Tensions between the two Koreas escalated again last month after a South Korean fisheries official, possibly attempting to defect, was shot dead by North Korean army troops after he swam across their disputed maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line. A shocked President Moon Jae-in, who has made engagement with North Korea the centerpiece...
Category: Asia
Post
Post
The Improbable But True Story of Two Female Assassins from North Korea
The spectacularly brazen murder of King Jong-nam happened in broad daylight, filmed entirely by security cameras. Footage showed two young women approaching Jong-nam from behind, covering his eyes with their hands, and pressing VX—the most lethal nerve gas on earth—into his eyes. He stumbled away and was dead within an hour. The documentary film, Assassins,...
Post
Xinjiang Data Project Documents China’s High Tech Social Controls
Drawing on open source data including satellite imagery, Chinese government documents, official statistics and a range of authoritative reports and academic studies, the Xinjiang Data Project documents the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing program of human rights abuses and tech-enhanced authoritarianism in Xinjiang, and explores its global implications. This is a case study in repressive technology,...
Post
SpyTalk: How Chinese Intelligence Penetrated the CIA
In SpyTalk, a new email newsletter, veteran journalist Jeff Stein leads off with a report on the recent indictment of Alexander Ma, a former CIA officer who allegedly spied for China’s Ministry of State Security, and a relative who allegedly helped him. The secrets the two Ma’s spilled included the identity of five CIA agents,...
Post
Intelligence Findings on COVID19 Origins: Not Man-Made or Genetically Modified
“I will tell you, more and more, we’re hearing the story [that the new coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan lab,” President Trump said last April. On April 30, Trump said he had a “high degree of confidence” the new coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Trump said he was “not allowed” to revealed his sources,...