SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

North Korea (Page 3)

Conditions in North Korea so bad even the wildlife are making a break for it 【Video】

Mike
Jun 18, 2014
Tweet

Apparently unsatisfied with North Korea’s delectable, super power-bestowing mushrooms, and finding very little else in the way of sustenance, a desperate tiger was recently caught on camera making the treacherous swim across the Yalu River from North Korea towards China.

China, North Korea
(animals • North Korea • video)

North Korean defector describes her crazy escape and adjustment to modern life

BUSINESS INSIDER
Jun 7, 2014

Life inside a communist country with a controlling dictator for a leader is not only suffocating and dangerous; it’s also vastly different from life in developed countries elsewhere across the globe.

Joo Yang, who defected from North Korea in 2010, did an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit Wednesday and explained what it was like to leave the oppressive country and experience life in the outside world.

North Korean defectors have to escape the country covertly. Some of them were basically brainwashed by propaganda growing up — one defector who spoke to UK newspaper The Independent said she was raised to believe that Kim Jong-il was a god who could read her mind.

Yang joined her family in South Korea in 2011. An NGO helped her travel through a “modern-day underground railroad” to escape North Korea.

Here are some of the observations she made about life in North Korea versus life on the outside:

North Korea
(AMA • defector • Kim Jong-il • Kim Jong-un • Pull Partners • reddit)

North Korea “invents” performance-enhancing drink from mushrooms, Nintendo lawyers remain silent

Mike
Jun 3, 2014

In North Korea‘s latest desperate attempt for attention from the rest of the civilized world, the dictatorship – perhaps tired of tossing missiles around for now – bragged through state media that its scientists have discovered a way to extract enzymes from a certain mushroom grown in the region to create a miracle super drink that makes athletes better, faster and stronger.

North Korea
(funny • mushroom • North Korea • science • video games)

Rodman’s Japanese successor? Pyongyang to host international wrestling tournament

Krista Rogers
May 24, 2014

Move over Dennis Rodman–it looks like you’ve got a serious Japanese successor for all of your sports diplomacy. North Korea’s state news agency announced on May 19 that Japan’s Antonio Inoki, a retired Japanese professional wrestler, will be teaming up with officials in the reclusive totalitarian state to host an international professional wrestling tournament in Pyongyang this August. The tournament will also include athletes from two nations that have never participated in a wrestling event in North Korea under Kim Jong-un’s leadership. Find out how all this came to be after the jump.

Global, Japan, North Korea
(Antonio Inoki • pro wrestling • Pyongyang • tournament)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to star in upcoming run ‘n’ gun video game based on his life

Master Blaster
May 15, 2014

We are all of course familiar with the story of how North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, single-handedly defeated the entire US military with the aid of his magical flaming unicorn and 12-foot vertical leaping skills. I don’t know about you all, but every time I hear about it, I can’t help wishing I could be as bad-ass as he is and experience the same such heroics.

Now the wishing is over, however, thanks to Glorious Leader!, an upcoming game for PC and smartphone by indie developer Moneyhorse. In it, players pilot the plump despot through seven levels of hard running, hard jumping, hard shooting, and hard unicorn riding action.

Internet, North Korea
(Glorious Leader • Kim Jong-un • video games)

North Korea calls US the ‘World’s Worst Human Rights Abuser’

BUSINESS INSIDER
May 10, 2014

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) guides the multiple-rocket launching drill of women’s sub-units under KPA Unit 851, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

North Korea called the United States “a living hell” while offering a comprehensive listing of criticisms against the country it called “the world’s worst human rights abuser” in a news report from state-run media Wednesday.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

North Korea, USA
(human rights • Kim Jong-un • Pull Partners)

If you want to explore the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, there’s an app for that

BUSINESS INSIDER
May 9, 2014

For everyone dreaming of the chance to visit North Korea, you’re in luck. There is now an app for that.

The North Korea Travel app, released on Wednesday, promises to be the most comprehensive guide ever created for tourists to the Hermit Kingdom.

The app, which will be available through both the App Store and Google play, will feature information on over 350 locations throughout the country. Each location will feature “Tour Guide Tips” provided by Simon Cockerell, who works in the North Korea travel industry and has visited the country over 120 times.

North Korea
(app • explore • North Korea • Pull Partners • travel)

8 ways Kim Jong-Un has blindsided the US

BUSINESS INSIDER
Apr 29, 2014

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guides a flight training of KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 188, honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment on Monday, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, April 22, 2014.

When Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011, many experts saw his ascent as an opportunity for the West to transform the last bastion of hard-line communism, believing that the untested leader would shy away from confrontation with the U.S. and even South Korea.

Instead, North Korea’s leader — believed to be about 30 years old — has “proved to be more ruthless, aggressive and tactically skilled than anyone expected,” Peter Sanger of The New York Times reports.

Here are a few things North Korea’s supreme leader has done in the past 18 months to surprise and unnerve the U.S.:

North Korea
(Kim Jong-un • Pull Partners)

America admits it has no idea what Kim Jong-un is doing

BUSINESS INSIDER
Apr 28, 2014

Almost all of the conventional wisdom from American intelligence agencies about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been wrong, Peter Sanger of The New York Times reports.

North Korea, USA
(international • Kin Jong-un • politics • Pull Partners)

The incredible isolation of North Korea — In one map

BUSINESS INSIDER
Apr 20, 2014

North Korea is often referred to as “The Hermit Kingdom” in the west — and one map demonstrates why.

The website MarineTraffic displays live data of cargo ships over 299 gross tonnage, and while South Korean ports of Incheon, Busan, and Ulsan are bustling with activity, shipboard cargo movement in the North barely registers, despite the country having eight major seaports.

North Korea
(isolation • Map • port • Pull Partners • The Hermit Kingdom)

North Korean media sinks even lower, calls South Korean leader a “repulsive wench”

Philip Kendall
Apr 7, 2014

Barely a week after branding her a “blabbering peasant woman,” North Korea has labelled South Korean leader Park Geun-hye a “repulsive wench” via its state-run media. Not only that, but the same quoted source also alluded to the fact that the president has no children of her own, and said that she “makes a mockery of sacred motherhood.”

Korea, North Korea
(insult • North Korea • politics • slander)

North Korea releases new logo for space agency, Internet forgets how acronyms work

Preston Phro
Apr 3, 2014

For a country that allegedly has little contact with the outside world, North Korea somehow manages to end up in the news an awful lot. While it’s hard to tell how much of what we hear and read is true, sometimes a nugget of truth–beautiful, hilarious truth–slips through the cracks of propaganda on both sides of the ideological line and leaves us giggling.

As you’ve probably heard, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has recently unveiled the logo for their year-old space agency, NADA. Though they may have expected fanfare or at least a bit of grudging respect, the main response they got was an Internet full of giggles.

Internet, North Korea
(logo • NADA • NASA • North Korea • space)

Here’s the military exercise that has North Korea freaking out

BUSINESS INSIDER
Apr 3, 2014

A joint military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea has freaked out North Korean leadership.

The annual drill, named Foal Eagle, runs from Feb. 24 to April 18 and features Marines from both countries.

North Korea views the drill as a possible threat and has responded by ratcheting up its own military rhetoric.

Further, The Hermit Kingdom has announced military drills of its own, and launched hundreds of missiles toward a disputed maritime border with South Korea. The country has also promised a new kind of nuclear test in response.

Korea, North Korea
(Foal Eagle • military • Pull Partners)

Is North Korea really forcing its young men to get Kim Jong-un’s haircut? Probably not…

Preston Phro
Apr 1, 2014

When it comes to North Korea it is almost impossible to tell the difference between truth and rumor. And, you know, the reclusive country really has to shoulder some of the blame here–it’s hard to do fact checking when your subject responds to questions with poorly aimed missile launches!

However, when news broke last week that Pyongyang was now requiring all male university students to cut their hair like Kim Jong-un, we couldn’t stop an eyebrow from rising and thinking, “Wait, really?” As for whether or not it’s true, well, we think we have a solid answer…or as close to a solid answer as you can get when it comes to North Korea.

North Korea
(fashion • hair style • haircut • Kim Jong-un)

You ain’t seen North Korean calisthenics ’til you’ve seen it done to Final Fantasy IV boss music

Master Blaster
Mar 31, 2014

Every once in a while we experience pleasant beauty of synchronicity in life, whether it’s listening to Pink Flyod’s Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of OZ or just listening to The Police’s Synchronicity.

Another such case is the uncannily fitting combination of a North Korean calisthenics video for children with the background music to a Final Fantasy IV boss battle. A video of it was posted on YouTube quite a while ago, but it’s worth revisiting again and again.

Internet, North Korea
(calisthenics • Final Fantasy • music • North Korea • video games)

Wait, did North Korea really just call South Korea’s president a “blabbering peasant woman”?

Philip Kendall
Mar 28, 2014

Yes. Yes, it did.

Relations between North and South Korea took a turn for the childish today as a spokesman for the notorious hermit nation labelled South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye a “peasant” and remarked that she ought to stop “blabbering” if she ever wants to see relations between the two countries improve.

Me, and indeed, ow.

Korea, North Korea
(insult • North Korea • politics • wtf)

Close call – Passenger plane passed through North Korean missile trajectory just 6 minutes later

Philip Kendall
Mar 6, 2014

At approximately 4:17 p.m. on Tuesday this week, North Korea fired seven short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast into the Sea of Japan. While this in itself is not especially unusual for the world’s most secretive and hardline dictatorship, a genuinely unsettling detail later emerged that reflects the seriousness of the situation and just how close one group of civilians came to danger: Just six minutes after its launch, a China Southern Airways passenger plane passed directly through the path one missile had taken.

China, Japan, North Korea
(China Southern Airlines • flight • Kim Jong-un • military • missile • news)

North Korea launches missiles into Japan Sea because it’s just that time again

Mike
Mar 3, 2014

We’re used to seeing a lot of unbelievable-sounding coverage concerning the Cobra-style antics of North Korea’s totalitarian dictatorship. But the country’s tightly-closed borders make many reports difficult to verify, so a lot of patently false stories end up circulating through legitimate outlets. This means that, sadly, what you’ve read about North Korea putting a man on the sun and finding a unicorn lair are less than legit.

Some stories, however, are frighteningly real: Like the one about Pyongyang launching a series of Scud missiles over the Japan Sea recently as a show of military might.

North Korea
(missile • North Korea • politics • wtf)

Survivor of North Korean gulags makes wrenching drawings of what happens inside

BUSINESS INSIDER
Feb 19, 2014

“Pump torture. After sitting, you stand about a hundred times.”

A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity, including systematic extermination, “murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence … and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

The report is based on a year of public hearings with about 80 witnesses as well as confidential interviews with another 240 victims, including people who’d spent time in North Korean prison camps and experts.

Kim Kwang-il, a 48-year-old man who spent two years in a prison in North Korea, defected to South Korea in February 2009 and subsequently had professional artists draw sketches based on his recollections of torture and the conditions of prisoner life. Some of these were included in the report.

North Korea
(Gulags • prison • Pull Partners • torture)

Kim Jong-un allegedly orders entire extended family of executed uncle killed

Mike
Jan 28, 2014

Remember the good old days, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il was just the right combination of diminutive, bumbling and evil to make the country at once problematic yet adorable? Well, Jong-il’s son and recently-ascended heir to the North Korean throne, Kim Jong-un, seems hellbent on making sure North Koreans are the go-to Hollywood antagonists for the next 20 years’ worth of action movies, with unpredictable and combative behavior towards the international community and human rights violations far more brazen and horrific than even his notoriously unpredictable father dared.