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<p>Is Kim Jong Il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years, but a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead — and his role is played by a double.</p> <p>The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China, have been negotiating with an imposter.</p>

When Ralph McClintock boarded the USS Pueblo in January 1968, he was planning for a three-week mission. Instead, the 24-year-old communications technician became a prisoner of war, a pawn in the Cold War sideshow that began with North Korea's capture of the Navy spy ship and imprisonment of its 82 crew members. Forty years later, as McClintock and the other survivors of the Pueblo prepare for a reunion, he's proud of his service and the bonds he made with his crew mates during 11 months in captivity. But the pride is tinged with bitterness. "We were treated as heroes when...

Speculation has recently grown again that Kim, who is 66 and has not been seen in public for more than three weeks, is unwell. Some media have long thought that Kim, a former smoker and heavy drinker, was ill but Seoul intelligence officials say they believe he has diabetes and heart problems, but those are not serious enough to affect his job.

Is Kim Jong-il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years but now a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead – and his role is played by a double. The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China have been negotiating with an impostor. He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four lookalikes to act as substitutes at public events. One underwent plastic surgery to make his appearance more convincing. Now, the expert claims,...

40 Years After Capture, USS Pueblo Crew Reunites JERICHO, Vt. — Ralph McClintock expected only a three-week mission when he boarded the USS Pueblo in January 1968. Instead, he and his shipmates became pawns in a Cold War sideshow when North Korea captured the Navy spy ship and imprisoned its 82 crew members. Some still suffer the physical effects of torture or malnutrition they suffered in 11 months of captivity. McClintock is proud of his service as a 24-year-old communications technician and the bonds he made with his crew mates, but that pride is tinged with bitterness. "We were treated...

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il's Health Issue Resurfaces Out of public view for three weeks Five Chinese doctors sent to N. Korea Ahn Yong-hyon Kim Jong-il(age:66) has not been seen in public for three weeks. With the report of five Chinese doctors being dispatched to N. Korea, a possibility is being raised again that there is a problem with Kim's health. Kim dropped out of public view after KCNA reported in Aug. 14 that he inspected KPA Unit 1319. He has maintained active public schedule lately, 11 public appearances in June, 16 in July, and 13 in August. Government sources...

NKorea, eying next Japan PM, delays kidnap probe 4 hours ago TOKYO (AFP) — North Korea will delay a long-awaited probe into abductions of Japanese citizens, officials said Friday, as dovish Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's sudden resignation set back moves to ease tension. North Korea told Japan through diplomatic channels that it was holding off on launching an investigation into the fate of Japanese abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime's spies, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said. "This is very disappointing," Komura told a news conference. He said North Korea confirmed it planned to hold the probe...

WASHINGTON — North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now putting the facility back together in violation of the United States' conditions for improved diplomatic relations between the countries, U.S. officials told FOX News on Tuesday. The motive isn't clear but sources say North Koreans likely are reassembling nuclear facilities at Yongbyon partly to protest the United States' delay in taking the country off its list of terror-sponsoring nations. "They've been threatening this move for some time," one U.S. official told FOX News, adding that until now the threats were seen as merely a way...

North Korea Reassembling Nuclear Center, U.S. Officials Say Tuesday , September 02, 2008 ADVERTISEMENT WASHINGTON — North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now putting the center back together in violation of the United States' conditions for improved diplomatic relations between the countries, U.S. officials told FOX News on Tuesday. The motive isn't clear but sources say North Koreans likely are reassembling nuclear facilities at Yongbyon partly to protest the United States' delay in taking the country off its list of terrorist-sponsoring nations. "They've been threatening this move for some time," one U.S. official told...

Army Colonel Gets Spyware From N.Korea Amid lingering controversy over the arrest of a North Korean Mata Hari, a malicious North Korean e-mail has been sent to a colonel at a field army command. Military authorities have reportedly provided the entire army with updated anti-hacking software. A military intelligence source on Monday said the e-mail was sent early last month to the colonel via China. The source added that the e-mail was programmed to automatically steal stored files if the recipient opened it. But whether military secrets were actually stolen by way of this e-mail was not known. Military authorities...

Are these people trying to get McCain elected? Just a Foxnews Alert with Jennifer Griffin right now.

It has been 25 years since Korean Airlines Flight 007, carrying 269 passengers and crew, including Congressman Larry McDonald of Georgia, was fired on by a Soviet fighter jet off the coast of Siberia. At the time, McDonald was chairman of the John Birch Society (a subsidiary of which publishes THE NEW AMERICAN). Although several speakers eulogized McDonald at a Washington, D.C., memorial service 10 days following the September 1, 1983 attack, the words most remembered by both this magazine’s editor, Gary Benoit, and this writer were delivered by the late Senator Jesse Helms, who passed away on July 4....

Even though my country, Sweden, isn't a NATO-member, I'm beginning to feel somewhat annoyed over the behavior the Russian Air Force displays towards my dear neighbor country Norway. I think the Nordic countries, as well as the whole of "Democratic" Europe will have to fight Russian Expansionism within a generation. Russia will lose. Russia stands no chance against a united Western Europe - and if Russia does not wish to realize this, we will make them highly aware of their inferiority in terms of population size, technological know-how, production capacity and overall management skills. Compared to governments like those of...

U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain will a pursue tougher policy toward North Korea than that of the incumbent Bush administration if he becomes the occupant of the White House, a report said. Radio Free Asia (RFA), a U.S.-funded private radio station, Saturday quoted the Republican Party's draft policy on North Korea as saying that McCain will demand complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement (CVID) of its nuclear weapons program. The inclusion of the term ``CVID'' in the party's draft on North Korea policy reflects a more hawkish approach toward resolving the North's nuclear issue, the report said. The Bush administration, which...

N. Korea says it can launch satellites anytime SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday celebrated the 10th anniversary of the launch of Taepodong-1, the communist state's first self-claimed satellite rocket, declaring that it can do the same anytime. Taepodong-1 is a three-stage intermediate-range ballistic missile developed in North Korea and currently in service. The missile was derived originally from the Scud rocket and can allegedly serve as both a nuclear delivery system and a space launch vehicle. On Aug. 31, 1998, North Korea proudly announced that it had successfully launched its first satellite Kwangmyoungsong into orbit by...

N.Korean Spy Who Posed as Defector Busted AUGUST 28, 2008 08:41 Authorities said yesterday that they apprehended a North Korean spy disguised as a defector. Won Jeong-hwa was caught while handing over military intelligence to the North. Her boyfriend, a South Korean Army captain, was also indicted for failing to report her despite knowing she was working for the North. A joint investigation team grilled Won’s stepfather “Kim,” who supervised and funded her espionage activities and delivered stolen information to North Korean agents in China. The North trained Won as a spy in December 1998 and she searched for and...

Excerpt- SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday said it has halted disablement of its nuclear power plants as Washington failed to remove it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The communist nation's Foreign Ministry said measures to halt the process were taken as of Aug. 14. ~ snip ~

North Korean scientists have developed a new kind of noodle that delays feelings of hunger, a Japan-based pro-Pyongyang newspaper has reported. The noodles were made from corn and soybeans, the Choson Shinbo said. They left people feeling fuller longer and represented a technological breakthrough, the newspaper said. North Korea is dependent on foreign food aid. Last month the UN warned that residents were experiencing their worst food shortages in a decade. But the communist country remains reluctant to allow experts to fully assess the scale of the problem or give them adequate access to deliver aid. UN warnings According to...

N Korea's Kim died in 2003 and was replaced by lookalike, says Waseda professor Is Kim Jong Il dead? Yes, North Korea’s “Dear Leader” is no more, having passed away in the fall of 2003, writes Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura in Shukan Gendai (Aug 23-30). A one-time Mainichi Shimbun journalist posted in Seoul, Shigemura is introduced by the magazine as a leading authority on the Korean Peninsula. His latest book, released this month, is titled “The True Character of Kim Jong Il.” If true, the implications are potentially vast. Among them: former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s summit partner during...

N Korea 'develops special noodle' North Korean scientists have developed a new kind of noodle that delays feelings of hunger, a Japan-based pro-Pyongyang newspaper has reported. The noodles were made from corn and soybeans, the Choson Shinbo said. They left people feeling fuller longer and represented a technological breakthrough, the newspaper said. North Korea is dependent on foreign food aid. Last month the UN warned that residents were experiencing their worst food shortages in a decade. But the communist country remains reluctant to allow experts to fully assess the scale of the problem or give them adequate access to deliver...

Don't laugh at Dear Leader, SKorean athletes warned Wed Aug 20, 4:14 AM ET South Korean Olympic athletes have been given detailed guidelines to avoid friction with their North Korean counterparts in Beijing, officials said Wednesday. Contestants should not point or laugh at badges or portraits depicting North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il or his late father Kim Il-Sung, the (South) Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) says in a handbook. "Refrain from pointing, touching or laughing at badges, portraits and remarks idolising the father and son," the booklet advises. Athletes should also avoid using names like "South Korea" and "North Korea"...

The Communist North Korean government has declared Sweden their enemy and a US war puppet. According to information from the Swedish Armed Forces, this brusque message was first conveyed in a North Korean radio broadcast, then printed as an official document and distributed to the United Nations. The North Koreans' attack is not directed against the Swedish government as such, but against Sweden's and other neutral countries' military observation missions on the border between North and South Korea. Sweden is active in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) present in the area. Following the end of the Korean War in...

The trouble with the diplomatic argument against nuclear proliferation is that it is patronizing. Simplified it is the nuclear weapons state saying to any nuclear aspirant, “Trust us because we do not trust you.” This unpleasant message is often amplified by race and religion. After all, the primary force in containing proliferation is the United States, backed up by its western European allies. Sure there are blandishments that can tip the scale, as happened with Libya. But by and large, proliferation is a national goal for many countries. The surprising thing about proliferation is how slowly it has spread. For...

Juxtaposed on opposite pages of the BBC International newspaper were two stories: "..thousands of people (in Seoul, South Korea) protesting against resumption of U.S. Beef imports..." and "The U.S. announced that it will send half a million tons of food aid to North Korea." How can two so closely connected groups of people hold such strong opposite opinions about the safety of U.S. food exports? Easy. It's the haves vs. the have-nots. South Korea is a strong democratic nation, our ally, who owes its existence to the U.S. and the United Nations. It has the luxury to be choosey. Its...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — Much like today’s incoming officers, members of the U.S. Military Academy class of 1966 knew what they were getting into when they left West Point. Arthur Bonifas and William McKinney each deployed to different units in Vietnam. They made it back, but 40 or so of their classmates did not, McKinney said Thursday. The tragedies took their toll, but after a while they were no longer shocking. "The numbness wore off, and then boom, 10 years later after Vietnam, out of the blue … it wasn’t supposed to happen after Vietnam," McKinney said. On Aug. 18,...

U.S. Keeping N.Korea on Terror List 'Indefinitely' North Korea remains on a list of state sponsors of terrorism from which the U.S. had been expected to remove the Stalinist country on Monday. A diplomatic source in Washington said U.S. President George W. Bush decided to postpone the removal since North Korea failed to agree on a verification regime for the nuclear programs and stockpiles it has declared. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Japan's Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura by phone about the policy change. By law, the U.S. president could have removed the North from the terrorism list on...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - North Korea will remain on a US terrorism blacklist until it accepts a comprehensive mechanism to verify its nuclear program, the US State Department said Monday. Under US law, Washington can from Monday begin considering removing Pyongyang from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, 45 days after the hardline communist state submitted a long awaited declaration of its nuclear program. -snip-

India doesn’t let North Korea plane overfly to Iran Pranab Dhal Samanta Posted online: Friday, August 08, 2008 at 0145 hrs IST New Delhi, August 7 India this afternoon withdrew its permission for a North Korean plane to overfly Indian airspace on its way to Iran, just before it could take off from Mandalay in Myanmar where it had made a stopover. This, sources have told The Indian Express, was done after instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office this morning. It’s learnt that on August 4, Indian authorities had given permission to the North Korean plane — its call sign...

Wednesday marks the 63rd anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima by an American atomic bomb. For most of us, if we think of that occasion at all, it will be a passing thought - a distant historical fact, probably noted with sympathy for those killed or wounded in the attack. Perhaps we will recollect - as we should - that the unprecedented destruction wrought by a single weapon helped bring World War II quickly to a close, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese home islands that would have been infinitely more destructive, for both the inhabitants and...

BEIJING -- North Korea is heading toward its worst food crisis since the 1990s because of flooding, successive crop failures and worldwide inflation for staples such as rice and corn, the United Nations World Food Program said Wednesday. The agency shied away from predicting another famine like the one that killed as many as 2 million people in the 1990s, but said its field staff was observing some of the same warning signs. People are again foraging for wild plants, grass and seaweed to supplement their meager diets. Hospitals are reporting an increase in chronic diarrhea and illness that are...

<p>In this regard Nodong Sinmun Monday carries a signed commentary which says: In order to prevent the danger of a new war and ensure durable peace on the Korean Peninsula, there is no other way but to put an end to the US hostile policy towards the DPRK and conclude a peace accord between them.</p>

Barack Obama flatly stated in his interview with CBS News' Katie Couric yesterday that North Korea possesses "eight nuclear weapons":"There's a reason why, for example, North Korea, when we weren't talking, developed eight nuclear weapons. And when we started talking, we've now arrived at possibility where we could get those nuclear weapons, and those systems dismantled." I never seen any definitive statement from the U.S. government on the number of nuclear warheads North Korea has, nor have I seen any statement from North Korea on this. In fact, this article published July 11, 2008 by the Asia Times about the...

Regensburg, Germany -- In his 2002 State of the Union address President Bush labeled three nations -- Iraq, North Korea and Iran -- members of an “axis of evil” promising to prevent those regimes “…from threatening America … with weapons of mass destruction.” Unfortunately, the President will leave office with the job one-third completed and a series of last minute, dangerous credibility destroying policy reversals. President Bush has successfully removed Iraq’s threat but the threats posed by North Korea and Iran will continue into the next administration. Worse, in his final year, President Bush has abandoned conservative principles in favor...

Is the Bush administration crumbling? Asia experts Liu Kin-ming and June Teufel Dreyer, in postings on the Taiwan Policy Forum listserv today, ask a pertinent question. The answer, unfortunately, is “yes.” An exhausted Dubya is now doing everything he once said he would not. The President, for example, is rewarding North Korea prior to surrender of its nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, the administration agreed to talk with Iran even though the Islamic Republic is continuing to enrich uranium and undoubtedly maintaining a covert bomb program. And on the same day, it was revealed that the Bush White House is undermining...

North Korea may lose a massive cash cow as South Korea has suspended a joint tour program to the communist country's mountain resort following the shooting death of a tourist by the North's military. South Korea is also considering halting another tour program to the North's ancient capital of Kaesong in a bid to press Pyongyang to allow Seoul officials to visit the site of the killing to look into the mysterious background of the woman's death. A suspension of the two tour programs would deliver a major blow to the North because the joint cross-border project is one of...

Hotel Of Doom Hotel of Doom is a mocking name for one of the biggest and most ugliest structures in the world. The real name of that behemoth is Ryugyong Hotel which is located in Pyongyang, North Korea. This hotel is one of the best examples of awful planning. The communist regime in North Korea wanted to show the entire world that they can be equal to them in any aspect. And is there a better way to show the world how capable they are then by building a huge structure which will attract rich foreigner tourists and investors. That’s...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

BEIJING — North Korea agreed Saturday to finish dismantling its main atomic reactor by the end of October and allow international inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities in a deal that inched the tortuous negotiations forward but was short on specifics. The agreement, hashed out at the end of another round of international talks here in China, does not say how the denuclearization process would be verified, and it does not include plans for full disarmament. But it's another step forward in the long process of getting the secretive communist regime to give up its nuclear program. To that end,...

<p>A North Korea soldier shot and killed a South Korean woman on Friday near a tourist resort in the North, a stunning incident that will test the two countries' relations after they have been fraying for several months.</p> <p>North Korean officials told the resort operator that the shooting occurred about 5 a.m. on a beach that it deems off-limits to the South's tourists. The shooting was the first in the decade since North Korea began allowing visitors to a resort at Mount Kumgang, a small range of scenic mountain peaks that's famous in both countries...</p>

North Korean soldiers on Friday shot dead a female South Korean tourist who was visiting a resort in the communist state, officials said.

"One day, I discovered three kernels of corn in a small pile of cow dung, picked them up and cleaned them with my sleeve before eating," says Shin In-kun at www.northkoreanrefugees.com. "As miserable as it may seem, that was my lucky day." You may be asking yourself in what twisted world could that revolting story be considered a lucky day? Welcome to North Korea. Shin was born in 1982 in a North Korean prison camp. Growing up in this misery, he knew almost nothing of the outside world. He barely met his father and his brother. Though he lived with...

Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. bellicose forces staged joint air military exercises together with the south Korean war-like forces in the U.S. air base in south Korea for about a week from June 16 swimming against the trend of the times. Involved in the war maneuvers were over 90 air-striking means including fighters of the U.S. air force in Pacific, its mainland and in south Korea and the south Korean puppet air force. Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary brands the above-mentioned war maneuvers as a premeditated playing with fire aimed at escalating the military confrontation and...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's foreign ministry insisted on Saturday that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology. Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Friday that Pakistan's army supervised a 2000 shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea. It must have been sent with the approval of Musharraf, the then-army chief who took power in a 1999 coup, Khan alleged. "It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment," Khan said. "It must have gone...

Pakistan's Military Knew Of Nuclear Technology Transfer To N Korea, Says Scientist 7/4/2008 2:52 PM ET Abdul Qadir Khan, who is considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, said on Friday that the country's former military regime was aware of the transfer of nuclear technology to North Korea. AQ Khan told media on Friday that the Pakistani army, which was headed by President Pervez Musharraf then, was aware of the technology transfer as the uranium enrichment equipment was dispatched onboard a North Korean plane under the supervision of Pakistani army officials in 2000. Khan's statements on Friday contradicts...

(SEOUL) — Han Chang-kweon is skeptical when he hears that his homeland is taking steps to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Born in North Korea in 1961, he escaped from a communist logging camp in his early 30s, lived in Uzbekistan, and sought asylum in the United States before moving to Seoul in 2005. He said North Korea’s nuclear weapons are its only bargaining chip, and the country can’t survive without them. "What they are doing now is nothing but a show. They will never give up their nuclear programs — they simply can’t, at least for as long...

The communists were watching intently. One wore a rough, green military uniform with a cut-off collar. He had a large, moon-like face and an inscrutable expression. The other, who had a flint-like look in his eye, was in a slick grey suit. It's not often you wake on a train to find a pair of communists sitting cross-legged an arm's length away and staring at you. But that, I soon discovered, is par for the course in North Korea. Both men, like almost everyone else I would meet in the country, sported red circular badges depicting North Korea's founding father,...

‘Centrifuges sent to North Korea with Musharraf’s consent’ * AQ Khan says army knew of shipment * Presidency slams ‘false statement’ ISLAMABAD: North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, Dr AQ Khan said on Friday. Khan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pakistan in a North Korean plane that was loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials. Khan said the army had “complete knowledge” of the shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea and...

US has means to verify North Korea statement -Rice (Adds amount of plutonium, other details) By Susan Cornwell KYOTO, Japan, June 26 (Reuters) - The United States believes it has the means to verify North Korea's estimate of its nuclear programmes, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday. North Korea was expected to declare between 30-50 kg (66-110 lb) of plutonium in the document, given to the Chinese government on Thursday, a senior U.S. administration official said separately, but added that "our estimates are greater". Verification, which meant calculating and resolving differences in estimates, could take "months and...

USFK commander takes war cue from Iraq By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Sunday, June 29, 2007 CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The top U.S. military commander in South Korea plans steps to ensure U.S. forces are ready to counter any Iraq-style insurgency tactics that North Korea might try to use in a conflict on the peninsula. In a brief interview with Stars and Stripes on Friday, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp said he thinks it’s likely North Korea has been keeping close watch on the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq and would no doubt...

George W. Bush's presidency seems exhausted and irrelevant, but that's a dangerous illusion. The Decider remains in command of the world's most advanced and powerful military force, and he has just a few months to tie up what he might consider loose ends -- a thought that is sobering enough to send Amy Winehouse to rehab. We can only hope he considers his "denuclearization" agreement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il a sufficient legacy. Assuming the deal keeps North Korea from making more nuclear weapons, Bush will be 1-for-3 in dealing with his Axis of Evil. (If you ignore...