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This Is What Kim Jong Is Using to Pinpoint Missile Targets

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un has apparently been using old Google earth photos to “pinpoint” his targets.

The Independent reports that he’s been studying dated Google Earth images as he further develops his nuclear program.

An affiliate at the Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation says that North Korea has no satellites of their own and has to use publicly available images.

All this coming after tensions continue to escalate between the U.S. and North Korea.

The toughest sanctions package ever unanimously passed by the United Nations Security Council was just imposed on the country. (Read more from “This Is What Kim Jong Is Using to Pinpoint Missile Targets” HERE)

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Stories From Kim Jong Un’s Youth Offer Insight Into Dictator’s ‘Wild Temper’

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Young Kim Jong-un has been described as a hot head with a “wild temper” and now he is a dictator with a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

North Korea tested a possible thermonuclear weapon over the weekend, escalating the military threat. “The latest development is largely attributable to Kim’s wild character. If Kim is not eliminated, this issue will persist,” explained Nam Sung-wook, a Korea University professor and the former head the Institute for National Security Strategy under the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s espionage agency.

“Half of the reason behind the current crisis is because of Kim Jong-un’s explosive temper,” he told lawmakers.

Nam recalled an incident in which 15-year-old Kim’s girlfriend at the time attempted to convince him to quit smoking, a habit he picked up from his father.

“As Kim was smoking at a young age, his girlfriend advised him to quit smoking,” Nam said, “Then, Kim exploded with foul language, which was quite shocking.” (Read more from “Stories From Kim Jong Un’s Youth Offer Insight Into Dictator’s ‘Wild Temper'” HERE)

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U.S. Imposes First Sanctions on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for Human Rights Abuses

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The Obama administration imposed sanctions for the first time Wednesday on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his alleged role in perpetuating widespread human rights abuses.

The U.S. also blacklisted 10 other regime officials for allegedly helping Kim run prison camps, torture citizens, hunt down defectors, and maintain a nationwide system of propaganda and censorship.

The new Treasury Department sanctions freeze any of the individuals’ assets in the U.S. and prevent Americans from doing business with the blacklisted officials.

“Human rights abuses in the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] are among the worst in the world,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement announcing the sanctions Wednesday.

“The government continues to commit extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced labor, and torture. Many of these abuses are committed in the political prison camps, where an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 individuals are detained, including children and family members of the accused,” he added. (Read more from “U.S. Imposes First Sanctions on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for Human Rights Abuses” HERE)

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Kim Jong Un Says Terrifying Thing in New Year Speech – This Should Worry Everyone

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In his annual New Year’s speech Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is ready for war if provoked by “invasive” outsiders.

In the address, his fourth since taking power in 2011, Kim spoke of the need to increase the “political and military might” of his country “in every way,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

“The year 2015 was a year of gigantic struggle recorded with significant events and eye-opening successes and a year of victory and glory that strikingly demonstrated the dignity and might of socialist Korea,” Kim said in the 30-minute televised speech.

“We will continue to work patiently to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional stability,” he added. “But if invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and sternly answer with a merciless, holy war of justice.”

Such remarks aren’t unprecedented. In an October speech marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling communist Workers’ Party, Kim said he was prepared to wage war against the United States if necessary. (Read more from “Kim Jong Un Says Terrifying Thing in New Year Speech – This Should Worry Everyone” HERE)

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N. Korea Says Army Must Develop to be Able to Beat U.S.

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Photo Credit: KCNA / Reuters

Photo Credit: KCNA / Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the army to develop to ensure it wins any confrontation with the United States, the reclusive country’s news agency said on Sunday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned the North of its military might.

Kim led a meeting of the Central Military Commission and “set forth important tasks for further developing the Korean People’s Army and ways to do so”, KCNA news agency said.

“He stressed the need to enhance the function and role of the political organs of the army if it is to preserve the proud history and tradition of being the army of the party, win one victory after another in the confrontation with the U.S. and creditably perform the mission as a shock force and standard-bearer in building a thriving nation.”

Obama said on Saturday on a visit to Seoul, where the U.S. army has a large presence, that the United States did not use its military might to “impose things” on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North.

Read more from this story HERE.

China: North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Fed His Uncle to a Pack of 120 Hungry Dogs

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Photo Credit: Martyn Williams/Rodong

Photo Credit: Martyn Williams/Rodong

By Michael Kelley.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fed his once-powerful uncle to 120 hungry dogs, according to a detailed report in a newspaper with close ties to China’s ruling Communist Party and reported by the Straits Times.

The report is impossible to verify, but can’t be completely discounted.

China lost an important link to North Korea’s leadership with the purge of Jang Song Thaek, and may have published the account in Wen Wei Po to express its displeasure.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Kim Jong Un ‘fed uncle to pack of 120 ravenous dogs’

By Sean Piccoli and Post Wire Report.

The uncle of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was ripped to pieces by a pack of starving dogs in a slow, barbaric execution that Kim himself watched, an official Chinese newspaper reported.

Jang Song Thaek, the 67-year-old family member once considered Kim’s right-hand man, died horribly with five other condemned officials in a capital punishment ritual called “quan jue”— execution by dogs, according to the Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po, a mouthpiece for China’s government.

The ghastly account of Jeng’s execution could not be independently verified, but its publication in an official Chinese daily signaled Beijing’s growing disgust with Kim, according to a Singapore daily, the Straits Times, which suggested the Chinese might have leaked the gory tale to further embarrass and marginalize Pyongyang’s reigning madman.

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Says Purge of Uncle Was ‘Correct Decision’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday that national unity had strengthened “by 100 times” following the purge of “counterrevolutionary factionalists” — an apparent reference to his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was executed last month for treason.

Kim’s comments, delivered in a lengthy New Year’s Day address, were his first since Jang was accused of plotting a coup and stripped of all his posts. Although Kim did not mention Jang by name, he described the purge as the “correct decision.”

Kim also said the North must be more vigilant in stamping out dissent and called for intensified ideological education for Workers’ Party members and citizens to “ensure that they think and act at all times and in all places in line with the Party’s ideas and intentions.”

North Koreans “should wage a vigorous struggle to stamp out any sort of alien ideology and decadent lifestyle that may undermine our system,” Kim said.

The acknowledgment of potential dissent is noteworthy because the Pyongyang government has for decades used its propaganda to project a sense of unquestioned loyalty to the Kim family. Some analysts say that under Kim, the North has abruptly abandoned that kind of mythmaking and is instead highlighting the punishment that disloyalty will bring.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dennis Rodman to Kim Jong Un: ‘Do Me a Solid’

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Photo Credit: OPEN SportsNBA great-turned-unofficial diplomat Dennis Rodman asked North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Tuesday to release an imprisoned American citizen.

Bae, a devout Christian who worked as a tour operator near the Chinese-North Korea border, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor earlier this month, accused by the North Korean government of fomenting a revolution. The 44-year-old Bae was born in South Korea and is a naturalized American citizen.

Bae, a devout Christian who worked as a tour operator near the Chinese-North Korea border, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor earlier this month, accused by the North Korean government of fomenting a revolution…


Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea Says it Won't Warn South Korea Before an Attack

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Photo Credit: AP

By Jethro Mullen. North Korea is raising the temperature on its neighbors, saying in its latest threat that it would not give any advance warning before any attack on South Korea.

“Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now,” Pyongyang said in a statement published Tuesday by its official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea said it was responding to what it called insults from the “puppet authorities” in the South, claiming that there had been a rally against North Korea in Seoul — a rally it called a “monstrous criminal act.”

The renewed menacing rhetoric came a day after North Koreans celebrated the birthday of their country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, who launched the Korean War.

Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the latest threat from the North was regrettable. Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea, Marking Leader’s Birthday, Shows More Ire

By Eric Talmadge. After a day of festivities to mark the 101st birthday of its first leader, North Korea on Tuesday offered new prickly rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, which are watching closely for signs whether it will conduct a medium-range missile test in defiance of international concerns.

State media said the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army issued an ultimatum demanding an apology from South Korea for “hostile acts” and threatening that unspecified retaliatory actions would happen at any time.

The statement, relayed through the KCNA state media agency, came after a day of festivities in North Korea’s capital that featured art performances, public dances and crowds thronging to giant bronze statues to pay homage to the late leader Kim Il Sung,

The renewed rhetoric was sparked by a protest in downtown Seoul, where effigies of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, late leader Kim Jong Il, were burned. Such protests are not unusual in South Korea and this one likely gave the North a pretext to react negatively to calls for joining in dialogue with its neighbors than an actual cause for retaliation.

The North’s statement said it would refuse any offers of talks with the South until it apologized for the “monstrous criminal act.” North Korea often denounces such protests, but rarely in the name of the Supreme Command, which is headed by Kim Il Sung’s grandson and North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un. Read more from this story HERE.

China points finger at U.S. over Asia-Pacific tensions

By Ben Blanchard. China’s defense ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States on Tuesday for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region, days after the top U.S. diplomat visited Beijing.

China is uneasy with what the United States has called the “rebalancing” of forces as Washington winds down the war in Afghanistan and renews its attention further east.

China says the policy has emboldened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in longstanding territorial disputes with Beijing.

China faces “multiple and complicated security threats” despite its growing influence, the Ministry of Defense said in its annual white paper, adding that the U.S. strategy meant “profound changes” for Asia.

“There are some countries which are strengthening their Asia Pacific military alliances, expanding their military presence in the region and frequently make the situation there tenser,” the ministry said in the 40-page document, in a clear reference to the United States. Read more from this story HERE.

N. Korea May be Able to Deliver Nuke, Pentagon Intel Says

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Photo Credit: CNN

The Pentagon’s intelligence arm has assessed with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon with a ballistic missile, though the reliability is believed to be “low.”

Disclosed first by a congressman at a hearing on Thursday and then confirmed to CNN by the Defense Department, the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency is the clearest acknowledgment yet by the United States about potential advances in North Korea’s nuclear program.

The surprise development comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has unleashed a torrent of dramatic threats against the United States and South Korea in recent weeks, including that of a possible nuclear strike.

The Obama administration calculates a test launch of mobile ballistic missiles could come at any time. But a senior administration official said there is no indication that missiles believed being readied for tests have been armed with any nuclear material. Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmaker Catches Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘Off-Guard’, Reveals Probable North Korean Nuclear Capability

By Anna Mulrine. The results of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report indicate that “North Korea now has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles.”

That was the bombshell out of a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.

It came when Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) of Colorado began quoting from what he said was an unclassified version of the DIA report, which has not yet been made public.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, appeared caught off-guard. The Pentagon has in recent days sought to strike a balance between words of warning to the North and attempts to calm the situation. General Dempsey’s reaction suggested that he was not pleased to have the DIA assessment made public, as it could further stoke anxieties over what is already a enormously tense international standoff.

Representative Lamborn read from the report toward the end of a defense budget hearing. Read more from this story HERE.