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North Korea’s History of Kidnappings and Foreign Assassinations

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In February, local police reported that Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was killed in Malaysia. Over the past several weeks, some South Korean media outlets have reported that North Korean agents were responsible for his death, so far there has been no evidence provided. However, since Kim Jong-un took power, he has made no compunction in execution officials perceived as being a threat to his authority. In one of the most high-profile incidents, his uncle and senior mentor, Chang Song-thaek, was executed. The country itself has also had a long history of sending agents overseas in order to carry out assassinations, attacks and kidnappings. Below are five such incidents.

Raid on the Blue House (1968) 

A team of thirty-one elite, handpicked North Korean commandos were sent to the south with a mission to infiltrate the Blue House, which is South Korea’s presidential residence, and assassinate President Park Chung-hee. While hiding out in the mountains above Seoul, they were discovered by a group of civilians however they decided that instead of killing them, they would teach them about communism and release them with a warning not to tell anyone. Their plan however was foiled as police and the military were notified, although the North Korean commandos managed to evade detection. They entered the capital, dressed in South Korean army uniforms, and marched to the Blue House disguised as the very soldiers tasked with locating them. At a checkpoint 100m away from the Blue House, they were questioned and a gunfight erupted. While many of the commandos managed to flee, most were later killed or committed suicide as they tried to get back to the North. One was captured. In that incident, more than ninety South Koreans wee killed, including a large group of civilians who were reportedly on a bus.

Bombing in Burma (1983)

If the incident in Malaysia is indeed an assassination attempt that occurred in a third country, then this is nothing new. A bomb hidden at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Rangoon, the capital of Myanmar, exploded just minutes before then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan arrived to lay a wreath on 9 October. Mr Chun’s car had been delayed in traffic, which ultimately saved his life, however seventeen South Korean nations, including four ministers were killed, and four Burmese nationals also died. Three North Korean agents were involved in the attack and are said to have detained one of three bombs early, after hearing the sound of a bugle that mistakenly signalled the president’s arrival. They managed to flee the scene, however one was later killed nad the two others were captured.

Overseas Abductions (1970s – 1980s)

North Korea has admitted to kidnapping Japanese citizens in the 1970s nad 1980s in a bid to train its spies in Japanese customs and language. Some were kidnapped from coastal areas in Japan by North Korean agents while others from overseas. The youngest was a thirteen-year-old girl who was abducted in 1977 while on he way home from school. Pyongyang has since retuned five of the abductees, stating that eight more died. Japan however does not believe that hey are dead, adding that far more people were abducted. South Koreans have also been targeted in abduction cases, with the most high profile case being that of a film director and his actress wife, who were taken in Hong Kong to North Korea so that they could help the country build its firm industry.

Killing in Vladivostok (1996)

It is estimated that thousands of North Koreans are living in Russia, and South Korean consular official Choi Duk Keun’s job was to monitor those who were living in Vladivostock. He was found bludgeoned in October 1996, with South Korean media later reporting that he was killed to avenge the deaths of twenty-two North Korean commandos whose submarine ran aground on a beach in South Korea a month earlier.

Targeting Defectors

North Korean defections have led to assassination attempts. In 2016, when North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom defected, South Korea warned at the time of possible revenge assassinations and kidnappings. There is precedent to this as when Hwang Jang-yob, a senior politician, defected to South Korea in 1997, another prominent defector, Yi Han-yong, was shot in the head by suspected North Korea assassins. He was the nephew of Song Hye-rim, who is the mother of Kim Jong-nam. Thirteen years later, two North Korean military officials posing as defectors were jailed in South Korea for an unsuccessful plot to kill Mr Hwang.

IS Suicide Attacks on the Rise

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A report by the Hague’s International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) has revealed the extent of suicide attack tactics by IS. The report concluded IS is carrying out more suicide bombings than ever before as “utterly brainwashed” militants continue to battle in Iraq and Syria.

Charlie Winter, the author of the report, said that while al-Qaeda’s suicide attacks were mainly carried out by foreigners on civilians, IS mainly sends local operatives against military forces. “This reflects a new phase of operationalisation for suicide warfare; a tactical shift with strategic implications that will change the insurgent and terrorist landscape for years to come,” he said. “The suicide attack, that most shocking tactic of terrorists and insurgents, has never been more commonplace than it is today.” He found at least 923 suicide operations were carried out by IS in the 12 months from December 2015 to November last year and predicted that number would continue to increase. Around 84 per cent were military operations, while 16 per cent targeted civilians. Most of the attacks use vehicles packed with explosives, sometimes with the addition of guns, and others used fighters wearing vests or carrying guns and belts to detonate during combat. IS has long used suicide bombings as a military tactic to kill and intimidate enemy fighters, but the number of such attacks has rocketed as it continues to lose territory in Iraq and Syria, more than doubling from 61 operations in December 2015 to 132 in November.

Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said the trend was a sign of “military weakness”. “Suicide bombers are individuals who can be deployed using the minimum available explosives, whereas anything larger scale would require more sophisticated weaponry,” she said. “The fact they are increasingly relying on suicide bombers means they do not have the kind of military capacity they used to have to enable them to use heavy weapons.” Khatib believes the group’s supply of weaponry and ammunition seized from overrun Iraqi and Syrian government forces and opposition fighters is drying up, as its supply lines are closed off by tightening border controls and enemy advances. Khatib also discussed how IS’ use of suicide bombers was initially offensive, with the group deploying them in a similar way to how a conventional army would use artillery in ground assaults on a military target, but the tactic has now become a last line of defence. This does not mean, however, that the tactic is unsuccessful. “It has managed to intimidate their targets,” Khatib said. “IS continues to use them knowing that targets are unlikely to use the same tactic.”

IS propaganda claims 90 suicide bombings were carried out by the group in January alone, mainly in areas of Iraq where the group is under attack. Winter said that although the bombings occur most frequently where IS is under military pressure, they are used tactically and the group does not waste fighters on cities like Fallujah that it considers a lost cause. “It is apparent from the scale of IS’ suicide industry that there exists a dedicated infrastructure for manufacturing would-be martyrs and it is only increasing in efficiency,” he warned. “IS’ suicide tacticians have perfected their art, not only developing explosives that are more powerful and reliable than ever, but creating what appears to be a sustainable stream of utterly brainwashed would-be suicide fighters.”

“Superspreaders” Behind Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

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Researchers reported last month that most of the people infected with Ebola in the West Africa epidemic, which began in 2014, got sick through contact with a small number of “superspreaders” with the disease. The West African Ebola epidemic was the largest in history and killed more than 11,300 people, with many of the cases involving people infected while caring for a sick person or burying a body.

The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that such “superspreaders” can be extremely dangerous when it comes to infectious disease outbreaks. According to co-author Benjamin Dalziel, an assistant professor of population biology in the college of Science at Oregon State University, “we now see the role of superspreaders as larger than initially suspected,” adding “it was the cases you didn’t see that really drove the epidemic, particularly people who died at home, without making it to a care centre.”

At the time, researches counted cases according to those seen in medical centres, however they later realized that these were a small fraction of the total. According to Dalziel, “there wasn’t a lot of transmission once people reached hospitals and care centres,” adding “in our analysis we were able to see a web of transmission that would often track back to a community-based superspreader.”

Researchers are now reporting that 61 percent of those infected with the disease caught it from people accounting for just three percent of those who got sick. The report went on to say that if superspreading had been completely under control, then about two-thirds of Ebola cases could have been avoided.

Superspreaders have also played a role in the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East respiratory Syndrome in 2012.

The study involved researchers from Princeton University, Oregon State University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Imperial College London and the US National Institutes of Health.

Operation Car Wash and The Future of Latin Americas Political Landscape

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A dominant theme in the Latin American press for a while now has been the corruption probes that have instigated the downfall of quite a few members of the Latin American financial and political ruling class. The saga started initially as a money laundering investigation in Brazil in 2014. Operation Car-Wash has since ballooned into a multinational corruption probe that has contributed to the impeachment of a President, to the jailing of billionaires, helped stall the worlds ninth-largest economy and led to a $3.5 billion corporate fine, a world record in a graft case. At the center of attention is Odebrecht, Latin Americas largest construction company whose former CEO has been sentenced to nineteen years in prison last year. New developments are coming out every day as indicted executives and politicians are spilling the beans amid plea bargaining and spiraling media coverage. February was no exception. In Argentina the head of the National Intelligence Agency, Gustavo Arribas, a close ally to President Macri, is under investigation for taking bribes. In Peru former President Alejandro Toledo is alleged to have received $20 million in kickbacks in return for green-lighting Odebrechts bid to build sections of the Interoceanic Highway, which now links Brazil with Perus Pacific ports. Peru has issued an international arrest warrant for Toledo. In Panama thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest over a bribe paid by Odebrecht to former President Ricardo Martinelli in exchange for public contracts. US authorities say Odebrecht paid $59m in bribes 2010 and 2014. Interpol has issued a Red Notice for two of Martinellis sons. Guatemala, which saw its ex-President Otto Perez Molina jailed for corruption, faced the arrest of a Supreme Court Judge in February as part of a nation-wide anti-corruption drive. Odebrechts activities are heavily scrutinized in the Central-American country. Venezuelan authorities raided the Caracas offices of Odebrecht, as prosecutors deepened a probe into the Brazilian construction firm that has admitted paying some $98 million in bribes to obtain government contracts in Venezuela. Amid the fall from grace of many members of the once powerful and rich ruling elite, it remains to be seen where justice starts and politics eventually end. Accusations are rife, however in some countries it takes place during election time. In Ecuador, where the lead opposition candidate is offering a sharp break with ten years of leftist rule, it is not hard to imagine a huge political influence of the continent-wide corruption scandal. Put into the mix Trumpian isolationism, Chinese and Russian bids for influence and the ongoing effects of a massive commodities downturn, the future of the Latin American political landscape might again become volatile.

Calls for Ethics Inquiry Regarding Senior White House Adviser’s Ivanka Trump Promotion

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A government ethics advisory body stated last week that Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway should be investigated over her promotion of Ivanka Trump’s products. In a letter on 14 February, it advised the White House to investigate and possibly discipline Ms Conway.

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) found reason to believe that Ms Conway had violated ethnics rules. The statement comes just five days after she urged people to purchase the president’s daughter’s range on Fox News. Her comments prompted complaints from both Democrats and Republicans, who have now been backed by the OGE, which is an independent body.

The inquiry is likely to add pressure to Donald Trump’s administration, in a week where national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to step down over his contact with the Russian ambassador. So far, the White House has stood behind Ms Conway, who earlier this month urged people to buy after retailer Nordstrom dropped Ivanka’s clothing line, citing a lack of sales. Press secretary Sean Spicer did however disclose that she had been counselled following the incident, however the OGE letter noted that it had received no notice of disciplinary or any corrective action against Ms Conway. The letter notes there is strong reason to believe that Ms Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct and that disciplinary actions is warranted. It recommended that the investigation and any disciplinary action be taken by 28 February.

Ethics rules state officials cannot use their position for personal gain. The letter says that there is no doubt that Ms Conway appeared on television in her official capacity, as she sat in front of the White House seal and next to an American flag.