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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,...

A planeload of North Korean arms seized in Bangkok was reportedly bound for Iran, which has been buying up large amounts of weaponry in recent months as it braces for a possible onslaught by Israel, and possibly the United States. Mystery has shrouded the destination of the Georgian-registered Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane that was found be to carrying 35 tons of arms, including surface-to-air missiles and rocket launchers, in 12 crates when it was detained during a refueling stop on Dec. 11 following a tip-off from U.S. intelligence. The five-man crew, all former Soviet air force members from Belarus and...

The close relationship that once existed between Moscow and Pyongyang is a relic of the Cold War. In fact, there is reason to believe that the two neighbors now share little in common. Yet decades ago, the Soviets exercised tremendous influence over the North Korean regime, anecdotally evidenced by Kim Il-sung's fateful request to Josef Stalin asking to invade the South in 1950. Stalin, after much consternation, finally gave his approval.1 By deferring to Stalin, Kim Il-sung sought continued Soviet support, which he received for roughly 40 years until the breakup of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, however,...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Iran's military has postponed a test firing of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile after a shipment of parts from North Korea was delayed, Japan's Kyodo news service reported Dec. 6. The report quoted a western diplomatic source in South Korea familiar with North Korean issues as saying that Tehran told Pyongyang that it needs electronic components for improving the missile's accuracy that were ordered from North Korea. The delay in delivering the parts is a source of friction between the two countries, the source said. According to the report, North Korea has said it shipped the components in 10 containers...

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...

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...

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...

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�鮮デノミ：「�民騒乱を懸念���戦闘準備� ("North Korean Currency Devaluation: Worries Over Uprising By North Korean People; North Korean Army Goes on Sub-War Status")

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...

Chinese and North Korean defence chiefs have pledged to strengthen their military alliance -- dating back to the Korean War -- during talks in Pyongyang, state media said Monday. The move came after Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie arrived in North Korea for talks Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Liang told a reception by Pyongyang's defence chief Kim Yong-Chun that the bilateral relationship was "sealed in blood" when he and other Chinese troops fought the 1950-1953 Korean War on the North Koreans' side. "No force on earth can break the unity of the armies and peoples of...

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,...

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...

You see, I'm of the belief that President George W. Bush, the first president I voted for during the 2000 election cycle, though I really was pulling for Senator John McCain at that time, became president since he was a likeable figure thought to be not different than the average American (Though, former President Gore's likeability issue and disgraced activist Ralph Nader probably also had something to do with it), but yet, then Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. and a tutor of George W. Bush's answers precisely why the U.S. should care and in a very concise manner too. If...

North Korea's Kim Jong Il awarded his son, Kim Jong Un, a special commendation for his direct handling of the 2 captured Americans and Pres. Clinton recently. Internal speech was made by the Domestic Security Bureau, which said "Comrade Kim Jong En in his brilliance is to be awarded for excellent work. He dealt skillfully with the (2 US journalist) spy incident, and even was able to force a former US President to come all the way over the Pacific Ocean to apologize to us."

The last couple posts were largely written from the perspective of me trying to put forth what I thought Clinton's summit meant now and what it could mean in the future. But, for today's post -- and I'm trying very hard to refrain from posting for the sake of posting, I'm going to have to criticize probably the worst editorial I've come across in a long time and try to undo the disservice to the American public that the New York Times has just committed. It's definitely worse than the fairly recent editorial from the Los Angeles Times on which...

Personally, I believe what will drive North Korea-U.S. relations as well as with the other four parties from the six party framework, is how each party comes to accept the fact that North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons. This stands in stark and direct conflict with the fact that the United States will never accept North Korea as a legitimate nuclear power along the lines that the U.S. has with India -- and rightly so. But, I do believe the U.S. would be content to see a steady-state where North Korea has nuclear weapons, but doesn't share/sell...

It was not long ago that the world had written him off as an ageing leader with little or no remaining grip on power. But Bill Clinton is back. So it seems is the other dear leader, Kim Jong-il. For a man who had just a few weeks ago been declared terminally ill – one Japanese academic had even claimed he was dead – North Korea’s dictator is looking quite sprightly. The extraordinary photographs showing him flanked by a former US president (doing his best to imitate a sphinx) and several former US officials are a propaganda coup. They will...

Now that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are on their way home (to Los Angeles), I have a short list of things I do and do not want to hear from them, starting with any retch-inducing drivel about how well they were treated while they shouldn’t have been in (North Korean) captivity at all. Let’s make that the first thing on our list: 1. Please spare us the Stockholm Syndrome at LAX. Try to remember that you weren’t in North Korea to rob convenience stores, hide a dead hooker, or hand out boxer briefs infected with herpes. If things were...

Now that all the hoopla and nonstop CNN 24/7 type celebrations and TV interviews and book deals will ramp up over the release of two liberal Democrat California-based freelance/Al Gore journalists from communist North Korea, based on a Bill Clinton secret deal and eventual flying to North Korea to apologize and legitimize the dictatorial regime--developing nuclear strike capabilities and exporting said terror--I say "hold your horses", as we have important unfinished business. I would expect the MSM to gloss over these so I raise them here.

While in principle I've always been a supporter of John Bolton even when he fell out with the George W. Bush administration when the administration did its sudden U-turn on its North Korean policy, I wouldn't believe it to be as bad as Bolton makes it out to be (yes, it's a form of appeasement, but to rigidly be against a policy just because of it's name is a strike against common sense and an exercise in sheer stupidity) and considering how things currently are I think its realistically the most the U.S. can ask for. Yes, while sending another...

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il May Not Survive This Winter Choi Sung-yong, "Kim Jong-il knows he may not live long." [2009-07-15 15:08 ] Amid flurry of rumors on Kim Jong-il's health, Choi Sung-yong, the head of (S. Korean) Abductee Family's Association, said, "Kim Jong-il may not survive this winter," quoting a credible source from N. Korea on July 15. Mr. Choi appeared on "Open World, Today" at PBC and said, "As you know, if a cancer spreads, doctors will tell you how long you can live," basically saying that Kim's days are numbered. However, he won't say exactly what illness...

Original Japanese synopsis of article:Japanese lead: 米中�北�鮮を���る�� ――体制護��固執�る北京 中国�北�鮮��影響力��国連安��常任�事国�他�国々������も敵���。�も���ら�中国�北�核計画阻止�動������。石油�供給を止��貿易を�止�れ�明日�も政権�崩壊�る��。 My translation begins (summary). (Three most significant subtitles of the artitle):--Beijing Gets Behind Idea of Staunchly Keeping N.K. Kim Dynasty in Place--Obama Administration Shows Unprecedented Recklessness (toward North Korea)--North Korea Can See Through Every Tactical Step of The AmericansKey Points from Original Japanese: --North Korea's dangerous intentions in launching medium and long range missiles, conducting underground nuke tests, other recent provocations and the like were set in action (precipitated) by Second Bush "W" Administration, namely Condoleeza Rice, Phillip Zellikof (spelling?), and Christopher Hill, who were made mince meat of by...

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea wants the U.S. to show remorse for the actions of two American journalists convicted of illegally entering the country, and it might free the women if Washington does so, a scholar who visited Pyongyang said Saturday. The comments by North Korean officials to University of Georgia political scientist Han S. Park came as analysts say the isolated communist regime intends to use the detention of Laura Ling and Euna Lee as bargaining chips in its ongoing standoff with Washington over the country's nuclear and missile threats. The journalists were detained in March near the...

`NK Cyber Warfare Unit Masterminding DDoS Attacks` JULY 11, 2009 09:20 The North Korean military`s cyber warfare unit is believed to be responsible for this week`s massive cyber attacks on major South Korean and U.S. government and civilian Web sites. South Korea`s National Intelligence Service said this to lawmakers yesterday. Park Sung-do, second deputy director of the service, told an unofficial meeting with members of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee yesterday morning that a research center called "No. 110," under the Reconnaissance Bureau of the North Korean People’s Army is believed to have masterminded the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The...

North Korea has not yet sent two convicted U.S. journalists to a prison labor camp in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release, a scholar who visited the North said in an interview published Friday. Laura Ling and Euna lee, who work for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media group, are being kept at guest house in the North Korean capital and have not yet been sent to a prison camp as called for in their sentences, University of Georgia political scientist Han Park said. "I heard from North Korean officials that...

North Korea convened a mass government meeting on the 15th anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung (today). They had the usual funeral music in commemoration of "The Great Leader". One could perhaps say the music was for KIM JONG IL himself, who shuffled pitifully into the Korean Workers Party assembly--a disheveled wreck of a man. Here are photos of Kim Jong Il, taken earlier today in North Korea:

So, if China would lose out the most if North Korea developed nuclear weapons and China is not doing too well as the more North Korea backtracks the more China’s lack of power shows (i.e. failure of six party talks, continual and unending foreign aid from Beijing), then does China really have the power to do anything in North Korea?

By GORDON G. CHANG From today's Wall Street Journal Asia. At this moment the Kang Nam, a North Korea tramp freighter, is on the high seas tailed by a team of American destroyers and submarines and watched by reconnaissance satellites and aircraft. On board, its cargo could be plutonium pellets, missile parts or semi-ripe melons. In any event, Washington wants to know what is in the rusty ship's hold. Why the interest in this particular vessel? The Kang Nam is a "repeat offender" and known to carry "proliferation materials." As an unnamed American official told Fox News this month, "This...

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.

DPRK is really rubbing it in the US's face with seeming impunity. Hmmmmm....I WONDER why THAT would be....There was a mass demonstration yesterday in North Korea by the Korean Workers Party in front of the 1967-seized USS Pueblo, docked in Pyongyang on a main river.I share HERE the link to the streaming video of this event. Hit the orange box with the arrow right below the Pueblo photo and the 1 minute video will stream. Stand it if you can.

"6. Pyongyang has announced that it will “never” give up her nuclear weapons’ policy. You might have heard that the word “never” is never to be used in any context. Why does North Korea practice the opposite without much damage? Because we make it pay. Perhaps, as far back as 1953, the Kims had reason to discover that in their case that “never” always works. It does so because they have to do with entities whose moral relativism and crisis management technique is that everything, and really everything, is negotiable at all times. Accordingly, they never say “no, never” to...

I'm very worried that war, yes war, could break out on the Korean Peninsula. I think the chances are still remote, but the current situation on the Korean Peninsula and the United States seems to be more conducive to its possibility than any other I've seen within my lifetime.

Current TV, Al Gore's 'Media Outlet,' Adopts State Department Policy of Giving No Information Whatsoever on Detained Journalists By Ashley Harrell in MediaWednesday, Mar. 25 2009 @ 2:32PM Current TV hired this guy to keep the media out. When Jill Carroll was kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq in 2006, the editor of the Christian Science Monitor quickly released a statement: "Jill's' ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable," said editor Richard Bergenheim. "We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and pursuing every avenue to secure her release." The paper also reported...

A sombre scoop for Pyongyang's pawns By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON - North Korean strategists must be loving every minute of it. They've got two American women in their net, charged with entering the country illegally and committing "hostile acts". They've got the United States State Department working behind the scenes for their release while talking tough in public about North Korean "provocations". They've got the women's relatives - including an older sister who once made a television documentary exposing the horrors of life in North Korea - appealing publicly for mercy. And they've also got activists across the US staging...

Lawmakers are so far taking a measured approach to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions as the Obama administration and the United Nations Security Council work on avenues to stymie potential nuclear proliferation or an arms race in the region. The congressional recess in some ways has offered a respite from a barrage of statements on current events, but the panels that focus on foreign affairs are not rushing into offering any reaction into how the North Korea situation should be handled. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, helmed by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), will hold a hearing on North Korea in the...

NKorea May Come Off Terror List: White House Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:50 PM WASHINGTON -- The White House said Wednesday that it could move to take North Korea off a terrorism blacklist "quite soon" after - and if - the North delivers an accounting of its nuclear programs. Washington hoped the secretive Stalinist nation would provide its long overdue "declaration" as early as Thursday, although a senior US official has already said that an inventory of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal will come later. Asked how quickly a full accounting would trigger removal from the US list of state sponsors of...

SEOUL, May 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to be preparing for a long-range missile test, an informed source said Saturday, defying the U.N. Security Council whose members are negotiating a resolution to punish it for its recent nuclear test. The source, asking not to be identified, said an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was recently spotted on a cargo train near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The missile has since been moved to an undisclosed location, according to the source. "It usually takes about two months to set up a launch pad, but the process could be done in as...

North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, a news report said Tuesday. The North's military has expanded the unit, staffing it with about 100 personnel, mostly graduates of a Pyongyang university that teaches computer skills, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an intelligence agency it didn't identify. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it is aware that Pyongyang has been training hackers in recent years but did not provide details and had no other comment. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy...

A Japanese rebroadcast tonight of North Korea TV. HERE is a link to Japanese site from Japanese TV which has short streaming video.Go there first, then hit the arrow in the little orange box, just below the screen shot photo of the rabid North Korean TV female announcer spitting forth the threat.

Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States "was not prepared to do anything about" North Korea's rocket launch, which is expected to take place in the coming days. Gates' latest comments differ from what he said on Feb. 10, that the U.S. could intercept North Korea's missile "if necessary." On Mar. 19, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the U.S. is "fully prepared" to shoot down the missile and added that the U.S. military has the capability to do it. Judging from the situation so far, the...

From earlier today, our time:And, if you keep your eyes peeled, you may spot one of a number of Japan Self Defense manned PAC-3 Patriot missile batteries out in the open in downtown Tokyo these days.

Video footage (clip) of SM-3-armed Japanese AEGIS destroyers putting to sea, heading out for possible confrontation with North Korean ICBM missile in the next few days.Go here, hit arrow on the orange box, just below the aerial photo of the crafts leaving port here in Japan.

North Korea's main newspaper has renewed the threat of military action against South Korea, and warned that the rogue state does not indulge in "empty talk". On Saturday, a dour man in military uniform appeared on North Korean television, flanked by army flags, and read a statement saying the country was now on a war-footing. He said the North would take an "all-out confrontational posture" against its neighbour. Although North Korea regularly issues threats against the South, a spokesman for the South Korea Unification ministry said it was the most serious threat since 1998. The television broadcast accused the South...

/begin my translation Something Happened? All N. Korean Diplomatic Missions Ordered to be on Stand-by N. Korea's diplomatic missions all over the world were ordered on Oct. 17 to stay at their mission, refraining from going out, and expect important announcement from their government. Sources explained they expect that official announcement could be made in a few days. They speculate that it is related to inter-Korean relationship or Kim Jong-il's health. /end my translation

Just moving in Japanese language, from South Korean daily newspaper. Norkies launched two missiles into Yellow Sea just the other day (10/2). Intel revealing they have set up launch facilities to fire out 10 or more in some kind of a show of force volley. Link to Japanese article out of Yahoo Japan, Jiji Press, based on Chosun Ilbo Daily news report out of Seoul.....will provide more details later.....S. Korean military ordering civilian vessels to stay the hell out of the area (until at least 15 October).....

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il's Reappearance to Calm Things down 2008-10-04 If it is true that Kim Jong-il resurfaced after 51 days of absence to watch the soccer match of Kim Il-sung University as KCNA reported, this could have been an attempt to quiet down disaffected residents in Pyongyang, according to a high-ranking Chinese official who recently visited N. Korea and met Kim Young-nam, the Chairman of Standing Committee. After his Pyongyang visit, he met Chinese businessmen in a city next to Sino-N. Korean border, in which he said that general mood in Pyongyang is the worst (he has seen,)...