The real question I wanna know is how did they get their hands on Smallpox? Aren't there only two samples of it left in the world? Assuming they have it, that is.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
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Think "Prussia", but without the P. 
Russia might well have felt relatively safe supplying schematics and samples to North Korea back in the Soviet days, since the border they share with North Korea isn't exactly extensive. Or heavily populated. And, especially when the Sino-Soviet relationship started to sour, scoring points with the Kims over China's heads (or under the table, whichever) had utility value.
As for today... Well...
Edited by Euodiachloris on Jan 25th 2019 at 4:19:27 PM
Black market, domestic sampling, China or Russia, even simple thievery. There are rumors they like to steal chemical samples from the Indians. There are dozens of ways they could have gotten their hands on it. It’s not hard to find things like that when you have the resources of a state, even a failing one like North Korea.
x5 They’re pretty sure the rumors of trees leaking mustard gas in France and hurting farmers weren’t true. Ditto for the gas in the dirt. That one can be chalked up to overly panicky individuals freaking themselves out so bad they started to get a rash. Outside of its shells it’s rendered ineffective after a few weeks, maybe a month-ish at most. UXO is the real issue, and is going to be the problem in Afghanistan.
Edited by archonspeaks on Jan 25th 2019 at 8:32:57 AM
They should have sent a poet.
I was thinking more along the lines of rare and interesting cancers, increased rates of physical deformities observed in births, observed signs of developmental delays in plants, people, livestock and wildlife, increased rates of autoimmune-related problems and so on...
Not "mustard gas trees (of stupid)". Seriously? <_<
Whatever the precise mix, it turns out that heavily contaminating a site with all sorts of chemicals the precise interactions of which outside the lab are not fully known might, just about, have long-term epigenetic effects on populations living in those areas.
Salisbury Plain has something similar going on. For related reasons. Sure: wildlife sanctuary. But, as with Chernobyl, there is a tax associated with living mostly man-free. <sighs>
Edited by Euodiachloris on Jan 25th 2019 at 4:55:47 PM
A while back some French farmers were saying that the ground and trees were leaking chemical weapons. It turned out the rashes were of the psychosomatic variety.
The effects on flora and fauna aren’t too severe, mostly you just see it as stunted or ailing growth for plants. At least in France that’s what’s common, physical deformities and such aren’t really seen.
Edited by archonspeaks on Jan 25th 2019 at 9:24:33 AM
They should have sent a poet.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
The reality is there are loads of UXO in some of the areas affected. They divided the regions into colour-coded zones. Blue zones are the lowest risk but still have UXO, Yellow is a moderate threat. Both zones have people living in them again. Chemical weapon UXO is found in both zones but not in dangerous quantities that is not large quantities. The Red Zones, however, are considered uninhabitable. Not only is region heavily contaminated by heavy metals from non-explosives but conventional UXO shells, bombs, grenades, and mines are scattered everywhere. There is so much arsenic from assorted sources it creates dead zones where very little grows or lives. The areas are also notorious for numerous leaky chemical weapon UXO which have proven to be still lethal.
What likely happened is some of the chemical UXO was leaking into local soils.
Speaking of the Koreas, outside of the DMZ I would imagine there is plenty of UXO in the region from the war.
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Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Updates on the KJN murder trial:
Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam have been on trial since October 2017, accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing the nerve agent VX on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport.
The brazen assassination in February 2017 shocked the world, but the women have denied murder, saying they believed they were taking part in a prank and were tricked by North Korean agents.
Proceedings in the trial of the women, both in their 20s, have moved slowly due to the large number of witnesses and infrequent hearings. There have been no hearings since August, when the prosecution finished presenting its case.
The latest hold-up has been caused by an appeal from the defence, which is urging prosecutors to make key witness statements available. The prosecution argues the statements should not be made public.
With the appeal still ongoing, a series of hearings scheduled for this week were cancelled, and the trial will now resume on March 11 with Huong's defence.
New information given out by the High Court in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, showed hearings set until July 31, with the final verdict likely to come only after that date.
During the first months of the trial, the court saw CCTV footage of the accused attacking the relative of the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, and prosecutors argued it was a well-planned hit.
South Korea has accused the North of ordering the assassination, an allegation denied by Pyongyang.
Under current laws, the women will be handed a death sentence if convicted of murder. Malaysia's new government has vowed to abolish the death penalty, but parliament still needs to back the change.
I believe they're innocent, personally.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Unless the defense has good evidence, the two women the RMP are looking for are found, the evidence against them is too strong not to consider that they're paid to kill KJN, but were made patsies for North Korean intelligence agencies.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
KJU has left Pyongyang via train to Hanoi. First stop is Dandong in China.
Heavy security is up.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
More gruesome details of the Great Leader's murder sprees.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Looks like the Vietnam meeting got cut short according to the news.
Trump didn't like the insistence of lifting sanctions against Pyongyang.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
I mean, I hate to say it, but I think Trump made the right call there. There doesn't really seem to be a satisfactory agreement they could have come to.
A procrastination in of itself
The right call was never going in the first place, this is why nobody had direct talks in the past, because it was known that this would be the outcome.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
I disagree, even if you can't agree sitting down and talking is a step in the right direction.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Both leaders did say that there's a chance that they can revisit their disagreements.
And the running North Korean close protection officers are turning into a meme on the net. IIRC, I did some OSINT research and they're from a new unit. Not the Guard Command as I though.
Forgetting the name right now.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
The running is standard procedure for them, they do it inside North Korea as well.
IIRC the guards are all from Office 6, which is subordinate to the Guard Command. They wouldn’t dare use anyone else. It’s a political force as much as a military one, there are constant fears of a coup or assassination attempt.
They should have sent a poet.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Looked into it.
The official name is "Main Office of Adjutants".
From some articles I read, the MOA is treated like a different agency.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44434596
Office 6 and MOA are the same thing, just two names for it. They’re part of the Guard Command, under the Second Guard Department I believe, but they report to political authorities and not military ones.
They’re not a new unit, but they’ve gone through a good deal of “restructuring” thanks to the paranoia of North Korean leadership.
They should have sent a poet.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Okay. I had my suspicions. Guess the wiki needs an update.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47418956
Got news that Otto's family is not liking Trump being "that" close to KJU in the Hanoi conference.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
I'm pretty sure that has much more to do with Trump saying he believed Kim knew nothing about Warmbier's death, yet again taking the word of a brutal dictator with a stake on the issue over his own officials, a frankly disgusting pattern.
Edited by Grafite on Mar 4th 2019 at 8:20:37 PM
Life is unfair...
North Korea must give up all nuclear weapons before any sanctions relief, says US
The US clarified its demands after satellite images showed the North Koreans had completely rebuilt a space launch site they had partially dismantled after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
More activity’s spotted at Sanumdong.
It’s where most of the ballistic missiles and satellites are done. The next launch will probably be from there.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Deranged X-Mas Figure
Samundong is a test and production facility. They don't handle launches. If there's going to be a launch, it's going to be from Sohai. For the record, Sohai has only done satellite launches, so it would probably be a satellite.
Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 9th 2019 at 5:25:02 AM
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
Well, let's hope North Korea never gets the itch to give the world any live demonstrations. I don't think they are likely to do so with the current leadership or likely in the past but there is always room for the particularly unhinged leader to step in.
Hopefully, these attempts at peace ultimately cause the North's culture and political views to shift over time as cultural exposure inevitably changes even the longest held views to varying degrees.
Who watches the watchmen?