturday.

Dozens of cars, many of them covered with cargo from hood to trunk, lined up at a checkpoint to enter South Korea after arriving from the North across the heavily fortified border between the two countries.

The park, which broke ground in 2003, is the last joint Korean project left from a previous era of reconciliation. Other projects, including tours to a scenic mountain in North Korea and to downtown Kaesong, were suspended in recent years.

However, Lee Hochul, a political science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea, noted that neither side has decided to permanently shut down the industrial complex.

“This is a war

Last groups of SKoreans leaving NKorean factory

April 27, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Regret etched on their faces, the last groups of South Korean managers began pulling out Saturday from a shuttered factory park in North Korea after their government ordered them to leave the border city.

The South Koreans stuffed their cars with as much as they could take from their factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong, located just on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. A total of 125 South Koreans left Saturday, and the last 50, including government employees managing facilities, will leave Monday, the Unification Ministry said.

Once the last South Koreans leave, what will become of the jointly run factory park remains unclear.

With factories suspending operations and food supplies dwindling, Seoul issued a Friday deadline for North Korea to agree to talks on Kaesong.

“I came down for the time being with the hope that the Kaesong industrial complex would reopen later,” Lee Byung-yun, a South Korean worker, said after crossing the border on Saturday. Park Yun-kyu, head of a factory in Kaesong, told reporters he had no choice but to pull his staff out in the face of a government call to leave Kaesong.

Dozens of cars, many of them covered with cargo

Majority of South Koreans at North Korean factory to return

April 27, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Roughly three quarters of the 175 South Koreans still at a shuttered factory park in North Korea are scheduled to return Saturday after Seoul decided to withdraw them over Pyongyang’s rejection of its demand for talks on the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, the government said.

The industrial complex in the border city of Kaesong bustled with more than 53,000 North Korean workers and 800 South Korean managers before Pyongyang pulled its entire work force out and banned South Koreans from entering it earlier this month.

The park, the biggest employer in Kaesong with a population of 200,000 according to North Korean officials, is the most significant casualty in the recent deterioration of ties between the Koreas. Operating with South Korean know-how and technology and with cheap labor from North Korea since 2004, it has weathered past cycles of hostility between the rivals, including two attacks blamed on North Korea in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.

On Thursday, Seoul issued a Friday deadline for North Korea to respond to its call for talks because it was worried about its workers not having access to food and medicine. North Korea hasn’t allowed South Korea to send supplies to its managers in Kaesong since the ban.

Just hours after Pyongyang dismissed Seoul’s demand for talks as “deceptive,” Ryoo Kihl-jae, South Korea‘s top official on relations with North Korea, said Friday in a televised statement his government decided to pull all the remaining South Koreans in Kaesong.

“We’ve made the inevitable decision to bring back all the remaining personnel in Kaesong for the protection of our people as their difficulties continue to grow,” Unification Minister Ryoo said, urging the North to protect the property of South Korean companies at Kaesong and ensure the safe return of South Koreans home.

His ministry said later Friday in a text message that 127 of the remaining South Koreans in Kaesong would return Saturday. The remaining workers are expected to leave Kaesong on Sunday.

In Friday’s statement, a spokesman for the North’s powerful National Defense Commission promised the workers’ safety if they withdrew, while lashing out at Seoul over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and the spreading of anti-North Korea leaflets at the border as proof of Seoul’s insincerity.

“If they are truly worried about the lives of South Korean personnel in the (complex), they may withdraw all of them to the south side where there are stockpiles of food and raw materials and sound medical conditions,” said the statement carried by official media.

“If the South’s puppet group looks away from reality and pursues the worsening of the situation, we will be compelled to first take final and decisive grave measures,” it said.

Impoverished North Korea has objected to views in South Korea that the Kaesong park is a source of badly needed hard currency. South Korean companies paid salaries to North Korean workers averaging $127 a month, according to South Korea‘s government. That is less than one-sixteenth of the average salary of South Korean manufacturer workers.

The complex, conceived following the historic 2000 summit between

NKorea says it will indict American citizen

April 27, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

North Korea says it will soon indict an American detained for alleged hostile acts against the country.

A report from the official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday didn’t say when Kenneth Bae‘s trial will occur.

Bae’s indictment comes amid high tension between Pyongyang and Washington, with North Korea intensifying its war rhetoric against the United States and South Korea.

Bae is the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. U.S. citizens detained in North Korea often have been released following visits by high-profile Americans, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

A North Korean official earlier told The Associated Press that Bae will likely get a harsh punishment — possibly the death penalty — for an alleged attempt to overthrow Pyongyang’s government.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/NBLdfXaPm1U/

Japan ministers war shrine visits anger SKorea

April 22, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Japan‘s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made donations and three Cabinet ministers prayed at Tokyo‘s militarist shrine over the weekend, sparking South Korean anger.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Monday that Abe didn’t visit the Yasukuni Shrine but donated religious ornaments marking the shrine’s spring festival. The finance minister and two other Cabinet ministers prayed at the shrine.

Suga acknowledged unconfirmed reports that South Korea cancelled foreign ministerial talks. He said the talks were at planning stage and hasn’t been official.

He said the shrine visits and donations were private and shouldn’t affect diplomacy.

Yasukuni honors Japanese wartime leaders convicted of war crimes among 2.5 million war-dead. It remains a focus of nationalist pride among Japanese conservatives and right-wingers and often causes friction with Japan‘s Asian neighbors.