Free Republic

SINGAPORE -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies. "We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region -- or on us," Gates told an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim. Gates called North Korea's nuclear program a "harbinger of a dark future" but said he does not consider it a direct military threat to the United States...

Bush Administration Announces Plan to Disable Pyongyang's Nuclear Sites by the End of 2007 International nuclear experts will begin on-site inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities next week to develop a way to disable all of Pyongyang's nuclear sites by the end of the year, the Bush administration said today. The announcement came just as South Korean President Moo Hyun Roh and President Bush, meeting at the Asia-Pacific summit in Australia, publicly clashed over why the United States has never formally declared an end to the Korean War. Officials said that the nuclear experts will come from three nations in...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden A tough-line stance against North Korea in wake of its nuclear weapons test could lead to an armed response from Pyongyang, former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Wednesday.In an interview with Swedish Radio, Blix said sanctions and threats of military attacks against North Korea was likely to lead to further escalation instead of a diplomatic solution. "If you look at North Korea's previous reactions when they have been exposed to threats, things have usually escalated," Blix said. "It is a dangerous situation." Blix also warned against pressuring China to stop and search North Korean ships for...

Published: Friday, October 13, 2006 Is it time to consider killing crazy Kim? By Austen Kassinger Since when did assassination of foreign leaders get taken off the table? After years of killing off third-world leaders that threatened American interests, international norms have shifted, Today, the idea of exploding cigars is considered quaint, if not outright passe. But with Pyongyang's announcement late Monday night of a nuclear arms test, perhaps it's time to reconsider. The notion that someone ought to just put a bullet through Kim Jong Il's head tends to elicit disapproving frowns. Apparently, it's too crass a tactic, a...

(Washington, D.C.): It turns out there is a "giant sucking sound," after all. At the moment, it is not coming as Ross Perot suggested from the economic effects of North American Free Trade Agreement. Rather, the sound you can currently hear in official circles in Washington is the sharp intake of a collective breath as two pillars of what passes for a Clinton foreign policy come crashing down. Unraveling Iraq Policy Scarcely a day goes by without fresh evidence that, contrary to repeated Administration assurances, Saddam Hussein is not being "kept in his box." For example, on Monday he dispatched...

SPECIAL EDITION October 10, 2006 | Episode #34North Korea: What Comes Next?Global Crisis Watch convenes a roundtable discussion on North Korea and the next possible steps with Rohan Gunaratna, Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, counterterrorism consultant and author of "My Year Inside Radical Islam," and Josh Manchester, Marine Reserve Officer and author of TheAdventuresofChester.com.Link: http://www.GlobalCrisisWatch.com/gcw/gcw_061010.mp3 21 minutes | 9.8 Megs Global Crisis Watch is an independent and weekly 30-minute current affairs and news podcast focusing on the Global War on Terror, the War of Ideas, and indigenous pro-democracy efforts around the world. Hosted by Richard Lafayette in...

"...there is strong information that makes us suspicious but we lack conclusive evidence that the intended purpose of the underground site is nuclear related." --US Ambassador Charles Kartman, 21 November 1998 [1] What is Kumchang-ri? Kumchang-ri is an underground site located northwest of Yongbyon, North Korea's frozen nuclear complex. It has been speculated that the site housed, or was intended to house a nuclear reactor or reprocessing facility.[2] Construction of Kumchang-ri is estimated to be complete within two to six years, depending on the amount of foreign assistance received.[3] North Korea continues to deny reports that the site is nuclear-related...

President Bush addresees the nation from the White House 09:45AM ET

IN A rare meeting between old enemies, top diplomats from the United States and North Korea held talks in Beijing yesterday, paving the way for long-delayed six-party negotiations on ending the North’s nuclear programme.Officials from the communist state agreed to meet after President Bush began to refer to their leader as “Mr Kim Jong Il”, instead of using terms such as “pygmy”.US officials said the aim was to get to know each other better, although they may also have been spurred on by the worsening situation on the Korean peninsula. The International Atomic Energy Agency has called it the world’s...

Rice says does not know if N.Korea's Kim is sane WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she did not know whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was sane, a remark that could anger Pyongyang's unpredictable ruler. Asked if she thought Kim was sane during an interview with MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," Rice replied: "I don't know. I've never met the man." The interview was taped on Monday and was to be broadcast on Tuesday. The United States last week raised expectations North Korea might resume six-way talks seeking to end its suspected...

The Japanese and Chinese governments have started talks on constructing a series of small facilities around China to dismantle chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese Imperial Army at the end of World War II, Japanese government sources said Saturday. The facilities will be separate from a large plant already planned in the Haerbaling district of Jilin Province. The government judged it necessary to locate the facilities throughout China to safely and efficiently dismantle chemical weapons dotted across the country. The government plans to start construction of the Haerbaling plant this summer, the sources said. The two governments held meetings with...

GREAT BARRINGTON -- Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said last night that the world may see peace before it sees a warming in the relationship between the United Nations and the United States. "I'm optimistic for peace in the long run," he said. "There has been tremendous change in the world." But as for the relationship between his organization and the country in which it is located, "well, it couldn't get any worse," Blix said. "There are some people in the United States who would like to see [the United Nations] slide down into the East River." Blix was...

BAGHDAD (Aljazeera) - Hans Blix, former UN chief weapons inspector said that he will be "surprised" if a chemical laboratory found in Iraq was capable of creating weapons. "Let's see what the chemicals are," Mr. Blix said, after an Iraqi minister claimed on Thursday that a chemical bomb factory was found in Fallujah. "Many of these stories evaporate when they are looked at more closely," he said. "If there were to be found something, we would all be surprised." Blix, a former Swedish diplomat, was in charge of searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq 15 weeks before the...