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Kim Jong Un’s Apparent Weight Loss Sparks Speculation Over Health

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North Korea watchers are eager to get the skinny on leader Kim Jong Un’s apparent weight loss — which some speculate might be a sign of deteriorating health.

The famously corpulent despot looked noticeably slimmer in photos released by state media Saturday — after not being seen publicly for a month, the Guardian reported.

South Korea-based NK News, which analyzed photos of Kim addressing a ruling party politburo meeting last week, said he appeared to have lost a “significant amount of weight.”

If he lost the weight intentionally for health reasons, that “likely improves his position at home,” Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at MIT, told the outlet Tuesday.

Being more secure at home “in turn provides more predictability perhaps for regional actors like Japan, the ROK and the US who may have greater confidence that he will be running the show,” Narang said. (Read more from “Kim Jong Un’s Apparent Weight Loss Sparks Speculation Over Health” HERE)

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North Korea Sends Warning to U.S. After Biden’s Speech

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North Korea promised the United States will face a “very grave situation” after President Joe Biden described the country as a threat before a joint session of Congress.

“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as it had been done by the U.S. for over half a century,” said Kwon Jong Gun, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official.

In his speech, Biden referred to North Korea as a threat to national security — a line the senior adviser described as a “big blunder” and said would cause the U.S. to find itself “in a very grave situation.”

“It is certain that the U.S. chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint,” Kwon said, suggesting the North Korean administration would pressure the U.S. to reconsider their relationship. “Now that the keynote of the U.S. new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S. will find itself in a very grave situation.” (Read more from “North Korea Sends Warning to U.S. After Biden’s Speech” HERE)

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North Korea Reportedly Testing ‘Suicide’ Drones to Spy On, Attack Enemies

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North Korea has reportedly finished testing “suicide” drones that can spy on and then attack the Hermit Kingdom’s enemies.

The new “miniaturized unmanned drones” are capable of “precision reconnaissance of areas deep within the frontline” — ending with “pincer attacks,” meaning strikes from both flanks, sources told Daily NK.

Military authorities raced through testing of the drones after dictator Kim Jong Un called their development an “important task” for the country, the report said.

The despot then reportedly sent a personally signed “grateful message” to the team, saying the successful tests “establishes yet another cornerstone to promote the advancement and strength of the Korean People’s Army.” (Read more from “North Korea Reportedly Testing ‘Suicide’ Drones to Spy On, Attack Enemies” HERE)

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Kim Jong-un Says North Korea Is In Its ‘Worst-Ever Situation’

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Kim Jong-un appeared to state North Korea is currently enduring the worst period of its history in a speech to members of his ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on Wednesday.

Kim did not elaborate on what he was referring to when he said North Korea was in its “worst-ever” situation and, other than urging party leaders to address unspecified “shortcomings,” spoke much more optimistically than in other recent public statements, most notably in a tearful apology speech to the Korean people in October. The context of his remark was urging local Workers’ Party leaders to improve “people’s living standards,” suggesting that the situation which he lamented as historically poor was the nation’s economic one.

North Korea is currently under a strict sanctions regime imposed by the U.N. Security Council in 2017, following the nation’s latest illegal nuclear weapons test. Then-President Donald Trump convinced the Council — which includes North Korea’s closest ally, China — to impose the sanctions despite China and other members having veto power. While reports indicate China has regularly violated the sanctions, North Korea’s Chinese coronavirus lockdown appears to have kept much of China’s trade with the country on the other side of the border in 2020.

The speech followed Pyongyang announcing Tuesday that it would not participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, citing the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and a desire to protect its athletes from infection. North Korea currently claims to have documented zero cases of coronavirus in the country despite bordering some of the most severely affected states in the world, including China, where the pandemic originated. (Read more from “Kim Jong-un Says North Korea Is In Its ‘Worst-Ever Situation’” HERE)

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Kim Jong Un’s Sister Offers ‘Word of Advice’ to U.S. as Biden Officials Start Asia Trip

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The sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un warned the Biden administration on Monday that military actions near the country’s border could make Americans “lose sleep,” state media reported Tuesday.

The statement was delivered Tuesday by Kim Yo-jong in Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper — and comes after the US last week began joint military exercises with South Korea.

In the statement, Jong offered “a word of advice to the new administration of the United States that is struggling to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land.

“If you wish to sleep well for the next four years, it would be better not to create work from the start that will make you lose sleep,” she said. (Read more from “Kim Jong Un’s Sister Offers ‘Word of Advice’ to U.s. as Biden Officials Start Asia Trip” HERE)

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Report: North Korea Laundering Money Through U.S. Banks to Evade Sanctions

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North Korea has laundered money through US banks in an elaborate, years-long plot to evade international sanctions, according to a new report citing a leak of confidential documents from leading financial institutions.

The documents revealed that North Korea-linked organizations allegedly transferred more than $174.8 million illegally using shell companies and assistance from Chinese companies through US banks, including JPMorgan Chase and the Bank of New York Mellon, NBC News reported.

During that period, Washington had ramped up its sanctions against the Hermit Kingdom as Pyongyang pursued its nuclear and missile programs with vigor, according to the network.

Wire transfers from companies with shady ownership were made only days or hours apart in some instances, with amounts in round numbers and with no clear commercial reasons, according to the documents cited by NBC News. . .

Eric Lorber, a former Treasury Department official who worked on sanctions against the rogue regime during the Trump administration, told NBC News that “taken as a whole, you have what really, frankly, looks like a concerted attack by the North Koreans to access the US financial system over an extended period of time through multiple different avenues in ways that were fairly sophisticated.” (Read more from “Report: North Korea Laundering Money Through U.S. Banks to Evade Sanctions” HERE)

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North Korea Reportedly Has up to 60 Nuclear Bombs in Massive Weapons Stockpile

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North Korea is believed to have between 20 and 60 nuclear bombs — as well as a 2,500- to 5,000-ton stockpile of 20 types of chemical weapons, the world’s third-largest, according to reports.

The US Department of the Army headquarters made the assessment in its recent report, titled “North Korean tactics,” saying Pyongyang is unlikely to give up the weapons in its bid to prevent a regime change, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

“Estimates for North Korean nuclear weapons range from 20-60 bombs, with the capability to produce 6 new devices each year,” the US Army said, noting that some reports state that the rogue regime could obtain as many as 100 by the end of 2020.

“North Korea sought nuclear weapons because its leaders thought the threat of a nuclear attack would prevent other countries from contemplating a regime change,” the US military said. (Read more from “North Korea Reportedly Has up to 60 Nuclear Bombs in Massive Weapons Stockpile” HERE)

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Amid Food Shortages, North Koreans Ordered to Hand Over Pet Dogs

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North Korean dictator Kim Kong-un has ordered citizens to hand over their pet dogs — so they can be killed for food.

The hermit state says pet dogs are now considered a “decadent” luxury and “a ‘tainted’ trend by bourgeois ideology,” and must be surrendered, according to a report by South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo media outlet. . .

According to the Daily Mail, a recent report by the UN said up to 60 percent of North Koreans face “widespread food shortages.” In recent weeks, heavy rain and flooding have sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.

North Korea’s national Red Cross Society is the only organization with access to all nine provinces, and more than 43,000 volunteers have been working alongside health teams on COVID-19 prevention efforts as well as helping flood-related work, said Antony Balmain of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“Hundreds of homes have been damaged and large areas of rice fields have been submerged due to heavy rain and some flash flooding,” Balmain said, according to Reuters. (Read more from “Amid Food Shortages, North Koreans Ordered to Hand Over Pet Dogs” HERE)

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New North Korea Report Suggests Pyongyang Can Hit U.S. With Nukes

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North Korea likely already has the ability to mount nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to a United Nations report acquired by Reuters. The news has deepened concerns that major American cities are in range of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, despite the efforts of President Donald Trump’s administration to disarm Kim Jong Un.

The confidential UN report shows that several unnamed nations agree that North Korea has “probably developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles.”

The interim report was submitted to the 15-member UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee Monday, Reuters said, and also noted that Pyongyang is still violating international sanctions and engaging in lucrative cyberattacks to secure much-needed funds.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing its nuclear program, including the production of highly enriched uranium and construction of an experimental light water reactor,” the report said. “A Member State assessed that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing production of nuclear weapons.” (Read more from “New North Korea Report Suggests Pyongyang Can Hit U.S. With Nukes” HERE)

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North Korea Declares Emergency Over COVID-19

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North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un has declared a state of emergency over what he said was the potential entrance of novel coronavirus into the country.

Kim convened on Saturday an emergency meeting of the political bureau of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee. The country is one of only about a dozen in the world that has not declared a single COVID-19 case, though new circumstances over the past weekend near the border city of Kaesong could reportedly affect this record.

“Amid the intensified anti-epidemic campaign for thoroughly checking the inroads of the world’s threatening pandemic, an emergency event happened in Kaesong City where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus returned on July 19 after illegally crossing the demarcation line,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday. . .

“Despite the intense preventive anti-epidemic measures taken in all fields throughout the country and tight closure of all the channels for the last six months, there happened a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” Kim was cited as saying, noting he has completely sealed off Kaesong City and isolated each district and region as of July 24. (Read more from “North Korea Declares Emergency Over COVID-19” HERE)

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