Free Republic

A quiet revolution may be under way in North Korea. The loud one we know about - it's been going on since the Soviet Red Army wrested the northern half of the peninsula from Japanese control in 1945. The Kim dynasty has espoused communism and shouted its merits ever since. But now, surprisingly, it seems that capitalism is growing in the country - quietly, of course. Kim Jong-un has looked north over the Chinese border and decided that market reforms along the lines of those allowed by his comrades in Beijing may allow the preservation of the current structure but...

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has accepted an invitation to attend a ceremony in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. The invitation was extended by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and will be the young dictator's first overseas trip since he became head of state after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011. While other world leaders might be reluctant to extend a welcoming hand to a pariah state that frequently threatens to turn the capital cities of its enemies to "seas of fire", Mr...

Sony’s controversial comedy flick earned $31 million in online sales and $5 million in theaters despite cyber threats and a wide theatrical release. The online sales figure marks the most lucrative digital release for a Hollywood film ever. Sony Pictures' "The Interview" has made more than $31 million from its online and on-demand release, according to the studio. Sony announced digital figures Tuesday for the film spanning its first 11 days of release since debuting Dec. 24. Sony had previously said the film made $15 million in its first four days online, so demand for the Seth Rogen comedy has...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a “victim” of bad publicity, according to Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and U.N. ambassador. “He has been the victim, Kim Jong Un, of a lot of bad press, a lot of bad international attention, with the Sony hacking, with [being] taken to the International Criminal Court by some U.N. countries, a number of other very destabilizing moves that he has made, shooting the missiles, nuclear testing,” Richardson said on Friday on MSNBC’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall.”

Brow you see them: Kim Jong-un sports bizarre shrunken eyebrows in 2015 speech PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 9:15am UPDATED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 1:47pm Alex Millson alex.millson@scmp.com When Kim Jong-un delivered his New Year message offering to participate in high-level talks with South Korea, the setting, his outfit and posture were all strikingly similar to those he adopted exactly two years earlier. Two things, however, appeared radically different - the North Korean leader’s eyebrows. In what appeared to be a case of severe over-plucking, Kim’s brows appeared to be significantly shorter than on earlier occasions, sitting above...

Kim Jong-un is said to have mastered the art of driving a car by the age of three, and now footage broadcast on North Korean state television appears to show that he is also a skilled pilot. In the video, which was originally broadcast on Tuesday, Kim can be seen looking through paperwork as he makes preflight checks before apparently taking control of the aircraft. Local media reported that Kim piloted the plane and landed it by himself as two assistants sat next to him.

Kim Jong-un says North Korea is 'Open' to highest-level talks with South.

Here's a new North Korean propaganda video showing Kim Jong Un piloting a jet.

In July of 1870, King Wilhelm sent Foreign Minister Bismarck an account of his meeting with a French envoy who had demanded that the king renounce any Hohenzollern claim to the Spanish throne. Bismarck edited the report to make it appear the Frenchman had insulted the king, and that Wilhelm rudely dismissed him. The Ems Telegram precipitated the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck wanted. Words matter. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much greater impact can a motion picture have? We are finding out. Egypt has banned "Exodus: Gods and Kings," the $140 million 20th Century Fox biblical...

<p>North Korea on Saturday compared President Obama to a “monkey in a tropical forest” as it blamed the administration for disrupting its Internet access amid a hacking dispute related to the movie “The Interview.”</p> <p>The North Korean government has been fiercely critical of the film, a comedy involving a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un, but has denied responsibility for a recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures.</p>

Report: Dennis Rodman Threatens to Sue 'Glorious Leader' Makers December 23, 2014 - GamePolitics Staff TMZ reports that former bestie to North Korean leader Kim Jung Un Dennis Rodman says that his friendship is over and doesn't want to be associated with him - even in a video game. The video game he doesn't want to be part of is Glorious Leader, a side-scrolling action game featuring the infamous North Korean leader. In fact, the former basketball star and on-again off-again wrestler and reality TV star says that he will sue the makers of the game if they include him...

According to The Daily Beast, as well as a handful of Twitter accounts run by movie theaters, Paramount Pictures has apparently informed theaters that they’re not authorized to air Team America: World Police. The film, which was the brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, makes gratuitous fun of North Korea and its previous leader, Kim Jong-il. The Paramount decision comes on the heels of Sony’s decision to halt release and distribution of its own film, The Interview, a comedy that depicts that assassination of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Anonymous sources, believed to be from...

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has invited the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war, the Kremlin’s spokesman said on Friday. It would be Kim’s first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy travelled to Moscow last month as part of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations. “Yes, such an invitation was sent,” a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the state news agency, Tass. Russia marks the...

The hackers behind a devastating cyberattack at Sony Pictures have sent a new message to executives at the company, crediting them for a "very wise" decision to cancel the Christmas day release of "The Interview," a source close to the company told CNN. The email message was received by Sony's top executives on Thursday night and was obtained by CNN. The source said that the company believes the email was from the hackers because it followed a pattern of previous messages, sent to a list of particular executives and formatted in a particular way. A Sony spokesman declined to comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, the Kremlin's spokesman said on Friday. It would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month in the framework of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations.

Putin Spokesman Confirms Kim Jong-un Invited to Visit Moscow Reuters Dec. 19 2014 16:21 Last edited 16:23 Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin's spokesman said Friday. It would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month in the framework of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations. "Yes, such an invitation was sent,"...

HOLLYWOOD (KCNA) — The Revolutionary Artists Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists are happy to announce that His Excellency Kim Jong-un will host the 87th annual Academy Awards. This will be the first time a supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has led the ceremony, but it most certainly will not be the last. “All peoples celebrate Dear Leader’s most humble decision to host the Oscars,” said Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton. “We have witnessed his strength and honor from afar and welcome the divine opportunity to explode our love in...

By gum, he sounds like presidential material to me. Your move, Jeb. .@SonyPictures don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 18, 2014 More than 13,000 retweets as I write this. Clearly there’s a demand for countermeasures among an American public that doesn’t like the idea of foreigners, especially savages like the Kim cabal, holding veto power over their culture. (Too bad China, Kim’s chief patron, already sort of does.) Am I right, though, in thinking that no major Republican pol aside from Romney has said anything...

Sony’s capitulation in the face of threats by unidentified sources, who are presumed to support the odious Kim dynasty, serves to confirm what most of us have known for some time. Namely, the extent of allowable political discourse in popular culture is inextricably linked to the willingness of the objects of political criticism to violently suppress that criticism. Or, at the very least, intimate the unpleasant nature of the response in store for those willing to offer a dissenting voice. An interview the iconic Indo-British author and apostate Salman Rushdie did with Irshad Manji several years ago is worth watching...

A rogue nation targeted a multinational corporation and won.  North Korea has almost certainly ordered the massive cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, stealing and publicly dumping enough data to make a dent in the company’s stock price. North Korea cannot challenge the United States militarily, despite what movies have portrayed.  Regardless of their saber-rattling, and America’s reduced presence on the Korean peninsula, a real attack of any substance against our ally South Korea (or Japan for that matter) would bring a suicidal level of retribution on the North, and they know it.  But they’ve found a vein where they can draw...