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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has made his first public appearance in more than a month, a state-run news agency said from Pyongyang on Saturday amid speculation about his health. Kim watched a university soccer game held to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the university named after his late father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the Korean Central News Agency reported. The 66-year-old leader had not been seen in public since mid-August, missing two key occasions—the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea and Korean Thanksgiving. U.S. and South...

Just breaking now.

St Andrew Kim Taegon and the glorious, immortal martyrs of Korea The practice of Christianity in Korea has a relatively short history, but after a difficult beginning it has seen significant growth and success. The deeply-rooted traditional religions of Buddhism, Shamanism and Confucianism held strong for many centuries and have been challenged by Christianity in a meaningful way only since 1784 when the first Catholic prayer-house was established in Korea. Prior to the Korean War of 1950–1953, two-thirds of Korean Christians lived in the North, but most subsequently fled to the South. Around 10% of the population of South Korea...

There is rising criticism that the Machang Bridge, which opened in July at the cost of millions of won, is only enriching speculative capitalists with tax money. They say that throughout the country, roads built through private investment are becoming white elephants where investors eat tax money via rough traffic predictions and contracts with excessive profit guarantees. The province of South Gyeongsang spent 380 billion won (US$337 million) in budget outlays and 190 million won in private capital to build the Machang Bridge linking Changwon and Masan. For the next 30 years, the earnings from the bridge tolls will be...

Excerpt - SEOUL (AFP)--North Korea said Friday it no longer wants to be dropped from a U.S. terrorism blacklist and has begun rebuilding its atomic reactor following a deadlock in an international nuclear disarmament deal. A foreign ministry spokesman said work has been under way "since some time ago" to restore the plutonium-producing reactor, in response to the U.S. failure to drop it from the list. A ministry official earlier in the day had also told reporters at the inter- Korean border village of Panmunjom that the reactor is being restored. ~ snip ~

America and China are holding secret talks about their shared fear of instability in nuclear-armed North Korea amid reports that the country's diminutive bouffant-haired dictator Kim Jong-il suffered a serious stroke last month. The world's most unpredictable nation is thought to be heading for a succession crisis involving the three pillars of state - the Kim dynasty, the military and the Workers' Party. Veteran generals and party technocrats are expected to install one of Kim's sons or his brother-in-law as a figurehead for a collective leadership if the ailing 66-year-old "Dear Leader" is incapacitated or dies, US and South Korean...

Iron My Curtain! Clintons Explore The North Korean Option Hillary Clinton, the Democrat's discarded presidential candidate and jilted vice-presidential candidate, said she's ready to take the helm of the North Korean state, pending the revelation of current leader Kim Jong Il's incapacitating sickness and/or assassination. Clinton has been meeting with current North Korean government officials, her press secretary Franklin Beaumont Walters said. "I checked her calendar," Walters said. "She's free for the next four years." Walters also indicated she was getting ready for the job of North Korean strongman by walking in high heels and watching American pornography.

The government has apparently been forging a completely new policy to prepare for any contingencies in North Korea, an issue that is gaining fresh urgency amid reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s ill health. A senior government official on Thursday said the previous administration maintained a secret plan to prepare for contingencies including regime collapse in Pyongyang. But another senior official said, "The previous administration's plan was aimed at keeping the North Korean system stable rather than preparing for unification. It only envisaged a minimum of administrative measures we could take.” He said the new administration “has been working...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is more impaired from the stroke he apparently suffered last month than reports from the region suggest, and the United States and China are holding talks about what to do if the government in Pyongyang collapses, FOX News has learned. A senior Bush administration official says that although Kim may not be close to death, the U.S. does not accept reports from South Korea that he’s on his way to a rapid recovery. The official told FOX News the United States is naturally engaging the Chinese about what to do if there is ensuing...

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il Experiencing Intermittent Irregular Seizure from Stroke Chinese Intelligence, "Will have long-term effect on his rule" Park Seung-joon, Beijing N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is said to be recovering from stroke, is experiencing intermittent and irregular seizure, which is why he could not attend the 60th anniversary celebration of N. Korean state's founding on Sept. 9, a reliable diplomatic source on N. Korea in Beijing said on Sept. 11. The source said that a senior Chinese official visited Pyongyang a few days before the anniversary and did meet Kim Jong-il, and he reported (his findings)...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is more impaired from the stroke he apparently suffered last month than reports from the region suggest, and the United States and China are holding talks about what to do if the government in Pyongyang collapses, FOX News has learned. A senior Bush administration official says that although Kim may not be close to death, the U.S. does not accept reports from South Korea that he’s on his way to a rapid recovery. The official told FOX News the United States is naturally engaging the Chinese about what to do if there is ensuing...

Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, is still in control of his country, the South Korean government has announced. However, the 66-year-old is thought to have suffered a stroke last month and may be partially paralysed. Lee Cheol-woo, the leader of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee told a radio station that Kim is "recovering fast", that "he has no problem speaking or communicating and he is able to stand if helped". Mr Lee would have been briefed on the situation by South Korea's spy agency, which is believed to have the best information network in Pyongyang. Security services also...

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il has reportedly failed to appear at the country's 60th anniversary parade - amid rumours that he is seriously unwell or even dead. South Korea's military said the North had been massing weapons for days to show them off in its capital during the event. The spectacle followed a report in the South's Chosun Ilbo newspaper that the 66-year-old reclusive leader was suspected of suffering a chronic illness. He collapsed last month, the paper added, citing a South Korean diplomatic source in Beijing.

The Marines and Incheon City yesterday celebrated the 58th anniversary of the Incheon landing, one of the most significant military operations during the Korean War. The Marine Headquarters and Incheon City co-hosted the celebrations held at Incheon's Freedom Park and Weolmido with an audience of over 1,000 war veterans, citizens and soldiers. The event started by laying flowers at the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and in the waterfront of Weolmido, which was the main route for the landing operation more than half a century ago. The Incheon landing operation was carried out by United Nations forces on Sept. 15,...

Is Kim Jong-il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years but now a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead – and his role is played by a double. The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China have been negotiating with an impostor. He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four lookalikes to act as substitutes at public events. One underwent plastic surgery to make his appearance more convincing. Now, the expert claims,...

Are these people trying to get McCain elected? Just a Foxnews Alert with Jennifer Griffin right now.

It has been 25 years since Korean Airlines Flight 007, carrying 269 passengers and crew, including Congressman Larry McDonald of Georgia, was fired on by a Soviet fighter jet off the coast of Siberia. At the time, McDonald was chairman of the John Birch Society (a subsidiary of which publishes THE NEW AMERICAN). Although several speakers eulogized McDonald at a Washington, D.C., memorial service 10 days following the September 1, 1983 attack, the words most remembered by both this magazine’s editor, Gary Benoit, and this writer were delivered by the late Senator Jesse Helms, who passed away on July 4....

It is out of respect for Mrs. Palin that I link this. I am too lazy at this hour [probably from fighting pitched battles with Bushbots] to provide the usual detailed and accurate AiT J-to-E Freepranslation. Maybe an English one will come out soon from this newspaper, or Freeper TigerLikesRooster perhaps can give us the synopsis from the Korean version.Upshot: Major Korean daily Joongang Ilbo interviewed the Korean representative Kim Hee Chol based in Korea for the Alaska State Office in Seoul, and he provided all kinds of glowing praise of Gov. Sarah Palin, her warmth toward the Korean community,...

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — After a six-mile early-morning road march Thursday, 46 soldiers went for a swim — in their uniforms. The 2nd Infantry Division soldiers — mainly from Bravo Battery, the "Bushmasters" of 6th Battalion, 37th Field Artillery — got a lesson in drown-proofing and combat lifesaving at the Hanson Gym Pool. Soldiers carried each other overhead through the water and then learned how to use their uniform pants and jackets to float. "I first did this type on training 20 years ago in the Boy Scouts," said Pfc. Thomas Pappaianni of New York. Each soldier also did...

EOUL (AFP) — South Korea's defence chief warned the military Thursday to be on guard against North Korean spies, following the arrest of a woman defector accused of espionage for her communist homeland. "This case indicates that North Korea is still stepping up its policy of trying to communise the south and spreading it deep into our society," said Defence Minister Lee Sang-Hee. "It must be clearly understood that any military cadres can be targeted," Lee told a meeting of military chiefs of staff and commanders called in response to the case. Lee said it was "very regrettable" that a...

North Korea says it has stopped disabling its nuclear facilities, accusing the US of reneging on a six-party disarmament deal.Work was suspended on 14 August, a foreign ministry spokesman told the state news agency KCNA. North Korea says it took the step because the US failed to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Excerpt- SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday said it has halted disablement of its nuclear power plants as Washington failed to remove it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The communist nation's Foreign Ministry said measures to halt the process were taken as of Aug. 14. ~ snip ~

South Korea surprises defending champion Cuba for baseball gold South Korea finished Olympics with 9-0 record Cuba's only two losses in '08 Games came to S. Korea Bases loaded double play in ninth inning sealed win BEIJING (AP) -- Campeones no more. There's a new champion in Olympic baseball: the surprising, gutsy South Koreans. South Korea captured gold and capped a perfect and improbable Olympic run with the country's biggest win yet in international baseball, a 3-2 victory over defending champion Cuba on Saturday night in the final of the Beijing Games.

S. Korea's KDB says buying Lehman a possibility By Kim Yeon-hee SEOUL (Reuters) - State-run Korea Development Bank KDB.UL said on Friday that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is one of its options for acquisitions, as the struggling U.S. investment bank considers securing much-needed capital from investors. The potential interest lifted Lehman's shares 11.3 percent, a day after a report said KDB and another Asian investor had walked away from a potential deal with the U.S. investment bank. KDB said Friday it was open to mergers or acquisitions of both domestic and foreign companies to...

Lehman’s secret talks to sell 50% stake stall By Henny Sender and Francesco Guerrera in New York Published: August 20 2008 23:30 | Last updated: August 20 2008 23:30 Lehman Brothers, the beleaguered US investment bank, held secret talks to sell up to 50 per cent of its shares to South Korean or Chinese parties in the first week of August but failed to reach agreement with either. The South Koreans and Chinese walked away after concluding that Lehman was asking too high a price, said New York-based people familiar with the potential buyers. Lehman declined to comment. The talks...

SEOUL, South Korea — She was "The Korean Seductress Who Betrayed America," a Seoul socialite said to have charmed secret information out of one lover, an American colonel, and passed it to another, a top communist in North Korea. In late June 1950, as North Korean invaders closed in on this panicked city, Kim Soo-im was executed by the South Korean military, shot as a "very malicious international spy." Her deeds, thereafter, only grew in infamy. In 1950s America, gripped by anticommunist fever, one TV drama told viewers Kim's "womanly wiles" had been the communists' "deadliest weapon." Another teleplay, introduced...

Jang Miran of South Korea sets a world record of 186kg in the women's +75kg Group A clean & jerk weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 16, 2008. REUTERS/Nir Elias (CHINA) Jang Miran, of South Korea, lifts 140 kilograms in the snatch, to set a new world record in the women's over 75 kg of the weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton) Jang Miran of South Korea listens to her national anthem after winning the gold medal in the women's +75kg weightlifting competition at the Beijing...

BEIJING (AFP) — North Korea's Pak Hyon-Suk breathed a huge sigh of relief when she clinched a last-gasp Beijing gold in the women's weightlifting. In the secretive Stalinist state, failure is not an option and the 23-year-old 63kg lifter faced either elimination or victory as she walked up to the bar for the last time.After failing at the same weight twice, the North Korean was finally successful leaving her to praise not her efforts or those of her coaching team but those of a tubby dictator in an ill-fitting suit. "I just kept it in my head that my Dear...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — Much like today’s incoming officers, members of the U.S. Military Academy class of 1966 knew what they were getting into when they left West Point. Arthur Bonifas and William McKinney each deployed to different units in Vietnam. They made it back, but 40 or so of their classmates did not, McKinney said Thursday. The tragedies took their toll, but after a while they were no longer shocking. "The numbness wore off, and then boom, 10 years later after Vietnam, out of the blue … it wasn’t supposed to happen after Vietnam," McKinney said. On Aug. 18,...

U.S. Keeping N.Korea on Terror List 'Indefinitely' North Korea remains on a list of state sponsors of terrorism from which the U.S. had been expected to remove the Stalinist country on Monday. A diplomatic source in Washington said U.S. President George W. Bush decided to postpone the removal since North Korea failed to agree on a verification regime for the nuclear programs and stockpiles it has declared. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Japan's Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura by phone about the policy change. By law, the U.S. president could have removed the North from the terrorism list on...

India doesn’t let North Korea plane overfly to Iran Pranab Dhal Samanta Posted online: Friday, August 08, 2008 at 0145 hrs IST New Delhi, August 7 India this afternoon withdrew its permission for a North Korean plane to overfly Indian airspace on its way to Iran, just before it could take off from Mandalay in Myanmar where it had made a stopover. This, sources have told The Indian Express, was done after instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office this morning. It’s learnt that on August 4, Indian authorities had given permission to the North Korean plane — its call sign...

Inspecting a kitchen at KPA Unit 891? Inspecting a grain storage at a military unit N. Korean stamp commemorating 55th Anniversary of Korean War's Victory (actually it was an armistice. Nobody won.) The man in the center is Kim Il-sung (Kim Jong-il's dad and the former ruler of N. Korea)

SEOUL, South Korea — Saying the United States is engaged in an "ideological struggle" to promote freedom, President Bush told troops and their families at U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan on Wednesday that removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision at the time and is still the right decision. "I know some people in the United States say we’re not at war, that it’s a simple law enforcement matter," Bush said during the first speech of his weeklong Asia tour. "Well, in law enforcement you respond after the crime. Hopefully, the Sept. 11, 2001, lesson will teach us all that...

Full text of joint statement of South Korea-U.S. summit SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- The following is the full text of a joint statement released after the summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush in Seoul on Wednesday. President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea and President George W. Bush of the United States of America held a summit meeting in Seoul on August 6, 2008. The two Presidents recalled that their first summit meeting at Camp David on April 19 was a milestone in the development of a ROK-U.S. strategic alliance for...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush is rushing the clock and running out of time as he tries to stare down nuclear threats on three fronts. Bush has seen Iran ignore a weekend deadline to say whether it will haggle with the U.S. and others worried that Iran is racing toward the bomb. And he has just days to decide whether to reward another adversary, North Korea, for inconclusive steps to get rid of weapons it already has.</p>

S. Korean riot police are firing orange-dyed water to anti-Bush left-wing protesters to tag them for later arrest. The colored water also contains tear gas agent. Bush is visiting S. Korea today.

N.Korea ‘to Stay on Terror List Until Verification Is Agreed’ The U.S. has told North Korea that it will not strike it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until it agrees on a verification protocol for its nuclear programs and stockpiles, it emerged on Thursday. A reliable source in Washington said Wednesday the U.S. reaffirmed its position that it will not remove North Korea from the terrorism list until it agrees on a detailed verification procedure. The U.S. was expected to strike the North off the list on Aug. 11 but will hold off however long it takes...

'Radioactive' Woman Shuts Down Russian Airport Terminal Thursday, July 24, 2008 An airport terminal in Vladivostok, Russia was evacuated Thursday after a ‘radioactive’ woman set off an alarm. The woman had just arrived from a flight from Seoul, South Korea when a radiation alarm went off forcing security officers to shutdown the terminal, Interfax news agency reported. The alarm was eventually called off when officials discovered the source of the scare was the woman. According to the news agency, she had just received radiation therapy.

Rooms with a view are built over changing North Korean capital Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor It is one of history’s great architectural white elephants, a monument to the ambitions of a dictatorship that became a symbol of its incompetence and self-delusion. However, the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea, the biggest construction site in the world, is to be finished as part of an effort to rejuvenate the country’s capital, Pyongyang.

Five Koreans ― four men and one woman ― had been abducted by several unidentified kidnappers who had disguised themselves as police officers in a U.S.-Mexico border city on July 14, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday. The official, asking not to be identified, said the abductors have demanded $30,000 in ransom, but declined to give details about the whereabouts of the South Korean nationals and their condition. "As far as I know, the kidnappers have contacted one of the families of the hostages and asked if they were willing to meet their demands...

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the controversial Unification Church, has been hurt as a helicopter he was in attempted an emergency landing in South Korea. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the controversial Unification Church, has been hurt as a helicopter he was in attempted an emergency landing in South Korea. Moon, 88, was among several people on the aircraft when it made an emergency landing at Gapyeong, 25 miles east of Seoul. News agencies quoted officials as saying Rev Moon's injuries were slight. The casualties were taken to Cheongshim Hospital, which is owned by the Church,...

Trade deals with Colombia, Korea, and Panama, all rife with political import, are stalled in Congress. In the meantime, some U.S. exports lag In its Decatur (Ill.) factory, Caterpillar (CAT) assembles a line of the heaviest-duty off-highway trucks, behemoths specialized for use in mining, quarry, and construction operations. One model, the $1.2 million, 163,089-lb. 777F truck, can hit a top speed of 40 mph even while carrying 100 tons of dirt, enough to fill 350 wheelbarrows. Caterpillar has seen a robust market in recent years for these monster trucks, but is worried that companies in other countries will start to...

"The manager of a popular South Korean beach festival said Tuesday that drunken and rowdy U.S. troops are such a problem that organizers have considered banning servicemembers from the event...." "Lee said it’s easy to identify U.S. troops because of their short haircuts"

A court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the family of a comatose 75-year-old woman to let her die. Kim’s children said their mother, who survives on life support, had the right to die with dignity so she would not have to continue living a meaningless life and asked for permission to remove the respirator and discontinue injections and feeding. But the Seoul Western District Court said that stopping treatment conflicted with the principle of the absolute value of life, and there was no way to confirm Kim’s own will. The court ruled that even family members do not...

Woman tourist shot dead at North Korean resort SEOUL (Reuters) - A woman tourist in her fifties was shot and killed at a mountain resort in North Korea popular with South Korean tourists, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.

IT was a time of secrecy and fear. Fear of a strange enemy driven by an alien ideology, killing Americans abroad, threatening Americans at home. And it created a new terror. In the early 1950s, American troops were being killed and captured by the thousands in Korea. Panic spread that China’s Communists had learned how to penetrate and control the minds of American prisoners of war. The technique was called “brainwashing.” And suddenly it’s worth recalling what brainwashing was about. Because now we know, from an article in The New York Times last week, that in a new time of...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Cpl. Steven Lucas, U.S. Army, of Johnson City, N.Y. He will be buried July 11 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Representatives from the Army met with Lucas’ next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. In late November 1950, Lucas was...

As told by most history textbooks in the U.S., the Korean War started with a June 25, 1950, invasion from the communist north and the freedom-loving U.S. came to the aid of the besieged democratic Republic of Korea in the south. The reality was very different. Not only did the RoK’s dictatorial, fascist-like regime of U.S. puppet Syngman Rhee make the first move, it had prepared for it for more than a year in advance. These preparations included using paramilitary fascist organizations and the regular army for cross-border raids on northern villages to test the defenses of the Democratic People’s...

North Korea in bid to recycle toxic waste By Michael Rank Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 30/06/2008 North Korea is planning to recycle waste that is so polluted other countries refuse to handle it. The Stalinist regime, which is reputedly a significant poppy grower for the world heroin trade, is now tendering for bids to process toxic waste at a refurbished port close to the capital Pyongyang as part of its desperate efforts to earn foreign currency. Through a Chinese-language website the country is seeking supplies of plastic and electronic waste which "can be processed in the port but which other...

Pakistan's Military Knew Of Nuclear Technology Transfer To N Korea, Says Scientist 7/4/2008 2:52 PM ET Abdul Qadir Khan, who is considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, said on Friday that the country's former military regime was aware of the transfer of nuclear technology to North Korea. AQ Khan told media on Friday that the Pakistani army, which was headed by President Pervez Musharraf then, was aware of the technology transfer as the uranium enrichment equipment was dispatched onboard a North Korean plane under the supervision of Pakistani army officials in 2000. Khan's statements on Friday contradicts...