Free Republic

/begin my translation N. Korea: Signs of Succession Intrigue (laying down post-Kim Jong-il era) Yonhap News 2007.05.27 09:00 Choi Sun-young and Chang Yong-hoon = Recently in N. Korea, signs of preparation for post-Kim Jong-il era are showing up, prompting outsiders’ attention. Two sons born from Kim Jong-il and his third wife Ko Yong-hee(deceased on May, 2004), Jung-chol(age:26,) and Jung-un(age: 23), are reportedly accompanying Kim Jong-il and showing up at various public events such as visit to military units. The two sons used to frequently accompany Kim Jong-il’s visits to military units while their mother was still alive, but after her...

The Early Fathers believed that authentic teaching and authority came through apostolic succession.Clement of RomeOur Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry (Letter to the Corinthians 44:1 [A.D. 95]). Ignatius of AntiochYou must all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as...

Kim Jong Il Bans Succession Talks JANUARY 05, 2007 07:18 According to a Mainichi Shimbun report on January 4 datelined Beijing, North Korea’s Chairman of the National Defense Commission Kim Jong Il has banned discussions in Pyongyang’s leadership concerning his successor, expressing his will to continue exercising real power as the prime leader for the long term. The report stated that late in October last year, right after the nuclear test, he proclaimed in front of the executives of the Workers’ Party of Korea that “I can still work for a long time as the top leader. Even in my...

The Washington Post, yesterday, posted a story raising questions about a House rules change that clearly delineates a line of succession should the Speaker of the House be unable to take his place as the third in line to succeed the president in a state of emergency or vacancy. In keeping the the liberal mantra that the Republican leadership is the most "secretive" ever, the Post seemed worried that the House rules change is somehow a danger to American democracy because the persons chosen by Speaker Hastert to succeed him has not been made public knowledge. The Post's story over...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shows no sign of resigning over the Mark Foley-House page scandal. But the mere suggestion that he might do so raises an intriguing political and constitutional question: Who would replace him while Congress is in recess? The answer, it appears, is on a piece of paper locked away in the House clerk's office. In a little-noticed action taken nearly four years ago, the House amended its rules dealing with the "continuity of Congress" in emergencies and the succession of speakers. The rule, cited recently in Roll Call, directs the speaker to "deliver to the...

/begin my excerptKim Jong-il in bad health, serious walking problem"Kim Jong-nam said to be involved in missile sales" (Kyungju = Yonhap News) Lee Seung-woo = Chung Hyung-geun, a Supreme Councilman of Hannara Party(conservative opposition) claimed, "Kim Jong-il has liver and heart problem, and is seriously diabetic, causing him to have a walking problem." Mr. Chung, a lawmaker on Intelligence Committee of National Assembly, made this comment while attending a dinner/conference at Ulsan branch of Hannara Party as one of the speakers, which was held at a resort in Kyungju. He went on to say, "As a result, Kim can only walk 20~30 meter at a time, and then take a...

/begin my summary N. Korea: Who is the real fourth wife of Kim Jong-il?(we got it wrong) Hwang Il-do According to Sept. 1 issue of Shin-dong-a, S. Korean monthly news magazine, high-level N. Korean defectors and Fujimoto Kenji, one-time Japanese chef for Kim Jong-il, all agreed that the initial photo of Kim OK is wrong, which was identified by news agency Yonhap and later by S. Korean TV Network MBC from photos of N. Korean delegation to U.S. in 2000. They say that the woman in the photo is just a mere staff, not the fourth wife of Kim Jong-il...

North Korean leader takes new wife 2 hours, 53 minutes ago North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has taken a musician-turned-secretary as his new wife after his former spouse died of cancer two years ago. Kim Ok, 42, lived with the reclusive North Korean leader who turned 64 in February after serving as his private secretary, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said quoting an unnamed government source. "She is virtually North Korea's first lady," said the source who Yonhap called a Seoul government source privy to information on Kim Jong-Il's family Kim Ok, a piano major at Pyongyang University of Music and...

/begin my excerpt Exclusive: Kim Pyong-il To Attend A Conference Of Overseas Mission Chiefs  Analysis: "Kim Jong-il to display solidarity among family in the midst of the missile crisis" It is revealed that Kim Pyong-il(age:53, see photo,) half brother of Kim Jong-il and N. Korean ambassador to Poland, is to attend a conference of overseas mission chiefs in Pyongyang soon. It is drawing some attention.According to Japanese media reports on July 18, N. Korean leadership, after rejecting a resolution at the UN Security Council, is to convene the conference of overseas mission chiefs where the leadership conveys its future direction in foreign affairs, and Ambassador Kim...

/begin my conversation"Phone Conversation of Kim Kyong-hee & Jong-nam Intercepted", Sankei in Japan Reports"North's succession intrigue intense.... even one hour conversation while drunk" Kim Kyong-hee(left,) (Kim Jong-il's sister,) and Kim Jong-nam(right,) (Kim Jong-il's eldest son) An intelligence agency of an E. Asian country has been successful in intercepting frequent phone conversations between Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-il's eldest son, and Kim Kyong-hee, Kim Jong-il's sister since early last year. They were international calls between Pyongyang and Beijing, according to May 1st issue of Sankei Shimbun(of Japan.) The paper reported that Kim Jong-nam blamed incompetent N. Korean security agencies for his arrest...

The Kuwaiti government has submitted a letter to parliament to start constitutional procedures to remove the oil-rich state's ailing emir, parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi told AFP Monday. "Yes, I received the letter," said Khorafi, who declined to give further details. Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah became emir on the death of his predecessor last Sunday.

Ailing Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah officially asked to take the oath of office on Sunday, parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said Saturday. "I have received a letter from his Highness the Emir asking for convening parliament to take the oath ... on Sunday," Khorafi told reporters as The announcement came as the cabinet met to discuss constitutional procedures to ask parliament to consider removing Sheikh Saad, who is said to be too ill to read out the two-line oath.

Kuwait's ruling al-Sabah family has overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to become emir to replace the emirate's new ailing ruler, a top family source told AFP Friday. "The overwhelming majority of the family came this morning to the house of Sheikh Sabah and expressed complete trust in him to become new emir in light of the health condition of the current emir," the source said on condition of anonymity. "Sheikh Sabah accepted their request" during the meeting attended by nearly all senior members of the ruling family, said the source. Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, 75, who...

Who's next in North Korea? By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005 SEOUL Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, is pushing an age - 63 - when he is widely expected to designate a successor who will carry the mantle of power he inherited from his own father in the Communist world's first and only dynasty. But he has problems. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, has not been home for years, wandering in self-imposed exile overseas and reportedly on the run from hit men hired by supporters of his stepbrothers. His second...

Braced for change, looking for a leaderSep 8th 2005 | PARIS From The Economist print edition As fears grow over the president's health, his lieutenants compete to lead France out of its doldrums HOSPITALISED presidents make the French uneasy. Francois Mitterrand hid his cancer behind false medical reports for over a decade until his first operation, in 1992; he died four years later. Georges Pompidou's cancer became public only after his death from it while in office. So the news that President Jacques Chirac was to spend a full week in hospital, after a “small vascular incident” in the brain...

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a bill Tuesday to raise the homeland security secretary from last to eighth place in the presidential line of succession, just after the attorney general. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, passed without objection just before the chamber adjourned. The companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is pending before the Judiciary and Government Reform committees. If the bill also passes the House, the order of those in line to assume the presidency if President Bush is unable to serve would be: _Vice President Dick Cheney _House...

South Africa in succession crisis as President Mbeki sacks deputy By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg (Filed: 15/06/2005) President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa provoked a full-blown succession crisis yesterday by sacking his deputy over links to a corruption scandal. Mr Mbeki announced that he was dismissing Jacob Zuma, the man he had groomed to be the country's leader after he steps down in 2009, "in the best interests of our young democratic system". Mr Zuma's enforced departure followed last week's sentencing of a financial adviser and business partner, Schabir Shaik, to 15 years in prison. Sacked deputy Jacob Zuma: ‘...

ABORIGINAL PEOPLES AND THE 1995 QUEBEC REFERENDUM: A SURVEY OF THE ISSUES INTRODUCTION In the debate surrounding the October 1995 Quebec referendum and in subsequent discussions on the future of the province, aboriginal issues have had a significant profile. Most prominent among these has been the conflict over northern Quebec, the traditional territory of the Crees and Inuit. Questions about rights to self-determination, the status of traditional aboriginal territories in the event of Quebec’s secession, and the obligations of Canada to aboriginal peoples in Quebec continue to play a role in the ongoing debate. This paper surveys the issues and...

Puzzle of the vanished 'parliament' By Aidan Foster-Carter Another day, another Pyongyang puzzle. Last Friday, North Korea abruptly canceled the regular annual session of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), its nominal parliament, just five days before it was scheduled to open on March 9, this Wednesday. According to the SPA Presidium - a standing committee that does the SPA's job when the full parliament is not in session, ie 99% of the time - the third session of the 11th SPA was postponed "at the requests made by deputies to the SPA in all domains of the socialist construction". But...

David Willey BBC Rome correspondent The Pope's latest spell in hospital and his deteriorating medical condition have led to new speculation about his possible successor. Yet inside the Vatican it is considered bad manners openly to discuss the papal succession, let alone to campaign on behalf of any particular cardinal while the reigning Pope is still alive. A formal prohibition against discussing who is going to be the next pope until the reigning pope is actually dead dates back a long way in history - 15 centuries to be exact. Pope Felix IV was a 6th Century pope who fell...

/begin my translationN. Korea: Assassination of Kim Jong-il's First Son Averted It has been revealed that Kim Jong-nam(age:33), the first son of N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il was visiting Austria recently where he was in danger of being assassinated. However, thanks to the security provided by Austrian intelligence, he was saved. A source on N. Korea said on (Dec.) 19th, "While Kim Jong-nam was touring Europe in the middle of last month, he was in danger of being assassinated. Austrian intelligence got wind of this plot and guarded him closely. We believe that this assassination attempt had been made by...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Like him or not, as Americans we should all stand together to say NO to any change in the US Constitution that would allow foreign-born, naturalized citizens to run for and hold the highest office in this great land...Apparently a movement is underway to change the US Constitution. We must stand up to this and oppose it. Please sign the No2Arnold Petition

They campaigned tirelessly, wrote huge cheques and threatened to leave the country if George W Bush retained the White House. This week the gloom and dejection on America's "blue" coasts was palpable, as many Left-leaning Californians and New Yorkers weighed up the prospect of another four years of Republican rule. In the country's political language, "blue" states are those won by Democrats and "red" states are Republican. Colour-coded result maps showed coastal fringes of blue with a vast slab of red in between, as Republicans romped home in the south and mid-west, thanks in no small measure to evangelical Christians....

I just got to thinking about this and I've never seen the issue raised anywhere. Let's suppose that there is are two terrorist teams in the U.S. that are here to destroy the Bush/Cheney or Kerry/Edwards campaign HQ's on November 2nd. At 11PM one or the other is prepared to acknowledge defeat and concede. Terrorists blow up both camps. What happens from a constitutional standpoint if a President and VP elect cannot take office?

/begin my translation Ryongchon Explosion: Kim Jong-il's Distant Relative Tried to Kill Him With Chinese Blessing The nephew of Huh Dahm, the former head of National Peace and Unification Committee, and 8 others are arrested and executed for attempted assassination 'Ryongchon Explosion Is An Attempted Assassination of Kim Jong-il' Intelligence Agency Files a Report Huh Chang-suk is Kim Jong-il's distant relative, a member of 'peripheral royal family' Pro-Chinese technocrats in their 40's angry about the third generation succession attempt (Kim Jong-il to his son) "China gave up on Kim Jong-il, condoning the (assassination) attempt" First Source Episode 1) At the...

/begin my translation Another Explosion--Woes Swirling Around Kim Jong-il To put it rather starkly, both Koreas are now apparently racing toward their end. While Roh Moo-hyun regime, with its anti-constitutional attempt to dismantle Republic of Korea, is driving S. Korea toward an ideological civil war, the Kim Jong-il regime of the North is also heading for its termination. In addition to the mass explosion which reportedly occurred on (Sept.) 9th, lots of intelligence are coming in which point to many troubling developments swirling around Kim Jong-il. 1. Since his favorite wife, Ko Yong-hee, died last month, Kim Jong-il has been...

Death of Kim's consort: Dynastic implications By David Scofield North Korea is synonymous with death. The widely circulated news of Kim Jong-il's consort's death is important not in the circumstances of her demise, but in the questions of dynastic succession it has brought to the fore - who will inherit the mantle of despot in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? Kim Jong-il is 62. Kim's appetite for exotic food and fine alcohol is surpassed only by his appetite for female flesh, an indulgence that led him to Koh Young-hee, formerly a dancer in one of Kim's many "pleasure teams",...

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il's Wife, Ko Yong-hee, died on Aug. 13 08/30/04 Ko Yong-hee(age:51), the wife of N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il, died of heart failure at the dawn of Aug. 13, highly credible Chinese sources on N. Korea confirmed on Aug. 30. The sources revealed that they had verified Ko's death through multiple channels, adding that they had already had her funeral without making a public announcement, in order to follow the policy of keeping Kim Jong-il's personal life private and also out of fear that power struggles may erupt over who is going to succeed Kim. According...

A Mystery About a Mistress in North Korea By JAMES BROOKE Published: August 27, 2004 EOUL, South Korea, Aug. 26 - South Korean government officials are struggling to confirm persistent reports from North Korea of the recent death of its leader Kim Jong Il's favorite mistress, a former dancer who was elevated in the Communist state's pantheon to the status of "respected mother." The woman, Koh Young Hee, a Japanese-born Korean dancer, was treated in Paris last spring for advanced cancer. Over the summer, Ms. Koh, the 51-year-old mother of two of Mr. Kim's sons, was flown back to the...

/begin my translation "Ko Yong-hi, Kim Jong-il's Wife, Is Almost Certainly Dead" Intelligence circles in S. Korea, U.S., and Japan, arrived at the conclusion that Ko Yong-hi, the wife of N. Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, has almost certainly died from her illness. They are keen to find out how her death could affect the personal life of Kim Jong-il and the (N. Korean) power structure. Some argue that her death would be a heavy psychological blow to Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-il has been having a bad heart problem, but he still likes to drink. Ko Yong-hi had been instrumental in...

Wife of Kim Jong-il Gravely Ill: Sankei Quoting an intelligence source in Seoul, Japan's Sankei Shimbun reported Wednesday that rumors are circulating that 51-year-old Ko Yong-hi, the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has slipped into critical condition. South Korean intelligence is rushing to confirm the rumors, the report said. According to the source, following Ko's return to North Korea from Paris, where she received treatment for breast cancer, North Korea purchased an extremely expensive coffin from France and transported it back to Pyongyang aboard a specially chartered flight. Ko gave birth to Kim Jong-il's second and third...

Kim's 3rd Son Seen as Successor by Kwon Kyung-bok (kkb@chosun.com) Pyongyang is undergoing preparations to designate the third son of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as Kim's eventual successor. The announcement would be made next Feb. 16, the leader’s 62nd birthday. The third son, Kim Jeong-woon, is 20 and the son of Kim Jong Il and his second wife, Koh Young-hee, who has been campaigning for the exaltation of Jeong-woon. In the past, North Korea watchers considered as the most likely successor one of Kim's two older sons - Jeong-nam, 32, the son of Sung Hye-lim, or Jeong-cheol,...

<p>Challengers to Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson are jockeying for position to replace him next year, but numerous legislators said Wesson has told them he wants to keep the top job.</p> <p>Assembly Democrats Joe Nation of San Rafael, Jenny Oropeza of Long Beach and Dario Frommer of Los Angeles are vying to succeed Wesson, who has held the speakership since February 2002.</p>

<p>"There is a hole in our otherwise wonderful Constitution that needs plugging, and it is something that we can and should fix," said Lloyd Cutler, co-chair of the Continuity of Government Commission and former counsel to President Bill Clinton. "There is a great deal of sentiment that this can only be fixed by a constitutional amendment."</p>

Jiang Must Step Down AUGUST 30, 2002 22:03 by Young-Ee Lee (yes202@donga.com) Some leftist faction within the Chinese Communist Party filed a formal request to the party calling for resignation of President Jiang Zemin last month, Japanese daily Yomiuri reported on August 29 citing sources close to Beijing. An official letter titled “abolition of permanent party membership in the 16th Party Congress,” was delivered to the communist party’s central committee members including President Jiang on July 1, signed as “in behalf of senior members, officials and professors”. The letter said, “The 16th National Congress will mark a generational shift in...

The Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah on Friday quoted a Palestinian diplomatic source in Abdu Dhabi as saying that Palestinian Authority information and culture official Yasser Abd Rabbu has achieved one of his closest steps towards leading the Palestinian people in succession of Yasser Arafat after the US President George Bush launched the "count down" process to alienate him from the Presidency of the Palestinian Authority. The source disclosed that Abd Rabbu's shares increased with the Americans and the Europeans in a sudden way following Bush's speech, but Sharon and his aides prefer the chairman of the Palestinian protective security department in...

Posted on Mon, Mar. 11, 2002 Our Voice: Can you name the presidents? Then try this At what point would Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle take over as president? At what point would Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle take over as president?As virtually everyone knows, if President Bush should die or become incapacitated, Vice President Dick Cheney is next in line. That's why he was kept out of sight at quot;a secure and undisclosedquot; location after the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes.Now, though, the vice president is said to have resumed an quot;almost normalquot; schedule - although a quot;shadow governmentquot; of...