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☆ Kim Jong Un's daughter was a mystery for years, but now she's showing up at North Korea's biggest missile tests
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

For years, Kim Jong Un's daughter — Kim Ju Ae — was a mystery to the world. But in late 2022 state media began showing photos of her at North Korean military events. Photographs released by state media after the launch appear to show the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, watching with a girl who has been identified by analysts and experts as his daughter, Kim Ju Ae. This photo provided on Nov. 19, 2022, by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his daughter inspecting a missile at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with his daughter, inspects what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Following are some of the issues China and others are likely to be taking into account as it considers prospects for peace in Ukraine. Attempting to broker peace is a low-cost venture that can yield high returns for China, even if a quick breakthrough is highly unlikely, analysts say. The plan got lukewarm welcomes in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and NATO were sceptical. China expanded trade with Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and did not recognise the annexed territory as Russian, he said. Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, China and Russia announced a "no-limits" partnership.

☆ Explainer: A year into Ukraine war, how has China stood by 'no limits' partner Russia?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Laurie Chen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Here are the implications for China as the war approaches its one-year anniversary on Feb. 24. While China has repeatedly called for peace, President Xi Jinping has stood by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow. China has sought to avoid providing support to Russia that would invite sanctions upon itself, including refraining from providing weapons. Beijing has repeatedly opposed any linkage between the Ukraine war and its intentions to "reunify" with the self-ruled island that it claims as its territory. "The result and the cost of the war show the Chinese that an invasion is Taiwan may not be prudent," said Sun.

Of seven new dams planned in Laos, at least four are co-financed by Chinese companies, according to Mekong Dam Monitor data. 'WAKE-UP CALL'Farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta region were not prepared for the speed at which their landscape - and fortunes - have changed. The Mekong River Commission estimated in 2018 that total sediment flow by now would be around 47 million tonnes per year. "Mainstream dams catch everything," said economist Brian Eyler at the Stimson Center, which runs the Mekong Dam Monitor. The Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams in Laos are the most recent to come online, with Xayaburi the largest on the entire Mekong River.

☆ North Korea's Kim reveals daughter at ballistic missile test
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday. "This is the first observed occasion where we have seen Kim Jong Un's daughter at a public event," said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center. "It is highly significant and represents a certain degree of comfort on Kim Jong Un's part that he would bring her out in public in such fashion." [1/9] North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, along with his daughter, inspects an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on November 19, 2022 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). After a trip to North Korea that year, Rodman told The Guardian newspaper he had spent time with Kim and his family, and held the baby.

☆ North Korea sees more use of cell phones, WiFi networks - U.S. researchers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Up to 7 million North Koreans use cell phones daily, and WiFi networks have sharply expanded in recent years as the mobile devices increasingly became a key tool for market activity in the isolated country, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. Since 3G network services began in 2008, the number of users has risen to 6.5 million to 7 million, more than a quarter of North Korea's 25 million population, the researchers said. The country's antiquated 3G network and limits on foreign investment in upgrades because of sanctions over its weapons programmes has prompted the emergence of faster WiFi networks around the country, Williams said. The WiFi networks do not offer any Internet access but provide connections to domestic services, especially scientific databases for the research community, he added. The private sector has overtaken state-led agents to become North Korea's biggest economic actor in recent years, with its rationing system crumbling and leader Kim Jong Un allowing markets abhorred by his father.

☆ Weapons in Ukraine aren't flooding Europe's black markets, but that could change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The volume of weapons sent to and in Ukraine has raised concern that some could end up on the black market. The United Kingdom has sent Ukraine more than 4,200 such weapons since Russia invaded. Similarly, the UK has sent more than 5,000 point-and-shoot NLAW anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, weapons that can readily target and destroy most moving vehicles. However, "At the moment," he said, "there is no evidence of increased arms trafficking from Ukraine to other countries." In September, the Moldovan Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the creation of a new unit dedicated to combating illicit arms trafficking.

HONG KONG — Xi Jinping secured a historic third term as leader of China on Sunday, cementing his status as the country’s most powerful figure in decades and extending his authoritarian rule over the world’s second-largest economy. The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the limit in 1982 to prevent a return to a Mao-style cult of personality. The Chinese leader reiterated the goal of peaceful “reunification,” without renouncing the possible use of force. “Xi still promises no specific timeline on unification.”But the Chinese leader did put greater emphasis on warning “external forces” to stay out of the Taiwan issue. A telecast of Chinese President Xi Jinping plays on a screen in Hong Kong on Monday.

☆ Superyacht struggle: Is Hong Kong now safe harbor for sanctioned Russians?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Marie Brockling | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

A superyacht linked to a Russian oligarch has produced the latest ripple of tensions between the United States and China after it moored in Hong Kong’s harbor. Hong Kong said Tuesday it would not seize the superyacht, defying Washington and raising fears that the global financial hub could become a haven for individuals sanctioned over the war in Ukraine. “Secondary sanction is more a practical matter rather than a legal or moral matter as Hong Kong banks handling Russian transactions could be sanctioned,” Sun added. The Hong Kong Marine Department did not respond to a request for comment on the number of Russian yachts in its harbors. “We will have to see how much money eventually flocks to Hong Kong and how they are being handled in order to assess the impact on U.S.-China relations,” Sun said.

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