Posts

April 27, 2013

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5:50 PM | What is up with North Korea ?

North Korea has been really active in the past few weeks, warning about the outbreak of war and all...

April 26, 2013

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3:58 PM | Live! From North Korea, It’s AP Photographer David Guttenfelder

AP photographer David Guttenfelder talks about photographing secretive North Korea via Instagram.

April 18, 2013

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3:42 PM | Geography in the News: North Korea Threatens Again

By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com North Korea’s Threats At the end of March, 2010, North Korea launched a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, killing 46 service members. More recently throughout the spring of 2013, North Korea’s youthful leader launched a tirade against South…

April 01, 2013

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10:07 PM | The 6 Most Absurd Military Hoaxes By North Korea And Iran

Qaher-313 Not real. Khouz NewsHow do rogue states compete with a superpower? Photoshop, apparently. Click here to enter the gallery Doctoring photographs is a great April Fools' Day prank, but for some dictatorships it's a way of life. In modern times, the best government photoshop jobs have been Iranian and North Korean. (No, Iran, you can't just copy-paste extra missiles into a photo.) Here are six of the most ridiculously fake images from the past few years.

March 29, 2013

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4:21 PM | Kim Jong Un Threatens Austin

What? The? Fuck? Seriously? The tyrannical leader of North Korea has listed Austin, TX as his 4th target for a first strike against the US. He also decided that Washington (no mention if it’s the state or D.C., does he know the difference?), LA, and Hawaii are the other three targets. What did we ever [...]

March 26, 2013

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4:30 PM | Is North Korea Forcing Diplomats To Sell Drugs Abroad?

How does an economically isolated pariah state make money? The black market, apparently. North Korea is a bizarre country. Ruled by a 26-year-old dictator, technically still at war with its southern neighbor, and responsible in a weird '90s throwback way for the renewed relevance of Dennis Rodman, this hermit kingdom was never going to be normal. Taking that level of strange as a given, somehow the latest news out of Pyongyang still manages to surprise. To fund the broke and economically […]

March 20, 2013

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10:55 PM | Cyber Attack Takes Down Computers in South Korea, Motives and Culprit Unclear

The cyber attacks against several South Korean television stations, banks and insurance firms on Wednesday may not have been crippling or widespread, but their timing further fuels concerns over who is launching such attacks, what constitutes “cyber warfare” and how should countries react to such online aggression. The malicious software—or malware—used in the attack interferes [...]

March 08, 2013

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11:13 PM | The U.S. Says It Could Stop A North Korean Missile. How?

THAAD interceptor missile U.S. Missile Defense AgencyNorth Korea has basically zero chance of hitting anyone but themselves with a nuke. But if they did manage to launch a missile, what technology do we have to stop it? In response to questions about North Korea's latest threats to nuke the U.S., White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday: "I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack." This is the most […]

February 21, 2013

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2:02 AM | Correction: Radiation From N. Korea Nuke Test NOT Detected

The detection of a radioactive isotope in Russia and Japan indicate a nuclear test was carried out -- likely deep underground. ->

February 20, 2013

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4:02 AM | Radiation From N. Korea Nuke Test Detected

The detection of a radioactive isotope in Russia and Japan indicate a nuclear test was carried out -- likely deep underground. ->

February 12, 2013

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10:30 PM | How Did We Know North Korea Tested A Nuke?

Seismograph Wikimedia CommonsWhen North Korea tests a new nuclear weapon, seismographs are the first to know. Early Tuesday morning, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) data detected a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in North Korea. Within minutes, night owl commenters like Jeffrey Lewis of the Arms Control Wonk in the U.S. were already discussing the political implications of Kim Jong-Un's first nuclear test. How did seismic readings become key to tracking clandestine nuclear tests? Let's […]

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4:02 PM | This Is Where North Korea Just Tested A Nuclear Weapon

North Korea's Nuclear Test Site Google Maps via Washington PostRight next to the helpfully named "Nuclear Test Rd." North Korea tested a nuclear weapon late Tuesday for the third time ever, and this is where it happened. After the test, a slight tremor rolled through North Korea's mountains, and the U.S. Geological Survey picked it up, along with its exact location. The Washington Post went ahead and used those coordinates to map it with Google's new data on the country. Some parts of this […]

January 30, 2013

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6:00 PM | South Korea Successfully Launches First Satellite Into Orbit

South Korea: Successfully Spacebound AP Photo/Seo Myung-gon, YonhapFollowing North Korea's semi-successful December space launch, South Korea one-ups its rival by launching a space rocket AND successfully placing a satellite in orbit. In what might be considered a chemically-fueled middle finger aimed at its neighbors to the North, South Korea has successfully launched a rocket into space and placed a satellite into orbit, officially inaugurating itself into the global club of spacefaring […]

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4:42 PM | South Korea Launches Satellite into Orbit

Spurred by rival North Korea's launch in December, South Korea on Wednesday appeared to have successful placed a small science satellite into orbit. ->

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4:00 PM | Google Taps 'Citizen Cartographers' To Map North Korea

On The Map Google MapsGoogle has put North Korea on the map. Literally. You can now see North Korea without ever leaving your living room. New data added to Google Maps has made it possible to virtually explore this notoriously isolated country. Until recently, most of North Korea had largely appeared as blank white space on the maps service. But using Google Map Maker, "citizen cartographers"--ordinary people, mostly from outside North Korea--added roads, names and details to the North Korean […]

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11:42 AM | South Korea Launches Satellite into Orbit

Spurred by rival North Korea's launch in December, South Korea on Wednesday appeared to have successful placed a small science satellite into orbit. ->

December 17, 2012

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7:47 PM | North Korea's Satellite Is Still Tumbling And Likely Completely Dead

North Korea: Rocket Is Good, Satellite Not So Much More bad news for North Korea on the first anniversary of dearly departed leader Kim Jong-il's death: the satellite it launched into orbit last week is not only tumbling out of control, but is also likely completely dead, astronomers say. "It's tumbling and we haven't picked up any transmissions," Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks space activity, told the New York Times. "Those two things are most consistent with the satellite […]

December 13, 2012

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5:00 PM | North Korea's Satellite Is Tumbling Out Of Control

North Korea: Rocket Is Good, Satellite Not So Much The rogue nation reached space on Monday, but its orbiting 'space vehicle' is now hurtling uncontrolled and poses a threat to other satellites. Here's something troubling to start your afternoon: North Korea launched a new satellite into space earlier this week and now it's apparently tumbling out of control amid all the other satellites that the world relies on. That's not really all that unexpected, but after successfully reaching orbital […]

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4:17 PM | New CIA Surveillance Images of North Korean Satellite Launch Released:

A little laugh to start your day. North Korea launched an unknown object into orbit on Tuesday, according to the regime and confirmed by the U.S. military. They say it’s a weather satellite, but this GIF says otherwise. In all honesty, I believe that it’s a weather satellite as much as I believe Joan Rivers’ nose is real. It’s probably a test of a ballistic missile system, which appears to have mostly worked. Besides, isn’t the weather in North Korea whatever […]

December 12, 2012

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10:30 PM | Why North Korea's Latest Rocket Launch Does Not Spell Imminent Doom

DPRK's Successful Liftoff North Korea's entrance into the small group of spacefaring nations is certainly significant. But the idea that it is nearing an intercontinental nuclear capability is overblown. Late yesterday, North Korea joined the spacefaring nations club, when it successfully launched a rudimentary satellite that now appears to be in orbit. North Korea being North Korea, this was a troublesome development. The nation's insular, military leadership is widely regarded as a rogue […]

November 30, 2012

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11:55 AM | The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of China Copying Everyone Else

Anyone who knows China well enough can attest to the fact that a lot of what you see in China was taken from elsewhere. That’s why there are high profile cases like the Huawei telecommunications company, which was featured on … Continue reading →

August 03, 2012

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6:22 PM | On Our Radar: Hunger in North Korea

Floods have swept away crops and damaged wells and pumping stations, leaving many without food or clean drinking water, a United Nations agency said.

April 27, 2012

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2:27 PM | Holocaust

Israel has just celebrated its Independence Day, hot on the heels of Holocaust Memorial Day. This resonates with me, as my grandparents and two aunts (infants at the time) perished in Auschwitz. The resonance increases with the idea that such … Continue reading →

April 13, 2012

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8:22 PM | North Korean Defector Brings Artwork to DC

Washington, D.C. will host a unique, temporary art exhibit from April 13 – 30, depicting images of North Korean oppression, propaganda and satire – an exhibit that takes us on a journey through the mind of a North Korean defector – Song Byeok. “They will be shocked, surprised. Who’s gonna dare make a painting like…

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4:18 PM | North Korea’s Third Satellite Launch Has Failed. This Time, It Admits It.

The North Korean satellite command center, during an open house for foreign journalists North Korea has drawn international ire in the last few months with its plan to launch a satellite—called Bright Shining Star—that the United States and its allies perceived as a veiled attempt to test potential long-range weapons. The US even canceled food relief worth about $200 million dollars to feed the country’s starving population, when the government announced that the launch would [...]

March 30, 2012

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5:40 PM | Q and A: North Korea's Choked Environment

Experts invited to North Korea for a conference on its environmental problems struggled against constraints on open communication with the country's scientists.

December 19, 2011

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5:38 PM | Scientific American: Kim Jong-Il news you won’t likely find anywhere else

Last March, in the midst of the Charlie Sheen media explosion, or implosion, I wrote a post criticizing psychologists for diagnosing patients whom they’d never examined or even met. The issue there was Dr. Drew Pinsky’s claim that Sheen was in an acute manic state at the time. With the death of Kim Jong-Il over the weekend, we risk the same sort of thing. Was the North Korean dictator suffering from one or more mental illnesses? I don’t see any diagnosis from Pinsky yet, but I [...]

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5:24 PM | NG Explorer on the Death of Kim Jong-Il

The death of North Korea's long-term dictator raises many issues and questions of similarly long-term importance. In the first moments of receipt of the news, one National Geographic Explorer gives his reflections via Twitter.

October 27, 2011

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7:34 PM | Search to Resume for Remains of U.S. Korean War Servicemen

The U.S. and North Korea have reached an agreement concerning the search for remains of approximately 5,500 U.S. servicemen who died during the Korean War and are thought to be buried in what is now North Korea. A look back at the history of the conflict as reported by National Geographic magazine.

August 09, 2011

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5:42 AM | Skeptikai Notices (August 9)

Video game technology advances robotics, hackers try to escape incarceration, researchers actually create sperm in a laboratory. Continue reading →