After a holiday break, Jon Stewart returned to "The Daily Show" Monday night to tackle the recent controversy surrounding "The Interview."

"Seth Rogen and James Franco's film 'The Interview' opened to one particularly nasty review," Stewart explained, referring to the Sony hackers who threatened to attack cinemas showing the film. It is widely believed that the hackers operated under the direction of the North Korean government. 

Stewart continued: "Listen, North Korea, you can mess with a lot of things: our postal system, our water supply, but when you start f---ing with out holiday releases — the precious cinematic delights we partake in to avoid having to talk to our families — you’ve stepped on a landmine."

The show then ran news clips about the sanctions the US slapped on North Korea in response.

"I just want to interrupt very quickly," Stewart chimed in. "So in all the sanctions we’ve had on North Korea, North Korea’s KGB and their arms dealers were still allowed to use our banking system? Not that, on average, they didn’t make our banking system less evil."

Following the Sony hack, President Obama put North Korea back on the United States' list of states that sponsor terrorism. In response, Stewart joked: "You made the list, buddy. That goes on your permanent record. Good luck, Kim Jong Un, getting into Oberlin's premed program now."

Stewart continued, "If we're sending a message to North Korea a message about this Sony hack, we have to make Kim Jong Un quake in his very tiny but expensive boots."

"But I guess our anger is no surprise. These hackers violated our privacy. They read our emails. What kind of a country does that?" Stewart said sarcastically before showing news clips about Edward Snowden's revelation that the National Security Agency can read emails, chats, and personal conversations.

"Well at least when we spy on us, we have the decency to not leak mean sh-- about Angelina Jolie," Stewart concluded. "Monsters!"

Watch the full "Daily Show" clip below:

SEE ALSO: Here's What Happened When Steve Jobs Called Jon Stewart After He Made Fun Of Apple On TV

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On his birthday on January 8th, when he may have turned 32, North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Un, could bask in the cowed admiration of his benighted people.

Abroad, few were wishing him many happy returns. North Korea's old nemesis, America, has tightened sanctions against it. Even China, the Kim dynasty's longtime protector, is witnessing a public debate about whether to abandon its awkward ally.

And perhaps most galling of all, millions of people around the world have downloaded "The Interview", a satirical film in which Mr Kim is mocked, sobs pathetically on live television and suffers the indignity of his head dissolving into flames. Even the deadly earnest New Year's Day speech on television by the real Mr Kim provoked titters in cyberspace, where there was more interest in his latest grooming feature (a drastic curtailment of his eyebrows) than in his words.

Just because Mr Kim runs a paranoid, delusional despotism, does not mean that the outside world is not out to get him. And of late he has had particular reasons to worry. As Mr Kim's government portrays them, the new American sanctions, directed at North Korea's illicit arms-export business, are merely intended to add weight to a spurious charge: that the regime ordered the hacking of Sony Pictures' computer systems and the threats of violence should it distribute "The Interview".

Propagandists have even been able to cite Western cyber-security experts, who cast doubt on North Korea's guilt. But even if North Korea was, as the Americans insist, the source of the cyber-attacks, it would have felt it was acting in self-defence.

The plot of "The Interview", involving an attempt to assassinate Mr Kim, must seem less than fanciful to his advisers. Among a rarefied elite with access to the internet, they will have watched the YouTube video of a retired American general, John Macdonald, with ten years' service on the peninsula, ruminating at a symposium about geopolitical strategy last year on the failure of American North Korean policy. He listed the assassination of Kim Jong Un as a policy to have in your "kitbag".

"I'm only presenting options," he protested. But he expressed an exasperation that is shared by many: "A nation...with one of the most failed economies in the world, run by a crime family, is a major irritant between two of the most powerful nations in the world. We've got to do something about that."

It is not just soldiers who think like this. Mr Kim's circle will also have read last month's piece in the Wall Street Journal by Richard Haass, a former senior diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank. Mr Haass cited the danger North Korea poses as a cyber-vandal, an unauthorised nuclear power, a possessor of a large conventional military force and a onetime sponsor of terrorism.

He concluded: "Only one approach is commensurate with the challenge--ending North Korea's existence as an independent entity and reunifying the Korean peninsula." Others disagree with Mr Haass's prescription, and neither he nor Mr Macdonald represents official American policy--which is still one of "strategic patience", hoping to avoid crisis and confrontation and that economic and political isolation will eventually force North Korea into talks on its nuclear programme. But to paranoid totalitarians, that such ideas are freely aired must seem menacing enough.

Worse still is the obvious Chinese huffiness towards Mr Kim. The Chinese government never really got on with his father, Kim Jong Il. But at least he did not execute China's main interlocutor, as Kim Jong Un did, when in December 2013 he disposed of his mentor and uncle by marriage, Jang Song Taek.

In office, the younger Kim has never been invited to China. But Park Geun-hye, South Korea's president, is welcome there and gets on famously with China's leader, Xi Jinping. And the value of the North Korean alliance is being publicly questioned in China. Last month a retired general, Wang Hongguang, wrote in Global Times, a Communist Party daily, that, in the future, China need not clean up North Korea's "mess". And, he added, "if an administration is not supported by the people, collapse is just a matter of time."

Again, that is just one Chinese view. Other theorists in China argue that, though cussedly unmalleable, an independent North Korea remains an essential buffer between China and the American-garrisoned South. China is stuck with it. Perversely, an incident last month in which a North Korean soldier attempting to defect crossed the Chinese border and killed four people in the course of a burglary, may have strengthened this conservative Chinese view of North Korea: just think what might happen if the regime were allowed to collapse and millions were fleeing!

Mr Kim has few foreign friends. Russia's Vladimir Putin presumably knows how he feels and seems sympathetic. Russia keeps supplying oil, and Mr Kim has an invitation to make his first foreign trip as leader to Moscow in May. But Russia is probably more interested in using North Korea to demonstrate its ability to complicate life for America and its allies than in providing serious financial or other assistance.

Plucked To The Bone

So in his small-eyebrowed speech, Mr Kim was, by past standards, positively emollient, responding obliquely but positively to a South Korean offer of talks. He even suggested the possibility of a summit with Ms Park, though his government had once declared her to be "a despicable prostitute selling off the nation."

Yet a summit still seems unlikely. North Korea's survival has relied on playing America, China, Japan, the South and sometimes Russia off against one another. But for now the South, despite this week resuming modest humanitarian aid, is not ready to break ranks.

More broadly, the comforting calculation for North Korea's regime--that, painful though its existence is to its people and the outside world, its collapse would be worse--may not hold for ever in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.

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Evidence has appeared in recent commercial imagery that a new North Korean submarine has up to two vertical launch missile submarines.

A website run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies called 38 North posted the imagery with tags showing how the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine can house 1–2 ballistic or cruise missile tubes.

The submarine was seen at the Sinpo South Shipyard in North Korea, which has seen significant infrastructural improvement recently.

Officials at the US Korea Institute at SAIS speculated that a “shorter naval version of the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, a Nodong medium-range ballistic missile, or naval versions of the solid-fuelled KN-02 short-range ballistic missile” could be the missile used aboard the submarine.

Obviously, a ballistic missile submarine would pose a new risk to South Korea. However, the analysts at Johns Hopkins pointed out that the imagery doesn’t mean the North Koreans are necessarily close to completing the project.

Much like North Koreas ICBM program, the technology is still lacking north of the 38th parallel.

SEE ALSO: North Korea's strange juggling act is becoming even more perilous

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Kim Jong-Un may take his first ever foreign visit as Supreme Leader of North Korea, NK News reports citing a South Korean diplomatic source that spoke to the Yonhap News Agency. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Kim in December to Moscow next May to participate in the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. If Kim does accept Putin's invitation, it will be his first foreign visit and also his first time meeting a foreign head of state since becoming North Korea's Supreme Leader in 2011.

If Kim attends the ceremonies, the leader will be in a position to meet several foreign heads of state. Other leaders invited to the ceremony include US President Barack Obama and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, both of whom have refused to attend.  

Both North Korea and Russia are sanctioned by much of Europe and the United States, and relations between the two are warming. “Even if Pyongyang ultimately turns the invitation down politely, now would not be the time to do so as things are going well politically on that front at the moment,” North Korea watcher Chris Green told NK News. 

Russia and North Korea are currently in the process of improving ties, which had cooled considerably since the fall of the Soviet Union. Moscow is seeking Pyongyang's approval to build a gas pipeline through North Korea to customers in South Korea. 

Likewise, Pyongyang is seeking support from Russia, a veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, to shield the country against a referral to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity. North Korea, whose hugely restrictive economic and social policies triggered a catastrophic famine in the 1990s, is also seeking to rent and farm 10,000 hectares of agricultural land in Russia. 

The developing relationship between North Korea and Russia is likely forged out of necessity. China, North Korea's principal ally, has started ridiculing an ever-recalcitrant Pyongyang through its state-run media. Pyongyang is also deeply isolated in the aftermath of the Sony hacks, which the US has unequivocally blamed on North Korea.

Russia is also under western sanctions in the aftermath of its annexation of Crimea and support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. By befriending North Korea and gaining increased leverage in the Korean peninsula, Russia stands to gain even more influence in a region that's already thorny for the US and in spite of western attempts to keep the country diplomatically and economically isolated.

As of Jan. 13, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang could not confirm that Kim would visit Moscow. 

SEE ALSO: Here's why North Korea may still be sending weapons to a US ally

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A North Korean defector, whose dramatic escape from a brutal prison camp was the subject of a bestselling book, has changed key parts of his story and on Sunday apologised for misleading people.

"Escape from Camp 14", written by former Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden, brought Shin Dong-hyuk international fame.

Shin, one of the best-known defectors from reclusive North Korea, said on his Facebook page he had tried to hide parts of his past.

"To those who have supported me, trusted me and believed in me all this time, I am so very grateful and at the same time so very sorry to each and every single one of you," Shin said.

He also said he may end his campaign to shut down prison camps in North Korea, which had been instrumental in bringing a U.N. resolution urging the referral of the country to an international tribunal.

Harden, whose book "shines through" with integrity, according to a fellow journalist's comment on its cover, said he had been in contact with Shin.

"I contacted Shin, pressing him to detail the changes and explain why he had misled me," Harden wrote on his website, adding he had given the information to the Washington Post, for which he originally wrote a story about Shin in 2008.

Neither Harden nor Shin gave details about the changes.

Shin had said in the book he was tortured when he was 13 after a failed attempt to flee Camp 14 where he was born in until a dramatic escape in 2005, when he climbed over the body of a fellow inmate who died on an electrified fence.

He said he informed a prison guard of a plan by his mother and brother to escape Camp 14 and both were executed.

According to the Washington Post, Shin told Harden that he was moved from Camp 14 to a different prison camp, Camp 18, and it was there that he betrayed his mother and brother.

He also told Harden that he had escaped the prison and fled to China where he was caught and sent back to the North, the newspaper said. In his original account, he said he had lived all his life in Camp 14 until his escape.

The Washington Post cited Harden as saying he would seek to correct the book but that he was convinced key elements were correct.

Shin, who has lived in South Korea, could not be reached for comment. A recorded message showed he has cancelled his mobile phone subscription. 

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Sohee Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has confirmed his attendance at Russia's celebrations in May marking the Soviet victory over Germany in World War Two, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday quoting a Kremlin spokesman.

The trip, if it takes place, would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking power in the reclusive state in 2011, succeeding his father Kim Jong Il who died suddenly, and is likely to come before he visits China, the North's main ally.

"About 20 state leaders have confirmed their attendance, and the North Korean leader is among them," Yonhap quoted the office of Kremlin spokesman as saying in response to its written question to President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The North and Russia have been looking to boost ties, as political relations chilled with China after Kim took over and defied international warnings and U.N. sanctions to conduct a third nuclear test in 2013.

Earlier in January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said North Korea has sent a positive signal after Putin invited its leader Kim to the victory celebrations. [ID:nL6N0V02Q1]

Russia marks the victory anniversary every year on May 9.

Kim's father, Kim Jong Il was invited to the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2005 but did not attend, Yonhap said.

(Editing by Michael Perry)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea may be trying to restart a nuclear reactor that can yield plutonium for atomic bombs, a U.S. security think tank said on Wednesday, citing new satellite imagery.

An analysis issued by 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said it was too early to reach a definitive explanation for signs of activity at the Yongbyon reactor, including steam and indications that snow had melted on the reactor roof.

"One possibility is that the North Koreans are in the early stages of an effort to restart the reactor after an almost five-month hiatus in operations," it said, basing its observations on commercial satellite images from Dec. 24 to Jan. 11.

"However, since the facility has been recently observed over a period of only a few weeks, it remains too soon to reach a definitive conclusion on this and also on whether that effort is moving forward or encountering problems."

It said there were clear differences between the latest 2014-1015 imagery and that from more than a year earlier when the reactor was known to have been operating.

Imagery from December 2013 showed snow had melted off the roofs of all the buildings related to the reactor and foam could be seen at the end of the turbine building’s steam and wastewater drainpipe. It said the absence of the foam in recent images could be related to the installation of new piping.

North Korea announced in April 2013 that it would revive the aged five-megawatt research reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, saying it was seeking a deterrent capacity, a move condemned by members states of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security think tank said last year that satellite imagery from late August and late September 2014 indicated the reactor may have been partially or completely shut down, while images from September 2013 until June last year had shown it was operating.

It said the purpose of the shutdown may have been for it to partially refuel the reactor's core, or for maintenance or renovation.

North Korea is under an array of international sanctions for repeated nuclear bomb and ballistic missile tests.

It said this month it was willing to suspend nuclear tests if the United States called off annual military drills with South Korea. Washington rejected the proposal as a veiled threat.

(Editing by Bernard Orr)

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A top Russian military official has stated that Moscow plans on conducting joint military exercises with North Korea, a number of media outlets have reported. 

“We are planning an expansion of the communication lines of our military central command," Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, said at a meeting attended by the heads of all of Russia's armed forces branches, according to Newsweek. "We are entering preliminary negotiations with the armed forces of Brazil, Vietnam, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

If negotiations are successful, the military drills will include naval and air force exercises as well as joint drills between ground troops from Russia and North Korea. 

Although military exercises involving both North Korea and Russia could increase tensions along the Korean peninsula — where the US routinely conducts joint military drills with South Korea — any military relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang will likely be superficial. 

“Russia is well-aware of the detrimental influence North Korea could have if Russia lets it beef up its military capacities — nuclear and rocket technologies, a possible connection with al-Qaeda, etc.,” South Korean expert Yune Hyeong-jin told NK News. “Russia doesn’t seem to be interested in modernizing North Korean weaponry, which can make the North more dangerous.”

US experts do not find possibility of any future Russian-North Korean partnership to be particularly threatening either. 

“The Russian military may be reaching out to other countries as part of Moscow’s effort to show that it is not isolated, despite the very negative international reaction to Russian aggression against Ukraine,” former US ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told Newsweek. 

North Korea and Russia had previously agreed to stage their first joint military exercise in 2011. The exercise focused on search and rescue operations and humanitarian missions, as opposed to actual combat training. 

Relations between the two countries have been on the upswing recently. Due to the sanctions placed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has sought to backstop its flagging economy by turning east towards China and North Korea. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has confirmed that he will attend Russian celebrations marking the end of World War II in May. It will be Kim's first foreign visit since coming to power in 2011. 

SEE ALSO: Russia found a new business friend

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday it sees no more need to negotiate with the United States, accusing Washington of plotting to "bring down" its regime, and threatened to strike back using all its military resources.

North Korea routinely seeks to raise tensions ahead of annual joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces that usually begin in March. This year, Pyongyang has offered to suspend nuclear testing if Washington calls off the exercises.

However, North Korea's National Defence Commission said on Wednesday the United States was inching close to "igniting a war of aggression" and that the Obama administration was working to trigger its collapse.

The commission, Pyongyang's supreme leadership body, is headed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"Since the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are blaring that they will "bring down" the DPRK ... the army and people of the DPRK cannot but officially notify the Obama administration of the USA that the DPRK has neither need nor willingness to sit at the negotiating table with the U.S. any longer," it said.

Using the North's official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), it said Pyongyang had decided "to write the last page of ... U.S. history".

"(Smaller), precision and diversified nuclear striking means and ground, naval, underwater, air and cyber warfare means will be used," the commission said in the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview carried on YouTube on Jan. 22 the Internet would inevitably penetrate even a country as reclusive and closed as North Korea and bring about change. "Over time you will see a regime like this collapse," Obama said.

The angry response by North Korea's defense commission came after its foreign ministry said on Sunday Washington had rejected its invitation for the top U.S. nuclear envoy handling North Korea to visit for talks.

Sung Kim, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said in Beijing he was open for talks with the North Koreans. However, the State Department denied there was any plan for talks or change in its position that Pyongyang must first show it was serious about ending its nuclear ambitions.

(Editing by Paul Tait)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday to broaden sanctions against North Korea by imposing stiffer punishments on foreign companies doing business with Pyongyang, a measure that could impact mostly on Chinese firms.

"In the wake of the state-sponsored cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, the bipartisan legislation targets North Korea's access to the hard currency and other goods that help keep the regime in power," said the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Republican Representative Ed Royce.

"Additionally, it presses the Administration to use all available tools to impose sanctions against North Korea and on countries and companies that assist North Korea in bolstering its nuclear weapons program," Royce, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said in a statement.

The vast majority of North Korea's business dealings are with neighboring China, which bought 90 percent of the isolated country's exports in 2013, according to data compiled by South Korea's International Trade Association.

The bill responds to concern in Congress about last year's cyber attack on Sony Pictures, which was blamed on Pyongyang, as well as what lawmakers see as the international failure to rein in the reclusive state's nuclear weapons program.

The measure is co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats, including the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Royce, and Democrat Eliot Engel.

A similar bill is likely in the U.S. Senate. It is expected to enjoy strong bipartisan support in both chambers.

The bill would authorize U.S. officials to freeze assets held in the United States of those found to have direct ties to illicit North Korean activities like its nuclear program, as well as those that do business with North Korea, providing its government with hard currency.

It would also target banks that facilitate North Korean proliferation, smuggling, money laundering, and human rights abuses, and target people who helped in the cyber attacks against the United States, Royce said.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said frequent sanctions would not help resolve the North Korean issue.

Gareth Johnson, owner of China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which takes tourists into North Korea, criticized the bill.

"Whilst we personally do not hold any accounts in the U.S., this is obviously not a great move ... (This) will just create a siege mentality when those of us involved in the country are trying to open things further." 

SANCTIONS NOT SO STRONG - LAWYER

North Korea is already heavily sanctioned by the United States and United Nations for its arms programs and nuclear tests. President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions last year aimed at cutting the country's remaining links to the international financial system.

"Contrary to a common misconception, current U.S. sanctions against North Korea are weaker than our sanctions against Belarus and Zimbabwe," said Joshua Stanton, a Washington D.C. attorney and blogger who assisted with the drafting of the legislation.

"Other than some pin-prick, whack-a-mole sanctions against low and mid-level arms dealers and just one major North Korean bank, their strength is mostly a figment of the academic imagination."

Critics view the flow of hard currency into North Korea as potentially funding North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but it was not clear to what extent companies engaged in legal businesses would be affected by the proposed measures.

Such connections are difficult to track in China, and separating legal business from illicit can be even harder.

Bank of China, China's fourth biggest bank, said in May 2013 that it had shut the account of North Korea's main foreign exchange bank, Foreign Trade Bank, in the wake of international pressure to punish Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The bill is intended to push the Obama administration, which contends the president already has sufficient authority to punish Pyongyang.

Sony said on Thursday that Amy Pascal would step down as co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment after the hackers, angry about a movie she championed mocking North Korea's leader, exposed a raft of embarrassing emails between her and other Hollywood figures.

(Additional reporting by James Pearson and Ju-min Park in SEOUL and Michael Martina in SHANGHAI; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Sandra Maler, Grant McCool and Dean Yates)

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has test-fired a new anti-ship cruise missile, images released by state media on Saturday showed, demonstrating the increased capability of the secretive state's outdated navy.

The images were released in the lead-up to U.S.-South Korean military exercises this spring. North Korea routinely seeks to raise tensions ahead of the annual drills, although this year Pyongyang has also offered to suspend nuclear testing if Washington calls off the exercises.

The images, which were shown on the front page of the ruling Workers' Party Rodong Sinmun newspaper, showed leader Kim Jong Un observing the missile being fired from a small naval vessel.

State media described it as a "new type of cutting-edge anti-ship rocket" developed by North Korean scientists that will "bring a great change in the navy's defense of territorial waters".

The missile appeared identical in design to a Russian anti-ship missile, the KH-35, which is capable of flying at high speeds meters above the sea.

"It looks exactly like a KH-35," said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Last June, Lewis was the first to spot what appeared to be an unconfirmed glimpse of the missile in a North Korean propaganda video."It is a capable anti-ship cruise missile that puts some teeth in recent statements about developing anti-ship capabilities," said Lewis, referring to North Korean naval exercises last month that state media said were designed to target U.S. aircraft carriers.

North Korea has increased the number of air and naval military drills in recent weeks, ahead of the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang regularly protests over the drills, which it says are a rehearsal for war.

Officials from isolated North Korea, under increased pressure from international sanctions related to its nuclear and missile programs, have made frequent trips to Russia over the past year, where leader Kim Jong Un is scheduled to make his first official state visit this May.

"The design raises a question about whether, when, and under what circumstances, Moscow might have assisted North Korea in the development of the system," Lewis said.

(Editing by Paul Tait and Simon Cameron-Moore)

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Seoul (AFP) - North Korea unveiled Thursday an exclamation mark peppered list of 310 new political slogans covering every conceivable topic, from the glories of the ruling Kim dynasty and mushroom cultivation to the importance of dependable wives and "offensive" sports.

Oh, and the perennial need to wipe out US imperialist scum.

Political slogans are an intrinsic part of the relentless, daily propaganda formula that North Koreans are weaned on almost from birth.

Those published by the official KCNA news agency on Thursday were drafted by the ruling Worker's Party of Korea (WKP) to mark the 70th anniversaries of its founding and of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese rule.

Their tone was by turns aggressive, encouraging, comforting and threatening, and the style ranged equally widely from the oddly poetic to the laboriously clunky.

"Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!" was one agriculture-themed offering, followed by:

"Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms!" and "Grow vegetables extensively in greenhouses!"

Prominence was given to a long section of slogans hailing the legacy of late leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, and urging loyalty to the third generation Kim ruler, Kim Jong-Un.

Others covered military strength, the economy, farming, science and technology, education, the arts and sports.

Some like "Play sports games in an offensive way!" underlined the potential pitfalls of translating pithy ideology.

Proof of loyalty

While much North Korean propaganda seems trapped in an echo chamber of rhetorical overkill and hyperbole, it's tone is perfectly familiar and normal to North Koreans themselves.

The slogans shore up the internally propagandised image of the North as a racially pure nation that must make every effort to protect itself from scheming enemies -- led by the United States -- who are bent on invasion and enslavement.

"We were permanently buried by an avalanche of slogans," said defector Lee Min-Bok who fled North Korea 14 years ago and now lives in the South.

"We had to memorise a lot of them to show our loyalty, but they slowly lost any meaning for anyone, especially after the famine in the 90s," said Lee, 57.

"That greenhouse one has been around for decades. The problem is nobody had any plastic sheets of glass to build them, or fuel to heat them," he added.

Some defector-run websites have run reports of how slogans have become the butt of private jokes among ordinary North Koreans who often amend them to reflect reality.

The 1998 slogan "Though the road ahead may be perilous, let's travel it laughing!" was changed to "Let them laugh as they go, why are they making us come too?"

But the slogans do offer some insights into the thinking and priorities of the North Korean regime, and a few ground realities are recognised.

One of those published Thursday, stressed the urgent need to increase food production, in order to "resolve the food problem of the people and improve their dietary life."

There was a special section devoted to the evil misdeeds of the US "warmongers" and another underlining the absolute necessity of maintaining a powerful military.   

"Should the enemy dare to invade our country, annihilate them to the last man!" read one slogan in the military section, that also exhorted the wives of officers to "become dependable assistants to their husbands!"

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Have you ever secretly fantasized about living life as North Korea leader Kim Jong Un?

Well, now you can be Kim, at least in a new video game.

The online game featuring a very overweight Kim and retro arcade graphics makes it impossible not to get a hole-in-one. Play the game here.

"Kim Jong Un" golf invites players to "Step into Kim Jong Un's golfing shoes and play a round of golf as our Glorious Leader.

His father, Kim Jong Il, is famous for getting a hole-in-one on every hole when he used to play.

Do you have the skill required to keep up the family tradition? This is a realistic simulation of what it is like to play golf as a Glorious Leader," according to its website.

This is basically the entire game:

The game is apparently a reference to Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, who famously scored an 11 holes-in-one at an 18-hole golf course the first time he picked up a golf club, according to North Korean state news reports. He allegedly never played again, the Mirror reported.

The very hefty Kim featured in the game is likely a nod to the 31-year-old leader's affinity for cheese and other calorie-heavy foods. Media reports last year claimed he had become so obese that his ankles fractured under his own weight, requiring corrective surgery, and he is said to be suffering from weight-related health problems such as gout and sciatica. 

North Korea released hundreds of new propaganda slogans Thursday ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea. They urge North Koreas to "build a fairyland for the people by dint of science" and "let the strong wind of fish farming blow across the country." 

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just got an absolutely abysmal haircut, along with some ludicrously plucked eyebrows. 

He was pictured at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

There's a bit of an emperor's new clothes dilemma here. When you preside over the world's most repressive autocracy and a terrifying system of murderous gulags, you are going to struggle getting genuine advice on your hair.

There is absolutely no one in the world who thinks that this look works, but doubtless nobody has told Kim that. 

Opinion in the Business Insider offices is split. Jim Edwards thinks Kim now looks like Klaus Nomi, while Tomas Hirst thinks he looks like the ball of a Dyson rollerball hoover. 

I went with felt-tip pen, due to the slightly oily and brush-like nature of the new cut.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea ramped up its threatening language against the United States on Friday, days before the start of annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that often trigger an angry response from Pyongyang.

North Korea regularly protests the annual exercises, which it calls a rehearsal for war, and has recently stepped up its own air, sea and ground military exercises, amid a period of increased tension between the rival Koreas.

"The DPRK will wage a merciless sacred war against the U.S. now that the latter has chosen confrontation," the country's official KCNA news agency said, quoting from an article in the ruling Workers' Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmum.

DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.

"Nuclear weapons are not a monopoly of the U.S.," the article said. "The U.S. is seriously mistaken if it thinks its mainland is safe."

North Korea frequently makes such threats against the United States and South Korea, which said on Tuesday the two would begin eight weeks of joint military drills from March 2.

On Friday it said the United States was "much upset by the fact that there may be a sign of detente on the Korean peninsula, thanks to the DPRK's initiative and efforts to achieve peace this year".

However, overtures for dialogue by both Koreas in recent months have stalled, with Pyongyang recently describing inter-Korean relations as "inching close to a catastrophe."

(Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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On March 2 between 6:31 a.m. to 6:41 a.m. (local time in South Korea) North Korea fired two missiles into the East Sea from the western port city of Nampo.

According to the South Korean ministry of national defense, the missiles are presumed to be Scud-C because of their range, which was estimated to be 490 kilometers (304 miles).

The missile tests came as the United States and South Korea began their annual Key Resolve (March 2 - 13) and Foal Eagle (March 2 - April 24) military exercises on the same day.

Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for General Staff of the Korean People's Army (North Korea) had issued a statement threatening "merciless strikes" against the United States and South Korea for conducting their military exercises, which they see as a rehearsal for an invasion of the North.

Such provocative words were also voiced just a day ago by Kim Jong-un himself, where he instructed North Korean troops to be "fully prepared for war" and be ready to tear the "Stars and Stripes" to pieces during a visit to a Korean War museum.

Q: What are these annual US-ROK exercises?

Key Resolve and Foal Eagle are annual joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea on the Korean peninsula each spring.

Key Resolve is a table-top exercise simulating communication, command, and control drills, and lasts a little over one week.

Foal Eagle consists of field training that combines air, land, and sea exercises involving 12,500 US troops and over 200,000 ROK troops. These exercises are defensive in nature.

Q2: Is the North Korean missile test unusual in the face of recent diplomatic overtures to Russia and to South Korea?

No. It is not unusual for North Korea to mix provocations and diplomacy in order to maximize its bargaining leverage.

North Korea offered to implement a nuclear freeze in return for suspension of exercises last month, which the State Department rejected on the grounds that US-ROK military exercises were lawful while the North’s nuclear program was not.

Today's missile tests are the third this year by North Korea. Last month it had test fired a new "cutting-edge" anti-ship missile on February 7, and had also fired 5 short-range-missiles (which flew 200 km) a day later into the East Sea from the western port city of Wonsan.

Q3: Should we expect to see an escalation of tensions during the span of these exercises (concluding at the end of April)?

It is hard to say. CSIS Korea Chair research finds a correlation between the state of US-DPRK diplomatic relations prior to the exercises and the degree to which there is escalation tension prompted by the exercises. The correlation goes back to 2006 (with a couple of exceptions).

There are two problems under Kim Jong-un’s rule. First, we have a sample size of only two years (2013 and 2014). Second, the data for 2015 does not offer a clear projection. In 2013, generally poor US-DPRK relations in January-March presaged heightened tensions as a result of the exercises (e.g., Kim’s threatening nuclear strikes against US cities).

In 2014, a neutral US-DPRK relationship in January-March meant less tension during the exercises. 2015 has seen President Obama’s imposition of sanctions after the Sony hack, but also the upping of inter-Korean humanitarian assistance and efforts at US-DPRK diplomacy, so the impact on exercises is unclear.

Victor Cha is a senior adviser and holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. Katrin Katz is an adjunct fellow with the CSIS Korea Chair.

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Russia and North Korea have declared 2015 a "year of friendship."

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on March 11 it agreed to start a program of cultural exchanges with the regime in Pyongyang aimed at taking ties between the once Cold War allies to a "new high level."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to Moscow to take part in commemorations on May 9 marking the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat.

It would be Kim's first trip abroad since taking over following the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.

The events come as Moscow is facing growing international isolation over its actions in Ukraine.

The UN imposed sanctions on North Korea after it conducted a third underground nuclear test in 2013, as well as a series of subsequent missile launches.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea test-fired seven surface-to-air missiles off its east coast on Thursday and its leader Kim Jong Un appeared to have been an observer, South Korea's military said on Friday.

The missiles fell into the sea, said an official at the South Korea's defense ministry.

"We believe they test-fired different kinds of surface-to-air missiles and the longest range is about 200 km (125 miles)," the official said. "It appears Kim Jong Un observed the firing."

The test came as the United States and South Korea finished the first of two large-scale annual military exercises on Friday. The exercise, called "Key Resolve," began earlier this month.

The other joint military exercise, known as "Foal Eagle", will last until April 24, according to the U.S. military.

The exercises anger North Korea, which considers them a preparation for war against it.

The North often tests missiles at the time of the exercises to register its defiance. It also test-fired two short-range missiles at the start of the joint exercises.

North Korea's state media said on Thursday that Kim inspected an island military unit on the east coast, accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo Jong. It made no mention of any missile tests.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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A $50 portable media player is providing many North Koreans a window to the outside world despite the government's efforts to keep its people isolated - a symbol of change in one of the world's most repressed societies.

By some estimates, up to half of all urban North Korean households have an easily concealed "notel", a small portable media player used to watch DVDs or content stored on USB sticks that can be easily smuggled into the country and passed hand to hand.

People are exchanging South Korean soaps, pop music, Hollywood films and news programs, all of which are expressly prohibited by the Pyongyang regime, according to North Korean defectors, activists and recent visitors to the isolated country.

"The North Korean government takes their national ideology extremely seriously, so the spread of all this media that competes with their propaganda is a big and growing problem for them," said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an organization that works with defectors.

"If Pyongyang fails to successfully adapt to these trends, they could threaten the long-term survival of the regime itself."

North Koreans have been spending money more openly, a sign that some forms of entrepreneurship are increasingly tolerated and that the state is easing some of its harsh controls over the economy. In recent months, consumption has become more conspicuous.

"The variety and number of places for locals to spend money has really increased," said one regular visitor to Pyongyang, declining to be identified. "People seem a lot more confident flashing the cash than they used to be. I've seen people spend $500 on a phone with no hesitation, for example."

There is no sign, however, that the regime in nuclear-capable North Korea is loosening its grip, looking to make substantial reforms or making any change in its unpredictable ways of dealing with the outside world.

But along with rising incomes, more goods are available in the impoverished country, mostly on the black market but also in some state-controlled stores.

CHEAP AND VERSATILE

Notel or 'notetel' - the name is a uniquely North Korean word combining 'notebook' and 'television' - are easily found on the black market for around 300 Chinese yuan ($48), and are also available in some state shops and markets.

The device was legalized last year, according to defector-run news outlets in Seoul - one of many recent measures taken by the state to accommodate grassroots change.

The new rules, however, also require North Koreans to register their notel, enabling authorities to monitor who is most likely to be watching banned foreign media.

North Koreans do not have access to the internet - those who can go online are limited to a state-run intranet, while the country's 2.5 million mobile phone subscribers are not allowed to call outside the country.

The notel comes from China, either smuggled or legally imported.

Lee Seok-young, a defector from the North, said he smuggled 18,000 Chinese-made notel into the country last year. He said he ordered them directly from a factory in Guangzhou that was likely still in production solely to satisfy the demands of the North Korean market.

The devices have lost their popularity in China over the years, but still sell well in the provinces bordering North Korea, according to data on the China-based online shopping website Taobao.

When asked to quote a wholesale price for notel, one Chinese trader in the border city of Yanji said: "You want to send them to North Korea? How many do you want to send? They sell well there."

The low-voltage notel differs from the portable DVD players of the late 1990s in that they have USB and SD card ports, and a built-in TV and radio tuner. They can also be charged with a car battery - an essential piece of household equipment in electricity-scarce North Korea.

Legally-registered notel must be fixed to official state television and radio channels, according to the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news organization run by defectors.

Lee, the defector, said the device's multi-function nature makes it easier for users to get away with watching illegal material.

"To avoid getting caught, people load a North Korean DVD while watching South Korean dramas on a USB stick, which can be pulled out," he said. "They then tell the authorities, who feel the heat from the notel to check whether or not it has been recently used, that they were watching North Korean films".

Park at the LiNK organization added: "They are small enough to roll up in a blanket and hide in a wardrobe. They have become so popular because they are perfect for overcoming the twin barriers to foreign media consumption: surveillance and power outages.

"If you were to design the perfect device for North Koreans, it would be this."

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The city of Chongjin, whose famine-era tragedy was so evocatively rendered in Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy, is today developing a rather different reputation. The city is still under the firm grip of the state, but among many North Koreans, Chongjin is now a fashion capital of sorts. The average person there is still poor, but in this emerging capitalist era, this port city is growing in importance as a trading hub. Chongjin has thus become the first place where foreign fashions arrive.

Fashion

Even Pyongyang cannot match Chongjin in terms of style. This may seem surprising, since Pyongyang is the seat of both new money and old power. But security is much stricter in the capital, with conformity more rigorously enforced. This means that clothes a young Pyongyang woman can only wear at home may be acceptable to wear in the street elsewhere. Pyongyang is supposed to be the city of regime loyalists; Kim Jong Il is understood to have once said that his government could survive as long as he retained a firm grip on Pyongyang. He was much less interested in the provinces — and this is reflected both in the distribution of favours and the enforcement of laws.

Thus, Pyongyang is the only part of the country where the state is in full control of public order. The government will still crack down hard on serious dissent wherever it arises, but generally, it lacks the resources and respect to compel people in the provinces to adhere to the full range of its rules and regulations. Chongjin administrators in particular are understood to have a looser approach to public order. Chongjin is probably the closest North Korea has to a “Wild West.”

Chongjin traders frequently receive 100 kilogram packages of clothes by boat from Japan. Again, the authorities frown on this — but not to the extent that local Chongjin officials cannot be paid to look the other way. The contents of such packages will be unknown until opened, and as a precaution, all the labels that identify each item’s country of origin are removed. And though the random jackets, jeans, skirts, and other items they contain are cast-offs that Japanese consumers no longer want, they are of a much higher quality and more fashionable than anything made in North Korea (or China, for that matter).

For the young women of Chongjin, then, even Kim Jong Un's wife Ri Sol Ju’s style is not particularly impressive. One young female defector from the city states that Ms. Ri’s red-and-black check outfit was “nothing special,” although she did praise a green dress the first lady famously wore when out in public with Kim Jong Un. She also claims that Ms. Ri’s hairstyle is “jom chonseuropda” (roughly translated, “a bit dowdy”), and the she never wears anything that other North Korean women could not get away with. Some Pyongyang sources, though, call Ms. Ri a rule-breaker — thus highlighting the differences between the two cities.

What are Chongjin people wearing today? For those who are interested in such trends, Chongjin is known as the place in North Korea where skinny jeans first became popular. One defector, who left in 2010, states that both jeans and any type of clothing that shows off the body were forbidden — but that she and many others were wearing flared skinny jeans that “make your legs look slim and good so you can show off.” For young women, showing off in this way seems to be a new and liberating experience.

There is a common belief in East Asia that big eyes, with fold lines along the lids, are attractive. Some people are naturally born with them, but most are not. This is easily “corrected” with a simple surgical procedure called blepharoplasty, which requires very little in the way of medical skill, and can be com- pleted in under ten minutes. In North Korea, the wealthy can have it done properly, by paying a real surgeon.

For most, though, the operation is done in a very “back street” fashion. In such cases the procedure costs as little as US$2, and is performed in the patient’s home — without the aid of anaesthetic.

Many of those who perform the operation are not even doctors. It is in fact possible for anyone to learn how to make an eyelid fold, and start offering the service. Those who do it well will benefit from word of mouth, and be able to make a good living.

As with all forms of plastic surgery, the double-eyelid procedure is illegal in North Korea. It is, however, so common among young urban women of all social classes that the authorities cannot do very much about it.

Proving someone has undergone the operation is also difficult, since there are some who were born with double eyelids. Those caught may also be able to get friends and relatives to state that their double eyelids are natural. And even when guilt is established, this is nothing that a bribe cannot fix.

In international media, the DPRK citizen is shown as either a blind follower of state propaganda, or a helpless victim of it. But the fact that there are young North Koreans who are prepared to risk severe punishment — as well as the strong disapproval of elders — simply to look good, should disabuse the reader of such a simplified, caricaturish notion.

Those who adhere to the stereotypical view should consider the case of the growing “rooms by the hour” cottage industry that exists in all North Korean cities. As with people the world over, North Koreans have desires, and no amount of prohibition or social disgrace is going to stop those desires from being expressed in the end. In a country where premarital sex is frowned upon, and even holding hands in public can result in harsh words from Youth League goons, there are young people who engage in the risky business of renting private apartments merely for the length of time it takes to have sex.

Young South Korean couples have the option of “love motels,” which form a huge industry there. But North Koreans have no such choice — and this has resulted in a grassroots, free-market solution. In any given big city neighbourhood, there will be an ajumma — a middle-aged lady — known to let out her apartment by the hour. Her preferred time will be in the afternoon, when her children are at school, and her husband is at work. An amorous couple will knock on her door, and hand over some cash. The ajumma then leaves them alone, perhaps for an hour or two. She may take a walk in a local park, or spend the money she received on goods at the nearest jangmadang. The process is very simple, but it acts as a reasonable summary of the people’s adaptation to post-famine North Korea: it is illegal; it is informal; it corresponds to basic human needs; and, it is one hundred per cent capitalist.

North Korean property market

The army is heavily involved in construction, as a source of cheap labour for the building of apartment complexes, hotels, roads, bridges, and so on. Contrary to the popular image of the North Korean soldier as a goose-stepping, brainwashed loyalist and ruthless killing machine, the average military man is likely to spend more time building things than working to crush the “puppet” regime in Seoul. Even state media often refers to them as “soldier-builders.” Military units are now little more than free labour teams.

Some apartment complexes are built with specific tenants in mind — military veterans, star athletes, or scientists, for example. Ministry of Foreign Affairs apartments in Pyongyang are considered rather ritzy, as foreign ministry staff have grown used to such apparent luxuries as round-the-clock electricity on postings abroad, and expect nothing less when they return home. In a country where blackouts are very common and winters brutally cold, 24-hour electricity is a real indicator of who can be considered properly “elite,” and who cannot.

Just as in any capitalist country, apartments in North Korea can be traded. Probably a majority of units in an upmarket newbuild apartment block will be sold on the market, rather than given to the state employees they were officially intended for. The only real difference is the lack of a formal system for apartment transfer, since owning private property is forbidden.

If you live in any North Korean city, however, it will be possible to “sell” your apartment: people living in the same district are legally allowed to swap homes, so this may even be done in a semi-legitimate fashion, facilitated by a cash payment, though often, house trading is done without any registration at all. In Pyongyang, where apartment prices have risen more than tenfold since the turn of the century, trading may even be facilitated by an (illegal) estate agent.

Apartments in ordinary areas and without lifts or reliable electricity may change hands for as little as US$3–4,000. Lower floors command higher prices, though. It is generally accepted that the poorer you are, the higher up you live. This contrasts with South Korea, in which the best views are prized. But when there are no lifts — or a power outage can get you stuck in one — the top floor suddenly seems less appealing.

A decent apartment in the central Pyongyang district of Mansudae (which is now jokingly referred to by expats as “Dubai” or “Pyonghattan”) will change hands for US$100,000 or more. There are even those who talk of US$250,000 apart- ments. That is a lot of money to spend on a place that you don’t officially own. But if you have that kind of sum at your disposal in North Korea, you will be able to ensure that it stays yours.

Moonshine and house parties

North Koreans have always enjoyed homemade moonshine. For the majority — especially those in the countryside, and with little or no disposable income — this remains the only reliable option. Typically, homebrewing will be of the most rudimentary form — corn, fruit, or ginseng, left to ferment in a bottle or jar, and buried under a pile of clothes for warmth. The end product can be consumed by the maker’s family, or even sold or bartered with neighbours.

Home-made alcoholic drinks there are typically referred to as nong- taegi (or sometimes nungju). Most housewives know how to make it, and those who do it well become famous within their village. Such ladies will then even be able to turn their moon- shining into a small business, if they wish.

Though nongtaegi is illegal, any efforts to stop its production are utterly doomed to failure. Those whose job it is to eradicate it enjoy it as much as anyone else. And according to one defector, around 80–90 per cent of North Korean men drink every day. There is even a popular song, “Weol, hwa, su, mok, geum, to, il Banju,” which can be translated as “Drink on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” North Korean men drink more even than their famously bibulous Southern brethren. Northern women drink much less than those in the South, but this is also starting to change. As working class women are now often the breadwinners, they have much more freedom — but also, more stress to relieve at the end of the day.

Unlike in South Korea, house parties are very common in the North. Those who have attended one will say that the amount of drinking at house parties would put South Koreans to shame. One defector states that she never had as much fun in Seoul as she did at house parties back in her home town. She and her friends would dance to South Korean and Western pop music (see below), whilst knocking back nongtaegi. They would connect a combined USB/DVD/MP3 player to large speakers and play music files obtained via USB drives.

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