Free Republic

A member of the U.S. Army Band who said he was reprimanded for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his personal car, serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a party and reading books written by conservative authors like Sean Hannity is now facing Article 15 charges – which cropped up shortly after he went public with his complaints. Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a decorated soloist with the Army Band, is being charged under a federal law that permits commanding officers to conduct non-judicial proceedings for minor offenses. Sommers is accused of giving a superior officer the wrong date for a doctor’s appointment. He’s...

Kim Jong Un building 'mini world' with replica Big Ben and Eiffel Tower Chubby tyrant Kim Jong Un is building a “miniature world” in North Korea – with a replica of London's Big Ben at its heart. The dictator is set to open the theme park in capital Pyongyang – and has included the iconic clock tower. The new attraction, which opens this year, will also boast a copy of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. The secretive state famously doesn’t allow its citizens to leave the country – so it appears Jong Un has decided to bring the world to his people....

Looks like North Korea wasn’t bluffing about cutting off one of their only channels to hard currency and global trade. This morning, a high-ranking official of the DPRK announced that all 51,000 workers at the Kaesong industrial complex would leave, shutting down the last link of cooperation between North and South: North Korea said Monday it will recall 51,000 North Korean workers and suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.The statement from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of a key decision-making...

Today, Kim Jang-soo, South Korea’s new national security director, said North Korea may fire off a missile as soon as Wednesday. The launch will undoubtedly be a test of an intermediate-range missile, not an attack. North Korea last week moved two missiles, which were subsequently loaded onto mobile launchers, to its east coast. Many expect the missiles, which have been subsequently moved to hidden locations, will be fired in trajectories arcing over Japan. ... The KN-08 sits on an eight-axle mobile vehicle—a transporter-erector-launcher in military lingo—that can hide and shoot, so America’s costly missile defense system is considered necessary because...

Japan's Defense Minister issued the official military order within the hour or so. It has been stated in news commentary that the North's Musudan intermediate ballistic missile which is an extreme threat to Japan and had been suddenly moved to North Korea's east coast just two days ago for possible launch without warning, without any kind of statement to international space or aviation bodies for a "test launch" of a missile, means that North Korea could launch a sneak missile launch without any warning to the world. So Japan's Defense Minister ordered Japan Self Defense Forces (SDF) into readiness with...

MOSCOW – North Korea has advised foreign diplomats to consider evacuating their embassies there, in light of increasing tensions in the area, Russian and British diplomats said Friday. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters traveling with him in Uzbekistan Friday afternoon that Moscow was seeking more details about the North Korean statement before making a decision about whether to evacuate. Lavrov said Russia was treating the statement from Pyongyang as a suggestion and not an order.

China continued moving tanks and armored vehicles and flying flights near North Korea this week as part of a military buildup in the northeastern part of the country that U.S. officials say is related to the crisis with North Korea. The Obama administration, meanwhile, sought to play down the Chinese military buildup along the border with Beijing’s fraternal communist ally despite the growing danger of conflict following unprecedented threats by Pyongyang to attack the United States and South Korea with nuclear weapons. Officials said one key military unit involved in the mobilization is the 190th Mechanized Infantry Brigade based in...

North Korean Diplomats 'Sell Millions of Dollars Worth of Drugs' North Korea sent a large amount of illegal drugs to its embassy in an East European country last December and ordered diplomats there to sell it for cash by early April, a diplomatic source here claims. "South Korean intelligence obtained the information from a North Korean agent who defected recently," the source said. "Similar orders were delivered to other North Korean embassies." North Korea has ordered each diplomat to raise US $300,000 to prove their loyalty and mark the birthday of nation founder Kim Il-sung on April 15. Each North...

Brief excerpt; The paper said the general made clear at a speech given at a rally in Pyongyang that intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and other rockets capable of attacking pre-set targets have been armed with various types of atomic warheads.

Worm booted from bar for screaming  how he loves Kim Jong Un while waiving the dictator's manifesto in the air... Useful idiot Dennis Rodman went on TV last weekend to tell all who would listen about his trip to Pyongyang and what a 'cool' guy and 'friend for life' Kim Jong Un really is- I wonder how much the Norks paid the broke, drunken cross-dresser to fly over for their little play-date.  But when Rodman decided to indulge in his daily binge and start ranting about his new dictator buddy at a Manhattan hotel bar (while waving Kim's manifesto in the air and telling all...

Capita list: North Korea approves 28 model socialist hairstyles It's not just nuclear weapons proliferating on the Korean peninsula these days. In a move that for once is not considered a threat to regional and global security, the North Korean government has recommended a relatively generous range of 28 hairstyles for its citizens, claiming that they are "the most comfortable" styles and capable of warding off the corrupting effects of capitalism, according to ifeng.com, a news website run by Hong Kong's Phoenix TV network. Pictures can be seen on the walls of hair salons around the country showing the approved...

North Korea on Sunday warned the top U.S. military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would "meet a miserable destruction" if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said. Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.

Drive Deserted Streets in North Korea's Super-Depressing New Video Game By Fruzsina Eördögh Posted Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, at 6:31 PM ET North Korea has made its first video game! Well, kinda. The browser-based Pyongyang Racer is too old-school to appeal to gaming aficionados, but it’s not exactly supposed to compete with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Made by a North Korea-based IT company and a British-owned travel agency that arranges tours of the country, the game is a marketing stunt, plain and simple.* It hasn’t made me want to visit North Korea any time soon, but the Internet...

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668). The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392). Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA: "Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to...

North Korean official is executed by MORTAR SHELL for drinking during 100-day mourning period for late 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il • Senior military official broke the rules of mourning Kim Jong-il • During the 100-day mourning period North Koreans were forced to abstain from pleasurable activities - including drinking A North Korean military officer has been executed with a mortar shell blast for disrespecting late 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il by drinking alcohol during the 100-day mourning period. South Korean media claim Kim Chol, the secretive state’s former vice minister of the army, was forced to stand on a spot that...

A woman trying out a golf club at a newly opened amusement park in Pyongyang, while a man with a parasol looking on. The picture was taken on Sept. 8

The truth about North Korea's glittering 'Hotel Of Doom' built to symbolize country's supremacy: There's nothing but a derelict shell inside From the outside, its shiny windows and soaring towers make it look decidedly futuristic and luxurious. But after visitors walk through the doors of North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel - which has taken twenty years to build - they see it is just a concrete shell. The interior of the 105-story, pyramid-shaped resembles a multi-storey car park, with its concrete floors and bare columns. Beijing-based Koryo Tours got a peek at the vast interior of the hotel in Pyongyang, the...

Noted by westerners who have actually visited the DPRK as 'the only thing worth looking at in North Korea', Pyongyang traffic girls consider it a 'great honor' to be selected for the specialty traffic-police assignment. They must go through an extensive interview and training process, but those chosen get crisp uniforms plus plenty of fresh air (not many cars) and exercise. Sure beats working in a tank-shell factory, and the job brings status/additional privileges -i.e. allowed/encouraged to wear cosmetics. Since mostly only KWP hacks get to drive in Pyongyang (women are banned, ala Saudi Arabia), the gals may even meet a...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh took the stage in North Korea during a concert for new leader Kim Jong Un, in an unusual performance featuring Disney characters. Performers dressed as Minnie Mouse, Tigger and others danced and pranced as footage from “Snow White,” “Dumbo,” “Beauty and the Beast” and other Disney movies played on a massive backdrop, according to still photos shown on state TV. The inclusion of characters popular in the West — particularly from the United States, North Korea’s wartime enemy — is a notable change in direction for performances in Pyongyang. Actors...

/begin my excerpts N. Korea's Gentleman Scavengers Devouring Leftovers at Restaurants because... In N. Korea's restaurant districts, well-dressed 'gentleman scavengers' are popping up. Rations are not enough to cover their (basic) need and they make up the shortfall at restaurants. According to 'Open Radio for N. Korea,' a female Pyongyang resident in her 50's conveyed, "To make up their need, rising number of people are getting their meals from leftovers at Pyongyang's restaurants." In Pyongyang, only those at a household whose head has a job, get food rations, but it is not enough for family members to last for a...

The news report is HERE:LINK.This is from Japanese TV news today, it reports that the sale occured in August last year (4 mobile transporters used in North Korea's massive military parade showcasing the mobile nature of their ICBM program, including modified Scud, Nodong, etc.). Japan caught wind of this dangerous, nefarious PRC-DPRK deal in October. The United States also came to know this material fact.The sale marks a complete violation of UN embargoes on such material and equipment for export to the DPRK for thier intermediate and long range missile program. Japanese news notes the US kept silent about...

N. Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un (28?) is reported to have hit the ceiling today when he took an "on the spot" guidance tour of the main North Korean amusement park in Pyongyang and saw it in a shoddy condition. It is probably his and his deceased father's ultimate blame, shifting all their cash reserves into meaningless, failed launches, but Mini-Me, Son of Chia Pet, had to have someone to bark at on national TV to rule the roost. The DPRK media is trying to create an image that this little fat so-and-so is somebody not to be messed...

The Obama administration has just proven its utter failure in foreign policy. It had negotiated an agreement with the North Korea that in exchange for food it would give up its uranium enrichment program, allow IAEA inspectors into the Yongbyong facilities, halt missile tests and cease nuclear weapons tests. It is now 43 days since the agreement was inked and in that short period of time North Korea has announced plans to launch a satellite with missile based technology (a lightly veiled test of its long range Taepodong-2) and begun preparations for an underground nuclear detonation. This sets the record...

North Korea has begun fuelling a rocket for a launch that the West considers a missile test, a Japanese newspaper reported on Thursday, citing a source "close to the government" in Pyongyang. "The launch is coming closer. The possibility is high that the launch date will be set for April 12 or 13," the source said according to the Tokyo Shimbun in a report from Seoul. It cited the source as saying that North Korea had begun injecting liquid fuel into the rocket. The paper also said a diplomatic source had confirmed that North Korea has moved the rocket to...

North Korea has increased its number of long-range anti-aircraft missiles aimed at targeting high-altitude threats over the capital Pyongyang over the past decade, a Korean military source said Wednesday. The number of SA-5 surface-to-air missiles with a range of 260-300 kilometers deployed near Pyongyang has risen from two in 2000 to 40 in 2010, the source said on condition of anonymity. The Soviet-designed SA-5 missiles are believed to be the North's most capable air defense against enemy planes flying over Pyongyang. During the same period, the number of SA-3 missiles, which offer short-range defense against low-flying aircraft, jumped to some...

In mid 1995, I was accorded the privilege of an invitation to travel to Pyongyang, North Korea to discuss, with key North Korean institutions, the feasibility of inviting foreign direct investments into what was then and now a nation that no one really knows or understands. My mission at that time was orchestrated by the North Korean Trade Office in Singapore and the projected outcome was to entice one or more mining companies from Australia to commence exploration. The offers on the North Korean table were extremely appetising. I flew to Beijing and boarded an old Antanov aircraft which was...

No Electricity, No Water, No Patience By Choi Song Min [2012-01-13 18:01 ] Many of the residents of luxury apartments in Pyongyang are leaving their homes for the heated homes of relatives or other warmer locations. An inside source who visited Pyongyang at the end of last month said in a phone interview with the Daily NK today, “People previously had no supplies of water so didn't have drinking water and could not go to the bathroom without difficulty, but now that there are heating problems too the people are inevitably leaving their homes. This year, many people are locking...

Harsh Punishments for Poor Mourning The North Korean authorities have completed the criticism sessions which began after the mourning period for Kim Jong Il and begun to punish those who transgressed during the highly orchestrated mourning events. Daily NK learned from a source from North Hamkyung Province on January 10th, “The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.” Furthermore, the source added that people who are accused of circulating rumors criticizing...

Link is to Japanese from original South Korean source. First, and turning prematurely green, an obligatory picture of assailant (patent liar of the evening Korean Central TV out of Pyongyang for many years), tasked with emotionally reporting specifically on Kim Jong il, missile launches, underground nuke tests, heightened military alerts and the like, and now -- conceivably, on issues relating to Kim Jong Un. Secondly, her recent five-star performance wearing black mourning Korean "hanbok", telling the world that the Beloved Dear Chia Pet was no longer with us--a real tear jerker /sarc.

With the death of Kim Jong-il, the world loses one of the greatest self-aggrandizing fantasists of all time. Here are ten of the craziest Jong-il stories floating out there: 1. North Korean schools teach children that Jong-il's birth was "supernatural." He was born in a log cabin inside a secret base on the sacred Mt. Paekdu, the story goes, and his arrival was accompanied by the apparition of a new star. The seasons then spontaneously changed from winter to spring, and a double-rainbow appeared, followed by a talking iceberg. (Western accounts say he was born in a guerrilla camp in...

(ad nauseam)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain says the world is better off now that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has died, and predicted the dictator would join the likes of Adolf Hitler "in a warm corner in hell." McCain's political colleagues, including GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, have joined the prominent and outspoken senator in saying bluntly that Kim will not be missed after decades of oppression and threatening the world with his nuclear program.

The world has been spared another day's company with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Even among his evil peers, Mr. Kim's atrocities stand out. His despotism starved millions of Koreans to death while he developed a reputation as an epicurean. He literally stole Korean and Japanese babies from their parents to train them as spy moles for the communist regime. He sold nuclear weapons technology to state terrorists that are sworn enemies of the US and Israel. He committed various capricious acts of war, including shelling defenseless civilian island homes. As with other evil men, like Mao, Pol Pot,...

1 --According to his biography, he first picked up a golf club in 1994, at North Korea's only golf course, and shot a 38-under par round that included no fewer than 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport.

North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, the same day it announced the death of leader Kim Jong-Il, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Kim Jong-il is dead

In the wake of the death yesterday of Czech 'Velvet Revolution' hero Vaclav Havel, today the DPRK announced the passing of what amounts to his moral/historical opposite, Kim Jong Il.  North Korea's eccentric and oppressive Stalinist leader is  said to have died of heart failure (who knows they truth- the state long lied about were and when he was even born). Kim Jong Il was was 69 by most accounts, and is said to have suffered a stroke in 2008 that left him frail and looking to groom twenty-something son Kim Jong Un  as a replacement. The 'Hermit Kingdom's Kim...

Damascus, 1 Dec. (AKI) - Dozens of officials from North Korea and Iran have conducted meetings with representatives of the Syrian government in Damascus to help president Bashar al-Assad obtain weapons following the implementation of sanctions by members of the Arab League and other countries. The meetings have been taking place in recent days, and were attended by experts in the production of rockets, according to Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah, citing unnamed intelligence sources. "The Syrian regime is afraid of losing power so is asking help from these two allies to put in place whatever means are necessary, even if it...

Pyongyang's construction drive said to kill hundreds of college students 2011-11-29 14:26 North Korean college students have reportedly died in a spate of accidents at construction sites amid intense efforts by Pyongyang to prepare for a milestone political event next year, a source familiar with the issue said Tuesday. The alleged accidents sparked rumors that an estimated 200 college students have died at various construction sites in the North's showcase capital city of Pyongyang, the source said. He did not elaborate on the alleged deaths and asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity. The development comes as the...

Wealthier countries need to put aside politics to help millions of North Koreans going hungry from food shortages, the U.N.'s top relief official said, renewing an appeal for assistance that has largely gone unmet. Speaking at the end of a five-day visit to North Korea, Valerie Amos, a U.N. undersecretary-general, said Friday that 6 million North Koreans, particularly children, mothers and pregnant women, need help. The figures, she said, are borne out by UN data and by what she learned from visits to farms, hospitals and orphanages, as well as from officials. People's diets, she said, consist of rice, corn,...

Official Data Shed New Light on Pyongyang Population The Weekly Chosun has obtained detailed official records of some 2 million adult residents of the North Korean capital Pyongyang from a source in the North Korea-China border area. The data, which contains the names, date of birth and home addresses of 2,108,032 Pyongyang residents, was compiled by the North's State Security Department in 2005. The data does not include children up to age of 17 or an estimated 10,000 members of the elite including relatives of leader Kim Jong-il, or of soldiers stationed in Pyongyang from provincial areas, according to the...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has expressed support for a Russian project to pipe Siberian natural gas to South Korea through his country's territory, a Russian news agency said Friday, quoting a Russian official. The gas pipeline project was a major topic when Kim held a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a Siberian city earlier this week. The two countries said after the summit that they have agreed to set up a joint committee to push the project. In a meeting with reporters in Khabarovsk after the summit, Viktor Ishaev, Russia's presidential envoy to the Far East Federal...

The United States announced Thursday it would provide $900,000 worth of emergency aid to flood-ravaged North Korea less than a month after the two sides resumed high-level dialogue... The U.S. provided $600,000 in September.. Earlier this month, South Korea offered $4.7 million to North Korea.

These people disgust me. Absolutely disgust me.President or Former President notwithstanding, the United States of America not only publicly bowing in Asian subservience (their culture) earlier this afternoon to a much less powerful nation, but one with one of the worst human rights records on the face of the earth, complete with concentration camps as we speak.Carter arrived today. And did the deed immediately upon arriving at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, to a DPRK official. Go to URL here: LINK and hit the arrow to stream.Do these naive morons honestly believe we can gain the friendship with these...

SEOUL, South Korea -North Korea says it will fire at South Korea if it continues allowing activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the North. The North's official Korean Central News Agency says the country's military conveyed the warning to South Korea's military Sunday. The warning comes one day before South Korea kicks off annual military drills with the United States. The North says the drills a preparation to attack

Tanks 'Ready to Be Used Against Uprising in Pyongyang' The North Korean Army's Guard Command, a military unit tasked with protecting leader Kim Jong-il, is hiding scores of tanks in Pyongyang to quell any popular uprising, Radio Free Asia claimed Tuesday. The U.S.-funded radio station quoted a defector from Pyongyang as saying, "There is a battalion of about 50 tanks from the Guard Command in the Taedong River area in eastern Pyongyang. They stage a field exercise about once a year." He said the tanks used to move only at the night to escape public notice. "All are hidden underground....

Chinese troops have been stationed in the special economic zone of Rajin-Sonbong in North Korea, sources said Friday. This would be the first time since Chinese troops withdrew from the Military Armistice Commission in the truce village of Panmunjom in December 1994 that they have been stationed in the North. "Pyongyang and Beijing have reportedly discussed the matter of stationing a small number of Chinese troops in the Rajin-Sonbong region to guard port facilities China has invested in," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. "If it's true, they're apparently there to protect either facilities or Chinese residents rather than for...

South Korean, U.S. and Japanese foreign ministry officials talked about the possibility that the North Korean regime has lost control and gone off the rails since the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, it emerged Friday. On Thursday, President Lee Myung-bak said North Koreans are now much aware of the outside world. "I feel reunification is now not far off." A senior government official said, "Having watched the North launch a series of provocations such as the torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan, its uranium enrichment program and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, officials in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo recently...

2010-12-06 09:53:12 The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Seoul says the military will hold maritime shooting drills at 29 sea locations from Monday through Sunday. The JCS says that 16 of the drill locations are in the Yellow Sea, including areas southwest of Daecheong Island. Seven of the locations are in the East Sea and six are in the seas off the southern coast of the peninsula. However, the JCS says the drills will not be conducted in areas around Baengnyeong Island or Yeonpyeong Island near the Yellow Sea maritime border with North Korea. Yeonpyeong was the site of...

North Korea could carry out shelling attacks against mainland South Korea before the year-end, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said on Thursday, citing an unnamed source knowledgeable about the North who had spoken with a North Korean official. (snip) The North would target Gyeonggi province in northwest South Korea and would also try to damage South Korean warships in the Yellow Sea, the daily reported, citing the source, who it said spoke with a North Korean official after the North shelled a South Korean island last week, killing four people.