Threats from North Korea - A Week in Review (May 11, 2013)

And now, the week in review of what's what at the Korean peninsula...

May 6, 2013

- SoKor President Park Geun-hye arrived Sunday on the first stop of her six-day trip to the US and it's expected to serve as an opportunity for the two countries to further develop their 60-year alliance.

- Park Geun-hye's approval rating climbed back to more than 50% due to the part to public support for her handling of inter-Korean tensions.

- Fighters for Free North Korea representative Park Sang-hak, an activist who sent pro-democracy leaflets into North Korea, will be awarded the 2013 Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in Oslo, Norway on May 15.

May 7, 2013

- North Korea withdrawn its Musudan missiles from a launch site located in easter part of the country and Pyongyang lifted the military's combat duty posture number one, which is the army's highest level of combat readiness.

May 8, 2013

- South Korean president Park Geun-hye and her US counterpart Obama held their first summit and pledged to improve their 6-decade alliance between the two nations and stand together against any provocations the North Korea can possibly throw at them.

- The Bank of China shut down a number of North Korean bank accounts and said it would no longer do business with the Foreign Trade Bank, the largest foreign exchange bank run by North Korea. It was the first time a Chinese entity publicly announced it was stopping business with North Korea.

- International hacktivist group, Anonymous, said it will hack any key North Korean websites at the end of June. They revealed the list of North Korean targets on Twitter earlier this week and the attack would go down at the stroke of midnight on June 25th, especially the KCNA (Korean Central News Agency).

May 9, 2013

- South Korean President Park Geun-hye, while in the US for talks with US President Obama, state clear that she will never tolerate North Korea's nuclear program, and will firmly respond to any provocations by Pyongyang.

- South Korea has been "aware" that China recently closed the account of a key North Korean bank may be part of Beijing's commitment to enforce sanctions against Pyongyang.

May 10, 2013:

- South Korean president Park Geun-hye returned home from a visit to the US that included her first summit talks with Barack Obama and a speech to a joint session of Congress.

- Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea denounced Park Geun-hye's visit to the US as a "prelude to war" and said this could only worsen the tensions of the Korean peninsula.

- Presidential spokesperson Yoon Chang-jung has been fired amid allegations of "misdemeanor sexual abuse" while accompanying President Park Geun-Hye on her trip to the US.

- China strengthened its inspections on cargo shipped to North Korea from its eastern port city of Dalian.