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Photographs showing Kim Jong-un proudly watching as a North Korean missile was launched from an underwater submarine were manipulated by state propagandists, experts claimed on Tuesday. German aerospace experts said photos of the launch were "strongly modified", including reflections of the missile exhaust flame in the water which did not line up with the missile itself. “Considering the track record of North Korean deceptions, it seems sensible to assume that any North Korean SLBM [submarine-launched ballistic missile] capability is still a very long time in the future, if it will ever surface,” Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Schmucker Technologie,...

North Korean defense minister Hyon Yong Chol made a mistake: he fell asleep at an official event at which Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was present. Kim, keen on sending a strong message amid rumors that his grip on absolute power may be slipping, reportedly decided that the appropriate punishment for napping during a rally is execution by anti-aircraft gun. If true, this would mark the latest in a series of “purges” which seem to lend some credence to the notion that Kim’s family name is no longer sufficient when it comes to securing absolute power and universal admiration both from...

South Korea's spy agency told the country's lawmakers Wednesday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un executed his defense chief for falling asleep during a meeting and talking back to the young leader. Lawmaker Shin Kyoung-min says that officials from the National Intelligence Service told a closed-door parliamentary committee that People's Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol was killed by anti-aircraft gunfire with hundreds watching at a shooting range at Pyongyang's Kang Kon Military Academy in late April. Shin was one of the lawmakers who attended the briefing. The office of another lawmaker, Lee Cheol Woo, released similar information about...

North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament. MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports. It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions. The news comes weeks after the reported execution of 15 senior officials.

N. Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges, Seoul's National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers, in the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011. Hyon Yong Chol, who heads the isolated country's military, was purged and then executed by firing squad with an antiaircraft gun, watched by hundreds of people, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, citing the NIS's comments to a parliamentary panel. Hyon, who spoke at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority, South Korea's spy agency told a closed-door parliament meeting on Wednesday. A vice minister for forestry was one of the officials executed for complaining about a state policy, a member of parliament's intelligence committee, Shin Kyung-min, quoted an unnamed National Intelligence Service official as saying. "Excuses or reasoning doesn't work for Kim Jong Un, and his style of rule is to push through everything, and if there's any objection, he takes that as a challenge to authority and comes...

Kim Jong-Un has climbed the highest mountain in North Korea, state-run media claims.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea accused Mexico on Wednesday of illegally detaining one of its ships with some 50 crew and warned it would take "necessary measures" to release the vessel, which United Nations sanctions monitors say belongs to a blacklisted shipping firm.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was seen at the controls of one of the Korean People's Air Force Antonov An-2 aircraft while on an inspection visit to an aircraft maintenance plant last week, and analysts in South Korea say that Pyongyang has updated the colour scheme of the vintage planes, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

The tyrant, who lives in luxury while his people starve, is recruiting beautiful young females to cater to his every sexual whim, it has been reported.A South Korean newspaper has reported that the tyrant, who lives in luxury while his people starve, is recruiting beautiful young females to cater to his every sexual whim. It is believed Kim disbanded the group who entertained his father Kim Jong-Il when he came to power in 2011. But now Kim, who is married to singer Ri Sol-ju and has a daughter, has resurrected the tradition and sent out his officials to recruit "tall...

Kim Jong Un's latest hack job created another international incident. North Korea watchers combing through the supreme leader's appearance at a politburo meeting Wednesday were struck by Kim's new look. Kim was photographed with shrunken eyebrows the size of emoticons and cartoonishly high hair.

A quiet revolution may be under way in North Korea. The loud one we know about - it's been going on since the Soviet Red Army wrested the northern half of the peninsula from Japanese control in 1945. The Kim dynasty has espoused communism and shouted its merits ever since. But now, surprisingly, it seems that capitalism is growing in the country - quietly, of course. Kim Jong-un has looked north over the Chinese border and decided that market reforms along the lines of those allowed by his comrades in Beijing may allow the preservation of the current structure but...

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has accepted an invitation to attend a ceremony in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. The invitation was extended by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and will be the young dictator's first overseas trip since he became head of state after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011. While other world leaders might be reluctant to extend a welcoming hand to a pariah state that frequently threatens to turn the capital cities of its enemies to "seas of fire", Mr...

Sony’s controversial comedy flick earned $31 million in online sales and $5 million in theaters despite cyber threats and a wide theatrical release. The online sales figure marks the most lucrative digital release for a Hollywood film ever. Sony Pictures' "The Interview" has made more than $31 million from its online and on-demand release, according to the studio. Sony announced digital figures Tuesday for the film spanning its first 11 days of release since debuting Dec. 24. Sony had previously said the film made $15 million in its first four days online, so demand for the Seth Rogen comedy has...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a “victim” of bad publicity, according to Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and U.N. ambassador. “He has been the victim, Kim Jong Un, of a lot of bad press, a lot of bad international attention, with the Sony hacking, with [being] taken to the International Criminal Court by some U.N. countries, a number of other very destabilizing moves that he has made, shooting the missiles, nuclear testing,” Richardson said on Friday on MSNBC’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall.”

Brow you see them: Kim Jong-un sports bizarre shrunken eyebrows in 2015 speech PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 9:15am UPDATED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 1:47pm Alex Millson alex.millson@scmp.com When Kim Jong-un delivered his New Year message offering to participate in high-level talks with South Korea, the setting, his outfit and posture were all strikingly similar to those he adopted exactly two years earlier. Two things, however, appeared radically different - the North Korean leader’s eyebrows. In what appeared to be a case of severe over-plucking, Kim’s brows appeared to be significantly shorter than on earlier occasions, sitting above...

Kim Jong-un is said to have mastered the art of driving a car by the age of three, and now footage broadcast on North Korean state television appears to show that he is also a skilled pilot. In the video, which was originally broadcast on Tuesday, Kim can be seen looking through paperwork as he makes preflight checks before apparently taking control of the aircraft. Local media reported that Kim piloted the plane and landed it by himself as two assistants sat next to him.

Kim Jong-un says North Korea is 'Open' to highest-level talks with South.

Here's a new North Korean propaganda video showing Kim Jong Un piloting a jet.

In July of 1870, King Wilhelm sent Foreign Minister Bismarck an account of his meeting with a French envoy who had demanded that the king renounce any Hohenzollern claim to the Spanish throne. Bismarck edited the report to make it appear the Frenchman had insulted the king, and that Wilhelm rudely dismissed him. The Ems Telegram precipitated the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck wanted. Words matter. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much greater impact can a motion picture have? We are finding out. Egypt has banned "Exodus: Gods and Kings," the $140 million 20th Century Fox biblical...