Free Republic

The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think-tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga. The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to...

/begin my translation Friction Developing between N. Korea and Iran over Delivery of Missile Components (Seoul Kyodo = Yonhap) Iran and N. Korea are bickering over the troubled assembly phase of Iran's new intermediate range ballistic missile(IRBM) whose parts are imported from N. Korea and put together locally. According to diplomatic source(s) in Seoul, Iran recently postponed its test launch of IRBM because electronic components to ensure its accuracy had not arrived from N. Korea in time. Analysts are trying to figure out why N. Korea is having trouble delivering missile parts on schedule. N. Korea explained Iran that the...

Officials Seek Destination of North Korean Arms By THOMAS FULLER and DAVID E. SANGER BANGKOK, Thailand — A shipment of arms and apparently sophisticated missiles from North Korea seized here on a tip from American intelligence agencies has set off a series of investigations, as officials try to determine whether the cargo was headed to South Asia or the Middle East. The Obama administration welcomed the interception by the Thai authorities as evidence that it had scored a success in its effort to enforce a United Nations Security Council resolution banning weapons exports by the North Korean government, an attempt...

Shipment bound for Middle East Crew deny knowing plane carried weapons * Published: 14/12/2009 at 12:00 AM * Newspaper section: News The crew of the aircraft held in Bangkok after it was found to be carrying a large stock of war weapons say they planned to offload part of their cargo in Sri Lanka and the Middle East, investigators say. A police source said some of the suspects admitted after more than six hours of questioning that they planned to unload part of "the goods" on their way back to Ukraine. But they refused to name the buyers or locations,...

Five foreigners were detained and their foreign-registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital Saturday with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea, Thai officials said. Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn said the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital Pyongyang and requested to land at Bangkok's Don Muang airport to refuel. Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn confirmed the seizure and the arrests, saying the weapons included "missiles, explosives and tubes." He told The Associated Press that the material was being transferred to a Thai military facility but provided no further details.

Five Eastern European men were detained and their plane was impounded and grounded at Don Muang Airport on Saturday after it was found loaded with tons of war weapons. Government Spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn declined to reveal where the plane was from and its its destination, saying Thai authorities are investigating the five men reportedly from Belarus and Kazakhstan. A TV footage showed military trucks believed to be loaded with the confiscated weapons left Don Muang Airport. The footage also showed the grounded plane. Thai TV reported that the weapons were transferred in the military trucks to a depot in Nakhon...

Thailand detains plane with weapons cache from N.Korea Sat Dec 12, 7:06 am ET BANGKOK (AFP) – Thai authorities have detained five people who landed in Bangkok in an east European cargo plane full of heavy weapons that originated in North Korea, officials told AFP Saturday. The plane's pilot requested to land at Bangkok's domestic Don Mueang airport Saturday morning, said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayakorn, and on inspecting the aircraft Thai authorities found the cache. "An eastern European airline asked to land this morning at Don Mueang airport to refuel its tank. When Thai authorities examined the aircraft they found...

A visit to North Korea by U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth ended in failure Thursday to convince the North to return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks. "We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement," Bosworth told reporters. "It remains to be seen when and how [North Korea] will return to the six-party talks." He added, "This is something that requires further consultations among all six of us." But Bosworth claimed he had "very useful" meetings with senior North Korean officials. Further bilateral...

North Korean Money Shift Sparks Violence By EVAN RAMSTAD SEOUL -- New reports emerged Tuesday of protests and deadly violence in North Korea as the country's authoritarian regime over the past week seized most of its citizens' money and savings via a new-currency issue. Open Radio for North Korea, a Seoul-based shortwave radio station that broadcasts news to the North, said police killed two men in Pyongsong, a market center outside of Pyongyang, on Friday after they divided their savings among a large group of people and urged them to exchange the money for them, attempting to get around the...

Swine flu strikes isolated North Korea By HYUNGJIN KIM, Associated Press Writer - 1 hour 58 minutes ago SEOUL, South Korea – Swine flu has struck isolated North Korea, the regime acknowledged Wednesday, although it was unclear whether there were any fatalities from the virus that has been circling the globe for months. North Korea made its first acknowledgment of an H1N1 outbreak with a short dispatch in state media citing nine confirmed cases in northwestern Sinuiju on the Chinese border and in Pyongyang, the capital. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that a quarantine system to prevent the...

Winter of discontent looms for N Korea By Christian Oliver and Kang Buseong in Seoul Published: December 9 2009 07:41 | Last updated: December 9 2009 07:41 The North Korean grapevine is delivering stories of increasing hunger and shortages sparking rare public dissent in the wake of last week’s redenomination of the currency just as the country’s bitter winter closes in. The change to the new won, which carry a face value of 1 per cent of that of old won, was supposed to be completed over the weekend, but reports suggest the situation is still unsettled and confused though...

North Korea rushes to starvation December 09, 2009 Olivia Ward North Korea's beleaguered people are used to running on empty. But a silent catastrophe that is looming in the secretive dictatorship may push the poorest beyond the point of no return. A sudden revaluation has left the currency worthless, threatening collapse of the fragile food market. "This could start widespread starvation deaths in the hungry season, after the last harvest runs out," said Andrew Natsios of Georgetown University, author of The Great North Korean Famine. "There are a number of alarming things happening at once, and people may not be...

If you look at satellite photographs of the Far East by night, you’ll see a large splotch curiously lacking in light. This area of darkness is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Next to this black hole, South Korea, Japan and now China gleam. Even from hundreds of miles above, the billboards, headlights, streetlights and neon of the fast-food chains appear as tiny white dots signifying people going about their business as 21st-century energy consumers. Then in the middle of it all, a blackness nearly as large as England. It is baffling how a nation of 23 million can appear...

December 8, 2009 North Korean leader's 007-style secret escape tunnels revealed by defector Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has a network of 300 metre (1,000 ft) deep emergency escape tunnels connecting Pyongyang with key sites around the country, a top-level defector claims. The tunnels, reminiscent of the lair of a James Bond villain, are reported to contain railway lines, a water supply and even vegetation. According to Hwang Jang Yop, formerly North Korea’s chief political philosopher, they connect areas as far as 30 miles (50km) away from Pyongyang, enabling the country’s leaders to...

U.S. envoy Bosworth arrives in Pyongyang: N. Korean media SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. envoy on North Korea arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the North's media said, in the highest-level visit to the communist nation since the Barack Obama administration took power in Washington early this year. Stephen Bosworth and his entourage "arrived in Sunan Airport" just outside the capital, the Korean Central News Agency said. Bosworth departed from the U.S. Osan air base in South Korea at around 2 p.m. on a three-day mission to bring the North back to a multilateral forum on its nuclear program

/begin my translation N. Korea: Two Executed by Firing Squad for Using Others to Swap Old Bills for New 2009.12.08 09:24 There is a report that two businessmen were executed by firing squad, which was carried out off the public view. They tried to get around (strict) rules for currency swapping. Quoting its source inside N. Korea, Open Radio for N. Korea, which broadcasts into N. Korea, reported on Dec. 7 that two businessmen in the city of Pyongsung, who had old bills totaling 11 million Won(N. Korean currency unit) from their sales, tried to convert them into new bills...

'Women Power' Gathers Against N.Korean Currency Shock North Korea's women are emerging as a formidable force in the face of controversial currency reforms, sources said Monday. Most of the market traders in the North are women in their 40s and 50s trying to earn enough to feed their children. And now they are openly expressing their anger as the draconian reforms, which replace the currency at a rate of 100:1 and effectively confiscate any savings, make their lives even more difficult. "The women are tough and defiant," a source said, "and now they are angry. Markets are turning into places...

N. Korea's Currency Reform Could End in Chaos The North Korean military is on alert for a possible civil uprising following last week's sudden currency reform, according to a Russian business newspaper citing foreign diplomats in the communist country. The currency reform involved the exchange of only limited amounts of old bills at a rate of 100:1, with the state confiscating the remainder. People who are afraid of exposing the size of their wealth have no choice but to hide their old bills. It is difficult to ascertain the actual circumstances, but it is apparent the North Korean regime is...

The North Korean military has seized charge of the economy, elbowing out other ministries and the Workers' Party, the Washington Post said Tuesday. According to the daily, North Korea's military 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." "The army has earned hundreds of millions of dollars selling missiles and weapons to Iran, Pakistan, Syria and other nations." But its two nuclear tests in October 2006 and in May 2009 "have triggered UN sanctions that are now...

OK, this is confusing: but this is the LINK to the original Japanese language article from the conservative/trustworthy South Korean "Chonsun Ilbo" daily newspaper website in Korean which reported from a Russian news agency just a little while ago.The headline is 北�鮮デノミ：「�民騒乱を懸念���戦闘準備� ("North Korean Currency Devaluation: Worries Over Uprising By North Korean People; North Korean Army Goes on Sub-War Status")

Department store cancels sale of Swedish jeans made in N.Korea Jeans confiscated because of 'working conditions in North Korea'. -AFP Sun, Dec 06, 2009 AFP STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - A Swedish department store on Saturday cancelled what was to be the sale of the "first ever" brand of jeans made in North Korea, the Swedish company behind the communist-made dark denims said. "Apparently PUB has censored our exhibition/store by shutting it down and 'confiscating' the jeans because of the 'working conditions in North Korea'," Jakob Ohlsson of company Noko Jeans told AFP in an email. "At first i thought it was...

Why Bosworth Should Not Go to Pyongyang By Chris Green [2009-12-04 16:48 ] Author of, among other things, “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World,” Gordon Chang has today called for Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. chief nuclear negotiator, not to make the trip to Pyongyang for bilateral talks that he is scheduled to make on December 8th. Writing for Forbes, Chang asserts that for Bosworth to go to Pyongyang at this time is both playing into North Korean hands and completely undermining the policy which Washington had appeared to be adhering to since Barack Obama came to office, namely...

This is a short video clip of the top news from the major Japanese JNN Network today. The link is to a Japanese news page on Yahoo!Japan; one just needs to click the arrow to stream the report.Before streaming, please note:-Not all PC/Mac systems can stream the video but most can.-The video may be up for only a few more hours. Then (usually) the links go down. Please see while you can.-You may need to have Microsoft Silverlight installed on your machine.The horrid news report about North Korea, in Japanese, is HERE.And HERE is a clip of what the...

N.Korea military on guard against unrest: reports Thu Dec 3, 3:58 am ET SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea's military was on guard as public anger grew over the communist country's shock currency revaluation, reports said Thursday. The revaluation implemented Monday has sparked fury and frustration as some citizens saw much of their savings wiped out, according to reports and observers. They said the North had tightened security against possible agitation, with a curfew reportedly imposed in a border region and shops closed across the country during the changeover period to a new currency, which ends Sunday. Military authorities have strengthened...

North Koreans are allowed to exchange only between 100,000 to 150,000 won in old bills into new ones at a rate of 100:1, according to sources in the communist country. The money is being exchanged at nationwide branches of North Korea's central bank until Sunday, and the new bills are expected to begin circulating Monday. Once the currency revaluation is completed, North Koreans who have grown wealthy through trade will only be able to retain between W100,000 and W150,000 in cash, and the rest of their savings will be confiscated. According to the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human...

NKoreans burn bills in anger over currency reform By KWANG-TAE KIM (AP) – 1 hour ago SEOUL, South Korea — North Koreans set piles of old bills alight in anger over their government's surprise move to redenominate the national currency, a report said, a sign of growing frustration among citizens left with hoards of worthless bills. On Monday, the communist government informed citizens and foreign embassies that it would redenominate the national currency, the won. But it limited the maximum amount of old bills that could be converted into new ones, telling residents to deposit the rest in government-run banks,...

Arms smuggling heightens Iran fears U.N. BAN IS DEFIED Tehran may be building arsenal, helping militias By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 3, 2009 SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- The warning came almost too late. The freighter ANL Australia had already fired its engines for a 70-mile dash to Iran when customs agents here were alerted to a possible hidden cache of weapons on board. Inspectors from the United Arab Emirates quickly swarmed the ship and uncovered a truck-size container packed with small arms made in North Korea. Concealed deeper in the ship was the real find:...

N.Korea's Currency Reform 'a Bid to Cement Power' The biggest motivation behind North Korea's sudden currency reform Tuesday appears to be Kim Jong-il's intention to throttle the emerging free market, which appears to hamper a smooth succession of power to his son Kim Jong-un, North Korea experts and South Korean government officials say. The North announced the won would be revalued at a rate of 100:1. But some experts say the aim is wealth redistribution, while others believe the reform is aimed at containing inflation, which has skyrocketed since North Korea introduced rudiments of a market economy in 2002. Kim,...

Here's what just happened over in North Korea: TOKYO -- Chaos reportedly erupted in North Korea on Tuesday after the government of Kim Jong Il revalued the country's currency, sharply restricting the amount of old bills that could be traded for new and wiping out personal savings. ... The revaluation replaces 1,000 won notes with 10 won notes, but strictly limits the amount of old currency that can be exchanged, news reports said. 100:1. You had $100,000, you now have $1,000. You had $100,000,000 (one hundred million), you now have one million. Oh, and if you tried to cheat by...

A UN investigation has concluded that North Korea is continuing to export weapons, and using the hard currency obtained to import luxury items for the ruling elite of the communist police state. The UN report detailed North Korean use of false documents and the switching of cargo containers to different ships to throw off investigators. The North Koreans have also had to come up with a large array of subterfuges to get around growing restrictions on their use of the international banking system. The North Koreans are still getting the weapons out, and the money back. But they are increasingly...

A South Korean navy ship has rescued a North Korean soldier whose boat drifted into southern waters across the Yellow Sea border, officials said Monday. Security authorities have been questioning the soldier since he was rescued Sunday, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. The outcome of the investigation would be disclosed later. The soldier said his boat went adrift while he was fishing and asked investigators to send him back to North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported. He will be returned later this week through the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone which bisects the peninsula, it said....

(2nd LD) N. Korea revalues currency for first time in 17 yrs: sources By Kim Hyun SHENYANG, China/SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has sharply raised the value of its currency, its first such move in 17 years, in an apparent bid to tackle inflation and curb black market trading, sources said Tuesday. North Korean sources who engage in trade with China in the eastern Chinese city of Shenyang told Yonhap News Agency that the North Korean government implemented the currency reform as of 11 a.m. Monday and the exchange for the new currency began at 2 p.m. Data...

N. Korea: Chia Head Sighting With Chinese PLA delegation (Nov. 26) At Public Security Ministry(date unknown) At a Weaving Shop(date unknown) At a Cow Ranch Operated by Military(date unknown)

N. Korea: Rational Pollution Advice Causes Devastation By Moon Sung Hwee, from Jagang in 2006 [2009-11-24 18:08 ] The Soil Research Institute at Hamheung Chemical Engineering University has been dissolved and all researchers and cadres associated with it dismissed. The action was apparently taken because they submitted a paper which spoke negatively of the actual condition of polluted soil in the country and measures to deal with it to the Central Committee of the Party. A source from South Hamkyung Province revealed the news to the Daily NK last Saturday in a telephone interview, saying, “The Soil Research Institute sent...

On Nov. 24, right-wing organization in S. Korea featured an ad in Chosun Ilbo and Munhwa Ilbo to urge pro-North leftwing figures to move to N. Korea. The following is the photo of the ad. The title (inside black strip on the top): Go to North to Pursue your Dream! The subtitle below: We propose the policy of 'Permanent Resettlement' of pro-North leftwing figures 'in North Korea.' On the lower right(large caption) : Press conference on publishing "Biographical Dictionary of Pro-North Anti-state Figures"

Chinese and North Korean defence chiefs have pledged to strengthen their military alliance -- dating back to the Korean War -- during talks in Pyongyang, state media said Monday. The move came after Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie arrived in North Korea for talks Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Liang told a reception by Pyongyang's defence chief Kim Yong-Chun that the bilateral relationship was "sealed in blood" when he and other Chinese troops fought the 1950-1953 Korean War on the North Koreans' side. "No force on earth can break the unity of the armies and peoples of...

/begin my translation 11/23/09 Lee Jun-woon U.S. Wants to Open its Liaison Office; N. Koreans are Reviewing - N. Koreans weigh pros and cons of having U.S. liaison office inside their country - worry that its opening would undermine anti-American sentiment among N. Korean citizens - would probably delay the opening until they come up with measures to counter such a trend According to high level sources in N. Korea, U.S. proposed in late October to N. Koreans that U.S. wants to open a diplomatic liaison office(in NK.) U.S. showed its willingness to open the office even before denuclearization of...

Kim Jong-il’s mistress may have new lover November 23, 2009 A one-time partner of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have married another man and left her job as Kim’s secretary, South Korean intelligence sources said. Sources told the JoongAng Ilbo that they have received tips that Kim Ok has married an official from the ruling Workers’ Party. “We’re analyzing intelligence that Kim Ok, who had been Kim Jong-il’s personal secretary, has tied the knot with a Workers’ Party member,” a source said. “We believe Kim Ok has quit her job in the secretariat.” In North Korea, women working in...

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...