Free Republic

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, thanked his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, for supporting the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, South Korean news outlet Yonhap News has reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov hosted Choe on Tuesday to discuss bolstering ties amid reports of an arms cooperation deal between Moscow and Pyongyang. His comments underscore the Kremlin's increasing dependence on North Korea for weaponry.

North Korea's foreign minister lauded comradely ties with Russia on Tuesday and then held rare talks in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin, who has been invited by Kim Jong Un to visit the reclusive nuclear-armed country. -snip- Earlier on Tuesday, during her talks with Lavrov, North Korea's Choe hailed progress on implementing agreements struck during Kim's visit to eastern Russia last September. "The fact that now the foreign ministers of the two countries often meet and deepen comradely ties is yet more proof that the Korean-Russian friendly relations, with a long history of friendship and tradition, are energetically moving...

Is Kim Jong-un a Puppet of Hardline Brass? Speculation is growing that hardline North Korean generals were behind the execution of leader Kim Jong-un's uncle Jang Song-taek and that Kim was merely their pawn. That would be worrying for South Korea, which would face an increased threat of military provocations. Park Hyung-joong at the Korea Institute for National Unification said Jang's purge was part of a power struggle where factions in the military that Jang had stripped of their lucrative businesses tried to regain them. Forces opposed to Jang, who was seen as a moderate, used a purported challenge to...

As we reported in a related article published yesterday, John Choe is a leading candidate in the September 15 Democratic primary for New York City's 20th City Council District. He also has very troubling ties to communist North Korea, otherwise known as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well the Workers World Party (WWP), an unabashed communist Maoist sect. While most reasonable Americans (like reasonable people throughout the world) recognize North Korea as one of the most despotic regimes ever to afflict a portion of our planet, Choe sees North Korea as the tragic victim of propaganda by...