Kim Jong-Un's uncle executed stripped naked and fed to 120 starving dogs as tyrant watched

Kim Jong-Un's uncle was stripped naked and fed to 120 starving dogs as the tyrant watched on, a shocking report has claimed. The ruthless North Korean leader ordered the execution of Jang Song-Thaek - his mentor and the country's second in command - last month.

At the time, it was believed he had been executed by firing squad with machine guns after being sentenced to death by a military tribunal. But now an official report in China says Jang was stripped naked and thrown into a cage, along with his five closest aides.

Then 120 dogs, who had been deprived of food for three days, were allowed to eat them in a process called "quan jue", or execution by dogs. The report added the entire process lasted for an hour, with Kim, 30, supervising it along with 300 senior North Korea officials.

Mirror Online - (This story is based on rumours and probably not true as it is brought to you by Wen Wei Po)

 

North Korea raises tensions with plan to carry out new nuclear test aimed at 'sworn enemy' United States

The secretive North Korean regime has said it is planning a nuclear test and more long-range rocket launches, aimed at what it calls its "sworn enemy", the United States. The move, which comes in defiance of a resolution issued by the UN on Tuesday, is likely to once again raise tensions in the region over the North Korean missile program.

On Tuesday the UN Security Council condemned North Korea for test-firing a missile in December and tightened existing sanctions on the regime. The National Defence Commission of Korea responded by saying the new nuclear test would be part of its action against the "sworn enemy of the Korean people".

The regime has also said it plans to press ahead with the ongoing testing of long-range missiles. The declaration by the National Defence Commission, said: "We do not hide that the various satellites and long-range rockets we will continue to launch, as well as the high-level nuclear test we will proceed with, are aimed at our arch-enemy the United States."

The Independent

North Korea 'holding 200,000 prisoners'

Amnesty International says new satellite images and testimony from a former inmate show North Korea is holding around 200,000 people in its huge network of political prison camps where torture is rampant and conditions near slavery.

The human rights group based in London released on Wednesday recent satellite photos which show four of six camps located in the impoverished country's South Pyongan, South Hamkyung and North Hamkyung provinces.

North Korea has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, but it rejects outside criticism and denies the existence of prison camps. "North Korea can no longer deny the undeniable," Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International Asia Pacific director, said in a statement.

"Hundreds of thousands of people exist with virtually no rights, treated essentially as slaves, in some of the worst circumstances we’ve documented in the last 50 years," Zarifi said. "Conditions in these camps are inhuman and [leader] Kim Jong-il must close them immediately," he added.

Prison camps are believed to have been operation since the 1950s and can be categorised into two: 'total control zones' where inmates are never released without any proper trials; and 'revolutionary zones' where conditions are more lenient, Zarifi said. "These are places out of sight of the rest of the world, where almost the entire range of human rights protections that international law has tried to set up for last 60 years are ignored," he said.

Kyoung-il Jeong, a former inmate at a revolutionary-zone Yodok prison, testified that inmates are fed 200 grams of corn gruel and often thrown into a cube "torture cell" where it is impossible to either stand or lie down.

Al Jazeera

North Korea 'tests weapons on children'

Is this war mongering spin?

When Im Chun-yong made his daring escape from North Korea, with a handful of his special forces men, there were many reasons why the North Korean government was intent on stopping them.

They were, after all, part of Kim Jong-il's elite commandos - privy to a wealth of military secrets and insights into the workings of the reclusive regime.

But among the accounts they carried with them is one of the most shocking yet to emerge – namely the use of humans, specifically mentally or physically handicapped children, to test North Korea's biological and chemical weapons.

"If you are born mentally or physically deficient, says Im, the government says your best contribution to society… is as a guinea pig for biological and chemical weapons testing."

Even after settling into the relative safety of South Korea, for 10 years Im held on to this secret, saying it was too horrific to recount.

But with Kim's health reportedly failing, and the country appearing increasingly unpredictable, Im felt it was time he spoke out. Al Jazeera

In video Interview: North Korea weapons threat

North Korean leader praises combat troops

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has praised his troops as combat-ready amid preparations to produce more nuclear weapons, sources said Sunday.

Kim expressed "great satisfaction" after inspecting troops in the 7th infantry division, finding them ready for "combat ability in every way," the state-run North Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday.

The report of Kim's inspection came a day after North Korea vowed to weaponize more spent plutonium rods and enrich uranium to produce nuclear weapons, Yonhap news agency in South Korea reported.

Western intelligence sources have estimated North Korea has enough enriched uranium for at least six atomic bombs.

UPI.com

More about Kim Jong Il on OsMoothie

Also see NKorea's uranium plan to create trickier nuclear standoff

North Korea has sentenced two US journalists to 12 years hard labour

North Korea, facing U.N. sanctions for last month's nuclear test, on Monday raised the stakes in its growing confrontation with Washington by jailing two U.S. journalists to 12 years hard labor for "grave crime."

The sentence follows U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning on Sunday the United States was considering putting the reclusive North back on its list of states that sponsor terrorism, which would further isolate the impoverished country.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. The trial for the two, working for the company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, opened on Thursday.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," the official KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch.

ABC News – AlJazeera

Also see: The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps Prisoners’ Testimonies and Satellite Photographs -Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Welcome to North Korea

A documentary that will show you the horrors of what goes on in the "Democratic People's Republic" of Korea.

North Korea's nuclear test puts China in a tight spot

It has been decades since American bombs rocked Dandong, the main crossing on the 800-mile Chinese-North Korean border. But this week another explosion shook China and the new threat is from its old ally. North Korea's nuclear test has raised tensions throughout the region – and increased pressure on China to rein in its neighbour.

China provides as much as 90% of the North's energy and 40% of its food. Like Russia, it has used its security council veto against attempts to isolate Pyongyang. Without its support, its poor neighbour would struggle to survive.

But now it appears that the North may be exhausting Beijing's patience. This week's nuclear and missile tests, last month's rocket launch, increasing threats and the suspected restarting of the Yongbyon nuclear plant have reignited debate about how best to deal with a troublesome neighbour.

Beijing was swift to slap down the nuclear test in a rare act of public criticism and the US appears hopeful that it will sign a security council resolution toughening existing sanctions – agreed in 2006, but only loosely enforced

"This time, North Korea has gone too far," said Zhang Liangui, a Korea expert at Beijing's Central Party School, which trains Communist party officials. "What they have done has hurt its relationship with China."  The Guardian

Tension, Desperation: The China-North Korean Border – NY Times

US military in South Korea ’pushing’ the North

Some analysts argue that the US military presence in South Korea has pushed Pyongyang into an arms race.

LiveLeak.com

North Korea Vows to Bolster Nuclear Arsenal

North Korea vowed Friday to bolster its atomic arsenal in response to what it called Washington's "hostile" policy, even as a special envoy for President Barack Obama traveled to the region in a bid to draw Pyongyang back to nuclear negotiations.

Envoy Stephen Bosworth, in Beijing before heading Friday to South Korea, said the U.S. is ready and willing to talk directly with Pyongyang.

"The United States reiterates its desire to engage both multilaterally and bilaterally with North Korea," Bosworth told reporters after holding talks with senior Chinese officials Thursday. "We believe very strongly that the solution to the tensions and problems of the area now lies in dialogue and negotiation." FOXNews.com

Peering into North Korea

photographs from North Korea are still restricted and hard to come by. One way around that has been for photographers to peer inside from across the border, a pastime that has also spurred a level of curious tourism in both neighbouring South Korea and China. Collected here are a some recent photographs, looking into reclusive North Korea from the outside - and some of the reactions these observations induce.  The Big Picture - Boston.com ( More here )

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