Free Republic

The point of this posting is to continue to systematically attack the notion that it is natural for two Koreas to exist and to continually eat away at all the justifications that South Koreans make in order to some how to ease their collective guilt as they lead their moderately wealthty lives as the other half of the nation continues to suffer (For more on how North Koreans continue to suffer see last week's issue of the New Yorker or what Professor Brad DeLong at UC Berkeley has noted to be last weeks "must read.") I do this under the...

North Korea has completed reprocessing of some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyong nuclear facility and weaponized the plutonium extracted from the material, the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.

In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike? The mighty Euphrates river is the subject of the prophecies in the Bible's Book of Revelation, where it is written that the river will be the scene of the battle of Armageddon: "The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from...

Today we will have a presentation on how North Korean institutions have changed since the death of Kim Il Sung. One particular item, the presenting group this week has looked at is the new North Korean constitution, adopted in late September of this year stands out to highlight how much North Korea has fallen. Below is a rough draft of a translation of the North Korean constitution. There is a section missing on the draft copy of the translation, but I hope to have that updated shortly. But, what is fascinating about looking at the constitution is how far North...

(LEAD) N. Korea appears to have restored plutonium-generating plant: officials By Sam Kim SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has apparently restored its facility used to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear complex that had been mothballed under a six-nation accord, officials here said Monday. "The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier conditions," a senior defense official said, citing satellite photos that also showed a continuous stream of workers in and out of the site in Yongbyon, 90km north of Pyongyang.

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...

N. Korea to continue missile tests for upgraded version: expert SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to continue short-range missile tests with the aim of developing an advanced KN-06 missile, according to a U.S. expert. Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the RAND Corp., said that the North's launch of five KN-02 missiles on Oct. 12 was part of efforts to develop a more advanced KN-06 missile, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Saturday The KN-02, an upgraded version of the Russian SS-21, is known to have a range of up to 120 kilometers.

The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source. It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said. Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea's WMDs,...

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...

NKorea's latest missile tests failed: report (AFP) – 40 minutes ago SEOUL — North Korea's short-range missile tests earlier this month were a failure with none of the five projectiles reaching its target, a report said Thursday. The North test-fired five KN-02 missiles with a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles) from mobile launchers off its east coast on October 12. Radio Free Asia, quoting an intelligence source, said four of the five missed the mark and one did not even launch properly. "Two fell into the sea right after launch, another two missed the targets and the last one...

North Korea has completed work on a new west coast site capable of launching improved intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to senior South Korean officials quoted by Yonhap news agency. The Dongchang-ri base has been under construction for several years despite long-running international efforts to shut down the communist state's missile and nuclear programmes. "The construction is as good as finished," one South Korean official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity. "The necessary facilities are all there." Another official said the North has been testing missile parts such as boosters at the site about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Pyongyang....

Hell on Earth Oct 22nd 2009 The West still turns a blind eye to the world's most brutal and systematic abuse of human rights A SPRAWLING encampment of think-tankers, academics, hacks and policymakers earns a living outside North Korea’s walls. They pick over its nuclear intentions and the prospects for the diplomatic dance known as the six-party process, which is meant to persuade North Korea to give up its nukes for cash and security guarantees. The encampment needs something to live on. Since North Korea declared the six-party talks dead in the spring, scraps have been meagre. So the North’s...

South Korea may buy four spy satellites over the next decade to monitor North Korea, the defence ministry said Wednesday. "Our ministry has been considering it but no decision has been made yet on who will be involved and details have yet to be fixed," a spokesman told AFP. He was commenting on a media report that said the ministry would forge technological cooperation with countries including Germany to secure the satellites. South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, quoting what it said was an internal ministry document, reported that the military plans to spend 600-700 billion won (514-600 million dollars) by...

North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-il has halted a propaganda campaign to promote his youngest son as his successor after Kim Jong-Un began flexing his muscles prematurely, a leading South Korean researcher has claimed. Kim Jong-Un, 25, was named in reports as the ailing dictator's designated successor last June, but relations between father and son have since become strained, said Nam Sung-Wook, chief of South Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy. "Kim Jong-il knows so well that two suns should not exist in the sky," Professor Nam told a specialist forum on North Korea. In June and July Kim Jong-Un...

The North Korean military on Thursday accused South Korean warships of trespassing near the North’s west coast, a reminder to its neighbors that it can raise tensions even as its government reaches out for talks with the United States and South Korea. The Defense Ministry in Seoul called the North Korean claim “preposterous.” But the North Korean military made clear its stance. “The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean Navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters,” the North’s state-run news agency said. Its...

SNIPPET: "After the 4 July DDoS attacks, wrongly attributed to North Korea, it’s wise to treat reports of DPRK security hacks with some caution. Nevertheless, The Korea Times reports the following: Classified Info on Dangerous Chemicals Hacked Hackers stole classified information on dangerous chemicals in their raid on the South Korean army computer network in what was believed to be an attack by North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday, quoting government officials." SNIPPET: "The Sydney Morning Herald adds more information: A North Korea cyber warfare unit hacked into a South Korean military command earlier this year and stole some...

Infamously ugly and unfinished, the shell of the Ryugyong Hotel dominates North Korea's capital Pyongyang. But work on the skyscraper began again last summer after a 16-year hiatus, and as the company behind it tells the BBC's Matthew Davis, an end may finally be in sight. A three-sided pyramid with walls that jag upwards at 75 degrees, capped by a series of concentric rings, the Ryugyong Hotel was described by one magazine simply as "the worst building in the history of mankind". Other names that have stuck down the years include: "The Hotel of Doom" and "The Phantom Hotel" -...

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...

North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, a news report said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor. Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North test-fired the missiles on Monday afternoon from its eastern coastal launch pad. ,P. Yonhap said the North has issued a no-sail zone in an area off the east coast Oct. 10-20... Calls to the South Korean Defense Ministry seeking comment on the report were not immediately answered Monday. Earlier Monday, South Korea proposed working-level officials of the two sides meet...

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.

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

China detects deadly nerve gas at border with NKorea: report 1 hr 51 mins ago TOKYO (AFP) – China has detected deadly nerve gas at its border with North Korea and suspects an accidental release inside the secretive state, a Japanese news report said Friday. The Chinese military is strengthening its surveillance activities after detecting the highly virulent sarin gas in November last year and in February in Liaoning province, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources from the Chinese military.

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

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....

At the end of when North Korea tested a nuclear bomb it was a total surprise to administration officials: North Korea's decision to detonate a nuclear device underground Monday caught the United States by surprise, officials said. "They didn't give us any warning whatsoever," one senior U.S. intelligence official who works on North Korean issues told FOX News. Another official told Reuters that North Korea gave less than an hour's notice to the United States that it would carry out the test. The official said the communist country made "no demands," and passed on the message that it would carry...

North Korea’s armed forces are capable of carrying out 13 kinds of viral and bacterial attack, the South Korean Government said yesterday in one of the most detailed assessments of the dictatorship’s biological weapons arsenal. In a submission to the South Korean National Assembly, the Defence Minister also said that the North had 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, believed to include mustard gas, phosgene and sarin. Among its biological agents are cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus, typhoid fever and dysentery. Despite the alarming assessment, Kim Tae Young also said that his country’s armed forces had the capacity pre-emptively to destroy...

SEOUL, Oct 6 (Reuters) - North Korea is close to restoring its Yongbyon nuclear facility, South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Tuesday quoted an official in Seoul as saying. The report followed North Korea's pledge to return to international nuclear disarmament talks as long as it first holds negotiations with the United States. The following is a look at destitute North Korea's decades-long pursuit of nuclear arms: YONGBYON FACILITIES The Yongbyon complex is at the heart of the North's plutonium weapons programme. It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, whose construction began in 1980, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived Sunday in North Korea on a highly anticipated state visit amid signs the North may be willing to restart dialogue over its nuclear programs following months of resistance. Wen was greeted at Pyongyang airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, another indication that Kim remains firmly in charge despite reports of failing health. (See TIME's rare photos from inside North Korea) China, the North's most important source of economic aid and diplomatic support, is the host of currently stalled six-nation disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., Japan,...

Kozhikode (Ker), Oct 4 (PTI) A North Korean ship, sailing from Colombo to a Pakistani port, has been detained by the Coast Guard and the Navy after it was found anchored in Indian territorial waters off Vatakara coast without mandatory permission. The ship, 'Hyang Ro', was detained on Friday after it was found anchored in suspicious circumstances about 35 kms off Vatakara coast, a Coastguard Commandant at Beypore, near here, said. All its 44 crew, who were North Koreans, are being questioned, Commandant Sri Kumar said. Navy PRO in Kochi, Commander Roy Francis, said, "The vessel had entered Indian waters...

North Korea is increasingly focused on cyber warfare, improvised explosives and missile technology as the regime fears it would be defeated in a direct confrontation with US and South Korean forces, a US commander said on Tuesday. The emphasis on unconventional methods comes amid signs North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il appears to be firmly "in charge" and in decent health, General Walter Sharp, commander of US forces in Korea, told reporters on Tuesday. "I think the North Koreans probably realized they could not win in a normal conventional all-out attack," Sharp said. Given the strength of South Korean and US...

North Korea drops communism, boosts "Dear Leader" Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:21am EDT (For full coverage of North Korea, click [ID:nNORKOR]) By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim SEOUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has revised its constitution to give even more power to leader Kim Jong-il, ditch communism and elevate his "military first" ideology, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Monday. Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim's power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity. "The chairman is the highest general of the entire...

North Korea Resumes Reunions After 2-Year Hiatus; Family Members Allowed to Visit After Decades of SeparationLee Dong-un cried and held the hands of his 60-year-old North Korean daughter Saturday during their first meeting in more than half a century. They were one of hundreds of families reuniting as part of a program revived by Pyongyang in an effort to ease tensions with South Korea. The meeting was bittersweet for Lee, who left behind his pregnant wife and daughter, then 2 years old, in North Korea when he fled to the South during the Korean War. The 84-year-old burst into tears...

You could also look at what South Korean historians are doing. Historians in South Korea put weight, as I've pointed out earlier (in Part I), on theories now that would otherwise be of little relevance were it to not the case that Korea still remains divided today. Specifically, the North-South States Period (남�국시대) serves mainly to justify the division of the peninsula in the mind of Koreans and to make it seem as if the division is entirely natural (since it happened before and the country eventually unified) and that it's perfectly alright to think of other things for the...

South Korea could mount swift and precise attacks on North Korea's nuclear bases should war break out on the peninsula, Seoul's incoming top military officer said Thursday. General Lee Sang-Eui, named as next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Seoul had a list of major targets its forces would strike first should a conflict erupt. Nuclear weaponry would pose the greatest threat, he told a parliamentary confirmation hearing, pledging to "mobilise all means available to precisely and swiftly strike" such bases. New Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told his own confirmation hearing last week that Seoul knew where the...

Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the...

Defense: A ballistic missile launched from Alaska is shot down by an interceptor launched from California. With threats from North Korea to Iran, it's time to ignore the skeptics and fully fund missile defense.It was the most realistic and most successful missile defense test ever in a Strategic Defense Initiative that could one day save an American city from a rogue missile strike. Yet the "yeah, but" media greeted this triumph with claims the concept is still unproven. It was as if the Wright brothers had announced man's first flight, only to be greeted with cries that they hadn't built...

North Korea closed the country's biggest unofficial market in June, a South Korea-based organization that tracks economic activity in the North learned this week, a significant step in a government effort to slow the spread of market activities there. An estimated 30,000 small business were believed to be operating in the market in Pyongsong, on the outskirts of the capital city of Pyongyang, according to Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights, or NKNet. Merchants there sold items such as food, clothes and Chinese-made goods. The market is apparently the latest to fall victim to a government antimarket effort...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

South Korea has given the production go-ahead for the first 70 Hongsangeo anti-submarine torpedoes for deployment between 2010 and 2012, the government has said. Up to 70 of the long-range ship-to-submarine light torpedoes, called Red Shark in English, will be operational aboard some of South Korea's newest country's destroyers, the KDX-I/II, according to the procurement agency Defense Acquisition Program Administration. After nine years of development, the final tests were completed earlier this year, the DAPA's sister organization the state-funded Agency for Defense Development announced in June. Deployment is in response to a growing threat from North Korean submarines, the ADD...

South Korea will buy an advanced radar system from Israel to detect and track North Korean ballistic missiles, officials said Thursday. The Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said it would place an order soon with Israel's Elta group for its Green Pine Block-B radar system. Elta scored higher than France's Thales in a performance test in August, spokesman Kim Young-San told reporters. "If deployed here, the system will significantly improve our anti-missile defence capabilities," he said, adding it could track any ballistic missiles fired by North Korea at an early stage. The radars would be capable of monitoring ballistic missiles in...

South Korea's new defence chief said Thursday there was no evidence that the sudden discharge of water from a North Korean dam which killed six southerners was a deliberate attack. The North on September 6 released millions of tonnes of water into a cross-border river, which killed six South Koreans camping downstream. "We have no solid information to say the discharge was for a water attack," Kim Tae-Young, appointed defence minister on September 3, said in a report to parliament. He said the dam's floodgates were opened after it was full of water. The report tallies with accounts by the...

Strategic Defense: With Iran on the verge of a deliverable nuke, the administration tells our allies in the dead of night that we will scuttle missile defense plans in Eastern Europe to please the Russians.Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after...

The bad old Axis of Evil is back in the news. That's not because President Barack Obama has resurrected the label, but because he's now planning to hold direct talks with its two surviving charter members, Iran and North Korea. It's one of many signs of change (if not hope) that the phrase itself, "axis of evil," has become less welcome in Washington's diplomatic calculus than envoys of that axis itself. Even before Obama scrapped the entire concept, President George W. Bush during his second term had abandoned the formulation. ... If the term "evil" has now been written out...

In a move late Friday, the White House announced two key decisions that have a broad impact and represent a weakening shift within US foreign policy. In consecutive announcements the White House agreed to meet North Korean demands that the US diplomats negotiate with North Korea on a nation-to-nation basis without the presence of the other members of the six-party talks. In addition the State Department also accepted Iranian demands that the United States and a contingency of 5 European nations hold diplomatic negotiations upon a wide range of topics that will not include the dismantling of Iran's nuclear program....

The US shifted its policy today, saying it is now willing to meet one on one with North Korea if that is helpful to bring Pyongyang back to the nuclear negotiations. US envoy Stephen Bosworth got the green light from the other members of the 6-party talks, negotiations to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear program, during meetings in the region in recent days.

US ready for N Korea direct talks North Korea insists it has a right to nuclear weapons The US says it would hold direct talks with North Korea to persuade it to return to stalled multilateral talks on ending its nuclear programme. A spokesman for the US state department said that there had been no decision on when such talks might take place. Philip Crowley insisted the move was not a policy shift and talks would take place within "the six-party process". North Korea pulled out of multilateral talks in April after international criticism following a rocket launch. "It's a...

Why? Because Russia said to. This is pathetic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was prepared to hold direct talks with North Korea to try to coax it back into multilateral negotiations on ending its nuclear programs. Previously, U.S. officials had sent mixed signals about direct meetings, at times saying Pyongyang must first commit to resume multilateral discussions and at others saying bilateral talks could only occur "in the context" of the multilateral discussions. The department denied changing its policy on direct talks, saying any bilateral meeting would be to bring Pyongyang back to multilateral talks. "We are prepared to enter into a...

During Kargil, Pervez sent me to N Korea, got 200 missiles: A Q Khan Lalit K Jha Posted: Thursday , Sep 10, 2009 at 0509 hrs Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan has said his country was short of anti-aircraft missiles during the 1999 Kargil War, so General Pervez Musharraf sent him to North Korea to purchase 200 missiles. In an interview to Pakistani Urdu TV channel Aaj News — its translation has been obtained by Secrecy News of the Federation of American Scientists — Khan said: “In 1999, Gen Musharraf sent me along with Gen Iftikhar, who was...