DragonI

McCarthy, in break with Trump, says Kim Jong-un knew about Otto Warmbier’s brutal mistreatment

A somewhat grudging admission that the president's initial remarks exonerating the North Korea dictator were wrong.

thinkprogress.org

“I think Kim had all authority to do that. I think Kim knew what happened, which was wrong. That’s why when we pass sanctions, we named it after Otto Warmbier. That’s why the president kept those sanctions in place. The sanctions the president did not lift on North Korea are named after Otto and I think the president clarified that.”

— Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader

Trump Faces Fury After Saying He Believes North Korean Leader on Student’s Death

The family of Otto Warmbier spoke out after President Trump’s comments, saying that North Korea’s ‘evil regime’ was responsible for the death of their son.

www.nytimes.com

1. Just as Trump did when Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) told him he wasn’t responsible for the assassination and dismemberment of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi – even though evidence from the CIA and Turkey proved otherwise.
2. Just as Trump did when Putin denied ordering the assassination of the Skripal’s – even though UK Intelligence had proof otherwise. Six months later, Trump told 60 Minutes that Putin was “probably” responsible  “But I rely on them; it’s not in our country”.
3. Just as Trump has done for over 2 years when Putin told him Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 elections – even though evidence proved otherwise.

In late 2015, Mr. Warmbier was an adventure-seeking University of Virginia student on a five-day tour of North Korea. As he tried to leave the country, he was detained at the Pyongyang airport, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was returned to the United States in June 2017 with a catastrophic brain injury, and he died at the age of 22.

Mr. Trump said in 2017 that Mr. Warmbier was “tortured beyond belief by North Korea.”

“I don’t believe that he [Kim Jong-un] would have allowed that to happen; it just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that to happen,” Mr. Trump said afterward. “Those prisons are rough — they’re rough places — and bad things happened. But I really don’t believe that he — I don’t believe that he knew about it.”

Warmbiers said in a statement. “Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”

“Americans know, the world knows, Kim Jong-un knows, and most importantly, the Warmbier family knows that Otto suffered a cruel death inflicted by a brutal regime serving Kim Jong-un,” Rep. Warren Davidson, Republican of Ohio, said on Twitter.

Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in an email: “North Korea murdered Otto Warmbier and the president of the United States has a responsibility to make sure they face the consequences. Anything short of that is unacceptable.”

“I find it hard to believe that someone who runs a country where the people are so oppressed would not know what is going on with someone like Otto. I don’t personally believe it.”,  Darren Wilson, 47, a resident of Wyoming

The lunch that never was: Trump's North Korea summit falters

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The table was set, with flowers in vases and menus tucked inside white napkins. Water glasses were filled. Wicker fans provided a cool breeze. But nobody came.

apnews.com

“Schedule change,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced.

That was the first indication something was up at President Donald Trump’s two-day summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

US Government Says North Korea Has Just Launched a New Cyberattack

Malware dubbed Typeframe discovered by DHS

news.softpedia.com|Bogdan Popa

• The first warning was on May 29.
• The Singapore Summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un was on June 12. Trump cancels military "War Games”
• The latest warning comes 2 days afterwards. DOTARD, how embarrassing. #DPRK #LazarusGroup #WannaCry

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has issued a warning about a new form of malware used by North Korea to compromise computers as part of the Hidden Cobra campaign.

Dubbed Typeframe, this malware can do pretty much the same things as other cyber-infections discovered earlier this year and allegedly used by the North Korean government, including downloading and installing other payloads, changing firewall rules, and waiting for instructions from a control center.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it has discovered 11 malware samples consisting of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows executable files and a Microsoft Word document containing macros that are being used to deploy the malware on target computers.

On May 29, a warning revealed that North Korea has been using two different families of malware called Joanap and Brambul since at least 2009 to track activity on the infected computers. Citing third-party reports, the US-CERT said North Korea used Hidden Cobra attacks against targets worldwide and in the United States, including the media, aerospace, financial, and other infrastructure sectors.

Countries like Argentina, Belgium, China, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Sweden have been targeted, the US-CERT explained.

North Korea has also been blamed for the infamous WannaCry attack that infected thousands of computers worldwide

“I have never seen an American president salute an officer of another military, let alone a military that acts as a brutal enforcer of human slavery and awful prison camps in a gulag across its nation,” said James Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral who served as the top NATO commander. “It was a mistake.”