SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea declared on Sunday it could test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at any time from any location set by leader Kim Jong Un, saying a hostile U. S. policy was to blame for its arms development.
Kim said on Jan. 1 that his nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an ICBM.
« The ICBM will be launched anytime and anywhere determined by the supreme headquarters of the DPRK, » an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency, using the acronym for the country’s name.
The North is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
U. S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said on Sunday that North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities and ballistic missile defence programs constituted a « serious threat » to the United States and that it was prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile launch or test.
« We only would shoot them down … if it was threatening, that is if it were coming toward our territory or the territory of our friends and allies, » Carter said during an appearance on NBC’s « Meet the Press » program.
The United States said on Jan. 5 that North Korea had demonstrated a « qualitative » improvement in its nuclear and missile capabilities after an unprecedented level of tests last year.
North Korea has been testing rocket engines and heat-shields for an ICBM while developing the technology to guide a missile after re-entry into the atmosphere following a liftoff, experts have said.
While Pyongyang is close to a test, it is likely to take some years to perfect the weapon, according to the experts.
Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental United States, which is around 9,000 km (5,500 miles) from the North. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500 km (3,400 miles), but some are designed to travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles) or farther.
On Monday, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun called North Korea’s statement a « provocative announcement » and told a regular news briefing that Pyongyang would face stronger sanctions if it were to launch an ICBM. Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said there were no signs of any launch preparations.
U. S. President-elect Donald Trump responded to Kim’s comments on an ICBM test by declaring in a tweet last week: « It won’t happen!  »
Asked for comment on Sunday, the White House referred to Jan. 3 comments by White House press secretary Josh Earnest in which he said the U. S. military believed it could protect against the threat emanating from North Korea.
In that briefing, Earnest also touted the defensive measures the United States had taken to guard against the threat, such as anti-ballistic missile facilities that had been installed around the Pacific region and diplomatic pressure to discourage North Korea from pursuing its nuclear program.
A U. S. State Department spokesman said last week that the United States did not believe that North Korea was capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
North Korea has been under U. N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions were tightened last month after Pyongyang conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 9.
« The U. S. is wholly to blame for pushing the DPRK to have developed ICBM as it has desperately resorted to anachronistic policy hostile toward the DPRK for decades to encroach upon its sovereignty and vital rights, » KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.
« Anyone who wants to deal with the DPRK would be well advised to secure a new way of thinking after having clear understanding of it, » the spokesman said, according to KCNA.
Here is an interactive guide to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes produced by the Reuters graphics team.(http://tmsnrt.rs/2inl1WO)
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Additional reporting by Julia Harte in Washington; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Peter Cooney)

© Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-says-test-launch-icbm-time-official-021252985.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Seoul – South Korea’s culture minister apologised Monday for the conservative government’s blacklisting of thousands of artists for their political beliefs, as critics said the attempt to muzzle critics was the worst for decades.
The list of over 9,000 artists in film, theatre, music and literature came to light late last year when a number of local media outlets published it.
Many on the list had voiced support for opposition parties, or criticised or satirised the administration of now-impeached President Park Geun-Hye or past army dictatorships.
The list reads like a Who’s Who of Seoul’s arts scene. It includes novelist Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, and « Oldboy » film director Park Chan-Wook, who won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004.
« I… apologise over the pain and suffering caused to the artists banned from state support because of their political or ideological leanings, » Culture Minister Cho Yoon-Sun told a parliamentary hearing.
Cultural officials were ordered to stop offering state aid to the plays, films or other projects involving « left-leaning » artists on the list.
« I deeply apologise for letting the controversial blacklist cause so much pain and disappointment among the public, » she said.
Cho, culture minister since last September, is accused of playing a key role in creating the list while serving as Park’s adviser in political affairs from 2014-2015.
Cho has denied the accusations, saying she had not been aware of the list until recently.
A former culture minister who is Cho’s predecessor has been quizzed by prosecutors, who are seeking to arrest him and other former senior officials accused of compiling the list.
« We believe that the list, aimed at ruling out certain artists from state support, seriously damaged the public’s freedom of expression, » said a spokesman for the special prosecutors’ team investigating the wide-ranging scandal surrounding President Park.
« Those who made the list and carried out its orders will be held accountable sternly, » Lee Kyu-Chul told reporters.
The prosecutors are expected to quiz Cho and a former presidential chief of staff who is accused of leading the project to create the list with Park’s approval.
The blacklist sparked fury among local artists and opposition party lawmakers, with many describing it as reminiscent of Seoul’s 1960s-80s army-backed rule — when the news, arts and entertainment were heavily consored.
« The list dialled back our history to the 1970s…based on an anachronistic and unconstitutional way of thinking, » the main opposition Democratic Party said in a recent statement, likening it to « 21st century McCarthism ».
Park, daughter of late army-backed dictator Park Chung-Hee who ruled with an iron fist from 1961-1979, was impeached by parliment last month over a major influence-peddling scandal.
She is accused of colluding with her secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil to extract tens of millions of dollars from local firms and letting Choi meddle in a wide range of state affairs.
The Constitutional Court is reviewing the validity of the impeachment bill. If it affirms the move, a presidential election must be held within two months.

© Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/south-korea-culture-minister-apologises-over-blacklist/3424450.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Roughly one year and one week ago , the governments of Japan and South Korea came to an agreement over the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery of Korean women — known euphemistically as the “comfort women.” Per the agreement, Japan apologized and agree to contribute 1 billion yen (approximately $8.3 million at the time) to set up a foundation under the South Korean government to support the living victims.
Though the governments of now-impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe thought the deal sufficient at the time to move the 50-year-old bilateral relationship past this decades-old dispute, public opinion was another matter. In Japan, conservatives on Abe’s right condemned the agreement as unnecessary given previous Japanese expressions of remorse and, more significantly, in South Korea, critics in the media and civil society described the deal as Park effectively selling out the dignity of survivors of wartime sexual slavery for short-term diplomatic and geopolitical gain. (A rising North Korean threat and mutual concerns over China were factors that led to the agreement becoming opportune in the first place.)
This week showed that the premature conclusion of an agreement on the issue without public support, especially in South Korea, may doom the 2015 “comfort women” deal to unravel. On Friday, Tokyo recalled its ambassador to South Korea, Yasumasa Nagamine, in protest of a statue commemorating the “comfort women” outside the Japanese Consulate in Busan. Yasuhiro Morimoto, the consul general in Busan, was also recalled “temporarily,” according to a spokesperson for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan had recalled its envoy to South Korea in 2012 when then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima islets in the Sea of Japan.
Though the Busan statue is new, an earlier statue was placed by activists outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul and was part of the 2015 deal’s quid pro quo from the South Korean side. In exchange for Japan’s new apology and 1 billion yen contribution, South Korea was not only meant to set aside the issue as a diplomatic wedge between the two countries, but also remove the Seoul statue. According to the Korea Herald , in addition to the Busan and Seoul statues, which are notable for their proximity to Japanese diplomatic missions, 37 similar commemorative statues exist around the country.
While time will tell how South Korea will react to the strong signal sent by Japan by recalling its ambassador over the statue issue, Tokyo’s step underlines an early criticism of the deal: that despite assurances by both governments that it would be a “a final and irreversible resolution” to the issue, that could not be without public opinion buy-in in both countries. A poll released last month showed that a majority of South Korean continue to feel that the agreement should be scrapped, with just 25.9 percent in favor of retaining it.
The move also suggests that the Abe government is starting to come to terms with the right-wing Japanese critique of the deal that condemned South Korea for not taking swift action on the statue despite Japanese concessions. “South Korea is our neighbor and an extremely important country. So it is extremely regrettable we had to resort to such action,” Yoshihide Suga, Abe’s chief cabinet secretary, told reporters. For Japan, the fact that South Korea was unable to take adequate domestic action to remove the statue in Seoul and now has allowed another to go up in Busan represents the possibility that the deal could be annulled.
Japan’s decision to recall its ambassador appears to have been made without consideration of South Korea’s ongoing political crisis following Park Geun-hye impeachment after an influence-peddling scandal. With the country expected to head into new elections this year, the caretaker government of Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn will have little legitimacy by which to push for a solution, either bilaterally with Japan or domestically with the activist groups in South Korea still displeased at the deal in the first place. Moreover, with political winds in South Korea blowing in favor of the opposition after Park’s scandal, prospects for cooperation with Japan over the issue look bleak. (The leader of the Minjoo Party once called the agreement an “ unprecedented diplomatic catastrophe .”)
All this raises the prospect of the deal that was once described as “a final and irreversible resolution” withering away and the “comfort women” issue becoming just as salient in Japan-South Korea ties as it was before the December 28, 2015, agreement. A future bilateral agreement will be especially difficult for both governments given the difficulties in implementing the 2015 accord.

© Source: http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-final-and-irreversible-2015-japan-south-korea-comfort-women-deal-unravels/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Actresses and makeup artists lifted the curtains — or, better yet, sheets — on the pre- Golden Globes  primping process with social-media posts showing faces covered in masks. Drew Barrymore  papered her mug and gave a shout out to Korean skin-care with the hashtag #kbeauty, while Maisie Williams  described her full-face masking as “amazing,” and Julia Louis-Dreyfus gamely lined her under-eye areas, nasolabial folds and forehead with white Skyn Iceland patches.
Jessica Chastain and  Emma Stone  also got in on the mask action. Stone went the more unusual route with a lip-shaped mouth covering. In an Instagram post revealing the actress wide-eyed with the mask on, makeup artist Rachel Goodwin wrote #koreanskincaresilliness and cracked, “Some say  beauty  is pain, others say it just ridiculous!” The post sent  beauty  journalists Google sleuthing to nail down the make and maker of the pout mask. Glamour’s Lipstick.com pointed to Tony Moly Kiss Kiss Lovely Lip Patch, and Teen Vogue figured it was KNC Beauty Lip Mask. KNC Beauty’s lip mask is $24.99 compared to Tony Moly’s $4 offering.
Unlike starvation diets or sessions with high-priced trainers, masks promise to provide immediate, glowing results and have become a key final skin-care step to set the stage for makeup application. Korean beauty brands have been at the forefront of the sheet mask trend, bombarding the market with countless mask options for an array of skin-care concerns and body parts. For beauty brands, the masks provide visual products that can be spotlighted on social media in ways most creams and serums can’t.

© Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/latimes/news/opinion/commentary/~3/oi4aX37Kc2Q/la-ig-wwd-golden-globes-skincare-masks-20170109-htmlstory.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

SEOUL – South Korean special prosecutors team have filed fresh charges including bribery against a close friend of impeached President Park Geun-hye, the central figure in a political scandal that has engulfed the country, the team said Monday.
Choi Soon-sil, in jail since late October and on trial since last month, already faces charges of abuse of power and attempted fraud. On Monday, Lee Kyu-chul, spokesman for the special prosecution team, said it had filed the additional charges.
He declined to provide further details during a regular briefing. Choi’s lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
Choi, 60, who has known Park for four decades, is accused of colluding with Park to pressure big businesses, including Samsung Group, to contribute to nonprofit foundations backing the president’s initiatives.
Choi has denied any wrongdoing.
Also on Monday, two senior executives of Samsung Group were questioned as part of the corruption probe.
South Korean prosecutors are trying to ascertain whether Samsung, the country’s biggest conglomerate, sought favours from Choi and Park in return for funding some of their initiatives.
No Samsung officials have been accused of wrongdoing.
As part of their investigation, prosecutors are also looking into Samsung’s sponsorship of the equestrian riding career of Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, 20, who was arrested in Denmark after being sought by South Korean authorities.
Chung has been accused of criminal interference related to her academic record and other unspecified charges.
Upon their arrival at the special prosecutor’s office on Monday, Choi Gee-sung and Chang Choong-ki, executives from Samsung’s future strategy office, declined to comment.
The two were being questioned as witnesses but their status can change, the special prosecutor’s office has said.
Park has denied any wrongdoing but admitted carelessness in her dealings with Choi, who is accused of wielding inappropriate influence over state affairs.
The Constitutional Court will decide whether or not to uphold Park’s impeachment, a process that could take months.

© Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/09/asia-pacific/crime-legal-asia-pacific/south-korean-leaders-friend-choi-soon-sil-now-charged-bribery/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

My favorite Korean movie growing up was Silmido , a military drama about 31 death row convicts forcibly enlisted into a covert assassination attempt against North Korean President Kim Il-sung.
For two years, the convicts are subjected to grueling physical and mental training. Whether for personal redemption or the promise of freedom, the convicts steadily become an elite group of top-tier special operators, steely-eyed killers with a singular mission. Yet, none of the convicts turned assassins ever cross into North Korea. Through a series of twists, the unit coded named Unit 684 is deemed a liability and subsequently slated for elimination by their military and political handlers. However, members of Unit 684 mutiny on the night of their execution, killing their handlers and escaping the remote island of Silmido. In an ironic twist, the very men trained to kill the North Korean president turn their weapons toward the South Korean president who betrayed their trust and allegiance. The movie ends with a dramatic firefight between Unit 684 and the South Korean military, who have labeled them communist agents.
The military leaves no survivors. All evidence of the covert program is buried and forgotten for decades.
As a child, I was shocked at the ease with which a government disowned its soldiers, even if they were convicts. Yet, as an adult, I am amazed at the stupidity of the whole affair – particularly the belief that a simple assassination would end the geopolitical stalemate on the Korean peninsula. To add insult to injury, the South Korean government recently announced its plans for a “decapitation unit,” a military euphemism for a squad of assassins, whose singular mission is to target and eliminate strategic North Korean leaders.
The South Korean government argues a swift targeted operation against North Korean leadership will serve as a prepared retaliatory strike against any North Korean provocation, doubling as a deterrent to North Korean nuclear ambitions. The thinking goes, “Cut off the head of the snake and the whole regime falls apart.” The logic is clean, simple, and completely idiotic. This kind of thinking is fortune cookie wisdom masquerading as strategic thought.
History is littered with disastrous, short-sighted assassination and coup attempts – all trying to cut off the head of the snake. In 1961, a paramilitary group of Cubans, sponsored by the CIA, attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro. The Bay of Pigs, as the episode became known, as was an utter disaster, subsequently solidifying the hostility between the United States and Cuba and undermining a tenuous Cold War status quo. Similarly, from the 1970s to the 1990s, the CIA-supported Contras of Nicaragua left a trail of terrorist attacks, human rights abuses, and political scandal in their attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government. And let’s not forget more recent episodes of the “decapitation strategy” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein was executed in 2006, while Osama bin Laden was killed by a team of Navy Seals in 2011. Nevertheless, in both instances, the political order in both countries deteriorated further, spiraling into insurgency and chaos.
The fundamental problem lies in the misguided desire for simple and easy solutions to complex real world problems. For a moment, let’s suspend disbelief and historical evidence, and say that the latest reiteration of South Korea’s assassination squad succeeds in eliminating its targets, including Kim Jong-un. What then? What happens to the roughly 24 million North Koreans currently living in poverty?
It will be foolish to believe reunification of the peninsula will be a smooth transition. Since the cessation of major fighting in 1953, the North and South have diverged dramatically. After the war, South Korea transformed itself into one of the Asian Tigers, riding to economic prominence on the laurels of companies like Samsung and LG. In contrast, the North remained stagnant economically and politically, relegating the Hermit Kingdom to the status of international pariah. As of 2009, the South’s “nominal GNI totaled $837.2 billion, which is 37.4 times larger than the North’s $22.4 billion.” The two countries have deviated so deeply that the languages spoken in the North and South have significantly diverged. According to a 2014 estimate by the South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC), the cost of reunification would roughly total $500 billion. Admittedly, even this estimate may prove overly optimistic as Germany’s reunification after the Cold War cost roughly $1.5 to $2.5 trillion over 25 years (depending on the source).
The lesson here is that no amount of assassinations will solve the plethora of woes plaguing the Korean peninsula – particularly to the troubles that will inevitably arise in reunification.
For the Korean peninsula, the question should not be how the North’s regime can be eliminated or weakened. The real question lies in how the international community, especially South Korea, should prepare for when the regime fails. The former begets simplistic solutions with short timelines. The latter ponders the long-term consequences and dares to ask the difficult questions.

© Source: http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-foolishness-of-strategic-decapitation-in-north-korea/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING – The United States would shoot down a North Korean missile if it threatened U. S. territory or that of its allies, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday.
Carter made the remarks after North Korea stepped up rhetoric indicating the likelihood of an intercontinental ballistic missile launch, with Pyongyang reportedly saying the same day it could take place at any time and location determined by the leadership.
In an NBC interview, Carter described Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as a “serious threat” to the United States.
The United States is prepared to shoot down a North Korean missile “if it were coming towards our territory or the territory of our friends and allies,” Carter said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a New Year address that his country has entered the final stage of preparing to test-launch an ICBM, ahead of U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
North Korea’s Central Broadcasting Station on Sunday quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying Pyongyang could launch an ICBM if top leaders decide to do so, according to Tokyo-based Radiopress, which monitors North Korean media reports.
North Korea is developing ICBMs as part of national defense efforts to counter a nuclear war threat posed by the United States, the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying.
Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted two nuclear tests and test launched more than 20 ballistic missiles last year in defiance of U. N. Security Council resolutions.
China meanwhile said Monday it is “deeply concerned” over North Korea’s latest threat to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“The current situation on the Korean Peninsula remains complex and sensitive. We hope all relevant parties refrain from words and deeds that would escalate tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang also told a press briefing.
A North Korean spokesman was quoted by the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency as saying that its ICBM development is “part of its efforts for bolstering its capability for self-defense to cope with the ever more undisguised nuclear war threat from the United States.”
“Explicitly speaking again, the United States is wholly to blame for pushing (North Korea) to have developed an ICBM as it has desperately resorted to anachronistic policy hostile toward (the country) for decades to encroach upon its sovereignty and vital rights,” the unidentified spokesman said.
Kim’s regime conducted two nuclear tests and test-launched more than 20 ballistic missiles last year in defiance of U. N. Security Council resolutions.
In a related development, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said the South’s military is closely monitoring North Korea, focused on the possibility it may carry out a launch of its new road-mobile KN-08 or KN-14 ICBMs.
“North Korea’s threatening with provocations like the launching of an ICBM amounts to damaging peace and stability in the international community,” Moon told a press briefing.
“North Korea will face much stronger and more thorough sanctions and pressure by us and the international community if it ignores our warnings and launches an ICBM,” Moon said.

© Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/10/asia-pacific/carter-says-u-s-shoot-north-korea-missiles-beijing-voices-concern-icbm-test/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.