Who is this mystery woman from North Korea?

Mystery woman with North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un stirs speculation

Singer or sister? Speculation is rife over who this woman is. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS

A mystery woman pictured accompanying North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un to recent events has prompted speculation in Seoul about whether she is his partner or his younger sister.

The North's state television on Sunday aired footage of the woman joining Kim Jong-un as he paid tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-sung on the anniversary of his death in 1994.

Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover. 

Top officials including ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam and army chief Ri Yong-ho accompanied the leader to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace, where the embalmed body of the nation's first president lies in state.

Who is she? Kim Jong-un is pictured during a visit to Kumsusan Palace with an unidentified woman. Photo: AFP/North Korean TV

The TV footage showed the woman, apparently in her twenties or thirties, walking next to the leader. She bowed with him before a portrait of Kim Il-sung.

The short-haired woman, clad in a black suit, was also pictured sitting next to Kim Jong-un at a concert by a state orchestra on Friday.
Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong, who is believed to have studied in Switzerland along with him in the 1990s. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover.

This screen grab shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, centre, with a mystery woman paying tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-sung. Photo: AFP/North Korean TV

Seoul's intelligence agency and unification ministry, in charge of cross-border affairs, declined to comment.

The speculation highlighted the degree of secrecy in the North about the private lives of its rulers.
Kim Jong-un took power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il last December but the outside world does not even know his exact age.

An unidentified woman pictured standing behind Kim Jong-un during mourning for his late father last December was identified by some sources as the new leader's younger sister.

JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the woman pictured in recent days may be Hyon Song-wol, a famous state singer rumoured to be the leader's lover.

It said she disappeared from public view in 2006 but was seen on TV again in March, apparently late in pregnancy.

"Hyon was a friend of Kim since they were teenagers and there is a rumour among the North's elites that she was his lover," it quoted an unidentified Seoul intelligence official as saying.

But Yang Moo-jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said there was "little chance" the mystery woman was Kim's partner, given that the country's past first ladies have rarely made public appearances with leaders.

"She could be Yo-Jong or perhaps a daughter of one of the mistresses of the late Kim Jong-il ... so that Jong-un can publicly showcase the solidarity in the ruling family," Yang said.

AFP Newscribe : get free news in real time  

China builds nuclear-powered deep-sea station

Not content with ambitious plans to dominate space exploration over the coming decades, China is also looking to master the ocean with the development of a deep-sea station which could be its first step towards large-scale underwater mining.

Plans for the nuclear powered mobile deep-sea station were unveiled earlier this year by China Ship Scientific Research Centre – the state-owned venture whose Jiaolong manned submersible recently reached depths of over 7,000 metres – according to South China Morning Post.

The craft would have dimensions of 60.2m x 15.8m x 9.7m, weigh about 2,600 tonnes, and have enough room for 33 crew members.

It would have propellers to move submarine-like underwater and several ports to allow smaller craft to dock with it, the report said.

On that note, a smaller prototype which could carry 12 crew on an 18-day expedition is currently in production, with an expected delivery date of 2015.

While China’s plans in space appear to revolve heavily around military strategy, its deep sea efforts have more to do with the country finding an answer to its current energy problems.

Drilling for oil and mining copper and other natural resources both appear to be high on the list of China’s deep-sea priorities, although technological limitations may hold back advances in the project for some time, the report claims.

When China wants something it usually succeeds in the end, however, so it would not be out of the question to see the launch of a full-sized deep-sea station by 2030, according to SCMP.

As with most elements of Chinese technology innovation, the PLA is never too far away – this deep-sea project is apparently funded by 863 Program, a hi-tech state scheme.

By Phil Muncaster
Newscribe : get free news in real time

Related post:

China set to launch bigger space programme

Science

China plans nuclear deep-sea mining base

A Chinese company is set to build a nuclear-powered mobile deep-sea station in the western Pacific, according to local reports.

The China Ship Scientific Research Centre's proposed station -- which will have huge propellers to enable free movement in the ocean depths -- will be manned by 33 crew for up to two months at a time and powered by a nuclear reactor.

Its main goal, according to reports in the South China Sea Post, will be to mine for precious metals. The nation, which recently announced it is stockpiling rare earth elements amid fears of shortages, would use the facilities to hunt mainly for copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold and oil.

Underwater mining is typically a costly affair, full of potential dangers and problems. Canadian-owned Nautilus Minerals Inc was the first commercial copper-gold mining venture to be granted permission to explore the Bismarck Sea floor surrounding Papua New Guinea, but has already run into problems with environmentalists warning the mining could destroy marine life and cause devastating oil spills. China's Tongling Non-ferrous Metals Group had signed up as the project's very first customer in April 2012, but a dispute with Papua New Guinea also stands to halt the mining project's 2013 launch completely

The Chinese company appears to be wary of these issues, and is therefore treading carefully, with plans for the bold venture slated for a more reasonable 2030 launch -- according to experts the South China Sea Post spoke to -- and a smaller 12-crew prototype capable of 18-day dives set to launch by 2015. The larger 60-metre-long craft will weigh in at 2,600 tonnes.

In preparation, the China Ship Scientific Research Centre has been engaging in test dives of manned vehicles -- its Jiaolong model reached a record-breaking 7,020 metres at the Mariana Trenchin the Pacific Ocean on the same day that China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft docked at the Tiangong 1 space station.

Reports suggest that the project is being funded by the state's 863 Program, a fund specifically for the development of innovative technologies, which has links with the military. Nevertheless, mining for oil and copper seem to be the most likely priorities on the agenda, with crew on the station able to spend two months at a time living and mining underwater.

Shanghai is hosting the 41st Underwater Mining Institute conference October 2012, and further details could potentially be revealed then. In the meantime, a look at the China Ship Scientific Research Centre's website reveals fields of interest that range from manned submersibles such as the Jiaolong vessel to atmospheric one-man diving suits and autonomous underwater robots -- the latter would be exponentially beneficial in aiding aquanauts during danger-filled underwater mining missions.

The centre also appears to be keen on waterslides. Definitely one to watch.

By Liat Clark WIRE. UK. CO

American drone strikes slammed!

Strong criticisms have emerged against the use of drones for killing people in several countries.

THE use of drones by one state to kill people in other countries is fast emerging as an international human rights issue of serious public concern.

This was evident in the recent session (June 18-July 6) of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, both in the official meetings and in NGO seminars.

The use of drones, or pilotless aircraft operated by remote control, by the government in one country to strike at persons and other targets in other countries, has been increasingly used by the United States in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Instead of following clear legal standards, the practice of drone attacks has become a vaguely defined and unaccountable “licence to kill”, according to a 2010 report of a UN human rights special rapporteur.

According to an article in The Guardian, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that as many as 4,000 people have been killed in US drone strikes since 2002. Of those, a significant proportion were civilians.

The numbers killed have escalated significantly since Barack Obama became president.

Recent criticisms and concerns raised by officials, experts and governments about the use of drones include the high numbers of deaths and casualties of innocent civilians; possible violation of sovereignty and international human rights laws; lack of information, transparency and accountability; their being counter-productive; and the indirect encouragement to other countries to similarly use drone attacks.

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay in her overall report to the Human Rights Council on June 18 said that during her recent visit to Pakistan she expressed serious concern over the continuing use of armed drones for targeted attacks particularly because it was unclear that all persons targeted were combatants or directly participating in hostilities.

She added that the “UN secretary-general has expressed concern about the lack of transparency on the circumstances in which drones are used, noting that these attacks raise questions about compliance with distinction and proportionality.”

She reminded the US of their international obligation to take all necessary precautions to ensure that attacks comply with international law and urged them to conduct investigations that are transparent, credible and independent, and provide victims with effective remedies.

On June 26, Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram told the council that his country was directly affected by the indiscriminate use of drones, and at least a thousand civilians, including women and children, have been killed in drone attacks.

“The government of Pakistan has maintained consistently that drone attacks are not only counter-productive but a violation of international law and Pakistan’s sovereignty,” said Akram, adding that Pakistan’s Parliament has called for an immediate end to these attacks.

“Regrettably this call has not been heeded. The drone attacks continue in violation of the UN Charter, international human rights and international humanitarian law. The international human rights machinery must clearly reject attempts to justify these actions.”

At the council on June 16, Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called for more transparency and accountability from the US, according to a IPS news report.

He urged that a framework be developed and adhered to, and pressed for accurate records of civilian deaths. “I think we’re in for very dangerous precedents that can be used by countries on all sides,” he said.

At an event organised by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Heyns said the US drone attacks would encourage other states to flout human rights standards and suggested that some drone strikes may even be war crimes, according to a report in the London-based Guardian.

Criticisms are also coming from US groups and a former president. “The US has cobbled together its own legal framework for targeted killing, with standards that are far less stringent than the law allows,” Hina Shamsi, a director of the ACLU told the council on June 20, according to IPS.

Shamsi also took issue with the lack of transparency of military programmes based on what she called “a secret legal criteria, entirely secret evidence, and a secret process”.

“The international community’s concern about the US targeted killing programme is continuing to grow because of the unlawfully broad authority our government asserts to kill ‘suspected terrorists’ far from any battlefield, without meaningful transparency or accountability,” Shamsi told IPS.

The lack of a legal framework allows for drone strikes to be implemented at will, in non-conflict zones and on the basis of loosely defined terrorist threats, without permission from the host nation, added the IPS article.

“In essence, drones cancel out national sovereignty,” Tom Engelhardt, co-author of Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050, told IPS. “The rules of the game are one country’s sovereignty trumps that of another.”

Former US President, Jimmy Carter, writing in the New York Times (June 24), noted that the use of US drone attacks “continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don’t know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times.

“These policies clearly affect American foreign policy. Top intelligence and military officials as well as rights defenders in targeted areas affirm that the great escalation in drone attacks has turned aggrieved families toward terrorist organisations, aroused civilian populations against us ... As concerned citizens we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms.”

Drones were originally developed to gather intelligence.

More than 40 countries have this technology and some have or are seeking drones that can shoot laser-guided missiles, according to a pioneering 2010 report by the then UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston.

They enable targeted killings with no risk to the personnel of the state carrying them out and can be operated remotely from the home state.

GLOBAL TRENDS By MARTIN KHOR

Related posts:
Drones, computers new weapons of US waging shadow ...
American drone wars and state secrecy! 
US apologizes for Chinese Exclusion Act