North Korea Cartoons

N. Korea 'on standby to launch,' state-run paper says in response to Trump's latest warnings

North Korea took its turn Saturday in the country’s escalating, back-and-fourth with President Trump, with the state-run newspaper saying leader Kim Jung Un’s revolutionary army is “capable of fighting any war the U.S. wants.”

The assertion was made in an editorial that also states the Paektusan army is now “on the standby to launch fire into its mainland, waiting for an order of final attack."

The editorial also argues that the United States "finds itself in an ever worsening dilemma, being thrown into the grip of extreme security unrest by the DPRK. This is tragicomedy of its own making. … If the Trump administration does not want the American empire to meet its tragic doom in its tenure, they had better talk and act properly."
DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The editorial appears to be in response to a series of comments made by Trump in recent days, most recently Friday that the United States is “locked and loaded.”
The president's recent comments are in response to Kim threatening a missile attack on U.S. territory Guam.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to pursue a diplomatic solution to North Korea’s purported development of a nuclear warhead that could reach the United States and other countries on an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The White House says Trump has a phone conversation Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the leaders reiterated their commitment to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The president also saluted Xi for China's recent United Nations vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, in response the country’s escalating pursuit of nuclear weapons, according to the White House.
As the crisis has unfolded, Trump has alternated praising China for its help and chiding it for not doing more.
The White House says Trump also told Xi he looked forward to seeing him in China later this year.
During Trump’s phone conversation Friday with Xi, the Chinese leader also requested that the U.S. and North Korea tone down their recent rhetoric and avoid actions that could worsen tensions between the two nations, Chinese Central Television reported.
“At present, the relevant parties must maintain restraint and avoid words and deeds that would exacerbate the tension on the Korean Peninsula,” Xi was quoted as saying.
Trump has urged China to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, which North Korea says is nearing the capability of targeting the United States.
China is the North’s biggest economic partner and source of aid, but says it alone can’t compel Pyongyang to end its nuclear and missile programs.
Trump also spoke this weekend with Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo, reassuring him that U.S. military forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. territory, a White House statement said.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Saturday to do “everything, to the best of my ability,” to protect his nation’s people as tensions escalate over North Korea’s plans to send missiles over Japan toward Guam.
On Friday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said it was deploying four surface-to-air Patriot interceptors in western Japan to respond to a possible risk of fragments falling from missiles.

GOP candidates make closing arguments in final weekend of tight Ala. Senate primary

Republican candidates in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama crisscrossed the state Saturday, hoping to sway undecided voters before the election Tuesday. 

A primary in which a sitting senator is seeking election is typically little more than a formality. But this is not a typical political year, and this is no typical race.

President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are backing GOP Sen. Luther Strange in the special election to fill the seat of Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Session, who earlier this year became U.S. attorney general.
Strange, a former state attorney general, was appointed to the seat in February.
Their support has left four-term GOP Rep. Mo Brooks largely cut off by Washington Republicans in the close, three-way battle that also includes former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
On Saturday, Strange attended the Cleburne County Fair, where he spoke to members of the Heflin First United Methodist Youth Group.
“We have less than 72 hours before Alabama voters head to the polls. So, can I count on you to take some time over the next couple of days to stop by your neighbors and ask them to support our campaign on Tuesday?” Strange asked voters via social media.
Trump’s super PAC reportedly plans to spend as much as $200,000 on digital ads for Strange, in the closing days of race. He also has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
None of the three is expected to get at least 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, which means the top-two finishers will advance to a runoff in September.
The winner will face the Democratic nominee later this year but will likely win -- considering the last time a Democrat was elected senator in Alabama was 1987, when Richard Shelby won, then switched several years later to the Republican Party.
Several polls indicate the race is too close to call, with Brooks garnering national support from conservative groups and Moore appearing to have strong support from grassroots voters, TV stars such as Chuck Norris and evangelicals, including influential faith leader James Dobson.
Brooks on Saturday attended the Baldwin County breakfast, at the Biscuit King, in the town of Fairhope.
Moore’s campaign said the candidate and wife Kayla plan to participate in the traditional horse ride to the polls on Tuesday.

Pres. Trump Plans to Announce Trade Investigation into Chinese Goods

The People’s Republic of China flag and the U.S. Stars and Stripes fly along Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang

President Trump is expected to announce an investigation into Chinese trade practices Monday.
This is in response to allegations of violated U.S. intellectual property rights and forced technology transfers.
The announcement comes amid heightening tensions between the U.S. and China, despite voting in favor of sanctions on North Korea.
Although the investigation will not immediately impose sanctions on Beijing, it could lead to tariffs on Chinese goods.

President Trump will sign an executive memorandum on Monday authorizing the U.S. trade representative to determine whether to investigate China's intellectual property and trade practices, according to senior administration officials.
While administration officials said Saturday that it's too early to discuss specific actions against China, such an investigation could eventually pave the way for Trump to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump is expected to return to Washington from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. on Monday to sign the memo.
It was reported earlier Saturday that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the upcoming memo during a phone call Friday.
Administration officials, however, said that that call focused on Washington's current tensions with North Korea and an official readout of the conversation provided by the White House did not mention China's trade practices.
Trump's memo comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea and increasing frustration in the White House that China has not done more to rein in Pyongyang.
But a senior administration official said that concerns over China's trade practices have been longstanding, and that the president's memo was unrelated to efforts to put pressure on Beijing over North Korea.
While China joined the rest of the United Nations Security Council last week in voting for new sanctions against North Korea, Trump has continued to call on China to do more in regards to Pyongyang, suggesting this week that he would go easier on China if it stepped up its efforts to rein in its reclusive neighbor.
Trump was expected to sign the executive memo earlier this month, but the decision was delayed in order to press for China's cooperation on North Korea.

North Korea factories humming with ‘Made in China’ clothes, traders say

North Korean workers make soccer shoes inside a temporary factory at a rural village on the edge of Dandong

By Sue-Lin Wong and Philip Wen
DANDONG, China (Reuters) – Chinese textile firms are increasingly using North Korean factories to take advantage of cheaper labor across the border, traders and businesses in the border city of Dandong told Reuters.
The clothes made in North Korea are labeled “Made in China” and exported across the world, they said.
Using North Korea to produce cheap clothes for sale around the globe shows that for every door that is closed by ever-tightening U.N. sanctions another one may open. The UN sanctions, introduced to punish North Korea for its missile and nuclear programs, do not include any bans on textile exports.
“We take orders from all over the world,” said one Korean-Chinese businessman in Dandong, the Chinese border city where the majority of North Korea trade passes through. Like many people Reuters interviewed for this story, he spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Dozens of clothing agents operate in Dandong, acting as go-betweens for Chinese clothing suppliers and buyers from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Russia, the businessman said.
“We will ask the Chinese suppliers who work with us if they plan on being open with their client — sometimes the final buyer won’t realize their clothes are being made in North Korea. It’s extremely sensitive,” he said.
Textiles were North Korea’s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totaling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Total exports from North Korea in 2016 rose 4.6 percent to $2.82 billion.
The latest U.N. sanctions, agreed earlier this month, have completely banned coal exports now.
Its flourishing textiles industry shows how impoverished North Korea has adapted, with a limited embrace of market reforms, to sanctions since 2006 when it first tested a nuclear device. The industry also shows the extent to which North Korea relies on China as an economic lifeline, even as U.S. President Donald Trump piles pressure on Beijing to do more to rein in its neighbor’s weapons programmes.
Chinese exports to North Korea rose almost 30 percent to $1.67 billion in the first half of the year, largely driven by textile materials and other traditional labour-intensive goods not included on the United Nations embargo list, Chinese customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters.
Chinese suppliers send fabrics and other raw materials required for manufacturing clothing to North Korean factories across the border where garments are assembled and exported.
FACTORIES HUMMING
Australian sportswear brand Rip Curl publicly apologized last year when it was discovered that some of its ski gear, labeled “Made in China”, had been made in one of North Korea’s garment factories. Rip Curl blamed a rogue supplier for outsourcing to “an unauthorized subcontractor”.
But traders and agents in Dandong say it’s a widespread practice.
Manufacturers can save up to 75 percent by making their clothes in North Korea, said a Chinese trader who has lived in Pyongyang.
Some of the North Korean factories are located in Siniuju city just across the border from Dandong. Other factories are located outside Pyongyang. Finished clothing is often directly shipped from North Korea to Chinese ports before being sent onto the rest of the world, the Chinese traders and businesses said.
North Korea has about 15 large garment exporting enterprises, each operating several factories spread around the country, and dozens of medium sized companies, according to GPI Consultancy of the Netherlands, which helps foreign companies do business in North Korea.
All factories in North Korea are state-owned. And the textile ones appear to be humming, traders and agents say.
“We’ve been trying to get some of our clothes made in North Korea but the factories are fully booked at the moment,” said a Korean-Chinese businesswoman at a factory in Dalian, a Chinese port city two hours away from Dandong by train.
“North Korean workers can produce 30 percent more clothes each day than a Chinese worker,” said the Korean-Chinese businessman.
“In North Korea, factory workers can’t just go to the toilet whenever they feel like, otherwise they think it slows down the whole assembly line.”
“They aren’t like Chinese factory workers who just work for the money. North Koreans have a different attitude — they believe they are working for their country, for their leader.”
And they are paid wages significantly below many other Asian countries. North Korean workers at the now shuttered Kaesong industrial zone just across the border from South Korea received wages ranging from a minimum of around $75 a month to an average of around $160, compared to average factory wages of $450-$750 a month in China. Kaesong was run jointly with South Korea and the wage structure – much higher than in the rest of North Korea – was negotiated with Seoul.
WORKERS IN CHINA
Chinese clothing manufacturers have been increasingly using North Korean textile factories even as they relocate their own factories offshore, including to Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“Wages are too high in China now. It’s no wonder so many orders are being sent to North Korea,” said a Korean-Chinese businesswoman who works in the textiles industry in Dandong.
Chinese textile companies are also employing thousands of cheaper North Korean workers in China.
North Korea relies on overseas workers to earn hard currency, especially since U.N. sanctions have choked off some other sources of export earnings. Much of their wages are remitted back to the state and help fund Pyongyang’s ambitious nuclear and missile programmes, the U.N. says.
The new U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea this month ban countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad.
China does not disclose official figures for the number of North Koreans working in factories and restaurants in China, although numbers are down from a peak period two to three years ago, according to Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist at Beijing’s Renmin University.
“It’s a hassle to hire North Korean workers though,” the Korean-Chinese businesswoman from Dalian said. “You need to have the right set-up. Their living space has to be completely closed off, you have to provide a classroom where they can take classes every day. They bring their own doctor, nurse, cook and teachers who teach them North Korean ideology every day.”
One clothing factory that Reuters visited in Dandong employs 40 North Korean workers. They fill smaller orders for clients who are more stringent about their supply chains and expressly request no production inside North Korea.
North Korean factory workers in China earn about 2,000 yuan ($300.25), about half of the average for Chinese workers, the factory owner said.
They are allowed to keep around a third of their wages, with the rest going to their North Korean government handlers, he said. A typical shift at the factory runs from 7:30 a.m. to around 10 p.m.
The workers – all women dressed in pink and black uniforms – sat close together behind four rows of sewing machines, working on a consignment of dark-colored winter jackets. The Chinese characters for “clean” and “tidy” were emblazoned in bold blue lettering above their heads and the main factory floor was silent but for the tapping and whirring of sewing machines.
(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong and Philip Wen; Additional reporting by Lusha Zhang and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Bill Tarrant)