On the Korean Peninsula

Is Kim Jong-Un alive and well or alive but addicted to morphine?

Who knows?:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumours that he may be seriously ill.

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The same photo shows one official holding a slender white stick, initially thought by some to be a cane. It was seen in another picture being used as a pointer in a presentation about the plant.

The development of the factory itself has been closely watched in open-source satellite analysis for years. The plant is suspected of having a dual-use capability that would help North Korea produce yellow cake uranium for its weapons.

North Korea has a history of altering photos and obscuring key details related to its military, knowing that specialists will use sophisticated software and visual clues to locate events and parse details about the performance of its latest weapons.

What is certain is that North Korea is using the coronavirus crisis to go through its usual routines of trouble-making and sabre-rattling:

North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, the first such incident since the rivals took unprecedented steps to lower front-line animosities in late 2018.

Violent confrontations have occasionally occurred along the border, the world’s most heavily fortified. While Sunday’s incident is a reminder of persistent tensions, it didn’t cause any known casualties on either side and is unlikely to escalate, observers said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the border zone. South Korea responded with a total of 20 rounds of warning shots on two occasions before issuing a warning broadcast, it said.

That's an excellent question:

Why are defectors in quotes?

— John Lee (The Korean Foreigner) (@koreanforeigner) May 3, 2020

And now, some good news:

Kim Tae-hoon, 45, homes 10 North Korean boys who defected from the repressive state without their parents. The youngest is just 10 years old, the oldest 22.