North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calls for readiness against virus, typhoon

Kim Jong Un held his third high-level political conference in as many weeks, where he raised alarm about the nation’s coronavirus response and a typhoon forecast to hit the country early Thursday

In a rare display of urgency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held his third high-level political conference in as many weeks, where he raised alarm about the nation’s coronavirus response and a typhoon forecast to hit the country early Thursday. During an enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday, Kim lamented unspecified “defects” and shortcomings in the country’s anti-virus campaign and urged that they be corrected swiftly, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

Kim also called thorough preparations to minimise damage from Typhoon Bavi, which comes weeks after torrential rains caused flooding and massive damage to homes and crops, inflicting further pain to an economy ravaged by US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and border closures amid the pandemic. Kim Jong Un set tasks for the party and public services at every level, “saying that to thoroughly prevent the casualties by the typhoon and minimise the damage to crops is important work which can never be neglected even a moment, KCNA paraphrased the leader as saying.

Typhoon Bavi as of Wednesday morning was near the South Korean island of Jeju and was on course to hit the northwest coast of the Korean Peninsula around daybreak Thursday morning. South Korea’s weather agency said it had a maximum wind speed of 155 kilometers per hour (96 mph) and was forecast as one of the strongest to hit the peninsula this year…

Keep Reading : International News

 

No suspicious activity in North: South Korea amid Kim’s poor health reports

Speculation about Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15

South Korea’s presidential office says no suspicious activities have been detected in North Korea, however, it couldn’t confirm Kim Jong Un’s current health.Earlier after media reports surfaced about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in ‘grave danger’ following a surgery surfaced, the South Korean government on Tuesday said that it is looking into the news .However, officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said they couldn’t immediately confirm the report.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 factoid: South Korea stages a sharp recovery, Kerala does well too

Another US media house Daily NK, reported that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.Speculation about Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past…

Kim Jong-un’s half-brother killed in Malaysia was a CIA informant: Report

The Journal cited an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter” for the report, and said many details of Kim Jong Nam’s relationship with the CIA remained unclear

International News: Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was killed in Malaysia in 2017, had been an informant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The Journal cited an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter” for the report, and said many details of Kim Jong Nam’s relationship with the CIA remained unclear. Reuters could not independently confirm the story. The CIA declined to comment.

The Journal quoted the person as saying “There was a nexus” between the CIA and Kim Jong Nam. “Several former U.S. officials said the half brother, who had lived outside of North Korea for many years and had no known power base in Pyongyang, was unlikely to be able to provide details of the secretive country’s inner workings,” the Journal said.

The former officials also said Kim Jong Nam had been almost certainly in contact with security services of other countries, particularly China’s, the Journal said. Kim Jong Nam’s role as a CIA informant is mentioned in a new book about Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor,” by Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield that is due to be published on Tuesday. Fifield says Kim Jong Nam usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia, citing a source with knowledge of the intelligence.

The book says that security camera footage from Kim Jong Nam’s last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel elevator with an Asian-looking man who was reported to be a U.S. intelligence agent. It said Ki’s backpack contained $120,000 in cash, which could have been payment for intelligence-related activities, or earnings from his casino businesses. South Korean and U.S. officials have said the North Korean authorities had ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been critical of his family’s dynastic rule. Pyongyang has denied the allegation.

Two women were charged with poisoning Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Malaysia released Doan Thi Huong, who is Vietnamese, in May, and Indonesian Siti Aisyah in March…