North Korea tells people to work harder in loyalty campaign

Associated Press

February 25, 2016

North Koreans parade with the North Korean flag in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, to show their loyalty to the Workers' Party. North Korea is massing its people to hunker down and work harder with a new "70-day campaign of loyalty" in the run up to a major meeting of its ruling Workers' Party in May. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea is urging its people to hunker down and work harder with a "70-day campaign of loyalty" before a major meeting of its ruling Workers' Party in May.

Red placards went up around the capital Tuesday starting the campaign. Thousands of Pyongyang residents were massed on Kim Il Sung Square on Thursday afternoon to show their commitment to the drive.

While the U.N. Security Council is closer to putting new sanctions on North Korea for its recent nuclear test and satellite launch, the North's government has focused internally on a traditional socialist struggle to produce more in the workplace and demonstrate loyalty.

The 7th Congress of North Korea's Workers' Party in early May will be the first in 36 years and the first under leader Kim Jong Un. The new 70-day campaign means organizations and individual workers have to set objectives to show how they can work harder and contribute more to the state.

Slogans written in large white letters on a bold red background decorate the outside of buildings, the inside of office blocks and are propped up on fields and hills in the North Korean countryside.

Similar loyalty campaigns have been held previously. Last week, the ruling party announced a slew of new slogans, ranging from boosting the economy to becoming an international sports power.

Official media reported Thursday the State Stamp Bureau has also issued stamps "calling for working miracles in building a thriving nation."

It said the stamps bear such slogans as "Don't abandon revolutionary faith though one may die!" and "Let's make a big haul in the fighting spirit displayed by the People's Army in making a new history of big fish haul!"

Kim Jong Un says North Korean miracle drug cures cancer, AIDS and Ebola

KNS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seen here visiting a hospital, says his country has discovered a cure for cancer, AIDS and a whole bunch of other maladies.

Well, that’s a relief.

According to North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, there is now a miracle drug that wipes out cancer, AIDS, MERS and Ebola.

The impoverished dictatorship announced Friday that scientists have created a drug called Kumdang-2, made with ginseng grown with fertilizer and other “rare-earth elements.”

“Malicious virus infections like SARS, Ebola and MERS are diseases that are related to immune systems, so they can easily be treated by Kumdang-2 injection drug,” said a post on the Korean Central News Agency, the state’s official media site.

The announcement came as South Korea is battling a MERS epidemic that has killed two dozen people.

The strange leader has made a series of fantastical claims since taking power in 2011. He learned to drive at age 3 and won a yacht race at age 9, according to his official bio.

He also is an artist, a conductor, a mountain climber and a pilot, state records say.

He also believes in unicorns, according to some reports.

With News Wire Services

Source: New York Daily News

North Korean soldier walks across DMZ in bid to defect to South

A teenage North Korean soldier walked across the world's most heavily militarized border on Monday in a bid to defect to South Korea, South Korean Defense Ministry officials said.

While there are more than a thousand defections from North Korea to South Korea every year, most defectors come via China and it is rare for a North Korean to crossing the heavily mined Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The last such crossing was in 2012.

The soldier approached a remote South Korean guard post in Gangwon province's Hwacheon county, in the central area of the peninsula, at about 8 a.m. on Monday, one Defense Ministry official said.

There was no exchange of fire or warning shots as the soldier clearly expressed his desire to defect, the official said. The soldier was being held in custody while officials ran checks.

Stretching across the Korean peninsula, the DMZ is 4 km (2.5 miles) wide and is fortified with landmines and barbed wire. There are telephones on the South Korean side for defectors from the North to call seeking help.

Yonhap News Agency reported that the North Korean military had been laying landmines along parts of the border this year, in an apparent move to prevent defections, citing a South Korean government official.

South Korean's defense ministry declined to confirm the report.

Later on Monday, the South's Unification Ministry said North Korea had agreed to repatriate a South Korean married couple held for what it said was illegal entry.

The North said in a notice signed by its Red Cross chief that the two South Koreans who had entered the North on May 11 would be handed over at the Panmunjom truce village on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) border, the ministry said.

The ministry said the pair, a 59-year-old male and a 51-year-old female, had gone missing near the border between North Korea and China where they were traveling. It gave no further details.

Four other South Korean citizens are known to be held by the North, including two men who confessed to having spied for the South, and a 21-year-old New York University student who is a U.S. green card holder. - REUTERS