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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un keeps his citizens on a tight leash, according to defectors, but the leader has now constricted his control even further by banning North Koreans from drinking and singing, according to a new report. Citizens have been banned from participating in “any gatherings related to drinking, singing and other entertainment,” Yonhap News Agency reported Monday. The North Korean regime is also “strengthening control of outside information.”

An experienced South Korean surgeon operating on a defector from North Korea has described his shock upon finding dozens of unusual parasites inside the man’s stomach, suggesting widespread health issues among the population of the secretive state.... ..."I have been doing surgery for more than 20 years, but I have not seen such parasites. I will not be able to find them in [South] Korea," said Lee, who is a respected trauma specialist in the country.

Fresh alarm is being raised over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, after a report that at least 200 people died in an accident at the country’s nuclear test site. Japan’s Asahi TV on Tuesday reported that at least 200 people died and 100 were trapped when a tunnel collapsed at the Punggye-ri test site. The collapse happened days after North Korea conducted its sixth and largest underground nuclear test in September, provoking fears that the Punggye-ri site may be falling apart. On Monday, Korea Meteorological Administration chief Nam Jae-cheol said that another detonation could possibly prompt a “collapse of the...

/start my translation A N. Korean escapee, a former N. Korean missile project worker, intent on defecting to U.S. came to S. Korea in '99 ... "secured an U.S. visa, evading S. Korean gov." "N. Korea imported 90% of missile parts from Japan. (missiles) were produced in 4 different factories" A N. Korean escapee, who worked for N. Korean missile production, held a press conference on May 15, 2003, at Washington's National Press Club, announcing his intention to defect to U.S. Revealing only his last name, Lee, he remarked that he met in the morning the Representative Ed Royce(R) and...

Full Title: Blind, deaf, mangled teeth and jerking on a stretcher: Otto Warmbier's parents reveal the horrific injuries he had when he was returned by North Korea after months of torture Otto Warmbier's parents say their son was blind, deaf and had mangled teeth when he was brought back to the US after months of torture in North Korea Fred and Cindy Warmbier said the 22-year-old was jerking and howling on a stretcher when they first saw him when his plane landed in Ohio on June 13 They lashed out at North Korea in their first interview since Otto's death,...

A former foreign policy adviser to President Obama is warning there could be trouble if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chides President Trump over the fact that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. "God save us if Kim Jong Un makes a comment about Hillary's popular vote victory," Ben Rhodes wrote on Twitter Friday. Trump and North Korea's leader have been locked for months in a war of words and threats that has prompted concern among foreign leaders who fear Washington and Pyongyang may be hurtling toward a confrontation. Trump said last month...

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee charged that President Trump's United Nations speech ripping the "embarrassment" Iran deal could have killed any chance for a peaceful solution with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime," Trump declared in his first address to the world body in New York. Trump, who said Monday...

THE United States has carried out a second test of a bomb, described as the most dangerous nuclear weapon ever produced, as tensions with North Korea escalate. US authorities confirmed the test was successful and the B61-12 gravity bomb is expected to go into production within three years. The B61-12 gravity bombs were 'inert' but they were dropped from F-15E fighter jets at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on August 8, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. The tests were intended to check the bomb’s “non-nuclear functions and the aircraft’s capability to deliver the weapon.” Despite the weapons' nuclear capability...

Emergency being broadcast on NHK

One of the things that protestors in South Korea know is that the local riot police have ample experience with demonstrators. While a viable democracy, South Korea has seen out-of-control street riots in its turbulent past. Now authorities across the political spectrum are unwilling to allow anyone to go too far. Peaceful demonstrations? Sure, but don’t press your luck. While American demonstrators – including the most violent – are accustomed to being treated with kid gloves; in South Korea the gloves are off. This is something that career protestors Cindy “Peace Mom” Sheehan and Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin might want...

Ex-KGB agents hired to protect Kim Jong Un from assassins By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Correspondent August 25, 2017 at 15:00 JST Print SEOUL--North Korea has hired former KGB agents as “military advisers” to bolster protection of leader Kim Jong Un against assassination attempts by the United States and South Korea, a source said. About 10 or so former KGB agents who once worked in a division tasked with taking down terrorists were invited to Pyongyang in February, according to the source knowledgeable about affairs in the North Korean capital. They were asked to train Kim’s bodyguards, including how to detect possible...

The Workers World Party is taking to New York City for a two-day conference to show how to spread socialism around the nation and world, and to explain why the time is ripe for such expansion. The event, titled “Putting Socialist Revolution on the Table,” kicks off Saturday at the Shabazz Center, and includes panel discussions on Black Lives Matter, with an emphasis on women and LGBT leadership; how to be a revolutionary; and on dispelling myths about China’s socialism. It also includes the discussion topic “fighting imperialism means building internationalism,” according to an advertisement sent out by the...

DURHAM, N.C. — A North Carolina Central University student was arrested Tuesday in connection with a Monday night protest in which a Confederate statue in front of Durham County's former courthouse was pulled down. Takiyah Fatima Thompson, 22, was charged with participation in a riot ... Thompson was given $10,000 unsecured bond and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning. Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews said Tuesday that his deputies were working to identify others involved in the incident and plan to pursue felony charges against them. Some protest organizers defended their actions Tuesday, calling the monument a symbol...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reviewed his military's plans to rain "an enveloping fire" around the U.S. territory of Guam — but opted not to fire missiles at this time, according to state media. Despite the stand-down, some Guamanians were alarmed after two radio stations aired an erroneous emergency alert Tuesday. Kim visited the Korean People's Army as the self-imposed mid-August deadline for a missile demonstration approached, the Korean Central News Agency reports. But after hearing the plan and considering it, Kim opted not to give the order to launch missiles," the report says.

North Korea’s substantial nuclear arsenal and improving intercontinental ballistic missile capacity pose a growing threat to America’s security. But we need not face an immediate crisis if we play our hand carefully. Given the bluster emanating from Pyongyang and Bedminster, N.J., Americans can be forgiven for feeling anxious. Shortly after adoption of new United Nations sanctions last weekend, North Korea threatened retaliation against the United States “thousands of times” over. Those sanctions were especially potent, closing loopholes and cutting off important funding for the North. August is also when the United States and South Korea conduct major joint military exercises,...

Japan has wheeled missile defence systems into the heart of Tokyo after North Korea threatened to send a volley of rockets over the country towards Guam. Pictures show how a PAC-3 Patriot missile unit has been moved in to a compound at the Defence Ministry in the capital after officials said they could shoot down North Korean rockets if they pass overhead. Sales of bomb shelters in Japan are said to have increased as tensions continue to rise in the region while officials in Seoul have vowed to bolster their defences. But South Korean citizens - long accustomed to its...

Spectacular black-and-white photographs showing American military campaigns in the Pacific island of Guam have emerged as North Korea threatens to annihilate the territory with nuclear missiles. The images show US Marines in action during the 1944 battle to retrieve Guam, which was occupied by Japan in 1941. Soldiers can be seen bandaged-up on stretchers after the savage fighting that left about 20,000 people killed on both sides, while American ships and high-ranking personnel are also photographed. Guam is thought to have first been settled in about 2,000BC but wasn't discovered by Europeans until Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on the...

The case was over the abduction of Dong-Shik, a South Korean who was a permanent resident of the US and had spent seven years providing aid and proselytizing to North Korean defectors. An Israeli NGO announced on Monday that a US federal court in Washington, DC has granted it a historic $330 million default award judgment against North Korea in a civil damages trial for wrongful death, torture and kidnapping. The judgment, only announced Monday, but written on April 9, included $15 million dollars each to the son and brother of Reverend Dong Shik Kim, presumed dead, as well as...

I grew up in a family of 11 children in the days before SUVs. So we took our road trips in two-car caravans led by a steamy station wagon with crank-handle windows and hot vinyl upholstery. That wagon was always packed with obstreperous kids singing obnoxious songs. But one song we were emphatically discouraged from singing has now emerged as a theme song for John Kerry's presidential campaign. My father loved popular music and never ceased being interested in it. In the 1960s, he happily escorted my older sisters to see the Beatles. A decade later, he bought me tickets...

N.K. claims U.S. seized its diplomatic package, demands explanation SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea claimed on Sunday that the United States recently mugged its delegation carrying a diplomatic package in New York, calling on Washington to provide an explanation on what it calls a provocation. According to the (North) Korean Central News Agency, which quoted its foreign ministry, a group of government officials and police officers from the U.S. took a diplomatic package from its delegation on Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport before it was about to board a flight home. The delegation was in New...