Free Republic

Proliferation: As we shutter our ICBM squadrons and destroy our silos, Iran and North Korea are working on technology to deliver nukes Pyongyang already has and Tehran is a few centrifuge rotations from acquiring. As Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon reports, groups of technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), a unit in charge of building Iran's liquid-fueled missiles, have made repeated trips to North Korea during the past several months, including as recently as late October, to work on a new 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Koreans, That booster is believed to be...

South Korea (AP) -- North Korea state media claimed Saturday that an elderly U.S. tourist detained for more than a month has apologized for alleged crimes during the Korean War and for "hostile acts" against the state during a recent trip. North Korean authorities released video showing 85-year-old Merrill Newman, wearing glasses, a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reading his alleged apology, which was dated Nov. 9 and couldn't be independently confirmed. Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees. There was no way to reach Newman and determine the circumstances of the alleged confession. "I have...

According to the interim agreement regarding Iran's nuclear program that was reached this weekend in Geneva, not one centrifuge will be destroyed. Not one pound of enriched uranium will leave Iran. Not one American unjustly detained in Iran's notorious prisons will be released. But Iran will start to receive, in a matter of days, $7 billion in relief from international economics sanctions. This appears to be an unfortunate case of history repeating itself. As happened with North Korea in 1994, fascination with the negotiation process has blinded American diplomats to the true nature of their negotiating partners. Substantive sanctions relief...

Iranian collaboration with North Korea on a new rocket booster for long-range missiles undermines the deal with Tehran on its nuclear program, key Senate and House Republicans said on Tuesday. “While the president was undertaking his secret negotiations—which Congress wasn’t informed of—he had to know Iran and North Korea were testing new engines for ballistic missiles to target the United States,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces. Reports of Iran-North Korea ICBM collaboration follow new anti-America and anti-Israel outbursts from the Islamist regime in Tehran, Cruz said. “The Iranian regime...

Mr. Kerry and his team have yet to address one of the biggest challenges: the example set by North Korea, which over the past two decades has shown the world—Iran, not least—how a rogue state can exploit over-eager western diplomacy to haggle and cheat its way to the nuclear bomb. Since 1994, North Korea has cut a series of nuclear freeze deals, collecting security guarantees, diplomatic concessions and material benefits along the way. North Korea has cheated and reneged on every deal. Today, the Kim regime has uranium enrichment facilities, has restarted (again) its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, has...

N. Korea ready for 4th nuclear test, yet no imminent sign: Seoul 2013/11/15 13:58 By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test, but no imminent sign has been detected at its main site in the northeastern tip, South Korea's defense ministry said Friday. South Korea's vice defense minister Baek Seung-joo briefed lawmakers of the ruling Saenuri Party on the condition of the Punggye-ri test site in its northeastern region during a meeting of the special security committee on North Korea's nuclear weapons amid rising speculation over another test. The southern tunnel...

Mongolian leader to N. Korea: 'No tyranny lasts forever' BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, at the end of his rare visit to North Korea late last month, encouraged the North to let its people "live free" and emulate Mongolia's model of transformation, saying, "No tyranny lasts forever," according to a transcript of Elbegdorj's speech on Friday. Elbegdorj gave the speech at the Kim Il Sung University on Oct. 31 or before wrapping up his four-day visit to North Korea, the Mongolian leader's office said in the transcript. It marked the first visit by a head of...

In an apparent attempt to bring North Korea's all-powerful military to heel, the country's young leader Kim Jong-un has reshuffled all the top brass over the last two years. Hardline officers who were purged or replaced include the military Politburo chief, the Army chief, the director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the minister of the People's Armed Forces. In April last year, Kim appointed Choe Ryong-hae, who has no military background, as Politburo chief and replaced the military, security and intelligence chiefs several times. Several lower-ranking officers have also been demoted and then restored to their original posts, which...

South Korea's spy agency said Monday that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralysing military electronic equipment south of the border. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions.

SNIPPET: "North Korea appears to have been digging two new tunnels at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province since May, sparking fears that it is preparing for another nuclear test." SNIPPET: "Specialist website 38 North, which is run by Johns Hopkins University, said it discovered two new tunnel entrances and a mound of earth while analyzing satellite pictures of the test site taken on Wednesday."

North Korea's national carrier Air Koryo, which has the lowest airline rating on Skytrax, has discovered the Internet. The state-owned company -- regarded by some as the "world's worst airline" -- recently launched a bilingual website (www.airkoryo.com.kp) to provide travelers with "easier, quicker, reliable booking and ticketing services," according to Air Koryo. Air Koryo's new ticket booking system reinforces the company's less-than-brilliant reputation. After multiple trials to book a one-way ticket from Shengyang to Pyongyang, we failed to secure any reservation. Instead, we ended up with this message day after day: “We cannot find any flights for your flight schedule....

The disappearance of some 20,000 prisoners of conscience, and possibly many more, from North Korea’s Camp 22–a massive concentration camp neighboring Hoeryong city which was geographically larger than Los Angeles and thought to have once held between 30,000 and 50,000 captives–cannot represent anything less than a Srebrenica-level massacre of an already enslaved and frightfully brutalized population. Satellite photographs indicate that guard posts, interrogation and detention facilities at the camp had been razed last year; by which time those groundlessly accused and exploited had all of a sudden been reduced to about 3,000. [more at link]

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has replaced officials holding almost half of the nation's key posts in an attempt to strengthen his control over the country, a South Korean report showed on Tuesday. Kim has changed the officials filling 97 out of 218 military, party and government posts since he took over the communist dynasty in December 2011, the South's Unification Ministry said in a report. He has often used a "demotion and reinstatement" process in reshuffling military posts in an attempt to tighten control over the military, the ministry said. "This means Kim has completed the dynastic succession...

North Korea puts army on alert, warns U.S. of 'horrible disaster' 7:42pm EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday its military would be put on high alert and be ready to launch operations, stepping up tension after weeks of rhetoric directed against the United States and South Korea, who it accuses of instigating hostility. Reclusive North Korea has often issued threats to attack the South and the United States but has rarely turned them into action. Such hostile rhetoric is widely seen as a means to perpetuate its domestic and international political agenda. In the latest outburst, a...

US experts: NKorea can likely build key nuke parts Posted: Sep 24, 2013 12:06 AM Updated: Sep 24, 2013 12:06 AM By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean scientists are able to build crucial equipment for uranium-based nuclear bombs on their own, cutting the need for imports that had been one of the few ways outsiders could monitor the country's secretive atomic work, according to evidence gathered by two American experts.

September 20, 2013, 12:00 AM Pyongyang Orders Diplomats’ Children Home By Alexander Martin Biography Worried about possible threats to regime stability from North Korean children educated abroad, Pyongyang has ordered its diplomats and state trading company officials stationed overseas to send their children back to the North, an expert on the secretive regime says. Kansai University Prof. Lee Young Hwa said the order was the first of its kind passed under the North’s young leader Kim Jong Un, according to information he received from a North Korean trading official in China. The order, with a deadline set for the end...

Kim Jong Un orders 9 executed to protect wife from scandal September 21, 2013 By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Correspondent North Korea executed nine music group performers in an apparent attempt to squelch rumors leaking that the wife of leader Kim Jong Un might once have led a provocative lifestyle. The information comes from a high-ranking North Korean government official who recently defected. According to sources, both the Japanese and South Korean governments have confirmed the veracity of the report. Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, was a singer with the Unhasu Orchestra before she married him in June 2012. The scandal involves...

Russian diplomat warns that North Korea faces 'man-made disaster' after satellite images show it has restarted ageing nuclear reactor The Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea was closed in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement Its five megawatt reactor can produce plutonium for weapons and bombs New satellite images have captured steam rising from the complex This suggests the nuclear reactor has been restarted, according to a U.S. research institute By Sophie Jane Evans PUBLISHED: 10:26 GMT, 12 September 2013 | UPDATED: 00:54 GMT, 13 September 2013 ....................................... But a senior Russian diplomat has claimed that the outdated...

Choi Sung-yung of the Abductees' Family Union said Friday that 68-year-old Jeon Wook-pyo escaped last month and returned to South Korea in early September. Choi said Jeon was one of 25 crewmen on board two boats captured by North Korea in the Yellow Sea in 1972. ... South Korea estimates that more than 500 South Koreans have been kidnapped and detained by North Korea since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

<p>The five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. Pyongyang announced plans in April to restart it amid a litany of threats toward the US and South Korea after it faced tougher international censure over its latest nuclear and rocket tests.</p>