Free Republic

The move will be part of a coordination by the Energy Department with other major energy consuming nations including China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom, according to the White House. The White House also said the department will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the reserve in two ways: 18 million barrels will be an acceleration into the next several months of a sale of oil that Congress had previously authorized. 32 million barrels will be an exchange over the next several months, releasing oil that will eventually return to the...

SEOUL – The middle ground between China and the United States is collapsing under South Korea’s feet as it is torn in opposite directions by the two giant economies it seeks to balance between. On the one hand, it is being “requested” to submit detailed information on its flagship industrial sector to the United States – which is also pressuring the country’s number-two memory chipmaker to halt shipments of advanced machinery to China. That move could halt an upgrade to a major DRAM fab, in a sector where large-scale capital investment is crucial. On the other hand, the country’s diesel...

Kukkiwon, also known as World Taekwondo Headquarters, and home of the World Taekwondo Academy, has awarded former U.S. President Donald Trump a 9th Dan Black belt - the highest level attainable by professional martial artists. The president of Kukkiwon, Lee Dong-seop, went to visit Trump at his home in Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Florida this weekend to give him a taekwondo and the coveted black belt. 'I heard that the Donald Trump is highly interested in taekwondo,' Lee said....

Iranian intel agents sought to kidnap American journalist The State Department informed Congress late Tuesday that it would waive sanctions on Iran's illicit oil trade so that the country can access frozen funds from South Korea and Japan, the same day the Department of Justice announced charges on an Iranian spy network that sought to kidnap an American. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the "transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea," according to a notification sent to Congress by the State Department. The waiver allows Iranian...

New York City prosecutors have charged four Iranian spies with plotting to kidnap a U.S. journalist from Brooklyn, smuggling her out of the city on a speedboat then sailing down to Venezuela before flying to Tehran, after she criticized the regime for its human rights abuses. Masih Alinejad, 44, a producer with Voice of America, told NBC News that she was the target of the plot. She was not named in court documents. The conspirators, described as intelligence officials, had also plotted to lure a person in the UK and three others in Canada to Iran, an indictment said. They...

Choi Won-seok reports in the Korean Ghosun Libo news publication that according to an official from the Japanese automotive industry Toyota and Tesla have been reviewing the partnership since last year and are approaching the final stage.Here are some of the highlights of Toyota Tesla partnership. When the partnership with Toyota is established, Tesla will be able to launch a compact SUV EV at low cost using the Toyota platform.The Ghosun IIbo is the biggest newspaper in SK. A Tesla source Sawyer Merritt, tweets that he has been told "the reporter of the story is also highly regarded. We'll see...

Kia says if you have one of the company’s 380,000 recalled vehicles, you should park it outside. That’s because of a potential engine compartment fire risk. Some Sportage SUVs made between 2017 and 2021, as well as Cadenza sedans from 2017 through 2019, can have a short circuit in the hydraulic electronic brake control unit. Excessive current can increase fire risk, The Associated Press reported.

North Korea has warned its citizens to stay indoors over fears that "yellow dust" which blows in from China could bring coronavirus with it. The streets of the capital Pyongyang were reported to be virtually empty on Thursday following the warning. The secretive state claims to be coronavirus-free but has been on high alert since January with strict border closures and restrictions on movement. There is no known link between the seasonal dust clouds and Covid-19. However, they are not the only country to suggest a link. The BBC's Disinformation Team notes Turkmenistan also alleged virus-laden dust was the reason...

Following the end on the 18th of October of the 13-year United Nations’ embargo on Iran buying or selling weapons, the roll-out of the military component of the 25-year deal between China and Iran will begin in November, as exclusively revealed by Oil Price.com. After a series of meetings in China on the 9th and 10th of October between Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, and his China counterpart, Wang Yi, this military component may now also feature the deployment in Iran of North Korean weaponry and technology, in exchange for oil, according to sources very close to the Iranian government...

Former President Barack Obama said in an interview with on the “Pod Save America” podcast on Wednesday that President Donald Trump didn’t “have the patience and the focus to really substantially change a lot of U.S. foreign policy.” Tommy Vietor asked, “You spent countless hours with Vice President Biden talking about national security. What did you learn about how he thinks about diplomacy and counterterrorism and the use of military force that others would not have seen?”

DANA THOMPSON, A FORMER LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF COUNSEL TO REP. MAXINE WATERS, REGISTERED AS A LOBBYIST ON BEHALF A HOST OF CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY-LINKED ENTITIES, THE NATIONAL PULSE CAN REVEAL. Thompson, who also served as Chief of Staff for Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, was a former Principal at lobbying behemoth Podesta Group before co-founding Fulcrum Public Affairs, the “only 100% Black and Latinx-owned government relations firm in Washington, DC.” While at the Podesta Group, the project of Democratic heavyweights John and Tony Podesta, Thompson registered to lobby on behalf of three Chinese Communist Party-linked entities: a controversial telecommunications...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to shed tears at the weekend as he thanked citizens for their sacrifices, in the most striking demonstration yet of how he is relying on his "man of the people" persona to tackle his country's deepening crises. Though the young leader has consolidated his rule over the isolated nation with ruthless purges, North Korea watchers say he has also sought to portray himself as a more traditional political leader than his eccentric father, Kim Jong Il.

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Situation Room” that President Donald Trump has been a “useful idiot” in his dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean Kim Jong-un. Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “Lieutenant Colonel Vindman also told The Atlantic magazine President Trump is in his words, Vladimir Putin is a useful idiot. Do you agree with that characterization?

Trump has reduced the U.S. military footprint abroad, choosing to punch hard while pulling back. The Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in the Middle East has been destroyed. Syria and Iran are on notice. The two biggest terrorist leaders alive when Trump took office, the Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, are now dead. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have recently signed major diplomatic agreements with Israel, a breakthrough engineered by the Trump administration and the first such pact between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors in 25 years. The president has focused the...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has apologized for the death of a South Korean government worker who was shot dead by North Korean troops after crossing a maritime border between the two countries. In a letter sent to South Korea's Blue House Friday morning, North Korea said units responded to a call that an unidentified male was found floating on an object in the sea. The letter claims about 10 rounds were fired at the man after he did not comply with a soldier's demand to identify himself and subsequent warning shots. North Korea says only a pool of...

Boris Johnson privately told US diplomats that Donald Trump was “making America great again”, according to a cache of official notes taken during high-level UK-US meetings whose details have leaked to The Telegraph. The Prime Minister is quoted telling the US ambassador to Britain in August 2017, when he was foreign secretary, that Mr Trump was doing “fantastic stuff” on foreign policy issues like China, Syria and North Korea. Other records show Mr Johnson claimed the US president was becoming “increasingly popular” in Britain in 2017 and spoke warmly about how under his leadership America was “back and engaged in...

North Korean defector describes hellish life inside rogue regime Growing up in North Korea, Yeonmi Park did not know of the concepts of love or friendship. Everyone was a “comrade” and feelings of adoration were reserved for the rogue regime’s supreme leader alone. Her parents never told her they loved her. It was part of everyday life to see people dying of starvation on the streets and with no electricity, Park’s life was ensconced in total darkness and freezing cold. Park is just one of several hundred North Korean defectors who have escaped to the United States after she and...

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s sister could be the Hermit Kingdom’s most brutal leader if she succeeds him, experts told The Post on Monday. Kim Yo Jong, 32, appeared poised to take the reins of power amid a claim that her older brother has been in a coma for months and his recent public appearances have been staged. “I haven’t seen any evidence, any indication of how she might rule, but my speculation — given the reputation and history of the family — is that she would rule with an iron fist,” retired US Army Col. David Maxwell said.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has fallen into a coma, a former South Korean official is claiming on the heels of reports that the northern leader has ceded over some of his power to his younger sister. Chang Song-min, a former aide to late-South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, has alleged that the Hermit Kindom’s honcho has become seriously ill amid speculation about his limited public appearances this year, the Mirror reported. “I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended,” he told South Korean media. The former aide added that the leader’s younger sister,...

First-Ever Corporate Enforcement Action by DOJ of North Korean Sanctions            WASHINGTON – Essentra FZE Company Limited (“Essentra FZE”), a global supplier of cigarette products that is incorporated in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”), has agreed to pay a $665,112 fine and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and defrauding the United States in connection with evading sanctions on North Korea.  Today’s public filing against Essentra FZE is the first ever DOJ corporate enforcement action for violations of these regulations. ...