Free Republic

President Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that was delivered by the administration's special envoy for North Korea during a visit to Pyongyang last week. The existence of the letter has been closely held, with the administration insisting to its partners in disarmament talks with North Korea that it not be publicly discussed. State Department and White House officials confirmed this week that envoy Stephen W. Bosworth delivered a letter from Obama for Kim, but they declined to describe its contents. "We do not comment on private diplomatic correspondence," said White House National...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as part of an intense effort to draw the reclusive nation back to nuclear disarmament talks, a senior State Department official said Tuesday. The letter was delivered to North Korean officials last week by Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, during a visit to Pyongyang aimed at restarting the stalled negotiations, the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said...

A dramatic deterioration in Asian security could push Australia to acquire nuclear weapons, a strategy that it abandoned four decades ago, a new study says. But Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analyst Dr Rod Lyons says such a decision certainly isn't close nor is it inevitable. He said the 2006 Switkowski report on nuclear power suggested it would take Australia at least 10 years and probably 15 to bring the first civil reactor into service. "It's true that Australia might be able to conduct an emergency nuclear weapon construction effort in rather less time, especially if it were to focus...

TOKYO - President Barack Obama is emphasizing cooperation on his first major trip to Asia, opening with a warning to North Korea that there will be tough, unified action by the U.S. and its Asian partners if the Koreans fail to abandon their nuclear weapons programs. The hard line on North Korea was to be a prominent theme of a Friday night speech that also was intended to more broadly showcase a United States that, under Obama's leadership, seeks deeper and more equal engagement in Asia. It was to be the fifth major foreign address of Obama's 10-month presidency, this...

The problem of North Korea has bedeviled policy makers in Washington for years. The notoriously opaque Stalinist state that sits above the 38th Parallel represents one of the world’s most intractable security dilemmas. Starting this spring, however, the challenge posed by Pyongyang has grown more acute. The defiant series of nuclear and ballistic tests carried out by Kim Jong Il in May has brought into sharp focus the growing threat posed by the North’s strategic arsenal—and precipitated a frenzy of international activity in response. The Obama administration, still in the early stages of formulating its Asia policy, has reacted to...

(3rd LD) U.S. vows unlimited deterrence against N. Korea By Sam Kim SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. pledged Thursday to mobilize its warfighting assets to their maximum capacity if needed to defend South Korea against North Korea, which continues to develop its nuclear and missile capabilities. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates "reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to provide extended deterrence for the ROK, using the full range of military capabilities, to include the U.S. nuclear umbrella, conventional strike, and missile capabilities," according to a joint statement with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young.

Russia bewildered by N.Korea missile launch-Tass Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:24am EDT MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Russia is bewildered by the latest North Korean missile launch, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying on Monday. "The launch of short-range missiles by the Korean People's Democratic Republic causes bewilderment," the source said. "It was not the most suitable time to do this now, when all efforts are made to restart six-way talks on Korea's nuclear problem."

orth Korea may be preparing to launch more short-range missiles a day after the communist state fired a barrage of missiles, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, quoting a government source. Indications of additional launches are coming from the western part of the Korean peninsula, the source was quoted as saying. North Korea has issued a warning for vessels to stay out of waters off its coasts

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea interrupted moves toward dialogue on its nuclear program Monday by reportedly test-firing five short-range missiles off its east coast. A South Korean official, briefing the Korean media, said two short-range KN-02 missiles were fired in the morning and three more in the afternoon. The missiles, with a range of 75 miles, were shot from mobile launch pads near where North Korea fired a long-range Taepodong-2 missile on April 5. The timing of the tests, the North's first in three months, is particularly significant since North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has shown clear interest in...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has fired five short-range missiles off its east coast and declared a "no sail" zone in the area from October 10-20, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government source as saying on Monday. South Korean government officials were not immediately available for comment. (snip) It was not clear whether these were routine military exercises. But they coincided with local media reports that the United States is planning to send its aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday.

North Korea wants to placate key benefactor China by offering to return to disarmament talks and it is unclear whether it really intends to give up its cherished nuclear deterrent, analysts said Tuesday. Leader Kim Jong-Il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao late Monday the North is willing to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations -- on condition it first holds talks with the United States to improve "hostile relations". Some analysts expressed scepticism about the North's conditional offer to return to six-party dialogue, almost six months after it quit the forum and announced it would restart its bomb-making programme....

Barack Obama Starts US Talks With 'Axis of Evil': North Korea and Iran President Barack Obama has approved plans for the US to start direct talks with both North Korea and Iran, in a significant shift in policy. By Philip Sherwell in New York and David Eimer in Beijing 12 Sep 2009 Barack Obama's new approach marks a significant change in American diplomacy The State Department said it would meet one-to-one with Pyongyang negotiators in an effort to persuade the reclusive Stalinist state to return to multilateral talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme. Washington has also accepted a vague...

Breaking on Fox. Another Obama foreign policy disaster. The race now is between whether foreign enemies or Obama will destroy us first.

LAST week, I speculated about what "ransom" the Obama administration may have had ex-President Bill Clinton promise to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee from the North Korean regime. It didn't take long to learn at least the first concession. President Obama has broken with past US policy to agree to bilateral talks with North Korea -- a diplomatic plum that Kim Jong Il has sought for years, and a major coup in his attempt to nail down the succession of his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un. While the administration maintains that Clinton (in the words of...

In a further sign of a possible thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Washington, two North Korean diplomats are to meet Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, today. The meeting is being held at the request of Kim Myong-Gil, a minister at the North Korean mission at the United Nations, and will take place "for most of the day" in Santa Fe, a spokeswoman for Mr Richardson said. She said that the diplomats had expressed interest in clean energy solutions being developed in New Mexico and stressed that Mr Richardson was not representing the administration of President Barack Obama....

President Obama is worthy of admiration for his efforts to improve relations with America's adversaries Iran, North Korea and a few others. But for most of those states, it's time to give it up, and the Obama administration appears to realize that. I agree. There's no point in trying carrots or stick diplomacy with Iran or North Korea. Diplomacy has failed. I do wonder, however, how the writer plans to deal w NKorea's nukes and Iran's nukes+terrorist ties? Just live with it, and wait for something to go wrong/hope that "sane" people like Kim and Ahmadinejad can be trusted w...

N.Korea 'helping Myanmar build nuclear plant': report Sat Aug 1, 11:03 am ET SYDNEY (AFP) – North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic bomb within five years, a report said on Saturday, citing the evidence of defectors. The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring...

JEJU, South Korea — Former US president George W. Bush said on Saturday the five nations involved in nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea must send a unified warning against Pyongyang's continued defiance. In a speech before a group of South Korean business leaders here, Bush said "true verification" would be essential even if the communist state promised to dismantle its nuclear programmes in accordance with UN resolutions. "The five nations must send a unified message to North Korean leaders" that if they continue defying UN resolutions, there will be consequences including economic sanctions by the United Nations, Bush said....

- North Korea says it will not re-enter six-party talks to end its nuclear weapons program, citing the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States. "The six-party talks are over," Ri Hung Sik, spokesman for the North Korean delegation at a major Asian security conference, said Thursday. North Korea's six-party negotiations—with the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea—ended last year after Pyongyang went back on a promise to halt its nuclear program. Clinton urged Asian nations Thursday to vigorously enforce the latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea. She said Washington would pursue "every avenue" to denuclearize the Korean...

North Korea shot back today at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who recently likened the isolated regime to a child demanding attention..... 'We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community.' The ministry added her words 'suggests she is by no means intelligent.' Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping'. The ministry added: "Anyone making misstatements has to pay for them," but did not elaborate.

BANGKOK -- The Obama administration is consulting with allies on a new "comprehensive package" of incentives aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs, senior U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday. The officials, who are traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Thailand, told reporters that the package is only in its early stages and will not be offered to North Korea unless and until the allies sign off on it. Pyongyang would also have to first take specific, concrete and "irreversible" steps to begin destroying its arsenal of nuclear weapons.

BANGKOK – The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club — with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen. "There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very much looking into it,"...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea should not receive the attention it is seeking through behavior like missile launches and likened Pyongyang's behavior to that of unruly children. North Korea tested a nuclear device in May and fired seven ballistic missiles earlier this month in defiance of a U.N. resolution. "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention," Clinton, who is in India, said in an interview that aired on Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly...

Apart from the Soviet Union, Asia was the major killing field of communism. Perhaps 75 million innocent men, women and children were killed for communism in Asia - mainly in China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia. The western effort to stop this evil in Korea and Vietnam was a great and noble cause, and partially successful. The brave Americans who died in Korea and Vietnam did not die for nothing. They did not die for "a lie". They died for the freedom of South Korea and South Vietnam. In Korea, they were partially successful. North Korea fell to the darkness,...

"North Korea Entering a New Phase: 'We Are Not Interested in the U.S. Anymore'" By Amii Abe Introduction Six days before the DPRK conducted their recent second nuclear test, an official of the DPRK government strongly declared, "We are expanding. We will conduct nuclear tests and missile tests again, and sell our nuclear arms to other countries to achieve equal power with the U.S." As long as we understand North Korea's perspective, their provocative actions are not surprising. Rather, all of them are foreseeable. The government of the DPRK has already reached a new stage in their foreign policy strategy,...

N.Korea's No. 2 Leader Says Nuclear Talks Are Over North Korea's Kim Yong-nam says the six-party nuclear talks are over for good. The reclusive regime's second-highest official told delegates at the Non-Aligned Meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that there can be no dialogue or negotiations "where the principles of respect for sovereign rights and equality are denied." Kim claimed Pyongyang had no choice but to take "decisive measures" to further strengthen its nuclear deterrence. The six-party nuclear dismantlement talks were suspended late last year and Pyongyang declared this April it was not returning to the talks after...

North Korea earns over US$2 billion annually in arms deals with Iran, according to Larry Niksch, a specialist in Asian affairs with the U.S. Congressional Research Service. Niksch made the claim at a conference ["Engaging China to Solve the North Korea Problem"] Tuesday hosted by the Cato Institute in Washington on China's role in North Korean affairs. He called on China to block flights between Pyongyang and Tehran in addition to financial sanctions against the Stalinist country. Scientists and engineers as well as missiles, missile parts and technical drawings for missiles are being transferred by air between the North and...

Obama’s decisions about when to act and when not to act have been consistently puzzling. He insisted on action when it came to the stimulus bill (which was passed without being read because action was needed so immediately) and we have only seen the economy worsen. He demanded action regarding the closing of Guantanamo Bay, but has yet to give anyone so much as a hint about what he plans to do with detainees currently being held there. Action absolutely needed to be taken when it came to Cap and Trade (again, passed by the House without having been read...

North Korea 'tests two missiles' North Korea has tested two short-range missiles, South Korean media report, as concern mounts in the region that a long-range test could be days away. It test-fired other similar missiles earlier this week and has incurred fresh UN sanctions since holding a second underground nuclear test in May. The latest missiles were fired from a base near Wonsan into the Sea of Japan, South Korea's defence ministry said. They are believed to be Scuds with a range of 500km (312 miles). A South Korean defence official said Saturday's tests were of greater concern than Thursday's,...

U.S. 'ready' for N. Korean missile Pyongyang expected to test ICBM By Bill Gertz July 2, 2009 COLORADO SPRINGS | U.S. missile defenses are prepared to try to knock down the last stage of a Taepodong-2 missile that North Korea is expected soon to launch if sensors detect the weapon threatens U.S. territory, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command told The Washington Times. "The nation has a very, very credible ballistic-missile defense capability. Our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, I'm very comfortable, give me a capability that if we really are threatened by a long-range ICBM that I've...

The long-range rocket North Korea launched in April could be converted into a ballistic missile that can theoretically hit half the United States with a substantial payload, two U.S. physicists have concluded from their joint study. North Korea launched on April 5 what it claims was a rocket designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The U.S. and its allies say nothing entered orbit, calling the "Unha-2" rocket a disguised form of a ballistic missile capable of flying over 6,700 kilometers.

SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) -- The long-range rocket North Korea launched in April could be converted into a ballistic missile capable of striking half of the continental U.S., two American physicists have concluded in a joint study. North Korea launched on April 5 what it claims was a rocket designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The U.S. and its allies say nothing entered orbit, calling the "Unha-2" rocket a disguised ballistic missile capable of flying over 6,700km. South Korean and U.S. officials have refrained from elaborating on the capabilities of the rocket, while media reports said the rocket flew...

(LEAD) N. Korean rocket capable of hitting half the U.S.: American scientists By Sam Kim SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) -- The long-range rocket North Korea launched in April could be converted into a ballistic missile that can theoretically hit half the United States with a substantial payload, two U.S. physicists have concluded from their joint study. North Korea launched on April 5 what it claims was a rocket designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The U.S. and its allies say nothing entered orbit, calling the "Unha-2" rocket a disguised form of a ballistic missile capable of flying over 6,700...

I was reading the above linked article about our "UN sanctions" that allow us to track but not board north korean vessels without permission and thought I would pose the question... who is the greater threat N Korea or Iran here is an excerpt from the article Suspected NKorean ship changes course By PAULINE JELINEK – 6 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of...

N. Korea enriching uranium as leader's health may be relapsing: S. Korea SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to be "definitely" pressing ahead with uranium enrichment that would give it another means to build nuclear arms, South Korea's defense chief said Tuesday. Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee also said in a parliamentary hearing that recent outside observations concerning North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could suggest he is experiencing a relapse in his health. Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke in August last year but has since recovered enough to reassert control over his secretive regime. Health experts say the...

North Korea’s most crucial ally is exploring shifts in its policy toward the authoritarian regime, experts on East Asian relations said last week. China hasn’t taken any major actions against North Korea beyond signing the U.N. resolution condemning Pyongyang’s May 25 nuclear test and calling for unforced inspections of suspected weapons cargo. But criticism in China’s government-authorized media of North Korea has grown to levels that were never tolerated until now, said Jonathan Pollack, professor of Asian-Pacific studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Pollack has written more than 25 books and research reports, including books on U.S.-Chinese...

Go to the page HEREHit the little orange box with the arrow, right below this photo, and the video will stream very shortly:From Japanese national TV just a few hours ago, the NNN network--prime time.The Japanese news says this is unprecedented.Getting hot, folks.

In diplomacy, messages are often not direct or straightforward. Sometimes lessons from one theatre have relevance for another. The belligerence of North Korean dictator Kim Jong II over the past few weeks is a sobering reminder of how things can go wrong if a paramount power decides to speak softly without waving a big stick. On May 25, Pyongyang tested a nuclear device. A North Korean ship is currently on the high seas, apparently carrying an illegal cargo of missiles and other weaponry to Burma. On July 4, Independence Day in the United States, Mr Kim has promised to fire...

Bush was right after all By Ashok Malik malikashok@gmail.com In diplomacy, messages are often not direct or straightforward. Sometimes lessons from one theatre have relevance for another. The belligerence of North Korean dictator Kim Jong II over the past few weeks is a sobering reminder of how things can go wrong if a paramount power decides to speak softly without waving a big stick. On May 25, Pyongyang tested a nuclear device. A North Korean ship is currently on the high seas, apparently carrying an illegal cargo of missiles and other weaponry to Burma. On July 4, Independence Day in...

Washington tacks year of sanctions on Pyongyang, prepares for defense June 26, 2009 The United States said it was monitoring “multiple” North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons and that it would discuss with its allies what to do with one suspect vessel it is tracking. While the United States has been tracking the Kang Nam since last week, the Pentagon said it is closely monitoring several other North Korean ships allegedly carrying weapons. “We have been interested in this one ship [the Kang Nam], but we’ve been interested in, frankly, multiple ships,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. United...

SEOUL, South Korea — Punching their fists into the air and shouting "Let's crush them!" some 100,000 North Koreans packed Pyongyang's main square Thursday for an anti-U.S. rally as the communist regime promised a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" for any American-led attack. Several demonstrators held up a placard depicting a pair of hands smashing a missile with "U.S." written on it, according to footage taken by APTN in Pyongyang on the anniversary of the day North Korean troops charged southward, sparking the three-year Korean War in 1950. North Korean troops will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with...

North Korea vowed Thursday to enlarge its atomic arsenal and warned of a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" in the event of a U.S. attack, as the regime marked the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War. The anniversary came as the U.S. Navy trailed a North Korean ship suspected of carrying weapons in violation of a U.N. resolution punishing Pyongyang's May 25 nuclear test, and as anticipation mounted that the North might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days.

The Pentagon shrugged off a threat from North Korea Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map. "I don't even know how to respond to that. It's silliness," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell."For what and with what?" But even as the spokesman discounted the threat from the communist nation, which reportedly may fire a Taepodong-2 toward Hawaii in early July, he defended Defense Secretary Robert Gate's decision to move the THAAD system to Hawaii along with the massive SBX radar system. "I don't think he would have deployed that THAAD if he didn't think there was a reason to...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days. Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month. The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship,...

SEOUL — North Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North's state media said. In a first official response to last week's US-South Korean summit, the state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak "are trying to ignite a nuclear war". "The US-touted provision of 'extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella' (for South Korea) is nothing but 'a nuclear war plan,'" Tongil Sinbo said. It said it wasn't a coincidence that the...

Anyone who plays golf has stood on a tee box and waited for the group out in the fairway to move on ahead. "If I get hold of it, I can hit them from here," is the standard comment. Whether the golfer's prowess would allow him or her to actually land a ball near the others is unclear, but etiquette demands patience and a bit of reason. We thought about that mild circumstance when we learned that North Korea is threatening to launch one of its long-range missiles toward Hawaii on or around July 4. The missile has a range...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US Navy destroyer is tracking a North Korean ship possibly carrying banned cargo as part of international efforts to enforce UN sanctions against Pyongyang, according to a US defense official. The USS John S. McCain was shadowing the vessel, the Kang Nam, the first ship to be monitored under a UN resolution imposed a week ago that bans arms shipments to and form North Korea, the official said. "We are keeping an eye on that ship," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The U.S. military is seeking to intercept a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday, FOX News has learned. The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The ship left a...

WASHINGTON - If words were launched as missiles rather than missives, the United States and North Korea would be firing salvo on salvo in an escalating war in which much of the North would be in ruins and parts of the US in flames. As it is, the war of words they're waging gets more intense by the day with the dreaded "nuclear" word being used with alarming frequency.

Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, urged President Obama to put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror, arguing that the regime took advantage of the Bush administration's decision to take Pyongyang off the list. "All North Korea did after we took them off that list was to use the flexibility that we gave them to reclaim the assets that had been frozen and use them to expedite their nuclear program," he said in an interview on The Washington Times' morning radio show, "America's Morning News." "They're basically slapping us in the face for trying to...