Free Republic

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...

South Korea's media and elected officials have been heralding the patriotic virtue of a Korean-American released on house arrest after serving seven years in a US prison on espionage charges - a national celebration of deceit that may further cloud the "future of the alliance". Meanwhile, the ninth round of the US-South Korea Future of the Alliance Talks dragged on - concluding on Tuesday without reaching a resolution on contentious issues concerning the timing of a US Forces in Korea (USFK) withdrawal from Seoul and the allocation of land south of Seoul for the development of a unified USFK facility....