Free Republic

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA -- A simple question about Kim Jong Il's health provokes a torrent of angry, broken English. "It's a pack of lies," declared Oh Keum Suk. The 26-year-old North Korean tour guide jumped from his seat at a coffee shop and in an exaggerated motion stormed away. Then he turned on his heels to chew out the foreigner who had dared ask about reports that the North Korean leader had suffered a stroke. "Kim Jong Il is my father, my grandfather, my family. How do you talk about my family that way?" The topic is so taboo that...

Salvaging Our North Korea Policy.... By JOHN R. BOLTON There are signs, albeit small ones, that the Bush administration may be reaching the end of its patience with the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. These signs could prove illusory. But as it nears its end, the administration has a serious responsibility: It must not leave its successor with an ongoing, failed policy. At a minimum, President Bush should not bequeath to the next president only the burned-out hulk of the Six-Party Talks, and countless failed and violated North Korean commitments. Since they were conceived in spring 2003,...

Just happened a few hours ago in brutal communist North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.The New York Philharmonic. CLICK HERE, THEN UNDER THE SINGER'S PHOTO, HIT PLAYBe patient as it loads. May not be viewable on all PCs.

TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters) - North Korea may slow the pace of disablement of its nuclear facilities, blaming a delay in the delivery of energy aid promised under a disarmament deal, Kyodo news agency reported, quoting a Pyongyang official. "There is a delay in the implementation of economic compensation obligations to be undertaken by the other countries in the six-party talks," Hyun Hak Bong, deputy director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's American affairs bureau, was quoted as saying late on Wednesday. "We have no choice but to take measures to adjust" he added, referring to the pace of disablement...

U.S. Diplomat Is Residing in North Korean Capital, Chosun Says By Heejin Koo Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. diplomat has been residing in North Korea since mid-November, acting as a liaison between the governments of Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified official in Washington.The presence of the unidentified U.S. envoy, who is staying at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, is an indication of improved relations between the two nations since North Korea pledged to disable its Yongbyon nuclear plant by the end of this year, the Seoul-based daily said. The U.S. plans...

AP Kim Jong Il: I'm an Internet Expert Friday October 5, 8:35 am ET Report: NKorean Leader Kim Jong Il Calls Himself 'Internet Expert SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called himself an "Internet expert" during summit talks with South Korea's president this week, a news report said Friday.The reclusive leader made the remark after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun asked that South Korean companies operating at an industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong be allowed to use the Internet, Yonhap news agency reported, without citing any source. "I'm an Internet expert...

NKorea's Kim gets "personal" message from China's Hu 2 hours, 35 minutes ago North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was given a "personal message" from Chinese President Hu Jintao during a visit to Beijing's embassy in Pyongyang, the North's state media said Monday. No details were given of Sunday's visit, which coincides with a trip to the United States by North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan. Kim Jong-Il was accompanied by several senior aides including Kim Ki-Nam, secretary of the ruling Workers' Party, and Kang Sok-Ju, first vice minister of foreign affairs, said the Korean Central News Agency. It said...

North Koreans marched and sang as the country’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday, days after agreeing to shut down his country’s nuclear programme. But rumours and speculation abounded over the security of his regime. Hard information about the workings of the North Korean leadership is almost impossible to establish, but recently there have been unusually intense rumours about possible plots against the Dear Leader. The latest story doing the rounds of intelligence agencies is that his brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, a close aide who returned to public life last year after being purged, is emerging...

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-il made his first public appearance since last week's nuclear test, taking in a song and dance performance, the North's official KCNA news agency reported today. Kim has mostly been absent from the public eye since North Korea test fired seven missiles in July, leading some to speculate the North's defiant acts over the past few months have put his leadership to the test. Kim was accompanied by several top North Korean officials as they watched performers sing the praises of the communist state and Kim's leadership with songs such as Love of Comrades and Always...

'Malignant narcissism, paranoia, defensive aggression… and now, we think, Kim's got the Bomb' By Philip Sherwell (Filed: 15/10/2006) Jerrold Post has never met his patient – a reclusive yet attention-seeking figure who pursues his penchant for wayward behaviour nearly 7,000 miles away from the doctor's office in suburban Washington. But he still knows what makes him tick. For Dr Post is one of the world's foremost political psychologists, who has been putting the likes of Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro on his virtual couch for the CIA for 21 years. Diminutive dictator: Kim Jong-il is 5ft 2 without his platform...

With the events unfolding in North Korea, just thought it was time for FR to have a live Asian thread also.

just breaking on fox website now.. in the banner.

Mr Keating said . . . "My great concern is that Japan may use the impasse of North Korea and this testing of its nuclear weapons to move into nuclear weapons itself, eschewing the nuclear protection provided to it by the United States under its umbrella," he told a business breakfast.

SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. military plane capable of detecting radiation has taken off from southern Japan amid concerns over a threatened nuclear test by North Korea, a news report said Thursday. The plane, which can collect and analyze radioactive substances in the air, took off from the U.S. air base at Kadena on the southern island of Okinawa, Kyodo News agency reported

The first of the contenders for the Democrat nomination for president in '08 announced his candidacy this past weekend and hardly anyone noticed. The few people who did notice were notably underwhelmed, whether they be of the Left or Right. Perhaps this is because the newly announced candidate is the blowhard serial plagiarizer with the tranplanted Chia-Pet hair that few (except himself) take seriously---Senator Joe Biden. Personally, I am happy that Joe Biden is going to run because his histrionic antics will provide a WEALTH of comedic material for the DUmmie FUnnies. In fact, I am currently looking for...

http://meta.cdn.yahoo-streaming.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20060819-00000016-nnn-int-movie-000&media=wm300kNOTE: THIS LINK TO THE NNN SITE WILL BE GOOD FOR NO MORE THAN 24 HOURS

Reports from Seoul Korea, (daily newspaper Joongang Ilbo in Seoul) via the Japanese Jiji press agency, that South Korean intelligence has intercepted radio messages/communications in North Korea, which were aired last month, to civilians in the Kilju County, Northern Hamgyeong Province area of northeastern D.P.R.K., to evacuate.The source in the South Korean government said "our interpretation is that following North Korea's underground nuclear blast test, they wish to head off any escape of radiation that would be a threat to the nearby civilian population and are evacuating as such."

TOKYO--North Korea has launched a seventh missile, a news report said Wednesday, citing Japanese government sources.North Korea fired the latest missile at 5:22 p.m. (4 a.m. EDT), Kyodo News Agency reported. The missile landed 6 minutes later, the report said.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea will respond to a pre-emptive U.S. military attack with an "annihilating strike and a nuclear war," the state-run media said Monday, heightening its antagonistic rhetoric. The Korean Central News Agency, citing an unidentified Rodong Sinmun newspaper "analyst," accused the United States of increasing military pressure on the isolated communist state. The North Korean threat of retaliation, which is often voiced by its state-controlled media, comes amid U.S. official reports that Pyongyang has shown signs of preparing for a test of a long-range missile. "The army and people of the DPRK are now in full...

Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) speaks at a news conference after an altercation with a Capitol Hill police officer earlier in the week in Washington March 31, 2006. McKinney is waiting to learn if she will be charged for apparently striking an officer after she entered a House office building earlier this week unrecognized and did not stop when asked. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 – The proliferation of ballistic missile technology threatens the security of the United States, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said here yesterday. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III said there were about 80 foreign ballistic missile launches in 2005 and that North Korea and Iran are steadily advancing in their missile capabilities. "North Korea and Iran have not relented in their pursuit of longer-range ballistic missiles," Obering said. "Our current and near-term missile defense fielding activities are a direct response to these dangers." In addition,...

The IRA Bagman and Kim Jong Il's hot dollars Sean Garland is legendary in Ireland for his violent republican past. But was he also a frontman for a counterfeiting scheme run by the communist regime of North Korea? America wants to extradite the Workers Party chief claiming he smuggled millions of dollars in fake $100 bills  David McKittrick reports 08 December 2005 It is a tale of codenames and counterfeiting, of the United States secret service, Russia and North Korea, of international political and criminal conspiracy and intrigue, of millions of dollars in illicit currency. Kim Jong Il, the...

A bomb to bust the deepest bunkersDESPITE the intelligence failure that led the Bush administration to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon is pressing ahead with the development of technologies designed to destroy WMDs. Its latest idea is a bomb that can destroy deeply buried WMD storage bunkers by cutting through earth and concrete inside a bubble of air. Traditional "bunker busters" are streamlined bombs that rely on sheer weight to force their way through soil, rock or concrete. But the new design has a blunt nose that forces the earth ahead of it out to the...

March 8, 2005, Pyongyang, North Korea Kim Jong il, the Chia Pet (center) Alive and kickin' folks. Live sighting. Second or third live sighting in North Korea in the last several weeks, another one at a Russian ballet presentation in Pyongyang.For the Free Republic KIM JONG-IL file (the "when was he last seen alive?" file)....

/begin my translation N. Korea: Kim Jong-il Was Shot At By Jang's Son It is alleged that, last November, during a shooting incident by a son of Jang Sung-taek, who is Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, Kim knocked unconscious. A source who used to be in N. Korean intelligence said on Feb. 14 that this story is making a round among high-level N. Korean security officials. According to this intelligence, between the night of Nov. 28 and the early morning of Nov. 29, there was a family gathering including Kim Jong-il, his second son Kim Jong-chol, Jang Sung-taek's son(Jang is Kim's brother-in-law),...

PITTSBURGH -- After checking three stores, Beth Cohnen finally found a must-have Christmas gift for her 10-year-old daughter to give to her uncle: a Chia Scooby-Doo. It's bound to be $15 well spent - he'd asked for it for about five years in a row. And while the uncle recognizes the humor in the quirky pottery, Cohnen said, Chia Pets aren't for her. ``I think they're kind of odd,'' she said. Over the past two decades, the Chia Pet has grown beyond its marketer's expectations to become a classic kitsch gift. The company began marketing Chia Pets - the Chia...

After checking three stores, Beth Cohnen finally found a must-have Christmas gift for her 10-year-old daughter to give to her uncle: a Chia Scooby-Doo. It's bound to be $15 well spent -- he'd asked for it for about five years in a row. And while the uncle recognizes the humor in the quirky pottery, Cohnen said, Chia Pets aren't for her. "I think they're kind of odd," she said. Over the past two decades, the Chia Pet has grown beyond its marketer's expectations to become a classic kitsch gift.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is shown (obviously alive) on North Korean last night, (Korean time), on 17 November 2004, recently inspecting (date unclear) the North Korean Peoples Army "Unit 754".However, as South Korean TV reporters from YTN-TV in the voice-over in this clip note, the traditional Korean-language title of "Great Leader" is absent from the usual script. This is the first time that such an honorific title is missing, when describing Kim Jong-il, in their national press.The video clip starts with the South Korean TV female announcer for 30 seconds who introduces a very short file clip showing...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) issued a blistering attack on Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday, saying the U.S. defense secretary was worse than Adolf Hitler. The official KCNA news agency also said Rumsfeld's criticism of North Korea this week -- he called it an evil regime -- made Pyongyang doubt the prospects of talks to resolve the North's nuclear crisis. "It is nothing surprising that Rumsfeld talked such nonsense as he put Hitler into the shade in man-killing and war hysteria. But we can never pardon him for malignantly slandering our dignified and inviolable political system whether...

N.Korea Accuses South of Sending Warships North Thu May 29, 2003 09:11 AM ET By Samuel Len SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea accused South Korea of sending warships across a disputed sea border and warned Seoul further moves could lead to "irrevocable serious consequences," ratcheting up tensions on the divided Korea peninsula. The North's warning, carried by the official KCNA news agency, followed what the South Korean Defense Ministry said was three successive days of incursions into southern waters by North Korean fishing boats, most recently Wednesday. Tensions have been high on the Korean peninsula for more than seven months,...

N Korea Defectors Detail Drug Rings (& Missile Export)21May03 The Herald Sun, AustraliaIn a dramatic confession to the US Congress, two men identified as high-ranking North Korean defectors today said they had been intimately involved in test-firing Pyongyang's missiles in Iran and a state-sponsored drugs ring. The men, led into a congressional hearing wearing black hoods, gave evidence behind a screen to conceal their identities. They currently live in South Korea, but were brought to the United States by two refugee advocacy groups. Their appearance came as the Bush administration tries to turn the spotlight on North Korea's alleged...

Title: "North Korea`s Fear of US Military Capability Conducive to Peaceful Resolution" Dong-A Ilbo Daily Newspaper(Seoul) MAY 16, 2003 21:38 Korean Time (S. Korean) President Roh Moo-hyun May 16 said that, in the wake of the Iraq war, the North Korean leadership is increasingly concerned over the military capacity of the US, and which he think might be conducive to achieving a peaceful resolution of the US-North Korean nuclear standoff. The President made the remark in an interview with the US PBS broadcasting network when host of the TV program Jim Lehrer asked him the question of whether the increased...