Korean Sota Osa II ?

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A former US researcher at a cryptocurrency group has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for conspiring to help North Korea evade US sanctions using cryptocurrency.

Virgil Griffith had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate US law.

He formerly worked for the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on the technology behind the cryptocurrency ether.

The sentence was the minimum amount of prison time sought by prosecutors.

He was also fined $100,000 (£76,864). The 39-year-old had been facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1m fine.

His lawyer said in a statement that while the sentence was disappointing, the judge
"acknowledged Virgil's commitment to moving forward with his life productively, and that he is a talented person who has a lot to contribute."

US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that "justice has been served."

In September, Griffith pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act by traveling to North Korea's capital Pyongyang to give a presentation on blockchain technology.

US cryptocurrency expert jailed for helping North Korea evade sanctions

Virgil Griffith was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by a court in New York.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[ctg]

Wow

Kim Jong-un is expected to display advanced weapons at military parade later this month and escalate missile testing

Thousands of North Koreans marched in a choreographed display of loyalty to the ruling Kim family during a massive civilian parade celebrating the birthday of the country’s founder attended by his grandson and current leader, Kim Jong-un.

State media images showed Kim waving from a balcony overlooking the vast square in Pyongyang named after his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, as huge columns of people carrying red plastic flowers and floats with political slogans marched below.

North Korea marks founder Kim Il-sung’s birthday with mass parade but no weapons

Pyongyang expected to display advanced weapons at military parade later this month and escalate missile testing

www.theguardian.com

 

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pullukka on laihtunut

North Korea has test-fired a new weapons system, under the supervision of leader Kim Jong-un, that it claims will boost the efficiency of its tactical nuclear weapons, state media reported.

The “new-type tactical guided weapon ... is of great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units and enhancing the efficiency in the operation of tactical nukes,” the official Korean Central News Agency said early on Sunday, without specifying when the test took place. It said the test was successful.

South Korea’s military said on Sunday that North Korea had fired two projectiles off its east coast towards the sea on Saturday. The projectiles, launched from the Hamhung region at around 6pm flew 110km (68 miles) at a maximum altitude of 25km with maximum speed under Mach 4, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said.

Kim Jong-un oversees missile test that North Korea claims advances nuclear program

Leader appears well pleased with latest test of what state media reported was a new type of tactical guided weapon

www.theguardian.com

 

[Teräsmies]

Uusia taktisten ydinaseiden toimittamiseen soveltuvia asejärjestelmiä on nyt testattu kaksi kertaa. Ensin testattiin noin 1500km kantaman omaavaa risteilyohjusta, nyt oli sitten vuorossa suht kompakti ohjus, seuraavaaksi sitten ydintestit (todennäköisesti alle 10 kilotonnia voimakkuudeltaan) millä varmistetaan suunniteltujen taktisten ydinaseiden toimivuus.

 

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[Teräsmies]

Ydintestialueella valmistellaan uutta poksahdusta.

US assesses that North Korea may be ready to conduct underground nuclear test this month | CNN Politics

US military and intelligence agencies assess that North Korea could be ready to resume underground nuclear testing this month, according to three US officials.

edition.cnn.com

 

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For decades, South Korea’s presidents have begun their terms in office by acquainting themselves with the vast premises of the Blue House.

But on Tuesday, Yoon Suk-yeol became the first leader in the country’s modern history to shun the presidential residence, heading instead to a new office inside a former defence ministry building in central Seoul.

Yoon, who has styled himself as the “people’s president”, caused consternation when he said he had no intention of following his predecessors into the Blue House, so named because of the colour of its roof.

He said the building, located at the foot of a mountain on a site once used by the Japanese during their 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, was a “symbol of imperial power” that would be opened to the public as a sign of his commitment to a more open and democratic presidency.

Claims of shamans and curses as South Korea’s president shuns official residence

Yoon Suk-yeol said The Blue House was ‘a symbol of imperial power’ but critics have highlighted costs and safety concerns

www.theguardian.com

 

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South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has offered North Korea “an audacious plan” to transform its creaking economy in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

Speaking on the first day of his presidency on Tuesday, Yoon said: “While North Korea’s nuclear weapon programmes are a threat not only to our security and that of North-east Asia, the door to dialogue will remain open so that we can peacefully resolve this threat.”

South Korea’s new president offers North economic plan in return for denuclearisation

Elected in a tight contest in March, Yoon Suk-yeol proposes ‘audacious’ plan for Pyongyang at his inauguration in Seoul

www.theguardian.com

 

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Pohjois-Korea on vahvistanut maan ensimmäisen koronatartunnan ja julistanut vakavan kansallisen hätätilan. Asiasta kertoo valtiollinen media, jonka mukaan pääkaupungissa Pjongjangissa on havaittu koronaviruksen omikronmuunnosta.

Pohjois-Korea ei ole aiemmin myöntänyt yhtään koronatapausta. Virallista tietoa siitä, että yhtään pohjoiskorealaista olisi rokotettu ei ole olemassa, raportoi uutistoimisto Reuters.

25 miljoonan asukkaan maa on tiettävästi kieltäytynyt koronarokotteista, joita sille on tarjonnut niin Maailman terveysjärjestö WHO, Kiina kuin Venäjäkin.

Tartunnat löydettiin kuumeoireisilta ihmisiltä Pjongjangissa. Tapausten tarkkaa lukumäärää tai mahdollisia tartuntalähteitä ei ole kerrottu.

Pohjois-Korea vahvisti ensimmäistä kertaa virallisesti koronatartunnan – koko maa koronasulkuun, tarkka tilannekuva epäselvä

Asiantuntijat epäilevät, että Pohjois-Korean terveydenhuolto murenee koronataakan alle. Pohjois-Korea on tiettävästi kieltäytynyt sille tarjotuista rokotteista.

yle.fi

 

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North Korea has announced its first Covid-19 death amid an “explosive” outbreak of fever, state media said on Friday, one day after the regime admitted for the first time that it was tackling a coronavirus outbreak.

The official KCNA news agency said six people had died, adding that one of them had tested positive for the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

It said 187,800 people were being “isolated and treated” after a fever of unidentified origin spread in the country since late April. About 350,000 people had shown signs of fever, including 18,000 who newly reported such symptoms on Tuesday alone, KCNA said, adding that 162,200 of them treated so far. The news agency did not specify how many had tested positive for Covid-19.

North Korea says six dead after admitting Covid outbreak for first time

Regime has said it is imposing ‘maximum emergency measures’ and 187,800 people are being ‘isolated and treated’ after showing signs of fever

www.theguardian.com

Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said Beijing had offered North Korea help in dealing with the outbreak. The US has no immediate plans to share Covid-19 vaccines with North Korea, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday.

Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the regime’s admission that the virus was spreading was “extremely concerning”.

“Most North Koreans are chronically malnourished and unvaccinated, there are barely any medicines left in the country, and the health infrastructure is incapable to deal with this pandemic,” Yoon said. “The international community should offer medicine for Covid-19 related symptoms, Covid-19 anti-viral medicines, and provide vaccines and all necessary infrastructure for vaccine preservation, including fridges, generators and gasoline.”

 

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Kim Jong-un has criticised North Korea’s pandemic response and ordered the army to help distribute medicine, state media said Monday, as the country said 50 people had died since first reporting an outbreak of Covid-19.

More than one million people have been sickened by what Pyongyang is referring to as “fever”, state media said, despite Kim ordering nationwide lockdowns in a bid to slow the spread of disease through the unvaccinated population.

After two years denying North Korea had any cases of Covid-19, last week officials confirmed that there had been a Covid outbreak in the country.

In a sign of how serious the situation may be, Kim “strongly criticised” healthcare officials over their response to epidemic prevention – specifically a failure to keep pharmacies open 24/7 to distribute medicine.

He ordered the army to get to work “on immediately stabilising the supply of medicines in Pyongyang”, the capital, where Omicron was detected last week in North Korea’s first official reported cases of Covid-19.

Kim has put himself front and centre of North Korea’s disease response, overseeing near-daily emergency politburo meetings on the outbreak, which he has said is causing “great upheaval” in the country.

The failure to distribute medicine properly was “because officials of the Cabinet and public health sector in charge of the supply have not rolled up their sleeves, not properly recognizing the present crisis,” said Kim, according to state media KCNA.

Kim, who visited pharmacies to inspect first-hand, “strongly criticised the Cabinet and public health sector for their irresponsible work attitude,” said KCNA.

Kim Jong-un calls in the army to respond to North Korea’s Covid-19 crisis

Leader criticises healthcare officials and orders army to distribute medicine as more than one million are infected by ‘fever’

www.theguardian.com

Kun pommit ja poliittinen linja on tärkeämpiä kuin ihmiset.

 

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US officials have warned businesses against inadvertently hiring IT staff from North Korea, saying that rogue freelancers were taking advantage of remote work opportunities to hide their true identities and earn money for Pyongyang.

An advisory issued by the state and treasury departments and the FBI said the effort was intended to circumvent US and UN sanctions, and bring in money for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The officials said companies who hired and paid such workers may be exposing themselves to legal consequences for sanctions violations.

“There are thousands of DPRK IT workers both dispatched overseas and located within the DPRK, generating revenue that is remitted back to the North Korean government.

“These IT workers take advantage of existing demands for specific IT skills, such as software and mobile application development, to obtain freelance employment contracts from clients around the world, including in North America, Europe, and east Asia.”

Don’t accidentally hire a North Korean hacker, FBI warns

Employing remote IT workers who are secretly working for Kim Jong-un’s regime poses risks and may breach sanctions, say US agencies

www.theguardian.com

 

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has criticised his country’s response to its first officially confirmed Covid-19 outbreak as “immature”, accusing government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country.

On Wednesday, North Korea reported 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths, a week after the country’s first admission of the Covid outbreak. It did not say how many people had tested positive for Covid-19.

Presiding over a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ party, Kim said the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” increased the “complexity and hardships” in fighting the pandemic when “time is the life”, state media reported on Wednesday.

Since its first acknowledgment of the Covid-19 outbreak, North Korea has reported 1.72 million patients with fever symptoms, including 62 deaths as of Tuesday evening.

Kim Jong-un calls North Korea’s response to Covid outbreak ‘inadequate’

Leader accuses officials of inertia as total number of people with reported fever symptoms reaches 1.72 million

www.theguardian.com

1.72 miljoonaa "potentiaalista" sairastunutta, 62 kuollutta viime torstaista lähtien ja pullukka päättää raivota väelleen. En usko että niillä on ravintoa selvitä tästä voittajana, vaan luvut on afrikka ja intia luokkaa.

“It looks really bad,” said Owen Miller, a lecturer in Korean studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. “They are facing the rampant spread of Omicron without protection from vaccines, without much – if any – immunity in the population and without access to most of the drugs that have been used to treat Covid elsewhere.”

Since it reported its first cases last week, North Korea’s propaganda machine has portrayed the virus as an enemy that can be defeated through lockdowns, quarantine and greater vigilance. The state-run KCNA has reported the delivery of unspecified drugs – “the elixir of life” – to pharmacies by army medical units, and public health campaigns calling for mask-wearing and social distancing.

But testing levels are far below what is needed to form an accurate picture of the outbreak and to quickly identify and isolate patients. Some observers speculated that authorities were deliberately underreporting cases to ease the pressure on Kim.

North Korea has tested just 64,200 people since the start of the pandemic’s start, according to the World Health Organization, compared with 17.2 million in neighbouring South Korea.

“We were talking about a 0.1% fatality rate for Omicron in South Korea, but that’s going to be significantly higher in North Korea, possibly even reaching 1%, although it’s difficult to make accurate predictions at this point,” said Jaehun Jung, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University, Seongnam.

“People are going to factories and to their places of work as normal. The authorities don’t want work to be disrupted. People get fever checks when they go to and from work.” The official said people were more concerned about being locked down and prevented from working than catching Covid-19. “People are worried about how to survive.”

Samaan aikaan homma jatkuu, ihmiset menevät töihin, eikä mitään lockdownia ole missään. Se on vain lännen hömpötystä.

 

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Pay close attention to that resume before offering that work contract.

The FBI, in a joint advisory with the US government Departments of State and Treasury, has warned that North Korea's cyberspies are posing as non-North-Korean IT workers to bag Western jobs to advance Kim Jong-un's nefarious pursuits.

In guidance [PDF] issued this week, the Feds warned that these techies often use fake IDs and other documents to pose as non-North-Korean nationals to gain freelance employment in North America, Europe, and east Asia. Additionally, North Korean IT workers may accept foreign contracts and then outsource those projects to non-North-Korean folks.

Once Kim's crew are hired by private-sector firms, they'll either use their newfound corporate network access for cybercrime — cryptocurrency theft, ransomware, and cyberespionage are some of the Supreme Leader's favorites. Or, they'll simply send their paychecks to North Korea to fund that government's other hobbies, such as developing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

From the alert:

An overseas DPRK IT worker earns at least ten times more than a conventional North Korean laborer working in a factory or on a construction project overseas. DPRK IT workers can individually earn more than $300,000 a year in some cases, and teams of IT workers can collectively earn more than $3 million annually. A significant percentage of their gross earnings supports DPRK regime priorities, including its WMD program.

It's worth noting that all of these activities are subject to US and United Nations sanctions. Anyone who hires or supports North Korea government-backed workers, including processing financial transactions, may face legal consequences themselves.

According to the alert: "These IT workers take advantage of existing demands for specific IT skills, such as software and mobile application development, to obtain freelance employment contracts from clients around the world, including in North America, Europe, and East Asia."

The freelancers may represent themselves as US-based or non-North Korean teleworkers. Additionally, they may use VPNs or third-country IP addresses, or even subcontract their work to non-North Koreans to "further obfuscate their identities," it warned.

FBI warns of North Koreans posing as foreign IT workers

Looking for tech talent? Kim Jong-un's friendly freelancers, at your service

www.theregister.com

 

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North Korea: Fighting Covid with traditional medicine

As Covid spreads in North Korea, state media urges the use of traditional medicine against the virus.

www.bbc.co.uk

teetä ja nenäontelon suolavesihuuhtelu, sillä covid lähtee

 

[SJ]

North Korea: Fighting Covid with traditional medicine

As Covid spreads in North Korea, state media urges the use of traditional medicine against the virus.

www.bbc.co.uk

teetä ja nenäontelon suolavesihuuhtelu, sillä covid lähtee

No, sen jälkeen tuntuu ainakin paremmalta. Siis se että hoito on ohi.

 

[PSS]

North Korea: Fighting Covid with traditional medicine

As Covid spreads in North Korea, state media urges the use of traditional medicine against the virus.

www.bbc.co.uk

teetä ja nenäontelon suolavesihuuhtelu, sillä covid lähtee

Erään ison valtion presidentti mietti, että valkaisuaineella voisi lähteä. Ja mietti, miten desinfioivaa ultraviolettia saataisiin kehon sisään. Tiedättehön, sellainen oranssi mies.

 

[tankki-tapsa]

Erään ison valtion presidentti mietti, että valkaisuaineella voisi lähteä. Ja mietti, miten desinfioivaa ultraviolettia saataisiin kehon sisään. Tiedättehön, sellainen oranssi mies.

Niin ja vaikka oranssi ei sanonutkaan mitään sellaista niin silti oranssi oli hirmupaha ja aina väärässä!

 

[PSS]

Niin ja vaikka oranssi ei sanonutkaan mitään sellaista niin silti oranssi oli hirmupaha ja aina väärässä!

Juu, feikkiuutisiahan se. Ihan itse sanoo, mutta silti se on feikki. Täytyy olla.