North Korea

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

In this satellite photograph taken at night above the Korean peninsula, you can make out several white splotches. Those are cities... as in streetlights... as in electricity. All of them are below the border in South Korea. And what about that dark area above the dividing line? Let's just say that North Koreans save a fuckload of money on their utility bills.

* Kim Jong Il
* Kim Il Sung
* U.S.S. Pueblo Incident
* North Korea is an atomic power.
* They possess about 5,000 tons of biological and chemical weapons.
* In a State of the Union speech, President George W Bush lumped North Korea in with Iran and Iraq in the "Axis of Evil."
* Famines. Cannibalism.
* "Unification" with the South.
* Maintains the fifth-largest standing army (1,000,000 people). A little more than 30% of the national GDP is spent on the military.

* kidnappings

Since the cease-fire of the Korean War in 1953, North Korea has kidnapped about 3,750 Korean citizens in more than 470 cases. Most of them were crew members of fishing boats. Most fishermen returned home after undergoing intensive brain-washing in North Korea, but 442 of them are still held in North Korea.

North Korea kidnapped a total of 3,662 fishermen along with their fishing boats. The last victim was Dongjin-ho (skipper: Kim Soon-kun) and its 20 crew members. The boat was abducted near Paeknyon Island in January 1987, and all the crew members are still detained in North Korea.

* heroin smuggling
* counterfeiting

Then there is the counterfeiting of U.S. $100 bills. The North Koreans have stolen both the printing presses (from Switzerland) and the formula for the pulp and paper of the U.S. currency. Their quality is reputed to be so good that one South Korean Military intelligence official told WorldNetDaily, "The North Koreans must actually lower their counterfeiting standards -- their fake bills are better made than those in the U.S."

Gulags
The Ministry of National Political Security oversees a collection of death camps where 200,000 political and religious criminals are worked to death.

* Chungbong Mine
* Haengyong
* Hoeryong
* Huaong

Official Website

Timeline

Jan 1968 U.S.S. Pueblo Incident.

1969 EC-121 incident.

Dec 1969 North Korean operatives hijack a South Korean passenger airliner, YS-11, on its way from Kangnung to Seoul. 51 people aboard the craft are taken captive in North Korea, and only 39 are ever released.

18 Aug 1976 Poplar Tree incident.

9 Oct 1983 A North Korean assassin attempts to kill the president of South Korea during a visit to Rangoon. He only survives by being tardy when a time bomb goes off at a memorial. 17 South Korean diplomats and 4 Burmese are killed in the blast.

Nov 1987 114 are killed when Korean Airlines flight 858 blows up over the Indian Ocean. After this incident, the United States officially lists North Korea as a terrorist state.

Jun 1994 South Korea somehow persuades President Bill Clinton not to launch an air strike against North Korean nuclear sites.

Sep 1996 A North Korean spy submarine breaks down near Kangnung, prompting the 26-member crew to swim ashore. During the subsequent manhunt, 13 South Koreans are killed and 24 of the North Koreans are killed. 11 of the spies blew their own brains out on a mountain to avoid capture. One North Korean is captured alive, and is coerced into talking by force-feeding him soju. The last one somehow manages to escape. North Korea finally apologizes for the incident in December.

Apr 1997 North Korea finally admits that they have been suffering a deadly famine for almost a year.

29 Jan 2002 During his State of the Union speech, President George W Bush denounces North Korea as being part of an "Axis of Evil" along with the nations of Iran and Iraq.

Source: Rotten Library