http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/kimjongil/ en-us Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:58:09 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409480/posts Is Kim Jong-il Going to China? North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may be gearing up to visit China after a series of key aides went there and the North banned foreigners from entering for two months. The North has closed the border with China before when Kim was headed for Beijing to guarantee the paranoid leader's safety aboard his private armored train. Experts say Kim may have good reasons to visit China. Prof. Kim Hung-kyu of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security on Wednesday said Kim may want to visit to avoid "international isolation." Some speculate that Kim... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409480/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:58:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409406/posts Caveats:1) The streaming video, located on THIS Japanese news web page, may only be up for a half day or so. The link could go dead, or could link to another, new story.2) Not all computer systems might be able to play the video. You might need Microsoft Silverlight installed, but probably most can see the short stream.3) Go to the link and hit the photo with the white triangle and stream. Now for the explanation of this important video taken today of photos of the cargo of an aircraft seized in Bangkok which was heading from North Korea... NNN (Nihon Television) Network, Japan (Evening News) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409406/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:52:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409235/posts Nuclear Diplomacy: President Obama has sent a "personal" letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, hoping to coax him back to the table to talk about cutting his nation's nuclear program. Good luck with that. Repeated U.S. entreaties to the hermit state to cut its nuclear arsenal have availed us nothing. Just this month, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth traveled to North Korea with a bunch of new diplomatic carrots for the regime. The result? Bosworth put it this way, in classic diplomatese: "We identified some common understanding on the need for and a role of six-party talks and the... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409235/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:03:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408505/posts God Bless those enterprising, digging Japanese journalists and their film crews.A hot one in North Korean black weapons smuggling case was captured for all of Japan to see last night at the 11 p.m. TV news on NNN Network.The pushy and curious Japanese journalists and cameramen with their long lenses (and fluent Farsi and Korean speaking investing staff in Tokyo), discovered some VERY interesting things about the North Korean aircraft stopped this week in Thailand with Ukranian crew flying weapons in violation of US sanctions. The flight crew has been very tight lipped, but the Japanese journalists nevertheless caught some... NNN (Nihon Television) Network, Japan (Evening News) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408505/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:54:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408440/posts N.Korea to Bar Foreigners North Korea reportedly plans to ban foreigners from the country from Sunday until early February, apparently to allow unrest caused by this month's shock currency reform to die down. Ju Sang-song, the minister of People's Security, is in China, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency, though it gave no reason for his visit. The trip by the North's top internal security official may aim to seek cooperation from Beijing in preventing a mass exodus of North Korean middle class citizens angry over the devaluation of their savings. One source in China said that Pyongyang... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408440/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:31:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405190/posts North Korea's recent revaluation of its currency (100 old won get you one new won) was done to deal with rampant inflation, and to destroy the rising power of people who have made lots of money in the legalized markets. This is what caused the inflation, as not enough new goods were allowed into the country to absorb all that new wealth. Thus there was inflation, as more money chased fewer goods. This drove up the price of food. In a market economy, farmers could have increased output in response to higher prices. But the government controls farming, and continues... Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405190/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:06:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405058/posts A visit to North Korea by U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth ended in failure Thursday to convince the North to return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks. "We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement," Bosworth told reporters. "It remains to be seen when and how [North Korea] will return to the six-party talks." He added, "This is something that requires further consultations among all six of us." But Bosworth claimed he had "very useful" meetings with senior North Korean officials. Further bilateral... Chosun Ilbo News, Seoul (English) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405058/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:36:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404352/posts North Korean Money Shift Sparks Violence By EVAN RAMSTAD SEOUL -- New reports emerged Tuesday of protests and deadly violence in North Korea as the country's authoritarian regime over the past week seized most of its citizens' money and savings via a new-currency issue. Open Radio for North Korea, a Seoul-based shortwave radio station that broadcasts news to the North, said police killed two men in Pyongsong, a market center outside of Pyongyang, on Friday after they divided their savings among a large group of people and urged them to exchange the money for them, attempting to get around the... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404352/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:47:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402789/posts U.S. envoy Bosworth arrives in Pyongyang: N. Korean media SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. envoy on North Korea arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the North's media said, in the highest-level visit to the communist nation since the Barack Obama administration took power in Washington early this year. Stephen Bosworth and his entourage "arrived in Sunan Airport" just outside the capital, the Korean Central News Agency said. Bosworth departed from the U.S. Osan air base in South Korea at around 2 p.m. on a three-day mission to bring the North back to a multilateral forum on its nuclear program Yonhap News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402789/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:04:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402811/posts December 8, 2009 North Korean leader's 007-style secret escape tunnels revealed by defector Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has a network of 300 metre (1,000 ft) deep emergency escape tunnels connecting Pyongyang with key sites around the country, a top-level defector claims. The tunnels, reminiscent of the lair of a James Bond villain, are reported to contain railway lines, a water supply and even vegetation. According to Hwang Jang Yop, formerly North Korea’s chief political philosopher, they connect areas as far as 30 miles (50km) away from Pyongyang, enabling the country’s leaders to... The Times (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402811/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:29:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401894/posts N. Korea's Currency Reform Could End in Chaos The North Korean military is on alert for a possible civil uprising following last week's sudden currency reform, according to a Russian business newspaper citing foreign diplomats in the communist country. The currency reform involved the exchange of only limited amounts of old bills at a rate of 100:1, with the state confiscating the remainder. People who are afraid of exposing the size of their wealth have no choice but to hide their old bills. It is difficult to ascertain the actual circumstances, but it is apparent the North Korean regime is... Chosun Ilbo News, Seoul http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401894/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:09:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401766/posts OK, this is confusing: but this is the LINK to the original Japanese language article from the conservative/trustworthy South Korean "Chonsun Ilbo" daily newspaper website in Korean which reported from a Russian news agency just a little while ago.The headline is 北朝鮮デノミ：「住民騒乱を懸念、軍が戦闘準備」 ("North Korean Currency Devaluation: Worries Over Uprising By North Korean People; North Korean Army Goes on Sub-War Status") Chosun Ilbo News, Seoul, S. Korea (original in Japanese) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401766/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 01:34:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401405/posts Why Bosworth Should Not Go to Pyongyang By Chris Green [2009-12-04 16:48 ] Author of, among other things, “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World,” Gordon Chang has today called for Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. chief nuclear negotiator, not to make the trip to Pyongyang for bilateral talks that he is scheduled to make on December 8th. Writing for Forbes, Chang asserts that for Bosworth to go to Pyongyang at this time is both playing into North Korean hands and completely undermining the policy which Washington had appeared to be adhering to since Barack Obama came to office, namely... Daily NK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401405/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 09:01:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401265/posts This is a short video clip of the top news from the major Japanese JNN Network today. The link is to a Japanese news page on Yahoo!Japan; one just needs to click the arrow to stream the report.Before streaming, please note:-Not all PC/Mac systems can stream the video but most can.-The video may be up for only a few more hours. Then (usually) the links go down. Please see while you can.-You may need to have Microsoft Silverlight installed on your machine.The horrid news report about North Korea, in Japanese, is HERE.And HERE is a clip of what the... JNN News (Television) from Japan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401265/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 00:53:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2399385/posts It’s not enough that there is no freedom, no commerce, no electricity, and that millions in North Korea are slowly starving to death. No, to add to all that, Kim Jong Il and the gang of thugs who run the North Korean “government” have just frozen all cash transactions as its currency is de-valued at a ratio of 1 to 100... Eric Blair was nearly spot on in his presecient depiction, but was wrong in one small detail; it’s not Big Brother in North Korea, it’s “Dear Leader.” Dear God, what a travesty! Dear Leader is allowing his subjects to... Grand Rants http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2399385/posts#comment Thu, 3 Dec 2009 16:11:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2394855/posts N. Korea: Chia Head Sighting With Chinese PLA delegation (Nov. 26) At Public Security Ministry(date unknown) At a Weaving Shop(date unknown) At a Cow Ranch Operated by Military(date unknown) Daily NK and others http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2394855/posts#comment Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:10:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393146/posts Pyongyang, November 23 (KCNA) -- In order to put an end to confrontation and conflict in the Korean Peninsula and ensure its lasting peace and stability it is indispensable to terminate the state of ceasefire between the DPRK and the U.S. and establish a peacekeeping mechanism. Rodong Sinmun Monday says this in a signed commentary. Recalling that recently a group of warships of the south Korean forces perpetrated such unpardonable criminal act as opening fire on a patrol boat of the Navy of the Korean People's Army on routine guard duty in the waters of the north side in the... KCNA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393146/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:21:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391985/posts Kim Jong-il’s mistress may have new lover November 23, 2009 A one-time partner of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have married another man and left her job as Kim’s secretary, South Korean intelligence sources said. Sources told the JoongAng Ilbo that they have received tips that Kim Ok has married an official from the ruling Workers’ Party. “We’re analyzing intelligence that Kim Ok, who had been Kim Jong-il’s personal secretary, has tied the knot with a Workers’ Party member,” a source said. “We believe Kim Ok has quit her job in the secretariat.” In North Korea, women working in... JoongAng Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391985/posts#comment Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:31:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387827/posts n.Korea Ends Experiment with TV Commercials North Korea stopped TV commercials in late August, less than two months after they started to be shown in July. A Unification Ministry official on Sunday said occasional advertising of goods on [North] Korean Central TV started July 2 with a commercial for Taedonggang Beer but stopped on Aug. 29. Quoting a North Korea source, the Yonhap news agency reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il fired Cha Sung-su, chairman of the Central Broadcasting Commission in charge of all TV programs. Kim was said to have been "enraged" because he regards commercials as the... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387827/posts#comment Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:31:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384470/posts U.S. at Work on Strangling Kim Jong-il's Cash Flow The U.S. envoy charged with UN sanctions, Philip Goldberg, is still trying to block North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's cash flow, even as Washington has agreed to talks with Pyongyang aimed at persuading it to return to nuclear negotiations. North Korea invited U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth on Aug. 4, when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists. The same day, Goldberg was on his way to Moscow, where he met Russian Vice Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and reportedly asked Russia... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384470/posts#comment Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:21:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384420/posts In the last few years, many secrets have been revealed in the north, and this has been a disaster for the ruling class. Many North Koreans now know of the separate economy that has been established for the few hundred thousand people at the top of North Korean society. They have separate, gated, compounds to live in. They have separate stores, which carry Western and Chinese goods. They have many servants (who gossip much more than in the past), and special organizations that attend to their security and comfort. An extreme example of this is the organization that operates North... The Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384420/posts#comment Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:57:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382829/posts Why it's sane for Kim Jong-il to be crazy Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:28am EDT By Andrew Marshall, Asia Political Risk Correspondent - Analysis SINGAPORE (Reuters) - For those who see North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a dangerous lunatic prepared to risk the annihilation of his regime by launching a devastating attack on his neighbors, there is no shortage of supporting evidence. He uses platform shoes and bouffant hair to appear taller. His official media churns out hagiographic tales of his almost superhuman talents -- including the world's greatest round of golf, 38 under par with 5 holes in... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382829/posts#comment Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:58:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376020/posts The North Korean leader may be using look-alikes to hide his poor health. One analyst says that when President Clinton visited in August, he met with an actor, not Kim Jong-il. Seoul, South Korea - Will the real Kim Jong-il please stand up? A number of analysts here are convinced that not all the photos being released of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, are really photos of Kim Jong-il. Instead, they say, a look-alike has been standing in for him on some of the 122 trips he's reportedly made this year to the countryside, factories, cultural events, military units, and... Christian Science Monitor via The Woodward Report Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376020/posts#comment Sun, 1 Nov 2009 19:35:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374847/posts Seoul, South Korea – Will the real Kim Jong-il please stand up? A number of analysts here are convinced that not all the photos being released of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, are really photos of Kim Jong-il. Instead, they say, a look-alike has been standing in for him on some of the 122 trips he's reportedly made this year to the countryside, factories, cultural events, military units, and all sorts of other venues. Some observers say the North Korean leader is too ill to make all these appearances. One Japanese analyst claims President Clinton didn't meet with Kim Jong-il... The Christian Science Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374847/posts#comment Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:23:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2358693/posts In a stunning final round performance, zero outdistanced dear leader, kim jong il, to win the yongbyon masters at the beautiful championship course surrounding the partially shuttered plutonium reprocessing facility. After having his opening drive shot down, and losing 2 balls in the sludge pond, zero got himself together and posted an incredible 29 under par 43 to win by 3 shots over dear leader. Such mastery!, such control!, gushed both Katie Couric and Brian Williams in describing what they had just witnessed. rediculousness http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2358693/posts#comment Fri, 9 Oct 2009 18:08:27 GMT