Latest news with #NorthKorean
New York Post
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Amy Poehler says ‘we all played people we should not have' as she reflects on controversial SNL sketches
Comedic actress and 'Saturday Night Live' alum Amy Poehler spoke candidly on Tuesday's episode of her 'Good Hang' podcast about some of her past gags in comedy, saying some of them would be offensive by today's standards. During Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, the show had an 'In Memoriam' segment cutting ties with jokes and characters that have aged poorly as societal norms have changed. Advertisement The segment featured numerous characters playing 'ethnic stereotypes,' engaging in 'sexual harassment,' 'body-shaming,' 'gay panic,' and other controversial moments from the show's 50 years of being on the air. Outspoken liberal actor Tom Hanks, who gave the intro to the segment, noted that, 'Even though these characters, accents, and let's just call them ethnic wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them. So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn't it be you, the audience?' Poehler noted on Tuesday's interview with fellow SNL alumni Will Forte that part of 'getting older and being in comedy is you have to like figure out, like, 'Oh, it's like everything has an expiration date.'' She cringed at a past incident where she claimed that during a sexual harassment seminar, she had been drawing pictures of penises and passing them back and forth with Forte, and accidentally passed the illustrations to the seminar host because she mistook it for the sign-in sheet. Advertisement 'He was like 'What's this?' and I said 'Oh, that's the wrong – Sir, that's the wrong paper.'' 4 'We all played people that we should not have played,' Amy Poehler confessed. Good Hang with Amy Poehler / YouTube 4 Poehler portrayed Kim Jong-Il in a 2006 segment on 'Saturday Night Live.' NBCUniversal via Getty Images She then brought up her takeaway from the 'In Memoriam' segment. Advertisement 'I mean there's, like, even on the 50th when they had that segment which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong' and they showed way inappropriate casting for people you know, we all played people that we should not have played, I misappropriated, I appropriated, I didn't know, I did know,' she said. Poehler could be recognizably seen in one portion of the In Memoriam segment where a character played by Ben Affleck appears to be berating a mentally-disabled character. Many other actors in other snippets were blurred out for being in makeup, playing characters of other races. 4 Amy Poehler played Michael Jackson as Rachel Dratch acted as Elizabeth Taylor during the 'Michael Jackson in a Tree' sketch that aired in 2003. NBCUniversal via Getty Images Advertisement 4 Jake Gyllenhaal did a Jennifer Hudson impression with the SNL cast members singing in the background. Dana Edelson According to Entertainment Weekly, 'Some of Poehler's more questionable impressions from her time on SNL include Michael Jackson, Yoko Ono, and Kim Jong-il.' Poehler also played Kim Jong-il in a 2006 segment, with actors Bill Hader and Fred Armisen portraying North Korean guards during the North Korean leader's speech. 'It's very real and the best thing you can do is, like, make repair, learn from your mistakes, do better, like it's all you can do,' Poehler said.
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan-S. Korea Leaders Meeting: Prevent Bilateral Cooperative Relations from Going Backward
The security environment in Northeast Asia is becoming ever more severe. The free trade regime is also at a crossroads due to the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy. It likely can be said that Japan and South Korea share common challenges in terms of security and economic policy. If relations between the two countries deteriorate again, they will not be able to overcome their predicament. The need to deepen cooperation between the neighboring countries has grown significantly. In Canada, where the summit of the Group of Seven advanced nations was held, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office this month, met for about 30 minutes. It was their first in-person meeting. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea. Based on that, the two leaders reached an agreement on deepening communication toward the stable development of Japan-South Korea relations. They also agreed on a policy of continuing reciprocal visits by the leaders. Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had significantly improved relations between the two countries. The solution Yoon worked out to the issue of lawsuits regarding former wartime requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula has been accepted by many parties involved. In addition, in defense cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea, as well as between Japan and South Korea, a mechanism for the immediate sharing of information on North Korean missiles has been established among the three countries. Many have highly praised the diplomatic skills of Yoon, who had looked squarely at the security environment. Lee, however, has criticized such responses by Yoon as being a 'diplomacy of humiliation toward Japan.' In the past, he also has called Japan a 'hostile state.' During his recent presidential election campaign, Lee did not communicate such messages. However, the Japanese side was wary that he might rehash historical issues between the two countries at the meeting with Ishiba. In the end, Lee expressed his desire for 'better relations in a future-oriented manner' at the meeting. In the face of the worsening security environment, Lee may have judged it better to maintain relations with Japan for the time being. In the past, there have been many South Korean presidents who have initially taken a conciliatory stance toward Japan when they took office but then touted their 'anti-Japanese' stance when their approval ratings declined. It remains to be seen whether Lee will be able to maintain his position on Japan. North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia, which is engaged in aggression against Ukraine, and in return has received assistance in missile technology and other areas. Expanded military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea are also similar in that they are vulnerable to Trump's tariff measures due to their large auto exports to the United States. There may be approaches in which the two countries, as allies of the United States, can cooperate through their measures against U.S. tariffs. People traveling between the two countries reached a record high of over 12 million last year. It is hoped that mutual understanding between the people of the two countries will be deepened through continued exchanges. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 20, 2025)
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
N. Korea flag disrupts S. Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident'
The incident occurred early in the morning of June 18, when the livestream was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag. PHOTO: REUTERS SEOUL - One of South Korea's largest megachurches said on June 20 its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details. The incident occurred early in the morning of June 18 , when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang's propaganda music. The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police. 'During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident,' the church said in a separate statement. 'We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified.' South Korea's state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was 'looking into the case'. Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning. An 'inappropriate' video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an 'external hacking' attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea. South Korea, widely recognised as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyber hacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past. Police announced in 2024 that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network – including individuals' financial records – over a two-year period. The stolen data amounted to more than 1GB . Also in 2024 , Seoul's spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working in defence companies so the spies could access information on the firms' technology. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
6 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
N. Korea flag disrupts S. Korea church livestream in 'hacking incident'
The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang's propaganda music. — Photo by Micha Brändli on Unsplash SEOUL: One of South Korea's largest megachurches said on June 20 its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details. The incident occurred early Wednesday morning (June 18), when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang's propaganda music. The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police. "During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident," the church said in a separate statement. "We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified." South Korea's state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was "looking into the case". Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning. An "inappropriate" video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an "external hacking" attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea. South Korea, widely recognised as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyber hacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past. Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network – including individuals' financial records – over a two-year period. The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte. Also last year, Seoul's spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working at defence companies so the spies could access information on the firms' technology. – AFP
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Rights abuses continue in North Korea a decade after probe, says UN investigator
A North Korean flag flutters on top of a 160-metre tower in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong in this picture taken from the Dora observatory near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo SEOUL - A decade after a landmark U.N. report concluded North Korea committed crimes against humanity, a U.N. official investigating rights in the isolated state told Reuters many abuses continue, exacerbated by COVID-era controls that have yet to be lifted. James Heenan, who represents the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul, said he is still surprised by the continued prevalence of executions, forced labour and reports of starvation in the authoritarian country. Later this year Heenan's team will release a follow-up report to the 2014 findings by the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which said the government had committed "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" that constituted crimes against humanity. DPRK is North Korea's official name. While the conclusions of this year's report are still being finalised, Heenan told Reuters in an interview that the last 10 years have seen mixed results, with North Korea's government engaging more with some international institutions, but doubling down on control at home. "The post-COVID period for DPRK means a period of much greater government control over people's lives and restrictions on their freedoms," he said in the interview. North Korea's embassy in London did not answer phone calls seeking comment. The government has in the past denied abuses and accused the U.N. and foreign countries of trying to use human rights as a political weapon to attack North Korea. A Reuters investigation in 2023 found leader Kim Jong Un had spent much of the COVID pandemic building a massive string of walls and fences along the previously porous border with China, and later built fences around the capital of Pyongyang. A report this week by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the COVID pandemic raged in North Korea for more than two years before the regime admitted in May 2022 that the virus had permeated its borders, and that the regime bungled the response in a way that violated freedoms and left most citizens to fend for themselves. On Wednesday SI Analytics, a Seoul-based satellite imagery firm, released a report noting North Korea is renovating a key prison camp near the border with China, possibly in response to international criticism, while simultaneously strengthening physical control over prisoners under the pretence of facility improvement. Heenan said his team has talked to more than 300 North Koreans who fled their country in recent years, and many expressed despair. "Sometimes we hear people saying they sort of hope a war breaks out, because that might change things," he said. A number of those interviewees will speak publicly for the first time next week as part of an effort to put a human face on the U.N. findings. "It's a rare opportunity to hear from people publicly what they want to say about what's happening in the DPRK," Heenan said. He expressed concern about funding cuts for international aid and U.N. programmes around the world, which is pressuring human rights work and threatening support for North Korean refugees. While human rights has traditionally been a politically volatile subject not only for Pyongyang but for foreign governments trying to engage with the nuclear-armed North, Heenan said the issues like prison camps need to be part of any engagement on a political settlement. "There's no point self-censoring on human rights, because... no one's fooled," he said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
