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Three North Koreans — a soldier and two others — defected to South Korea this week and the South has fired warning shots at Northern guards searching for its latest defector, according to a report out Wednesday. A “low-ranking” soldier who defected to the South was spotted in front of a guard post just after 8 a.m. Thursday after crossing through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No shots were fired as the soldier moved across country lines, and there was no unusual movement detected coming from North Korea, according to the...

America is drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons programme, The Telegraph understands. The White House has “dramatically” stepped up preparation for a military solution in recent months amid fears diplomacy is not working, well-placed sources said. One option is destroying a launch site before it is used by the regime for a new missile test. Stockpiles of weapons could also be targeted. The hope is that military force would show Kim Jong-un that America is “serious” about stopping further nuclear development and trigger negotiations. Three sources - two former...

As tensions rise to historic heights on the Korean Peninsula, both the US and China have begun taking unprecedented steps to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Across North Korea's border in China's Jilin province, state-run media ran a full-page instructional package on how to survive a nuclear blast. The page doesn't mention North Korea, but it doesn't need to. Also new in Jilin, are five new refugee camps built "because the situation on the China-North Korea border has intensified lately," a leaked document seen by the New York Times read. The camps can potentially accommodate thousands of North Koreans pouring...

OK here is a link to the news feed "Texas News Studio". This is not a full-boar news feed, but it is sometimes quite interesting. This seems to be one of those times. They claim an unconfirmed news item, that North Korea is preparing to load Anthrax onto ICBMs. May be. May not be.

‘North Korea is a time bomb’: government advisers urge China to prepare for war The risk of conflict on the Korean peninsula is the highest its been in decades and Beijing must mobilise resources for fallout, observers say PUBLISHED : Saturday, 16 December, 2017, 10:03pm UPDATED : Saturday, 16 December, 2017, 11:26pm China must be ready for a war on the Korean peninsula, with the risk of conflict higher than ever before, Chinese government advisers and a retired senior military officer warned on Saturday. Beijing, once seen as Pyongyang’s key ally with sway over its neighbour, was losing control of...

Long forgotten flags captured by U.S. forces during an obscure 19th-century military action in Korea were uncovered during restoration work at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis last week. The well-preserved flags were rediscovered in the academy’s Mahan Hall when British ensigns seized as trophies during the War of 1812 were removed from their display cases.

A key member of Kim Jong Un's inner circle touted as a powerful military figure mysteriously vanished from public life recently, sparking rumors he was executed by a North Korean death squad after allegations of bribery, recent reports indicated. Hwang Pyong-so, a vice marshal who held the most senior position in North Korea’s military, hasn’t been seen in public since Oct. 13, sparking rumors of his death.

The existence of plans for the camps, first reported in English by the Financial Times last week, emerged in an apparently leaked internal document from a state-run telecoms giant that appears to have been tasked with providing them with internet services. The China Mobile document, which has circulated on social media and overseas Chinese websites since last week, reveals plans for at least five refugee camps in Jilin province. The document, which the Guardian could not independently verify, says: “Due to cross-border tensions … the [Communist] party committee and government of Changbai county has proposed setting up five refugee camps...

The bridge connects Dandong, a port city in Liaoning Province in northeast China, with North Korea's Sinuiju region. Dandong accounts for 70% of China's trade with the North, and the iron bridge serves as the only direct road connection to the city from the North Korean side. Numerous trucks travel back and forth across the bridge, but the structure is showing its age after more than 70 years in service. The bridge has been closed before for repair and maintenance when needed. The 10-day repair work is "a common timeframe," said a source familiar with the project. "The time may be shortened...

It is a strange study in contrasts. In the dead of night, a ballistic missile lifts off from a secret launch pad in North Korea, overflies the Sea of Japan, and lands in Japanese waters. It is a hi-tech feat of weaponry intended to terrorize North Korea’s near neighbors, and send shock waves of fear all the way across the Pacific to the United States. It succeeds in doing both. A couple of days before, however, a very different scenario unfolds. A desperate defector attempts to flee Kim Jong-un’s socialist paradise. Shot five times by his one-time “comrades” in the...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Large military drills being carried out by the United States and South Korea and U.S. threats of a preemptive war against Pyongyang have made the outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula “an established fact”, North Korea’s foreign ministry said. See full article at link.

Russia’s Olympic team has been barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The country’s government officials are forbidden to attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening ceremony and its anthem will not sound. Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral uniform, and the official record books will forever show that Russia won zero medals. That was the punishment issued Tuesday to the proud sports juggernaut that has long used the Olympics as a show of global force but was exposed for systematic doping...

Much of the focus these days is on North Korea's nuclear capabilities, but the more significant point is the prospect of REUNIFICATION OF THE TWO KOREAS. It's interesting to ponder what the implications would be for the region and for the U.S. It would also clue us into why countries like China and Russia behave the way they do with regard to diplomatic negotiations there. They may have complex long-term considerations motivating them. Some questions to consider regarding the prospects of reunification: * Does disarmament or the fall of the Kim regime automatically imply reunification with the South? Will there...

Today as tensions between North Korea and the U.S. reach heights not seen since the 1950s, it is easy to forget that northern Korea used to be one of the Asian strongholds of Protestant Christianity. As Atlas Obscura recently explained, the city of Pyongyang became known to missionaries as the “Jerusalem of the East.” The city had great institutional strength for Protestantism, including Union Christian Hospital, Union Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Union Christian College, the first four-year college anywhere in Korea. One hundred ten years ago, Pyongyang saw the outbreak of a massive revival, the high point of the season...

Beginning around the 6-minute mark, the current events part of the video discusses the North Korean missile test, the joining of Sudan in the Ezekiel alliance against Israel, and troubling days for Europe in the month of December as ISIS tries to make up for losses on the battlefield.Governments have a duty to protect their citizens. Amen and amen!A little history here, linking Clinton's help to North Korea to Obama's help to Iran: two presidents who still did not understand--or maybe they did--that not every country can be trusted to stand by what they promise.

North Korea launched its most capable missile on Tuesday, displaying a range that could most likely reach the US mainland — but the country has already hinted at a more dangerous test. In its state media, North Korea routinely swears to conduct missile tests and complete a missile program that can strike the US with nuclear weapons. But after US President Donald Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea in a speech to the UN this summer, Pyongyang laid out another goal. North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said in September that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, could...

The Chinese state outlet, Global Times, which typically takes an aggressive tone in covering the United States, declared on Wednesday that President Donald Trump and the U.S. policy on North Korea had “failed,” citing Pyongyang’s latest missile test.(At press time, the article is not available at its original Global Times link, though it remains accessible in Google’s cache history.) North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced late Tuesday that dictator Kim Jong-un had personally directed the launching of a new model of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), named Hwasong-15, and that he declared the test a success. China is North...

LIVE: President Donald Trump URGENT statement on DPRK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPLWeETlYwQ

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo said North Korea violated the ceasefire agreement between the two countries when North Korean soldiers fired at a defector who fled through the demilitarized zone...

Alarmed by President Donald Trump’s bellicose statements and impulsive governing style, two congressional Democrats introduced legislation that would prohibit the president — any president — from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress explicitly endorsing such an attack. In seeking to restrict the president’s authority to launch a first strike, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 proposed by Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Ted Lieu of Torrance cites Congress’ authority under the Constitution to declare war. The legislation says the Framers understood “the monumental decision to go to war...