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[SaintessHeart]

North Korea's 'reign of terror' worries South's leader

(Reuters) - North Korea is engaged in a purge amounting to a "reign of terror" that has claimed the scalp of the country's second most powerful man and risks further damaging relations with the South, President Park Geun-hye said on Tuesday.

Park took office in Seoul earlier this year as North Korea conducted its third nuclear test, enraging world public opinion, and threatened to engulf its southern neighbour and its ally, the United States, in a war. The isolated state shelled a South Korean island in 2010 and is widely believed to have sunk a South Korean naval vessel in the same year.

"North Korea is currently carrying out a reign of terror, undertaking a large-scale purge in order to strengthen Kim Jong Un's power," Park told a cabinet meeting, part of which was broadcast on television.

"From now on, South-North Korea relations may become more unstable."

In her usual carefully scripted manner, the president called for vigilance to safeguard the wealthy South's achievements.

"In times like these, I think it is a nation's duty and politicians' job to keep people safe and free democracy strong," she told the meeting.

State media on Monday said Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, had been dismissed from his posts for "criminal acts" ranging from mismanagement, corruption and leading a "dissolute and depraved life".

Television in the tightly controlled and impoverished state showed him being frogmarched by uniformed personnel out of a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party.

Associates of Jang are believed to have been executed in the purge of a man once viewed as a regent for Kim Jong Un, aged about 30 and the third of his family dynasty to run the country.

South Korean officials discounted media reports that a close associate of Jang who managed his funds had requested asylum and was under the protection of South Korean officials in China.

No request for asylum, they said, had been received.

"I understand there was no request" Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tae-young told a briefing. The South's unification minister also told lawmakers no such application had been made.

South Korea's intelligence service last week said two of Jang's close entourage were executed for corruption and two of his relatives serving in embassies overseas had been recalled.

Although experts expect further reprisals against Jang's allies, no firm evidence has emerged of mass punishments. And they say China, North Korea's only ally, generally resists allowing defectors from the North to seek asylum elsewhere.

FEAR FACTOR

Members of the South's parliament, however, said last week that Kim Jong Un was resorting to fear to cement his leadership.

"Kim Jong Un is strengthening the reign of terror... Last year 17 people were public executed but this year there were about 40," Cho Won-jin told journalists after a briefing by the NIS intelligence agency. It was the NIS that first broke news last week that Jang had been dismissed.

Cho also said authorities were enforcing harsher rules on videos being imported illegally into North Korea.

Tension rose sharply on the Korean peninsula earlier this year after the United Nations imposed tough, new sanctions on Pyongyang in response to its latest nuclear test.

It eased as South and North Korea reopened the joint Kaesong factory park in September just north of the heavily militarized border, five months after the North abruptly shut it.

But despite the gesture to reopen the only remaining cooperation endeavor between North and South, Pyongyang again warned it would turn Seoul into a "sea of fire".

The North has repeatedly attacked Park, the daughter of Park Chung-hee, South Korea's long-serving dictator, who laid the foundations for the country's growth and prosperity.

Please do so. I am waiting for a jump in my defence stocks.

EDIT :

Also -

Singapore charges 24 Indian workers for rioting

Singapore on Tuesday filed charges against 24 Indian nationals who allegedly took part in its first riot for over 40 years, as officials and activists warned against inciting racial hatred over the incident.

The men face up to seven years in jail plus caning for the hour-long fracas on Sunday night, triggered when an Indian construction worker was struck and killed by a private bus in a district known as Little India.

They were among an estimated 400 South Asian migrant workers involved in the rampage that left 39 police and civil defence staff injured and 25 vehicles -- including 16 police cars -- damaged or burnt.

The charge sheet said the men threw pieces of concrete and were "members of an unlawful assembly whose common object was to overawe, by a show of criminal force, police officers in the exercise of their lawful power to maintain law and order at the scene".

The suspects, aged between 22 to 40, looked sombre as the charges were read in Tamil in court by an interpreter.

They were remanded at a police complex for one week for further investigations.

Police earlier said the suspects could be charged with a more serious offence punishable by up to 10 years in jail, but they faced a lesser charge on Tuesday.

Singapore's foreign ministry said it was working closely with the Indian High Commissioner (ambassador) "to facilitate consular access and support for their nationals, including legal representation".

Two Bangladeshis, another Indian national and a Malaysian also arrested after the riot were released because investigations showed they were not involved.

The 55-year-old Singaporean bus driver who knocked down and killed Indian construction worker Sakthivel Kumaravelu, 33, has been released on bail after being charged with causing death by a negligent act.

The wealthy but tiny Southeast Asian nation of 5.4 million depends heavily on guest workers, with labourers from South Asia dominating sectors like construction.

Sunday's riot was the second incident involving a large group of foreign workers in the past year.

In November 2012 171 Chinese bus drivers stopped work to demand better wages and living conditions -- the first industrial strike in Singapore since 1986.

Five of the drivers served jail terms after it was declared an illegal strike, while 29 others were deported without trial.

Officials have called for calm after the Little India riot, which triggered a wave of foreigner-bashing in social media.

On the Facebook page of Yahoo! Singapore, reader Tan Beng Ming wrote: "Jail them, cane them and send them packing! For good measure, send their compatriots back too!"

"Only foreigners will start a riot, it is their norm," wrote another reader, Koh Koh.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged Singaporeans Monday not to let the "isolated incident" tarnish their views of foreign workers, who number more than a million.

Lee also ordered the formation of a special committee to review the factors that led to the riot, as well as measures to manage areas where foreign workers congregate.

There will be a ban this weekend on the sale and consumption of alcohol in the area where the riot broke out following eyewitness accounts that many attackers were drunk.

Activists have urged authorities to investigate whether the violence on Sunday was an indication of wider discontent among poorly paid migrant workers.

"If these factors go unaddressed, the threshold for escalation remains low. The smallest incident gets to a tipping point quite easily," socio-political blogger Alex Au wrote.

Russel Heng, president of welfare group Transient Workers Count Too, said in a commentary in the Straits Times on Tuesday that "I find the on-line xenophobic comments targeting foreign workers offensive".

"If a majority of Singaporeans are reasonable fair-minded people, then I would urge every single one of us to rebuke, rebut or ignore the nasty xenophobes among us," he added.

This Russell Heng guy needs to stop waving his hands and actually do something about those workers. Why never discourage them to drink and be orderly?

[Yu Ominae]

Had a gut feeling that a riot in Singapore would happen sooner or later.

Right now, COI is looking into the riots and recommendations. I'm no stranger to the debates on whether the PAP should clamp down on foreign labor more.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

Had a gut feeling that a riot in Singapore would happen sooner or later.

Right now, COI is looking into the riots and recommendations. I'm no stranger to the debates on whether the PAP should clamp down on foreign labor more.

The COI should have been formed even before the previous elections.

The accident is normal. So far, this is the most serious one in that area; and not only that, for YEARS that area has tons of foreign workers jaywalking and drinking in public, and the police never do anything about it.

The government is just too detached from the things on the ground, and they are pointing fingers at netizens for "formenting unrest through speculative commentary", when most of these people are the ones on the ground getting to and fro everyday from work while the ministers sit in their office and wave their hands. Have the government ever wondered why people make such comments instead of just decrying it as "unsubstantiated" and "offensive"? Have they ever made an effort to even understand what these people have seen that led to their skewed views?

Sometimes I wonder who is filled with more rubbish, the government or the more verbal netizens. I am tempted to make the conclusion that both of them are equally full of shit.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

As Keyser Söze said, it is about being willing to go further and do what your enemies won't do. Kim3 has earned his dictator stripes by clearing away every single important man at his father's funeral. He is, right now, the last of the eight, and the winner of the game of thrones.

But to clear someone away, you need to do that by gathering people to do it for him...no way is a lone morbidly obese psycho going to clear anything away...

So then, if these people have the capability to do so, what stops him from being well...effectively their puppet? His support may be needed for the public face but the real power...is it even in his hands?

[Fireminer]

You Singaporeans have a much better government than us. And we know even worse cases that could ashamed a nation. For example, this is a video of a mob stealing beer from an accidented car, despite the driver's cry and plea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJRU...en&gl=US&guid=

[Yu Ominae]

I'm just thinking right now that both the PAP and a few netizens have their faults.

[Ascaloth]

I remember reading an article on Dubai a few years back, which made me think 'I certainly don't want to live there'.

The previous weekend was, for me, a stark and nasty realisation that I am already living in the next Dubai.

[Haak]

Broad International Disagreement Of Proposed Secret Trade Deal.

The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.
...
One of the most controversial provisions in the talks includes new corporate empowerment language insisted upon by the U.S. government, which would allow foreign companies to challenge laws or regulations in a privately run international court. Under World Trade Organization treaties, this political power to contest government law is reserved for sovereign nations. The U.S. has endorsed some corporate political powers in prior trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the scope of what laws can be challenged appears to be much broader in TPP negotiations.
...
Under NAFTA, companies including Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly have attempted to overrule Canadian regulations on offshore oil drilling, fracking, pesticides, drug patents and other issues. Companies could challenge an even broader array of rules under the TPP language.
...
Also according to the December memo, the U.S. has reintroduced a proposal that would hamper government health services from negotiating lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The proposal appears to have been universally rejected earlier in the talks, according to the memo.

Thank the fucking lord...

[Xellos-_^]

remind me why you guys were so gungho for Obama in 08?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

remind me why you guys were so gungho for Obama in 08?

We didn't know he was a secret Republican, at the time.

And really, it was between a secret Republican or an official Republican. We picked the one we didn't know about.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

remind me why you guys were so gungho for Obama in 08?

People have 2 options ("democracy ftw")... and that means it is enough, if someone dislikes the other one more than Obama, so it is not really surprising.

The only thing that I will probably never understand is how Obama got the nobel price for peace for giving.... promises?

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

People have 2 options ("democracy ftw")... and that means it is enough, if someone dislikes the other one more than Obama, so it is not really surprising.

The only thing that I will probably never understand is how Obama got the nobel price for peace for giving.... promises?

Actually, they gave it to him without him doing anything. It is more of a reflection to end of the Bush years. And Obama's hope and promises speeches of course.

Frankly, the prize can be said to be bloody tainted at this point.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

Actually, they gave it to him without him doing anything. It is more of a reflection to end of the Bush years. And Obama's hope and promises speeches of course.

Frankly, the prize can be said to be bloody tainted at this point.

At this point I am prepared to say the prize should never be awarded to anyone who has control over a military force. Sad, but it seems the only people who can be worthy of the prize are those who couldn't start wars even if they wanted to.

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

North Korea's 'reign of terror' worries South's leader

Next?

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by ArchmageXin

Actually, they gave it to him without him doing anything. It is more of a reflection to end of the Bush years. And Obama's hope and promises speeches of course.

Frankly, the prize can be said to be bloody tainted at this point.

Is that true? That's like them saying "Stalin defeated Hitler. I have no idea who Stalin is, but he 100% deserves the nobel prize for peace!" Of course I am not comparing Bush with Hitler and Obama with Stalin, but I think you get my point...

[AnimeFan188]

Canada signals intention to claim North Pole:

"The country has made a formal submission to the United Nations covering 1.2
million square kilometres of territorial claims in the Atlantic.

It follows a decade of surveying the country's eastern and far north seabeds and
gathering supporting evidence."

See:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-1...h-pole/5147458


The Russians aren't going to like this ..........

[Rokumonsen]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Canada signals intention to claim North Pole:

"The country has made a formal submission to the United Nations covering 1.2
million square kilometres of territorial claims in the Atlantic.

It follows a decade of surveying the country's eastern and far north seabeds and
gathering supporting evidence."

See:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-1...h-pole/5147458


The Russians aren't going to like this ..........

Nope. They are prepared for it. That's why the Northern Fleet exists.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Canada signals intention to claim North Pole:

"The country has made a formal submission to the United Nations covering 1.2
million square kilometres of territorial claims in the Atlantic.

It follows a decade of surveying the country's eastern and far north seabeds and
gathering supporting evidence."

See:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-1...h-pole/5147458


The Russians aren't going to like this ..........

We are in the 21st Century... And "territorial claims" of no-man's-land still exist? Or rather "no-man's-ice". What comes next? Will China and India fight over the "territorial rights" of the Indian Ocean?

[Libros]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Canada signals intention to claim North Pole:

"The country has made a formal submission to the United Nations covering 1.2
million square kilometres of territorial claims in the Atlantic.

It follows a decade of surveying the country's eastern and far north seabeds and
gathering supporting evidence."

See:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-1...h-pole/5147458


The Russians aren't going to like this ..........

Could some tell me why anyone would want any part of a frozen block of ice & snow? The best you can hope for is the bragging rights but even then, at best you've got: "Hurr hurr, I own part of the north pole."

[Haak]

Maybe it's so that when global warming melts the whole thing, Cananda can still claim the area as territorial waters.

Nvm. Read the article...