Dennis Rodman may think he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are best buddies, but escapees of the Hermit Kingdom say the oddball NBA Hall of Famer is more doormat than diplomat.
“You think Kim Jong Un is your friend, but he is just using you,” Jo Jin Hye, a North Korean refugee who has become a human rights advocate working with U.S.-based North Korea Freedom Coalition and is founder of NKinUSA told FoxNews.com in a message directed at Rodman.
“He’s friendly with you just so he can mislead his people,” she said. “He wants to make them think that the outside world accepts their leader.”
Jo, who most recently testified before the UN Commission of Inquiry on the atrocities committed in her homeland, added that many who have made it out of North Korea are angry that Rodman is currently in North Korea extolling the virtues of Kim, who he has called his “friend.” On Wednesday, Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to Kim before taking to the court with a group of former NBA players in an exhibition game with North Korean players.
“I don’t understand why he would go there,” Jo said. “He [Rodman] says they are friends, but how can he be friends with someone like Kim Jong Un? He has killed members of his own family like animals.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-01-09 00:00:132014-01-09 00:00:13Rodman Being Used as Doormat, Not Diplomat, say North Korea Defectors
Dennis Rodman North Korea Interview Meltdown: Rodman Screams At CNN Anchor About Kenneth Bae And Kim Jong Un
By Mike Smollins.
Dennis Rodman visited North Korea to play basketball for supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong Un’s birthday and made an appearance via satellite on a CNN program, where he ended up screaming and ranting at the anchor.
According to Deadspin.com, during the interview, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo asked Rodman–who has a well-documented close relationship with Kim–about Kenneth Bae, who is an American that is imprisoned in North Korea on vague charges, and Rodman flipped out. Cuomo asked if Rodman would use his close relationship with Kim to push a request for Bae’s release.
Rodman then exploded.
“The one thing about politics, Kenneth Bae did one thing. If you understand – if you understand what Kenneth Bae did,” Rodman said in the video on CNN. “Do you understand what he did? In this country?”
Family of American held in North Korea angry at Dennis Rodman
By Laura Smith-Spark and Tom Watkins.
Dennis Rodman defended his visit to North Korea with a team of fellow former NBA players in a combative exchange Tuesday, saying the trip was a “great idea for the world.”
In an exclusive interview with Chris Cuomo of CNN’s “New Day,” Rodman reacted angrily when pressed on whether the group should have traveled there, given recent events in the secretive country.
The trip takes place weeks after North Korea announced the purge and execution of Kim’s once-powerful uncle.
The other former NBA players are due to play Wednesday in a basketball game on the 31st birthday of Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader.
“I love my friend,” Rodman said in a reference to Kim during an interview carried out from Pyongyang. “This is my friend.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-01-08 00:15:552014-01-08 00:15:55Rodman Explodes at CNN Anchor Over North Korea (+video)
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.
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.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-01-04 00:08:112014-01-04 00:08:11China: North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Fed His Uncle to a Pack of 120 Hungry Dogs
The execution of the man once perceived as North Korea’s most influential figure may portend a growing purge of critics of the shaky rule of Kim Jong-un.
A 2,740-word statement by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency on the anti-state crimes of Jang Song-thaek may indicate as much about the regime’s insecurity, in the view of many analysts, as it does about Mr. Kim’s ability to consolidate his power since the death of his long-ruling father, Kim Jong-il, on Dec. 17, 2011.
“They are afraid of any possible reaction by the forces of Jang,” says Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea military specialist formerly with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “More executions are inevitable.” Jang is believed to have been executed by a firing squad.
Although Kim Jong-un “outwardly is in control,” says Mr. Kim, the statement on Mr. Jang’s trial by the military tribunal that ordered his death makes clear the regime’s fear that Jang – once vice chairman of the powerful national defense commission and a member of the politburo of the Workers’ Party – was plotting a coup d’etat with the support of his own group within the armed forces and Workers’ Party.
“I was going to stage the coup by using army officers who had close ties with me or by mobilizing armed forces under the control of my confidants,” the statement, in English, quotes Jang as saying. The quotes, which the tribunal presumably wrote under his name regardless of whether or not he actually uttered them, make Jang a scapegoat for failures that have brought the economy close to collapse.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-12-14 00:19:442013-12-14 00:19:44Following High Profile Execution in North Korea: Will Mass Purges Follow?
North Korea announced Thursday it had executed the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, declaring him a traitor who tried to overthrow the state.
The announcement came only days after Pyongyang announced through state media that Jang Song Thaek — long considered the country’s No. 2 power — had been removed from all his posts because of allegations of corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and leading a “dissolute and depraved life.”
State news agency KCNA said a tribunal examined Jang’s crimes, including “attempting to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a wild ambition to grab the supreme power of our party and state.”
The report called him “a traitor to the nation” and “worse than a dog.”
National Security Council spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that there was no reason to doubt the report of Jang’s death and if true, it illustrated North Korea’s “extreme brutality.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-12-13 01:10:202013-12-13 01:10:20North Korea Executes Kim Jong Un’s Uncle
North Korea freed an 85-year-old retired American soldier on Saturday after detaining him for more than a month for crimes it said he committed during the Korean War six decades ago.
The veteran, Merrill E. Newman, flew to China from North Korea in the morning. Hours later he left on a United Airlines flight to San Francisco to be reunited with his family, sources at Beijing airport said.
North Korea’s official KCNA news agency earlier said he was being deported on humanitarian grounds and because he had admitted to his wrongdoing and apologized.
“I’m very glad to be on my way home,” Newman told Japanese reporters as he arrived at Beijing airport. “And I appreciate the tolerance the DPRK government has given to me to be on my way. I feel good, I feel good. I want to go home to see my wife.”
The DPRK – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – is the official name of North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated and unpredictable states.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-12-07 01:47:352013-12-07 01:47:35North Korea Frees U.S. Korean War Veteran After Seven Weeks
Photo Credit: CNN The U.S. government pleaded Saturday for North Korean authorities to release 85-year-old Merrill Newman, with a spokeswoman saying officials are “deeply concerned” about him and another American being held in the isolated East Asian nation.
“Given Mr. Newman’s advanced age and health conditions, we urge (North Korea) to release Mr. Newman so he may return home and reunite with his family,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
Washington’s plea came on the day North Korean state media released print stories and video showing what they called Newman’s “apology.” University of California, Berkeley professor Steven Weber characterized it as “highly scripted political theater.”
So how did an elderly retired financial consultant and Korean War veteran become the central figure in an international dispute? Why is there such animosity still tied to a conflict, the Korean War, that ended six decades ago? And why is this all unfolding now?
Weber, a former consultant to the U.S. Commission on National Security, has a theory: “They are trying to get the Western media to pay attention.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-12-01 00:25:562016-04-11 11:13:21U.S. Government Urges North Korea to Release 85-year-old American War Vet
Photo Credit: APIranian collaboration with North Korea on a new rocket booster for long-range missiles undermines the deal with Tehran on its nuclear program, key Senate and House Republicans said on Tuesday.
“While the president was undertaking his secret negotiations—which Congress wasn’t informed of—he had to know Iran and North Korea were testing new engines for ballistic missiles to target the United States,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces.
Rogers said in a statement that despite sharp budget cuts, U.S. space monitoring systems would not miss the development of the new booster engine.
“Every day the president’s deal looks worse and worse,” Rogers said when asked about the Tehran-Pyongyang missile collaboration.
The chairman, whose subcommittee is in charge of overseeing U.S. strategic weapons, ballistic missile defenses, and space programs, made the comments in response to a report Tuesday revealing that Iran is covertly working with North Korea on a new 80-ton rocket booster that can be used in both nations’ long-range missile programs.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-30 01:00:192016-04-11 11:13:23North Korea and Iran Move Forward with Missile Technology Designed to Strike US
California Man Pulled Off Plane in North Korea, Detained, Son Says
By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
An 85-year-old American man on an organized tour of North Korea was pulled off a departing plane in Pyongyang just minutes before it was to depart, the man’s son told CNN on Wednesday.
The family has had no contact with Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California, since he was detained on October 26, his son Jeff Newman said.
“This is a misunderstanding. My father is a (Korean War) veteran and wanted to see the country and culture he has been interested in for years,” Jeff Newman said. “He arranged this with a travel agent that was recommended and said was approved by the North Korean government for travel of foreigners. He had all the proper visas.”
The U.S. State Department is working to resolve the matter with North Korea’s top ally, China. Ambassador Glyn Davies, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korean Policy, met in Beijing for several hours on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart.
“We are working very hard … to try to move this issue along,” Davies said, following the session. “We certainly think that North Korea should think long and hard about (this) and understand that for the United States this is a matter of core concern for us.”
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty U.S. Issues Harshest Travel Warning in 18 Years Against North Korea
by Max Fisher
The State Department has long cautioned Americans about visiting North Korea, but on Tuesday it went a big step further, issuing a blanket warning against all American travel to the country. This was the first such State Department warning since North Korea began allowing American tourists in 1995, immediately raising the question: why?
The travel warning cited, somewhat cryptically, “the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens in North Korea.” It noted that two Americans traveling on valid visas have been previously arrested. But neither of those was especially recent. Eddie Jun Yong-su was arrested in November 2010, allegedly for illegal missionary work, and released in March 2011. Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012 on similar charges and is still being held.
The travel warning does not explain what, if anything, has happened since last November that led the State Department to elevate its warning. A State Department spokesperson said that they could not comment due to U.S. privacy laws but emphasized that travel warnings of this severity are typically in response to “chronic” threats to U.S. citizens. Some early, unconfirmed reports are emerging that an elderly American man may have been detained.
A rising number of Americans visits North Korea every year on heavily orchestrated, state-monitored tours, a source of hard currency for the government there. The vast majority travel without incident. But, as NKNews.org editor Chad O’Carroll explained earlier today, the potentially lucrative business has attracted new tourist companies, some of which have little experience with North Korea’s complex and highly sensitive restrictions. A source in the North Korean tourism industry suggested to O’Carroll, “Tourists traveling with some of the newest companies could be more likely to unwillingly fall afoul of North Korean laws.”
A little before noon, U.S. Eastern Time, the San Jose Mercury News reported that an 85-year-old man from Palo Alto “has been detained in North Korea for more than three weeks” after North Korean authorities removed him from the plane that was to fly him out of the country. The report identifies the man as Merrill Newman, which is significant, as previously arrested Americans have been of Korean descent. The story also quotes a State Department spokesperson as declining to confirm or deny the story and saying only, “We are aware of reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-21 03:13:272016-04-11 11:13:52U.S. Korean War Veteran Arrested in North Korea (+video)
Photo Credit: APAs many as 80 people were publicly executed in North Korea earlier this month, some for offenses as minor as watching South Korean movies or possessing a Bible.
South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported that the so-called criminals were put to death in seven cities across North Korea on Nov. 3, in the first known large-scale public executions by the Kim Jong-un regime.
A source, who is familiar with internal affairs in the North and who recently visited the country, told the paper that about 10 people were killed in each city.
Eight people — their heads covered with white bags — were tied to stakes at a local stadium in the city of Wonsan, before authorities shot them with a machine gun, according to the source.
Wonsan authorities gathered a crowd of 10,000 people, including children, at Shinpoong Stadium and forced them to watch the killings.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-13 03:01:052016-04-11 11:14:27North Korea Publicly Executes 80, Some for Watching South Korean Videos or Owning Bibles
