Robin Christopher Brehm

Repeatedly seeing several people on the tram home listening to strange political sermons on higher volume, spoken by an AI voice, isn't the kind of future I was looking forward to.

"To steadily bolster up the nuclear deterrent for self-defence to cope with this reality is the best option for preventing the danger of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and in the region and reliably guaranteeing the right to existence and development of our state."

"We will as ever thoroughly oppose and reject any attempt to change the present position of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and faithfully discharge our duty before the international community as a responsible nuclear weapons state."

"The IAEA, which has not formally established relations with the DPRK for more than 30 years, has no legal right and moral justification to interfere in the internal affairs of a nuclear weapons state which exists outside the NPT."

"The U.S. should honestly fulfill its obligation for nuclear disarmament more than anybody else and immediately stop such worrying nuclear proliferation acts as "offering extended deterrence", realizing nuclear sharing with non-nuclear states and transferring nuclear submarine technology."

Some bits:
"The U.S. repeated its anachronistic "denuclearization" assertion [...], clearly proving that the final goal of its policy towards the DPRK is to make the latter abandon its constitution and system and the U.S. has no intention to coexist with it."

Statement by the DPRK Embassy in Vienna criticizing the IAEA and US for denouncing the DPRK's access to nuclear weapons. It calls the DPRK's nuclear status “irreversible,” says IAEA has no authority outside the NPT, and vows to “bolster” deterrence.

Mirror link: kcnawatch.xyz/newstream/17...

Amazing and well-deserved. Congrats!

Until the pardon by one or the other president.

Ein Affe verändert alles: China greift weiter die Gaming-Branche an In Sachen Handygames schon lange eine fixe Größe, will China nun auch große Blockbuster-Games produzieren. Die Vorzeichen stehen gut

DerStandard has an interesting way of framing the international success of Chinese video games: "China continues to attack the gaming industry."

The complacency and risk-aversion of "established" AAA game devs and publishers, mostly in the US, Europe, and Japan, are the problem, not China.

2025:

A fascinating read by Ifang Bremer highlighting the diverse and often conflicting political views among those who relocated from the DPRK.

Very true. Easy access is unfortunately a privilege even in 2025. Every vote counts!

Vienna is a fantastic place to live in but every local or national election period is making my stomach turn. Poster spotted today in the 20th district.

"German is compulsory, Habibi"
"Make Vienna smart again"

This comes from the christian-democratic/liberal-conservatives. Worse posters exist.

An unfortunate turn of events so soon after tours resumed to the DPRK. Exchange is important, for both sides.

On Tuesday, Feb 18, the Korea Health Policy Project's webinar series "North Korea's International Health Engagement" continues with Session 2 on "How North Korea Managed the COVID-19 Pandemic." I recommend to have a look.

More information here: ecnk.univie.ac.at/events/event...

"indicative" might be the better term.

The USAID website going offline is a strange occurrence considering the Trump administration’s 90-day "pause."

Addressing power imbalances in humanitarian aid and its dependencies is critically important but freezing aid to make a statement is outright diabolical, regardless of freeze exemptions.

A chart showing the percentage of US funding for different humanitarian sectors in 2024

📊 Is now a bad time for a data dump on the humanitarian system’s dependence on US funding? #Trump @newhumanitarian.bsky.social ➡️ www.thenewhumanitarian.org/newsletter/2...

RSVP Sung Kyung Kim (Jan 15, 2025) RSVP Sung Kyung Kim (Jan 15, 2025)

Jan 15, 16:45-18:15 Vienna time, Prof. Kim Sung-Kyung of the University of North Korean Studies will hold a guest lecture at the University of Vienna about the representation of North Koreans in South Korean popular culture. Join us here or tune in via Zoom! ecos.univie.ac.at/guest-lectur...

That depends on how the recipient of the message understands what meaningful success and development means and which criteria are used to evaluate it. Perspectives differ greatly, e.g., between the institution creating the poster and you or me. Therefore, the question has no simple answer.

Achieve what exactly?

Now I finally remember where I have seen the drone model shown in this poster before. It was presented at the farm machine industry development exhibition in early 2023. Later in June, another model was shown on Korean Central TV www.northkoreatech.org/2023/06/13/a...

Taking a step back from the fray of politics and political scandal in South Korea, data show that attitudes toward political rule are changing. Compared to its peer group of liberal democracies, support for democracy is in modest decline, but the story is much more complicated. 📊🧵

45/ Thank you for your attention! Looking at North Korean propaganda posters is a neat exercise, showing what the leadership supposedly deems important. However, it's important to note that the insights we can gather from this material are limited.

Corrections and comments arewelcome!

44/ That concludes the Jan 2025 poster set published by KCNA. Here is a link to the associated article at KCNA Watch: kcnawatch.org/newstream/17...

This page also includes a link to the KCNA source containing the images. The source does not operate with https, so proceed at your own risk.

43/ Main slogan: "Expand fish farming and aquaculture on a large scale!"

The image features two workers at an aquaculture plant for both farming fish and seaweed. Unfortunately, I have no flippin' clue about fish. But please share if you know what kind of fish is shown here.

42/ Side note: The ship shown here is the JANG SU SAN (IMO: 9966491), a general cargo ship, which was investigated by the UN Panel of Experts in 2022 for potentially sanctions-violating activities in Chinese waters. Such detailed information can be found at dprk-reports.org

41/ Main slogan: "Let us fully ensure the transportation needs of the people’s economy!"

The poster emphasizes the importance of transportation vehicles for the development of the North Korean economy. Trucks, trains, vessels. The background shows a mix of cityscape and industrial buildings.

40/ and other individuals in what does not look like combat gear. One of them wears a gas mask.

If I may add my interpretation, this seems to address the readinessy for domestic mobilization for the defense of the country, not mobilization in the sense of fighting abroad.