Free Republic

N.K. apparently replaces all border security guards after soldier's defection: source 2017/11/23 17:29 SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have replaced all border security guards following a North Korean soldier's recent defection to the South via a jointly controlled area at the tense border, an intelligence source said Thursday. A North Korean soldier was shot and wounded by his fellows Nov. 13 when he sought to cross the heavily guarded inter-Korean border to defect. The replacement seems to be a response to their failure to deter his escape. "Signs were detected that North Korea has replaced...

North Korea spends about a quarter of its budget on the armed forces but is reportedly unable to feed its soldiers. A Japanese filmmaker who is in close contact with citizen journalists inside North Korea said that many of the army’s 1.2 million active troops are “in poor physical condition and in no fit state to fight.” “For one thing, there are too many soldiers to feed,” Jiro Ishimaru told the Guardian, “and corruption is rife, so that by the time senior military officers have taken their share of food provisions to sell for profit on the private market, there...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea's military proposed Friday holding direct talks with U.S. forces, an unusual plea amid recent progress on the nuclear standoff between the two countries. The North's Korean Peoples Army proposed the talks, also be attended by a U.N. representative, "for the purpose of discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula," the chief of the North Korean military's mission at the truce village of Panmunjom said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "It is easy to miss a chance, but difficult to get it,"...