Free Republic

With all the hubbub going on in Washington, poor Kim Jong-un must have felt left out and ignored. Kim doesn’t like to be ignored. If the world doesn’t pay attention to him for a few weeks, he’ll throw a tantrum and threaten to destroy his enemies. State media in North Korea reported yesterday that Kim addressed the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, talking up the economy, the strides in missile technology, and how he was going to bring the U.S. to its knees. “Our external political activities must focus on our arch-enemy and the fundamental obstacle to...

Kim Yo Jong Is Ready to Become the First Woman Dictator in Modern History Kim Jong Un’s little sister has emerged as North Korea’s most outspoken attack dog, securing her place as a possible successor to the leadership SEOUL—The star of the younger sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has risen so fast and high in the country’s ruling firmament in 2020 as to make her appear as a stand-in for big brother if not his rival for power. At 32, four years younger than Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong has made her presence known through shockingly tough...

SEOUL – North Korea – a nation known for springing surprises upon the world – has done it again. A mighty military parade was widely anticipated today, the 75th anniversary of the Workers Party of Korea. But as the hours ticked by on Saturday nothing was seen. Only in late evening, did state media broadcast the event, which appeared to have taken place earlier in the day. Highly unusually, the parade had clearly taken place in darkness.

WASHINGTON - The United States has filed a complaint to forfeit $2,372,793 associated with four companies, announced the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael R. Sherwin, Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Chicago Field Office, and Steven Cagen, Special Agent in Charge of the HSI Denver Field Office.            The complaint alleges that the four companies laundered United States dollars on behalf of sanctioned North Korean banks.  According to the complaint, the North Korean banks used these laundered funds as part of a scheme to procure goods for...

Bill Clinton's triumphant return from North Korea with two rescued US journalists had Hollywood written all over it -- from the Burbank airport to the big-time producer who bankrolled the expedition to the celebrity public-relations firm that orchestrated the homecoming. A key player in Clinton's high-flying diplomatic mission to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee was entertainment mogul Steve Bing, a longtime "Friend of Bill" who lent the ex-president his private Boeing 737. The multimillionaire mogul paid about $200,000 in fuel and other costs that came with the trans-Pacific flight.

North Korea announced Wednesday it would deploy troops to the Kaesong Industrial Zone and Mt. Kumgang tourist area, locations that were once the sites of joint economic ventures with South Korea, as Pyongyang continued to ratchet up tensions a day after it demolished an inter-Korean liaison office. The North will also reinstall guard posts that had been removed from the Demilitarized Zone and conduct military drills in border areas, according to a statement by a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army "Civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the Demilitarized Zone under the north-south agreement...

North Korea has axed its spy chief as well as the long-running head of Kim Jong Un’s security — signs of a major shakeup during the ongoing mystery over the dictator’s status. Jang Kil Song was ousted as head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the North’s military intelligence agency, according to the Korea Herald, citing a report by South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The RGB is behind the Hermit Kingdom’s most high-profile attacks as well as spy missions, including those against the US, the report says.

Here’s how Kim Jong Un holds court. NBA legend Dennis Rodman dished on his longtime bromance with the North Korean despot — revealing how the pair partied with “hotties and vodka” when they first met. Rodman, now 58, went to Pyongyang in 2013 on a trip with the Harlem Globetrotters and “dignitaries,” he said on ex-boxer Mike Tyson’s HotBoxin’ podcast last week.

Video at link. (11 minutes) Interesting review of what is known about Kim Yo-jong.

The signature train belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been spotted on satellite images parked at a station on the nation's eastern coast since last week, according to a U.S. monitor, as questions swirl over the dictator's health. Since Kim missed an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, unverified reports have emerged about his health. On Sunday, a key aide to the president of South Korea insisted Kim, who is believed to be 36, was "alive and well." "Our government position is firm," Chung-in Moon, foreign policy...

Few Americans could fathom the notion that the United States is so indebted to China that one of Beijing’s spies could get away with espionage – especially with an White House in love with espionage prosecutions. But that might be the only reasonable explanation for the Obama administration’s decision to pass on prosecuting a State Department contractor who was allegedly paid thousands of dollars to someone believed to be a Chinese agent seeking information on Americans. According to Fox News, a November 2014 FBI affidavit that was filed in U.S. district court in Maryland indicates that the FBI launched a...

Speculation about health builds after Kim misses key event honouring country’s founder, Kim Il-sung... Kim Jong-un underwent heart surgery earlier this month and is recovering at his private villa, according to a South Korean report, with US media citing officials as saying the North Korean leader was in “grave danger” after the procedure. If accurate, the surgery claim, made by the Daily NK website, would explain Kim’s absence from an event to mark the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather – and the country’s founder – Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-un underwent the procedure at a hospital in the county...

A US surveillance aircraft has flown over South Korea, an aviation tracker said Wednesday, on an apparent mission to monitor North Korea just days after the communist nation fired what are believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles. The US Navy's EP-3E was spotted in skies above South Korea on Tuesday, Aircraft Spots tweeted. The operation came two days after North Korea fired two projectiles from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan toward the East Sea, marking the fourth major weapons test the North has conducted this year. The United States flew the same type of plane over the peninsula...

The US is monitoring intelligence that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after a surgery, according to a US official with direct knowledge.

A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq WMD located in three Syrian sites 06 January, 2004 AFP Nizar Nayuf (Nayyouf-Nayyuf), a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are kept. The storage places are: click for images of Iraq's WMD location in Syria -1- Tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria. These tunnels are an integral...

North Korea has closed its borders to tourists amid fears of the spread of a deadly new coronavirus in China – as around 300 cases have been confirmed. Kim Jong-un's ruthless regime has banned foreigns as the new disease spreads, already being reported to have crossed to Japan and feared to have spread to Thailand.

Ukraine's arms firms walk tightrope between Kiev and Moscow Thomas Grove 8 MIN READ KRAMATORSK Ukraine (Reuters) - In quiet defiance of a promise by Kiev's pro-European government to cut arms ties with Moscow, a state-owned defense firm in eastern Ukraine has vowed to work around the clock to fill every Russian order it gets. As for many of Ukraine's defense firms, the stakes are high for Yuzhmash, an industrial behemoth that was so jealously guarded by the Soviet Union that the nearby city of Dnipropetrovsk was closed to foreigners until the bloc split apart. Now, in the face of...

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- The United States deployed an RC-135U reconnaissance plane to one of its air bases in Japan, an aviation tracker said Wednesday, a move seen as aimed at beefing up surveillance of North Korea. One RC-135U Combat Sent arrived at Kadena Air Base in Japan's Okinawa on Tuesday from Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska, Aircraft Spots said in a Twitter post. The U.S. air force is known to operate two RC-135Us, which collect and analyze electronic radar transmissions. The deployment came amid concern the North could conduct additional missile launches. A military source said that...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources. The letter, the second Trump received from Kim last month amid stalled denuclearization talks between the two countries, pre-dated North Korea's latest launch of short-range projectiles a week ago. In the second letter, which was passed to Trump in the third week of August, Kim spoke of his willingness to meet Trump for another summit, one source reportedly told the Joongang Ilbo newspaper. The White House, the U.S. State Department...