Two South Koreans arrested for espionage for North...

South Korean police have arrested 2 men in connection with the recent jamming of global positioning systems that affected much of the country's air and maritime traffic. The 2 South Korean businessmen have been charged with violating the country's national security law. Police say North Korean spies met the two men in the Chinese city of Dandong last July and instructed them to collect intelligence information. They say the suspects had made contact with people in the South Korean military industry in the hope of collecting data on jamming devices and military technology. One of the suspects, in his 70s, was on parole after having been sentenced to life in prison 30 years ago in connection with another espionage case.
Hundreds of commercial jets and ships in South Korea experienced GPS disruptions for more than 2 weeks earlier this month. The South Korean government says the North was responsible but North Korea denies any involvement.
(Japan Broadcasting Corporation, 2012-05-31)

40 North Korean soldiers killed, wounded during Yeonpyeong counterattack...

Radio Free Asia says roughly 40 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded during South Korea's counterattack following the North's shelling of a South Korean island in late 2010.

The U.S. broadcaster released the report Friday citing a North Korean source in the North's South Hwanghae Province. The source apparently heard from a North Korean battalion commander that about ten North Korean soldiers were killed and 30 others wounded during the exchange of fire prompted by the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

The source said the commander saw a military vehicle transporting the dead bodies and the wounded to a military hospital known as "Hospital No. 11" in Pyongyang run by the North's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Radio Free Asia says this source shares close ties with officials of the Fourth Army Corps, which is known to have perpetrated the Yeonpyeong shelling.

The source, who recently traveled to China and revealed the story, says the North Korean military is apparently frightened by South Korea's cutting-edge weapons and has been reluctant to fight the South since the Yeonpyeong shelling.
(KBS World Radio, 2012-03-02)

North Korean leader may meet Egypt's telecom...

North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un could make his diplomatic debut by meeting the head of an Egyptian company that operates cell phone services in the country.

North Korea's state-run media said on Wednesday that the chairman of Orascom Telecom, Naguib Sawiris, arrived in Pyongyang this week and laid flowers at a mural of late leader Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung.

Orascom Telecom launched mobile network services in December of 2008 under strict North Korean control. The firm is also building towering hotels in Pyongyang.

Sawiris met Kim Jong Il and was welcomed with an official dinner banquet when he visited Pyongyang in January 2011. Kim Jong Un's guardian and uncle, Jang Song Thaek, was also at the banquet.
Following Kim's succession, the North's leadership is trying to show it can improve the lives of the country's citizens.

There is speculation that Kim Jong Un will meet with Sawiris in order to attract more foreign companies to invest in the country.
(Japan Broadcasting Corporation, 2012-02-02)