Free Republic

Watching the end of the trading day on Fox Biz when the market dropped from 300 to 103 in two minutes. Trader told Liz Claman that the rumor is going around the trading floor that there may be a coup underway in China, and troop movements are being reported in Beijing. It was funny watching a trader hand news to a journalist. Claman was caught flat-footed. Fox hasn't done anything about the rumor in the five minutes it was reported. Nothing on Drudge about China yet.

The Facts US troops have been mobilized in South Korea after Kim Jong-un ordered his military generals to ready for a state of war. US troops' vehicles were mobilized in the South Korean town of Paju, bordering North Korea. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un ordered military generals to ready for a state of war from 5:00 p.m. local time Friday. By 4:30 PM local time, the North Korean leader said preparations were complete, declaring a "quasi-state of war." South Korean news agency Yonhap says satellite imagery shows North Korea moving missiles in preparation for possible launch. South Korea's defense ministry...

A North Korean military official says a meeting of senior party and defense officials led by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Thursday night and "reviewed and approved the final attack operation." He gave no details on what kind of military retaliation North Korea would see as appropriate punishment for South Korea's shelling of its territory on Thursday. Kim Yong Chol, director of the general reconnaissance bureau of the North Korean army, on Friday denied South Korean allegations that Pyongyang has been raising tensions on the peninsula. He denied the North fired anything across the Demilitarized Zone and says...

The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's frontline combined forces to enter state of war from 5pm (0830 GMT) Friday, the official KCNA news agency reported early Friday. Kim made the order at an emergency enlarged meeting of the central military commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said the report. He ordered the forces to be well armed to cope with any possible operations at any time. Kim also gave the order that the frontline area enter quasi state of war from 5 pm Friday

The Pyongyangites of Pyonghattan Aug 12th 2015, 16:24 by The Data Team SINCE Kim Jong Un came to power following the death of his father in December 2011, North Korea’s Young Leader has shown a passion for construction projects, with the emphasis on leisure—a pursuit he promised his subjects early on, along with prosperity. Mr Kim swiftly ordered the renovation of Pyongyang’s two main funfairs. A new water park, 4D cinema, dolphinarium, riverside parks, residential skyscrapers and a new airport terminal have all followed. Now an underground shopping centre is being built in the capital to cater to a small...

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's military on Saturday warned of imminent strikes on South Korean border units and issued fresh nuclear weapons threats against the United States in response to what it called "grave" provocations from both. The warnings came amid escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula following a landmine attack South Korea blamed on the North and ahead of a major South Korea-US joint military exercise condemned by Pyongyang. After the mine blasts which maimed two South Korean soldiers on border patrol, Seoul recently resumed high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the heavily-militarised frontier, using batteries of loudspeakers that had...

The warning follows Pyongyang’s earlier denial that it had planted land mines on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone that injured two South Korean soldiers last week. Seoul retaliated for those injuries by restarting the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts for the first time in 11 years and suggested more actions could follow. The authoritarian North is extremely sensitive about insults of its leader, Kim Jong Un, and tries to isolate its people from any criticism or suggestions that Kim is anything other than powerful and revered. North Korea’s army said in a statement that the broadcasts are equivalent to...

[S. Korea] Barack Obama and Kim Jong-Un sing "All By Myself" in the middle of Hongdae Link to the Video

Here's a Tip: Don't Give North Korea More Aid "No matter what promises North Korea makes and agreements North Korea signs, nothing is likely to change." Doug Bandow August 9, 2015 Shenyang, China: North Korea is a major topic of interest in this provincial capital in China’s northeast. The “Hermit Kingdom” is just a couple hours away by car. Pyongyang sends diplomats and students to Shenyang while attempting to stem the flow of refugees. Again the North’s harvest does not look good. Observers warn that another famine may be coming. The first reports of drought appeared earlier this year. The...

North Korea marked the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on Thursday with a 100,000-strong rally in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Stadium, and a statement condemning the "fatty monster US imperialists". The "Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the US," was a carefully orchestrated display of angry speeches, fist-pumping and calls for blood revenge. The rally was just one event in what it officially known as "Struggle Against US Imperialism Month", during which North Koreans visit war museums and attend gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States. North Korea also issued a...

It is likely that the P5+1 nuke "deal" with Iran will be approved soon. Military and other nuke sites which Iran has not “disclosed” will not be inspected. Nor will Iran’s nuke ties with North Korea — which P5+1 member China seems to be helping, Iran’s massive support for terrorism and abysmal human rights record be considered because they are also deemed unnecessary for "deal" approval. Sanctions against Iran are moribund and will not be revived regardless of whether there is a “deal.” However, a bronze bust of Obama may soon be displayed prominently in Supreme Leader Khamenei’s office and one of Khamenei may soon be displayed proudly in Dear Leader Obama’s...

Obama Tells US Troops at Korean DMZ: 'You Guys Are At Freedom's Frontier' [Pic in URL] U.S. President Barack Obama looks through binoculars on Sunday to see North Korea from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone, the tense military border between the two Koreas. Shawna Thomas, Alicia Jennings and Kristen Welker SEOUL -- President Barack Obama was greeted with cheers from U.S. troops as he visited the dining hall at Camp Bonifas at the start of his tour of the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean peninsula and told them that they were protecting "freedom's frontier." Obama talked about how...

N. Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges, Seoul's National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers, in the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011. Hyon Yong Chol, who heads the isolated country's military, was purged and then executed by firing squad with an antiaircraft gun, watched by hundreds of people, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, citing the NIS's comments to a parliamentary panel. Hyon, who spoke at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by...

Attire for women in North Korea is getting flashier thanks to First Lady Ri Sol Ju’s knack for bold and stylish clothing, Daily NK has learned. Ri’s noticeable presence in the public eye has presumably been reason behind the state’s decidedly relaxed attitude toward rapidly shifting fashion trends among women, previously stringently regulated for their reflection of “capitalist trends.” Party-published Rodong Sinmun reported on April 14th that leader Kim Jong Eun was accompanied by the First Lady to the Mangyondae Prize Sports Games at Kim Il Sung Stadium, where, unlike last year, she was spotted wearing a dark green jacket...

Making the ultimate statement in Korean relations, Gloria Steinem and other prominent women on Wednesday announced their plans for a rare and risky walk across the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to call for reunification. The DMZ is the world's most fortified border, with the two countries still technically at war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers face off across the heavily mined zone. Organizers of the effort called WomenCrossDMZ.org on Wednesday said they hope for 30 women, including two Nobel Peace laureates, to cross from North Korea to South Korea on May 24, which is International Women's Day...

North Korean authorities are barring foreigners from this year's Pyongyang marathon, a popular tourist event, due to ongoing Ebola travel restrictions. Nick Bonner, co-founder of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, a tour agency that specializes in North Korea travel, said more than 400 foreign runners had signed up with his agency alone for the event, which is to be held April 12. He said he was informed by officials on Monday that the race would be open only to local runners. Though no cases of Ebola have been reported anywhere near North Korea, the country shut its borders to foreign tourists in...

North Korea Sunday described US President Barack Obama as a "loser" over his criticism on its regime, accusing him of being obsessed with hostility towards Pyongyang. The comment from the North's foreign ministry came after Obama spoke of the eventual collapse of the regime ruling what he called "the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth". "We will keep on ratcheting the pressure, but part of what's happening is... the Internet over time is going to be penetrating this country," Obama said in an interview on YouTube from the White House last week.

For years, it was thought that Israel had destroyed Syria’s nuclear weapons capability with its 2007 raid on the Kibar complex. Not so. New intelligence suggests that Bashar al-Assad is still trying to built the bomb. And he may be getting help from North Korea and Iran. […] Analysts say that the Syrian atomic weapon program has continued in a secret, underground location. According to information they have obtained, approximately 8,000 fuel rods are stored there. Furthermore, a new reactor or an enrichment facility has very likely been built at the site—a development of incalculable geopolitical consequences. Some of the...

Sunday's Der Spiegel had a massive expose on the continuing efforts of Bashar al-Assad to build a nuclear weapons plant, which included evidence that Iran is constructing such a plant for Syria in Qusayr, less than two kilometers from Syria's border with Lebanon. The issue came up in the State Department's Monday daily briefing. Disturbingly, spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the United States did not plan to raise the issue in the Iranian nuclear talks, claiming that those talks only deal with Iran's nuclear capabilities and not with Syria's. According to findings of Western intelligence agencies, however, the situation...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a “victim” of bad publicity, according to Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and U.N. ambassador. “He has been the victim, Kim Jong Un, of a lot of bad press, a lot of bad international attention, with the Sony hacking, with [being] taken to the International Criminal Court by some U.N. countries, a number of other very destabilizing moves that he has made, shooting the missiles, nuclear testing,” Richardson said on Friday on MSNBC’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall.”