Kenneth Bae, a Korean American sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea for crimes against the state, will not be used as a bargaining chip, says the DPRK. “Some media of the U.S. said that the DPRK tried to use Bae’s case as a political bargaining chip. This is ridiculous and [a] wrong guess,” Korean Central News Agency reported, via Washington Post. But would the regime, you know, release him, j ...

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: We Know Memes, Wuluwu. ...

We know our friend Andray Abrahamian to be both a beer and coffee snob, so who better than he to discover an unnamed cafe in Pyongyang, next to the Pyongyang Hotel View Restaurant, that might well be North Korea's first "third-wave coffeeshop." (As Dray describes it: "For those of you unfamiliar with the term, ‘third wave’ essentially means thinking about coffee similarly to wine: concern for terroir, fresh ...

Just about anyone not holding a select diplomatic or South Korean passport can travel to North Korea. All it takes is money, which you give to a tour agency. They'll even take you to the countryside if that's what you're after. It's only the hucksters who try to dress up their North Korean trip as an accomplishment, pretending it involved wile or subterfuge, not to mention danger. When a reporter does it -- ...

Indoctrination sucks, and if you needed proof, watch this clip from North Korean TV showing a reported 18,423 children at a medal ceremony in Pyongyang paying obeisance to their country and Kim Jong-un. According to the Youku video description, the highest honors are reserved for those standing in the front rows: they're the ones who have volunteered to become suicide bombers in case of a war with the US. ...

Psy unveiled his newest single, "Gentleman," at midnight on Thursday, then christened it on Saturday at a solo concert at Seoul's World Cup stadium in front of 50,000 fans. That should tell you exactly how worried the people of South Korea are about its neighbor's threats, and offers more context for the phrase "heightened tension." Before the concert, Psy, i.e. Park Jae-sang, was asked about the situation ...

Pyongyang hosted the 26th annual Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon on Sunday, featuring a reported 251 runners, including 14 from countries such as Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Ethiopia. The event was part of the country's ongoing celebrations for Kim Il-sung, whose birthday is today. ...

If you're looking for analysis on why China loved Jon Stewart's digs at Kim Jong-un (above), head over to the Washington Post, where Max Fisher writes: When the popular Chinese Web portal Sina posted an eight-minute segment from the show discussing the latest North Korean provocations, it racked up an astounding 2.8 million views and counting, as well as tens of thousands of comments, many of them praising ...

North Korea now apparently cares about foreigners, if its recent warning to those in South Korea is any indication. Via Reuters: North Korea warned foreigners in South Koreaon Tuesday to quit the country because they were at risk in the event of conflict, the latest threat of war from Pyongyang. ..."We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should there be a war," said the KCNA news agency, citing it ...

If you're a Chinese journalist, writing in English won't necessarily shield you from the petty decisionmakers and censors in the central organs of China's bureucracy, as Deng Yuwen can tell you. Writing in the Financial Times on February 27, Deng, the deputy editor of Central Party School-affiliated Study Times, suggested that China should "re-evaluate its longstanding alliance with the Kim dynasty." And no ...

According to AFP, North Korea issued a statement that read, “As of now, inter-Korea relations enter a state of war and all matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime protocol.” North and South Korea, as everyone is quick to remind, have technically never been out of war since 1950 because no peace treaty was ever signed, but ...

We GIFed this video for you, from today's mass rally at Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square, so you don't have to. Look at the man in the middle. Once more, with enthusiasm! (Via BJC video producer Gabriel Clermont -- here's his previous GIF work -- who'll be around these parts every week starting this Sunday. Wait for it.) ...

The Associated Press has just published footage of today's 90-minute mass rally in Pyongyang, and it was very North Korean. Watch the weirdness that is thousands of troops on Kim Il Sung Square clapping while leaders on the rostrum clap back. Soldiers and students reportedly chanted, “Death to the US imperialists” and “Sweep away the US aggressors." ...

A strategically published photo in the Korean paper Rodong purportedly shows Kim Jong-un, during an emergency meeting early this morning, signing off on a plan to attack the United States. NK News has the details: “He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets, ordering them to be on standby to fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the ope ...

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Sources: We Know Memes, Wuluwu. (Reference for the above: here.) ...

How scary is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? Let's first look at the argument for "very scary." Via Foreign Policy: North Korea today can threaten all of South Korea and parts of Japan with its conventional missiles and its conventional military. The North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict. Stability has held for 60 years because the U.S. security allia ...

On Friday, the above, titled "A Short, Three-Day War," was posted to Uriminzokkiri, depicting North Korean paratroopers and the shells of long-range weapons descending upon South Korea. Via Sina English: "The crack stormtroopers will occupy Seoul and other cities and take 150,000 US citizens as hostages," the narrator said. ...

Viewed over 40,000 times on Youku in the last three days, this video of a cute North Korean performer spinning for nearly 45 seconds with a vase on her head. The jaw-dropping part starts at the 1:45 mark. You couldn't do this. North Korea's known for these type of performances -- at the very least, English-language writers have commented on it before. ...

Kim Jong-un's wife, Ri Sol-ju, gave birth sometime around New Year's, but no one has yet to independently verify the sex of the child... Until now, basically. Thanks to Dennis Rodman. This guy. In a long interview with The Sun in which Rodman says Kim isn't like Saddam Hussein, "doesn't want to kill anyone," and "is just a goddamn kid" who's "a cool guy," he also dropped this nugget about Kim's wife, Ri (em ...

It was only last month that North Korea decided it would allow visiting foreigners to surf the Internet, tweet, and Skype from mobile devices. As AP reported: Koryolink, a joint venture between Korea Post & Telecommunications Corporation and Egypt's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding SAE, informed foreign residents in Pyongyang on Friday that it will launch a third generation, or 3G, mobile Intern ...