http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/nkorea/ en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:41:28 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418211/posts The pastor of the Tucson church that missionary Robert Park attended says he wouldn't be surprised if Park, believed to be detained in communist North Korea, gets an audience with the country's leader, Kim Jong Il. "I hope and pray that he does get an audience. I know it sounds pretty crazy, but isn't this whole thing crazy?" said the Rev. John A. Benson, pastor of Life in Christ Community Church on Tucson's south side. The church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention. "It's a little out there — beyond what we would think. So yes, I'm asking for... AZstar.net http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418211/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:41:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417593/posts /begin my excerpts Watching S. Korean TV in Pyongyang? Yonhap News 2009.12.30 17:04 ”FNK Radio "S. Korean TV Seen All over N. Korea Last Week" Could N. Koreans watch S. Korean TV? The answer is, "Not always but possible." Quoting a source inside N. Korea, Free North Korea Radio, operated by N. Korean defectors, reported on Dec. 30, "All over N. Korea including Pyongyang, people watched mysterious TV broadcast titled 'FM-TV' between 4pm and 6pm throughout the last week, and it was in regular broadcast format. It included the program 'Strange Three Brothers.' It was bizarre." 'Strange Three Brothers' is... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417593/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:11:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416901/posts Use of Foreign Currency Banned! By Lee Sung Jin [2009-12-28 18:22 ] Changchun, China -- The North Korean People’s Safety Agency has declared a “complete prohibition of foreign currency usage.” The decree was issued on December 26th and went into effect on Monday 28th. A source inside North Hamkyung Province reported, “A People’s Safety Agency declaration on banning the use of U.S. dollars, Yuan and the Euro was publicized on the 26th. The declaration was posted in public places and in every workplace starting this morning.” The title of the declaration is, “On punishing severely those who use foreign currencies... Daily NK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416901/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:07:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416269/posts Let the Kim Regime Collapse It's a better alternative than propping up a nuclear-armed dictatorship on the Korean peninsula. By DANIEL BLUMENTHAL AND LESLIE FORGACH Soon after President Barack Obama's inauguration in January, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il welcomed him in typical fashion by testing another nuclear weapon. Mr. Obama reacted firmly by suspending the six-party disarmament talks and imposing tough sanctions. But a year later the Obama administration is poised to begin the talks anew. That would be a mistake. As American diplomats coax North Korea to return to the negotiating table, a far more significant drama is... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416269/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:31:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416246/posts Calif parents of US missionary believed detained in North Korea join vigil for safe return ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press Writer 1:51 AM PST, December 28, 2009 SAN MARCOS, Calif. (AP) — An American missionary believed to be detained when he stepped into North Korea on Christmas didn't inform his parents of his plans but they had a hunch he would visit the communist nation. "We had a sense," Pyong Park, the missionary's father, told The Associated Press late Sunday. "We told him to continue what you're doing in South Korea." About 100 people held candles Sunday night at Palomar Korean... LAT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416246/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:53:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416233/posts Pakistani scientist depicts more advanced nuclear program in North Korea By R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 28, 2009; A02 North Korea has constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment, according to a previously unpublicized account by the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, a development that indicates Pyongyang opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s. Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan also said that North Korea may have been enriching uranium on a small scale by 2002, with "maybe 3,000 or even more" centrifuges,... WP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416233/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:26:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2415752/posts What could a free man hope to accomplish by crossing without permission into North Korea, to ask its rulers to repent, close the prison camps and free the people? Robert Park, a young American of Korean descent made exactly that crossing on Christmas day, walking from China into North Korea across the frozen Tumen River. There are reports that as he crossed, he called out, “I came here to proclaim God’s love.” A manifesto attributed to Park, leader of a Christian group advocating human rights for North Koreans, includes the statement: “All we are asking is for all North Koreans... The Rosett Report _ PJ Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2415752/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:50:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415229/posts U.S. rights activist crosses into North Korea - reports Jon Herskovitz, Reuters December 26, 2009, 4:00 pm Send SEOUL (Reuters) - A U.S. human rights activist trying to raise global attention about the suffering of the North Korean people has crossed into the reclusive state, other activists and South Korean media said on Saturday. There has been no comment from North Korea, which usually arrests foreign border crossers on site, or from U.S. officials. Activists told Reuters that Robert Park, 28, had crossed into North Korea from China on Friday, while South Korea's Yonhap news agency and the Kukmin Ilbo... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415229/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 10:09:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415207/posts Thai authorities' high-profile inspection of 35 tons of North Korean weapons was nearing completion Friday, as clues emerging around the world shed light on the business of arms trafficking — and the lengths smugglers take to hide their identities. Two weeks after Thai authorities impounded the aircraft and arrested its five-man crew, the key questions of who organized the shipment and where it was headed remain unanswered. But a trail of companies and fake addresses from New Zealand to Barcelona has illustrated how the traffickers bounced around the globe to lightly regulated countries to disguise their movements. Over the past... Yahoo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415207/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:44:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413300/posts South and North Korea were poised Tuesday to link their military hot lines they have been working to modernize, an official in Seoul said, just a day after Pyongyang raised tension by declaring the western sea border its firing zone. Construction aimed at linking the optical cable lines began on Dec. 1 and is expected to end later Tuesday, Moon Sang-gyoon, an official at the Ministry of National Defense, told reporters. The sides, technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, plan to test the lines on the west and east coasts on Thursday and Friday,... Yonhap News Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413300/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:51:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412089/posts South Korea – North Korea declared waters along its disputed sea border with South Korea a "firing zone" Monday and warned ships from the South to stay away from the area, which was the scene of a deadly clash last month. The naval command in Pyongyang accused the South of "reckless military provocations" in the area in an attempt to hold on to what it called an illegal border. It accused its neighbor of violating its waters and staging military drills in the area and vowed to protect its border by force. North Korea does not recognize the sea border,... Associated Press via Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412089/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:39:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412084/posts An illicit North Korean arms shipment seized in Thailand last week was destined for the Middle East, the head of US intelligence said Friday. About 30 tonnes of sanctions-busting weapons were confiscated in Bangkok on Saturday but it had remained unclear where the North Korean shipment was headed. "Teamwork among different agencies in the United States and partners abroad just last week led to the interdiction of a Middle East-bound cargo of North Korean weapons," Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, wrote in a commentary in the Washington Post. Blair's reference marked the first public comment by the administration... Space War http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412084/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:59:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412083/posts North Korea will eventually be able to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit in a missile, a news report said Sunday. Seoul's Yonhap news agency, citing the state-run Korea Institute for Defence Analyses (KIDA), said Pyongyang developing the technology to achieve miniaturisation was inevitable. "It is believed that North Korea has not completed the technology for the miniaturisation... of nuclear warheads," KIDA said in a report to be issued in January, according to Yonhap. But KIDA said it is "just a matter of time", noting the country has a high-explosives test site and an estimated 3,000 nuclear scientists... Space War http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412083/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:54:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410373/posts DECEMBER 17, 2009 Officials Probe Auckland Firm's Role in Seized Arms Cache By PATRICK BARTA, DANIEL MICHAELS and SIMON LOUISSON New Zealand officials are investigating whether an Auckland-based company has links to a weapons-filled plane from North Korea that was detained in Bangkok last week. Investigators are still unsure where the plane -- carrying 35 tons of missiles, explosives and other armaments -- was heading or who coordinated the flight plan. Its five-member crew, from Kazakhstan and Belarus, remains in detention in Bangkok and all five have denied knowledge that there were weapons onboard. Officials in Kazakhstan and the Republic... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410373/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:43:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410367/posts Obama proposes U.S. liaison in North Korea-Yonhap By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed setting up a liaison office in North Korea next year in a step to ease tensions between the two rival states, Yonhap news agency said on Friday. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, December 1, 2009. (REUTERS/Jim Young/Files) The offer was in a letter for leader Kim Jong-il that Obama's first envoy to the secretive state delivered when he went to Pyongyang last week for discussions aimed at reviving dormant... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410367/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:36:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410217/posts SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea. The suspected hacking occurred late last month when a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said. The USB device contained a summary of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula. Won said the stolen documents... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410217/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:01:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410142/posts Hole in Ionosphere Reveals Clues About North Korean Missile Launch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410142/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:59:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410124/posts /begin my excerpts Thai Jet Fighters Forced down the Plane Carrying N. Korean Arms Kwon Kyung-bok 2009.12.18 04:19 A Russian daily reports. The IL-76 freighter plane of Georgian registry which got caught while transporting N. Korean arms did not land on Thailand for refueling, but was forced down to land by Thai fighter planes after entering Thai airspace, according to Dec. 17 report by Russian daily Kommersant. The paper reported that, as soon as the IL-76 plane which left Pyongyang entered Thai airspace, two Thai jet fighters intercepted the plane and order it to land on Don Muang Airport in... Chosun Ilbo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410124/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:17:49 GMT 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/2407942/posts NZ link to plane seized with North Korea weapons Liam Baldwin | Tuesday December 15 2009 - 03:42pm A New Zealand company has been linked to a cargo plane seized in Thailand suspected of smuggling North Korea arms this week, possibly to the Middle East. Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Georgian officials linking New Zealand registered company SP Trading to renting the plane – an Ilyushin-76 aircraft – to deliver its cargo. The plane was seized at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport late last week during a refuelling stop. It was discovered that it contained 30 tonnes of weapons from North... Nationa Business Review (New Zealand) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407942/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:28:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407767/posts The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think-tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga. The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to... The Times Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407767/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:27:55 GMT