Free Republic

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in over three weeks Saturday, hosting a military meeting, according to state media reports. “Set forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, according to Reuters. The agency also released images of Kim speaking from behind a large desk to an audience of men in military uniforms.

Developments unfolding today in the Justice Department probe of insider trading involving members of the US Senate. US Senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican from Georgia, has turned over documents.... Now under FBI investigation Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr is stepping down temporarily.... The FBI has also talked to Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California, about her husband's stock sales in recent months..... A US warship transiting the Taiwan Strait Wednesday. The guided missile destroyer USS McCampbell making the journey through the waterway between Taiwan and China.... Annexation of Judea and Samaria, commonly called the "West Bank", was not the top issue...

North Korea has axed its spy chief as well as the long-running head of Kim Jong Un’s security — signs of a major shakeup during the ongoing mystery over the dictator’s status. Jang Kil Song was ousted as head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the North’s military intelligence agency, according to the Korea Herald, citing a report by South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The RGB is behind the Hermit Kingdom’s most high-profile attacks as well as spy missions, including those against the US, the report says.

Jilin city, the second-largest city in Jilin province, saw bus and rail services halted and residential compounds closed off on Wednesday after the discovery of six new cases of infection. Recently reopened schools were closed again. Overall, at least 22 infections spread across three cities in two provinces — Jilin city and Shulan in Jilin province, and Shenyang city in Liaoning province... While there has been no confirmed link between the cluster and North Korea, the cities’ proximity to the isolated country has ignited fears that an outbreak there is spilling over to China. North Korea has yet to confirm...

Here’s how Kim Jong Un holds court. NBA legend Dennis Rodman dished on his longtime bromance with the North Korean despot — revealing how the pair partied with “hotties and vodka” when they first met. Rodman, now 58, went to Pyongyang in 2013 on a trip with the Harlem Globetrotters and “dignitaries,” he said on ex-boxer Mike Tyson’s HotBoxin’ podcast last week.

A restaruant where customers can sit down has been open for business in Kendrick, Idaho since May 1st in violation of the coronavirus martial law house arrest order of Republican Governor Brad Little. Now the Hardware Brewing Company being threatened with an alcohol license suspension by the Idaho State Police..... Anti-house arrest lockdown protests in several German cities today Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne..... An incident being called "fatal" involving an Iranian logistics ship near the port of Jask with unofficial reports calling it a "friendly fire" incident..... Al Qaeda affiliated jihadists in northwestern Syria launched a surprise attack on government...

Rumors were rampant in mid-April when North Korea's communist despot, Kim Jong Un, disappeared from public view at a surprising time: when the entire benighted citizenry of the country is required to worship his grandfather Kim Il Sung as some kind of Marxist deity. In a country this shackled, we would expect reliable news media to tread lightly. But that expectation would be wrong. Two weeks ago, CNN anchor Jim Sciutto -- former chief of staff to our ambassador to China under former President Barack Obama -- tweeted, "Breaking: The US is monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong...

Kim Jong Un disappeared from public view over the past few weeks because of concerns about the coronavirus – not for any heart-related surgery – South Korea’s intelligence agency is claiming. The disclosure comes after members of South Korea’s parliament were briefed by the country’s National Intelligence Service on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Kim made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks last Friday at a fertilizer factory near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. “The NIS assesses that at least he did not get any heart-related procedure or surgery,” Kim Byung-kee, a member of the South Korean parliament’s...

Video at link. (11 minutes) Interesting review of what is known about Kim Yo-jong.

President Donald Trump responded to reports about North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, reposting state media photos that purport to show Kim attending a ceremony at a fertilizer factory. “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Kim’s attendance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony was the first public appearance he’s made in about three weeks, and it comes amid speculation about his health. Several news outlets in Asia had reported that Kim, 36, was brain dead or had died, although South Korean officials said he was alive and still in control of the...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, blaming North Korean soldiers for targeting a guard post. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the heavily fortified border. South Korea fired two rounds in response after issuing a warning broadcast, it said. MORE AT LINK

Well here we are in this stressful wartime situation. I am out working and even volunteering a bit six days a week experiencing what's real out there. Fear and anger and shortages of goods..... Covid-19 Russia Update: Almost 10-Thousand New Cases.... DC 19 Update: Spain's Inmates Allowed Out Of Their "Cells" To Exercise As one person put it to me today: "It's like we're living in North Korea" Well, we maybe on the way to Venezuela or North Korea with some signs appearing in front of us in plain sight but the folks there you can argue have it worse...

Since September 1987, millions of children, old as well as young, have amused themselves by searching in a series of puzzle books titled Where's Waldo (Wally in England and Charlie in France) to find a young man, wearing a red and white striped shirt, decorated ski hat, and glasses, hidden in the group of people and surroundings in the text. As the books continue, Waldo becomes smaller and harder to find. Today, millions are looking for clues in the serious game of Where's Kim Jong-un, the 36-year-old supreme leader of North Korea, who has not been seen publicly since April...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in around 20-days - after speculation, the dictator had died.

The Russian pipe laying vessel Academic Cherskiy has reached Danish waters on a journey that began on the other side of the world earlier this year. Russia sent the vessel in a bid to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring natural gas directly from Russia into Germany and onto other European countries. Its a move that's been opposed by the United States, which wants to sell liquefied natural gas made in the USA to Europe. To make the point the US imposed sanctions on any companies helping to build the pipeline with President Trump signing the legislation..... Canadian...

North Korean state-run media is reporting that Kim Jong Un made an appearance at a May Day celebration, which would be his first public appearance in about three weeks. "Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Cuts Tape For Completion Of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. KCNA says there was a "completion ceremony of the factory" on Friday, "the international holiday of the working people of the whole world." No pictures of the ceremony have yet emerged. CNN cannot independently confirm KCNA's reporting. Questions were raised about Kim's well-being after he missed the celebration of his...

BIOLOGICAL WARFARE: The head of the NSB said it does not have a unit focused on gathering intelligence on biological warfare activity, but one would be set up The COVID-19 virus originated in China, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng told lawmakers yesterday, adding that intelligence indicated that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “ill,” but remains in control of the nation. Tsai asked Chiu about the bureau’s intelligence regarding the source of COVID-19 and whether it originated in China or the US, as has been suggested by some Chinese officials. National Security Bureau Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng speaks at...

President Donald Trump has said he knows something of the North Korean leader’s condition – but he won’t disclose it. NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK provided halting signs that leader Kim Jong Un remains in power and control as sensational reports circulated unabated across the world claiming he is grievously ill or perhaps even dead. Though their significance is disputed, a series of dispatches were reportedly issued in Kim's name to Syria, Cuba and South Africa as well as a letter of praise for local workers. But, as is historically the case when issues arise about its leader's fitness, signals from...

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un might be staying out of the spotlight due to CCP virus concerns, according to a South Korean minister on Tuesday. South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Kim’s absence from a ceremony on April 15 that celebrated his grandfather Kim Il Sung’s birthday isn’t unusual. According to reports, Kim has never missed the ceremony for his grandfather, the founder of the communist state, since he took power in 2011. “It is true that he had never missed the anniversary for Kim Il Sung’s birthday since he took power, but many anniversary events including celebrations and...

Dictators love their personal trains. Hitler had ‘Amerika’, an armoured beast equipped with anti-aircraft guns, which he used as a mobile headquarters for much of World War II. Mussolini and Stalin both insisted on luxurious bespoke carriages when travelling long distances. Fitting, then, that one of the world’s last old‑fashioned despots should also travel in his own unique version of this tyrant’s status symbol: one that may provide a vital clue as to the whereabouts of this stricken — and possibly deceased — autocrat.