Free Republic

Nuclear Terror: After years of blindness, the International Atomic Energy Agency warns that Syria is concealing nuclear activity and Iran is hiding atomic facilities. Has the "watchdog" just been polishing its Nobel? The diplomats just love Mohamed ElBaradei, who is about to step down as director general of the United Nations' IAEA. He's the recipient of Georgetown's prestigious Raymond "Jit" Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy. Also on his crammed mantelpiece can be found the Delta Air Lines Prize for Global Understanding, the Golden Dove of Peace award from the president of Italy, the Gandhi Prize for...

The face that launched a thousand N.Korean tirades Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:42am EST By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim SEOUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The one certainty in unpredictable North Korea is that if the state detonates a nuclear device or leader Kim Jong-il visits a duck farm, Ri Chun-hee will be on TV boasting about the amazing accomplishment. Ri is the forceful grandmother speaking with the authority of the state as the main newscaster for North Korea's only TV channel. Her face is one of the few broadcast abroad and her stentorian reports thunder across airwaves from the...

A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates near Somalia, the European Union's naval force says. The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken on Monday in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north west of the Seychelles. The vessel had been heading for the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, but was diverted north, the naval force said. The EU naval force (Navfor) operates in the region to protect shipping. Somali pirates, using "mother ships" to launch their small-boat attacks on vessels, have extended their range to an area off the...

n.Korea Ends Experiment with TV Commercials North Korea stopped TV commercials in late August, less than two months after they started to be shown in July. A Unification Ministry official on Sunday said occasional advertising of goods on [North] Korean Central TV started July 2 with a commercial for Taedonggang Beer but stopped on Aug. 29. Quoting a North Korea source, the Yonhap news agency reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il fired Cha Sung-su, chairman of the Central Broadcasting Commission in charge of all TV programs. Kim was said to have been "enraged" because he regards commercials as the...

N. Korea unwilling to give up nuclear ambition: former U.S. diplomat By Tony Chang SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea does not have any intention of abandoning its nuclear ambitions in the near future, a former senior U.S. diplomat said Monday, forecasting that an upcoming meeting between Washington and Pyongyang will do little to resolve stalled multilateral denuclearization talks. David Straub, associate director of the Korean Studies Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, said at a seminar in Seoul that the U.S. representative for North Korea policy will basically "convey a short and...

A North Korean cargo ship arrived in a South Korean port Monday, showing that trade between the rival countries is continuing despite their bloody naval skirmish last week. The ship was scheduled to unload 1,750 tons of silica at Incheon Port, west of Seoul, following its departure from a North Korean port last Thursday, two days after the neighboring countries clashed along their disputed western sea border. North Korea had warned it would take unspecified military action to defend itself following the clash — their first at sea in seven years. A senior South Korean military officer said the fighting...

/begin my translation N. Korea's Shore-to-ship Missile System Activated For an Hour Some ships in Baekryung and Yonpyung Island evacuated. Two Squadrons of high speed patrol boats readied for rapid response (Seoul = Yonhap News) Kim Kwi-keun = (S. Korean) Military went on alert after detecting that N. Koreans turned on the fire-control radar for shore-to-ship missiles deployed along N. Korean area(shore) north of Yonpyung Island in the West Sea, according to the military authorities on Nov. 15 The military sources said, "Approximately at 1 PM today, we detected that the fire-control radar for N. Korea's multiple shore-to-ship missile bases...

President Obama has warned North Korea that America and its Asian partners "will not be cowed" by the threat of nuclear tests and missile launches. The president said Kim Jong Il's isolated regime could come in from the cold and have punishing UN sanctions lifted if it stopped building nuclear weapons and scrapped those it is already believed to have. He said North Korea had a possible future of economic opportunity and and greater global integration but warned: "This respect cannot be earned through belligerence. "For decades, North Korea has chosen a path of confrontation and provocation. "It should be...

(3rd LD) N. Korea threatens 'merciless' action to defend sea border with S. Korea By Sam Kim and Kim Hyun SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened "merciless" military action Friday to defend its maritime border with South Korea, demanding an apology for a naval skirmish earlier this week off their west coast. The statement by the chief of North Korea's military delegation is a response to the protest his South Korean counterpart lodged hours after the navies of the two countries engaged briefly near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on Tuesday, officials here said. South Korea suffered no...

/begin my translation A N. Korean Diplomat Found Dead in Shenyang (Disappeared since Oct.) Choi Yushik in Beijing 2009/11/13 Authorities looking into various possibilities A consul at N. Korean Consulate in Shenyang, China, was recently found dead in the city, raising tension among the diplomatic circles in China. A source on N. Korea in Beijing said on Nov. 12, "A consul in charge of economic affairs at N. Korean Consulate in Shenyang was found dead on Oct. 30. Chinese authorities are investigating." The consul went missing in early October, which prompted rumors. One version said he may have escaped to...

(LEAD) N. Korean boat tugged to port after skirmish with S. Korean Navy By Sam Kim SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- The North Korean patrol boat that retreated in flames after a skirmish with the South Korean Navy earlier this week was tugged on its last stretch toward port, an official here said Thursday. The boat apparently suffered damage when it exchanged gunfire Tuesday with South Korean naval vessels near the Northern Limit Line that separates the Koreas in the western waters off their peninsula. No South Korean sailors were killed, but North Korea reportedly suffered one death and three...

U.S. at Work on Strangling Kim Jong-il's Cash Flow The U.S. envoy charged with UN sanctions, Philip Goldberg, is still trying to block North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's cash flow, even as Washington has agreed to talks with Pyongyang aimed at persuading it to return to nuclear negotiations. North Korea invited U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth on Aug. 4, when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists. The same day, Goldberg was on his way to Moscow, where he met Russian Vice Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and reportedly asked Russia...

In the last few years, many secrets have been revealed in the north, and this has been a disaster for the ruling class. Many North Koreans now know of the separate economy that has been established for the few hundred thousand people at the top of North Korean society. They have separate, gated, compounds to live in. They have separate stores, which carry Western and Chinese goods. They have many servants (who gossip much more than in the past), and special organizations that attend to their security and comfort. An extreme example of this is the organization that operates North...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — The water deer nibbled away on the vegetation on the gently sloping bend along the Imjin River, seemingly unaware of the dozen people pointing and staring at it through a field scope from the opposite shoreline. Nearby, the group observed a family of white-naped cranes feeding, something the endangered species does when wintering in the relative solitude of the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea. While mention of the DMZ conjures images of stone-faced soldiers, barbed-wire fences, guns and guard towers, the area between North and South Korea has remained virtually untouched by humans...

Playing a 'round' near the DMZ By Drew Gallagher ESPN U.S. ARMY CAMP BONIFAS, South Korea -- We've all hit tee shots that could be described as "dangerous." Tight fairways. Intimidating water hazards. Thick fescue. All of these make for "dangerous" conditions. But I've never hit a tee shot with the North Korean army just a mulligan away. A soldier from the North Korean Army stands guard at the border. Such is golf at U.S. Army Camp Bonifas, South Korea, home to one of the world's most unique golf courses. The "course" consists of a single 192-yard, par-3 hole that...

/begin my excerpts [Weekly Chosun] Sino-N. Korean 'Intel War' /snip In October, 2006, when N. Korea did their first nuclear test, there were spies who sneaked in from Chinese fishing boat off the shore of Hwa-dae(near the test site.) They wanted to install GPS system in Hwa-dae and tried to obtain samples from N. Korea's nuclear test, but N. Korean State Security got them. N. Korea made no announcement to the outside about this incident. They nabbed the entire team and executed them without trial. According to a N. Korean defector, he was told by a security agent, "We found...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's troops went on high alert Wednesday for possible retaliation by North Korea after one of its navy ships was nearly destroyed and an officer reportedly killed in a skirmish with the South, ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. The clash Tuesday along the disputed western sea border was the first such engagement in seven years, sending tensions soaring about a week before Obama travels to Seoul as part of his Asian tour. The exchange of fire also occurred just hours before the State Department announced a senior U.S. diplomat will travel...

S. Korea denies rumors of N. Korean moves near tense west sea border By Sam Kim SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday denied unidentified rumors that a pair of North Korean naval boats approached the western maritime border where the navies of the two countries exchanged gunfire a day earlier. "There is no particular situation developing. The waves are high, also forcing fishing vessels to stay off the waters," Park Sung-woo, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. The rumors that two North Korean vessels closed in on the boundary early Wednesday morning had circulated...

N.Koreans Gloat Over Scuffles in National Assembly Senior North Korean officials last month enjoyed an hour of edited footage from clashes in South Korea's National Assembly. Some 300 top officials gathered at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang in early October to watch the show. A senior source in North Korea said the video showed scenes familiar to audiences around the world of South Korean lawmakers destroying National Assembly facilities with a hammer and an electric chain saw or kicking each other. A voiceover provided pithy commentary. "Former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide because the traitor Lee Myung-bak harassed...

Why it's sane for Kim Jong-il to be crazy Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:28am EDT By Andrew Marshall, Asia Political Risk Correspondent - Analysis SINGAPORE (Reuters) - For those who see North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a dangerous lunatic prepared to risk the annihilation of his regime by launching a devastating attack on his neighbors, there is no shortage of supporting evidence. He uses platform shoes and bouffant hair to appear taller. His official media churns out hagiographic tales of his almost superhuman talents -- including the world's greatest round of golf, 38 under par with 5 holes in...

2009/11/10 15:43 KST N. Korea demands apology from South over naval clash SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea demanded an apology from South Korea over a naval clash on the western sea border on Tuesday, calling the skirmish a "grave armed provocation" by the South that targeted a patrol boat on routine duty. "Today the north side let a patrol boat of the Navy of the KPA (Korean People's Army) on routine guard duty promptly go into action to confirm an unidentified object that intruded into the waters of its side," the North's Supreme Command of the KPA said...

Firefight Between North and South Korean Navy This Morning: Causualty Unknown Happened on the morning of Nov. 10 at NLL. N. Korean patrol boats went over NLL to the south. Warning shots fired, but ignored. S. Korean navy fired at N. Korean ship. N. Koreans returned fire.

LTTE arms moved overland from China to NK for almost a decade by Shamindra Ferdinando Chinese arms consignments for the LTTE had been moved overland to North Korea across the China-North Korea border before being transferred to the terrorist group’s ‘floating’ warehouses on the high seas close to Indonesia, for about a decade, The Island learns. The LTTE had obtained its first Chinese arms consignment way back in 1994/1995 during the then People’s Alliance (PA) administration. On-going inquiries, well informed sources said, revealed that the China-North Korea overland transport of arms for the LTTE had operated for almost a decade...

Reconstruction of Ryongchon In 2004 much of the town of Ryongchon was tragically destroyed in a large explosion. Here is the Wikipedia page on the disaster if you would like a quick reference. I compiled a couple of images to construct this “before” picture of Ryongchon: Notice that the center of town is composed largely of traditional houses. Here is the first “after” image (which is the default image on Google Earth): As you can see a large number of traditional houses were destroyed as well as a school. Below I have compiled more recent images to show how the...

In North Korea, the military now issues economic orders By Blaine Harden Tuesday, November 3, 2009 SEOUL -- North Korea's military, whose nuclear program vexes the Obama administration, has grabbed nearly complete command of the nation's state-run economy and staked out a lucrative new trade in mineral sales to China to make money for its supreme commander, Kim Jong Il. As it deepens its dominance over nearly every aspect of daily life, the Korean People's Army is also deploying soldiers to take first dibs on all food harvested in the isolated, chronically hungry country, according to the latest assessments of...

North Korea has completed reprocessing of some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyong nuclear facility and weaponized the plutonium extracted from the material, the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.

North Korea launched the cyber attack against South Korea and the United States The South Korean government is now blaming North Korea of launching organized cyber attacks against websites belonging to South Korea and the U.S. earlier in the year.Due to malicious software, numerous U.S. and S.K. Web sites were slowed or ground to a complete stop during the attack, as cyber experts scrambled to pinpoint the source of the problem. According to experts, the IP address traced to the attacks was leased from China, the South Korean National Intelligence Service noted in its report. “The attacks on Korean and...

(LEAD) N. Korea appears to have restored plutonium-generating plant: officials By Sam Kim SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has apparently restored its facility used to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear complex that had been mothballed under a six-nation accord, officials here said Monday. "The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier conditions," a senior defense official said, citing satellite photos that also showed a continuous stream of workers in and out of the site in Yongbyon, 90km north of Pyongyang.

Female dancer video circulating in N. Korea: defector SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- A video clip showing female dancers in skimpy costumes performing to American music is being secretly circulated in North Korea via CD-ROMs, a North Korean defector said Monday. The video, obtained by Yonhap News Agency from the defector, who requested anonymity, would not be considered obscene elsewhere in the world. But revealing outfits and American music are both considered taboo in the conservative North. In the clip, several groups of four women in crop-tops and thigh-length shorts or skirts dance to fast disco music on a brightly-lit...

North Korea presses US to accept direct talks Sun Nov 1, 10:36 pm ET SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea pressed the United States to accept its demand for direct talks on the communist regime's nuclear program, saying Monday "we will go our own way" unless Washington agrees. North Korea's Foreign Ministry did not elaborate on its comment, which appeared to be a threat to enlarge its nuclear arsenal. The ministry statement came as North Korea's No. 2 nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun, wrapped up a rare trip to the U.S. where he met with the chief American nuclear negotiator, Sung...

N. Korea to continue missile tests for upgraded version: expert SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to continue short-range missile tests with the aim of developing an advanced KN-06 missile, according to a U.S. expert. Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the RAND Corp., said that the North's launch of five KN-02 missiles on Oct. 12 was part of efforts to develop a more advanced KN-06 missile, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Saturday The KN-02, an upgraded version of the Russian SS-21, is known to have a range of up to 120 kilometers.

Seoul, Washington round out plans to handle N. Korean regime collapse: source SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the U.S. have completed joint action plans to respond to a regime collapse and other internal emergency situations in North Korea, a ranking government source said Sunday. The so-called "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029," drawn after years of bilateral consultation, dictates respective military responses by Seoul and Washington to several types of emergency situation in the communist North -- a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the kidnapping of South Korean citizens, a mass influx of refugees...

The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source. It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said. Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea's WMDs,...

/begin my excerpts Picketing N. Korean Defector Bumping Face-to-Face into N. Korean Ambassador Ma Young-ae, N. Korean defector and artist, now residing in U.S. and heading (Christian) N. Korean Refugee Mission, was picketing with Choi Eun-chol, the (mission's) administrative manager, in front of N. Korea's Mission at U.N.. They were urging the International Criminal Court to indict Kim Jong-il, when they met face-to-face with (N. Korean) Ambassador (to U.N.) Shin Sun-ho. When she confronted him, he and his assistant gave her a brief look and headed for U.N. Headquarter. She followed them, with a new sign board saying, "Kim Jong-il,...

NKorea's latest missile tests failed: report (AFP) – 40 minutes ago SEOUL — North Korea's short-range missile tests earlier this month were a failure with none of the five projectiles reaching its target, a report said Thursday. The North test-fired five KN-02 missiles with a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles) from mobile launchers off its east coast on October 12. Radio Free Asia, quoting an intelligence source, said four of the five missed the mark and one did not even launch properly. "Two fell into the sea right after launch, another two missed the targets and the last one...

North Korean efforts to install one of ailing leader Kim Jong-il's sons as a hereditary successor are likely to fail, a senior defector from the communist country said on Tuesday. Kim Kwang-jin, a former state insurance executive who helped unveil widespread damage claims fraud by Pyongyang, said Kim's relative recovery from an apparent 2008 stroke does not alter the fact that the era of Kim rule is fading. "Fragile, worsening health, long drawn-out economic collapse and growing political instability in North Korea indicate that the Kim Jong-il regime is drawing to an end," Kim told a panel at a Washington...

North Korea has completed work on a new west coast site capable of launching improved intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to senior South Korean officials quoted by Yonhap news agency. The Dongchang-ri base has been under construction for several years despite long-running international efforts to shut down the communist state's missile and nuclear programmes. "The construction is as good as finished," one South Korean official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity. "The necessary facilities are all there." Another official said the North has been testing missile parts such as boosters at the site about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Pyongyang....

South Korea may buy four spy satellites over the next decade to monitor North Korea, the defence ministry said Wednesday. "Our ministry has been considering it but no decision has been made yet on who will be involved and details have yet to be fixed," a spokesman told AFP. He was commenting on a media report that said the ministry would forge technological cooperation with countries including Germany to secure the satellites. South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, quoting what it said was an internal ministry document, reported that the military plans to spend 600-700 billion won (514-600 million dollars) by...

Hell on Earth Oct 22nd 2009 The West still turns a blind eye to the world's most brutal and systematic abuse of human rights A SPRAWLING encampment of think-tankers, academics, hacks and policymakers earns a living outside North Korea’s walls. They pick over its nuclear intentions and the prospects for the diplomatic dance known as the six-party process, which is meant to persuade North Korea to give up its nukes for cash and security guarantees. The encampment needs something to live on. Since North Korea declared the six-party talks dead in the spring, scraps have been meagre. So the North’s...

Report ignites speculation of possible inter-Korean summit SEOUL/PHNOM PENH, Oct. 23 (Yonhap) -- Officials of South and North Korea secretly met in Singapore to discuss a possible summit between their leaders, South Korea's state broadcaster KBS reported Thursday, quoting unidentified sources. However, Seoul's presidential office refused to give a definitive response when asked about the meeting. "There is nothing we can confirm as of now," a Cheong Wa Dae official accompanying President Lee Myung-bak on a trip to Cambodia told reporters. The KBS report suggested a ranking South Korean official recently visited Singapore for a meeting with Kim Yang-gon, Pyongyang's...

(3rd LD) U.S. vows unlimited deterrence against N. Korea By Sam Kim SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. pledged Thursday to mobilize its warfighting assets to their maximum capacity if needed to defend South Korea against North Korea, which continues to develop its nuclear and missile capabilities. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates "reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to provide extended deterrence for the ROK, using the full range of military capabilities, to include the U.S. nuclear umbrella, conventional strike, and missile capabilities," according to a joint statement with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young.

North Korea Faces Scrutiny Over Human Rights By EVAN RAMSTAD SEOUL -- North Korea's abusive treatment of its citizens, which has long been a secondary concern in diplomatic circles to the pursuit of nuclear weapons, will undergo increasing scrutiny in coming weeks as a high-profile review at the United Nations approaches. Diplomats in several countries and prominent human-rights organizations are revising data on atrocities in North Korea and preparing questions for its officials, who will go before the U.N. Human Rights Council on Dec. 7. Once every four years the council subjects each U.N. member to scrutiny. North Korea's review...

DPRK October forest fires via NASA According to NASA: Multiple fires burned in North Korea in mid-October 2009, sending a plume of smoke over the Sea of Japan. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on October 15. Red outlines indicate hotspots associated with active fires, although not all the fires have visible hotspots. The smoke plumes blow uniformly eastward, some of the individual plumes coalescing into a single large plume over the sea. Click image for full size version. I also made a Google Earth overlay of this image which you can...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — You might call it a case of keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case the Kims. Work is under way on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone to renovate three guard posts and two checkpoint buildings into bigger, more modern structures. The construction comes a year after North Korea finished work on the replacement of four guard posts on its side of the DMZ, and a decade after the two sides engaged in a tit-for-tat battle to see who could build the more impressive reception centers in the Joint Security Area —...

Inter-Korean Thaw Sparks Rumors Rumor is rife about behind-the-scenes meetings between the two Koreas, especially since a U.S. official claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il invited President Lee Myung-bak to a summit. An academic who advises the government on North Korea policies said, "Rumor has it that a former corporate CEO who is close to Lee is meeting with a North Korean official in a third country like China. Such rumors seem to be rampant because no one can find traces of the National Intelligence Service or the Unification Ministry making contact with North Korean agencies as they did under...

The United States and China affirmed their commitment Tuesday to keep implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea as part of efforts to bring the country back to the stalled six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions, a U.S. official in charge of sanctions on Pyongyang said. "What we were able to restate today is that there is a commitment to implementing the sanctions as a central aspect of our overall goal of returning to the denuclearization discussions" involving the Korean Peninsula, Philip Goldberg told reporters after talks in Beijing with Chinese officials, including Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. "We continue...

SNIPPET: "After the 4 July DDoS attacks, wrongly attributed to North Korea, it’s wise to treat reports of DPRK security hacks with some caution. Nevertheless, The Korea Times reports the following: Classified Info on Dangerous Chemicals Hacked Hackers stole classified information on dangerous chemicals in their raid on the South Korean army computer network in what was believed to be an attack by North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday, quoting government officials." SNIPPET: "The Sydney Morning Herald adds more information: A North Korea cyber warfare unit hacked into a South Korean military command earlier this year and stole some...

The United States said on Friday it would allow a senior North Korean official to visit this month, a move analysts said could be a first step toward talks between the two on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs. The State Department said it had decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, North Korea's No. 2 official at multilateral talks on its nuclear programs, to attend meetings in New York and San Diego with private scholars and experts who study North Korea. The department said nothing about the possibility of talks between U.S. and North Korean officials, but a source familiar...

Russia bewildered by N.Korea missile launch-Tass Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:24am EDT MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Russia is bewildered by the latest North Korean missile launch, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying on Monday. "The launch of short-range missiles by the Korean People's Democratic Republic causes bewilderment," the source said. "It was not the most suitable time to do this now, when all efforts are made to restart six-way talks on Korea's nuclear problem."

N. Korea appears to be readying more missile testing: source SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appeared to be readying to test-fire short-range missiles off its west coast on Tuesday, a day after it launched five from the east, a South Korean source said. North Korea earlier announced a navigation ban on both coasts from Oct. 10-20, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The communist state test-fired KN-02 missiles from its east coast on Monday. Data picture "There are signs that the missile launches are being prepared on the west coast," the source said, adding...