Free Republic

HAVANA - North Korea's No. 2 leader blamed the lack of world peace on the United States Saturday at the Nonaligned Summit, saying that because of its failure to respect the sovereignty of other nations, "the international order is destroyed." Parliament leader Kim Yong Nam said desires for peace by the 118 countries in the Nonaligned Movement were "confronted with grave challenges owing to the high-handed acts and unilateralism of the superpower, which denies countries and nations the independent choice of development." The resulting imbalance in global politics constitutes "grave threats to world peace and security," he said. It was...

HAVANA - When Cuba last hosted the Nonaligned Movement summit, the Cold War still divided the world and Fidel Castro was a strapping 53-year-old inspiring armed movements in poor countries the world over. The Cuban-inspired Sandinista rebels had just triumphed in Nicaragua, the Shah of Iran had just fallen, the U.S. still controlled the Panama Canal and wars of liberation from colonial powers raged in Africa. To the leaders who gathered in Havana in August 1979, Castro was the symbol of their struggle for self-determination and freedom from U.S. domination. This time around, it's not even clear that Castro will...