Why is North Korea acting up? Counterfeiting, money, pills, drug smuggling...

[WhiskeyGirl]

I remember the missile launches earlier this month and the media and people kept asking why?

July 1, 2009
U.S. Levies Economic Sanctions on North Korea

Hopefully realizing the futility of relying on U.N. actions to constrain North Korean belligerence, on June 30 the Obama Administration imposed unilateral U.S. sanctions on two North Korean companies engaged in proliferation. The U.S. action marks a commendable first step in using financial constraints to address the North Korean WMD threat. These sanctions will augment efforts to curtail the North Korean regime's ability to develop and sell weapons of mass destruction and missiles. For these sanctions to be as effective as possible, however, the U.S. must aim for both ends of the proliferation pipeline.

Washington should implement a comprehensive program to impose sanctions on any company, bank, or government agency complicit in North Korean proliferation, particularly those in Iran, Syria, Burma, and China. Washington should also lead a multilateral initiative (not necessarily through the U.N.) calling upon other nations to similarly target North Korean and foreign proliferators, as well as those engaged in North Korean illegal activities, such as currency counterfeiting and drug smuggling.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm2519.cfm

Why isn't the U.S. imposing sanctions on these other countries?  Why isn't the U.S. supporting long term growth at home? 

I remember politicians making much of the missile capabilities and thinking...OK, they can hit fixed objects, how are they going to take out moving objects?  Real lives in Hawaii and other states aren't like players in an action movie.

How well does the missile defense take out moving targets?

Two companies? 

[WhiskeyGirl]

Q+A: How North Korea earns money from arms sales
Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:57pm EDT

Since the 1980s North Korea has sold missile systems to Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report last month. Experts said these include the North's variants of the Scud missile and its mid-range Rodong ballistic missile.

The U.S. government has accused North Korea of trafficking in narcotics, counterfeiting U.S. currency and producing fake cigarettes. Intelligence sources say the North also earns foreign currency through insurance fraud while its overseas missions have developed various minor schemes to boost Pyongyang's coffers.

I wonder if the insurance fraud involved AIG?  How much fake U.S. currency does North Korea produce?  Everyone's printing U.S. money to get by, and Main Street is still suffering.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56F0MQ20090716?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

[Blonde]

[WhiskeyGirl]

"Sushi Chef Blows Lid on Secret Vices of North Korea's Kim Jong-un"


The bizarre secret world of Kim Jong-un has been laid bare in a series of revelations by his father's former sushi chef.


The North Korean leader's repeated nuclear threats have played havoc with western policy in recent weeks.

But the 5ft 7in "Dear Leader" is actually obsessed with western culture, said Kenji Fujimoto, who defected from the regime 13 years after he was appointed personal sushi chef to former leader Kim Jong-il.

 ::snipping2::

read more here - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/459638/20130421/kim-jong-un-sushi-chef-defector-fujimoto.htm

Maybe he wanted to import Twinkies, Gaga, and a host of other things American...