Free Republic

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has visited American troops on the frontline with North Korea, after confirming plans to withdraw them from the potential military flashpoint. "Our motto is 'fight tonight'. We take that seriously," said Major Tamara Parker, spokeswoman for the 2nd US Infantry Division, whose combat-ready troops guard this strategic valley leading from North Korea to Seoul, some 56 kilometers (40 miles) further south. On Monday, following annual security talks with South Korea, Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-Kil reaffirmed a plan to withdraw the division from camps near the frontlines as tensions on the Korean...

What's in a name? Plenty, according to Koreans who want the English-speaking world to change the way it spells the name of their divided country. They want Korea to be spelled with a C instead of a K. Despite the danger of being confused with jazz artist Chick Corea, a groundswell has risen to urge English speakers to spell the name as Corea, as it is in Spanish and Italian. Sports officials in both Koreas will use Corea as the national name when they form joint international teams, according to the Korea Herald. That's what the world will see at...

A self-confessed murderer known as The Serpent, who for decades evaded charges of drugging, robbing and murdering more than a dozen tourists in Europe and Asia, has been arrested in Nepal.Charles Sobhraj - who earned his nickname for his talent at disguise and escape - is suspected of killing at least 20 people in India, Thailand, Afghanistan, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong between 1972 and 1982.Already the subject of three books, he has signed a £10 million movie and book deal with French actor-producer Yves Renier.Sobhraj, 59, was picked up by police at a casino in Kathmandu earlier. He...

MOSCOW/SEOUL (Reuters) - Russia said a North Korean diplomat proposed a new format Thursday for talks to resolve the impasse on the North's nuclear program, including all six nations with the most at stake in the crisis. The Russian foreign ministry said North Korea (news - web sites)'s ambassador to Moscow had told it Pyongyang, until now bent on talks with Washington alone, now favored six-sided talks, including Russia, to resolve the nuclear row. The ministry said envoy Pak Ui-chun made the new offer in a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov Thursday. It did not list the countries...

SEOUL, South Korea - South and North Korean soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their border on Thursday, but the South said it suffered no casualties in the shootout. It was not immediately known whether any North Korean troops were injured or killed in the firefight in the Demilitarized Zone. North Korean soldiers fired four rounds at 6:10 a.m., and South Korean soldiers fired 17 rounds in response one minute later, said Maj. Lee of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The incident happened near the South Korean town of Yonchon, said Lee, who did not give his first name....

KAESONG, North Korea - In a farm field less than a mile behind the world's most heavily armed border, North and South Korea (news - web sites) broke ground Monday for a joint industrial park, a symbol of reconciliation despite tension over the North's nuclear activities. The two Koreas hope to build the park in Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital just north of the Demilitarized Zone created to separate the two Koreas at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Five buses carrying 120 South Korean government officials and businessmen arrived for the ceremony where they hope to create an...