Free Republic

North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform, in a desperate attempt to quell public unrest... The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party chief for planned economy, was for the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy..." The unrest, triggered by sharp price increases in the marketplace amid confusion caused by the late November currency revaluation, forced the North to take some steps to roll back its effect. Analysts said that showed the North was...

President Barack Obama, in the face of a rocket launch this weekend by North Korea, announced an ambitious U.S. arms-control campaign aimed at drastically reducing atomic weapons globally while still recognizing developing nations' rights to pursue nuclear power. Mr. Obama's strategy, unveiled Sunday in a speech to a Czech crowd of 20,000, commits the U.S. to take the lead in reducing its nuclear-weapons stockpile in a bid to gain Russian and Chinese support for curbing the mounting proliferation threats posed by North Korea and Iran. The president said he would convene an international summit in Washington aimed at shrinking the...

North Korea raised the volume of its fist-shaking rhetoric over the weekend as the U.S. prepares for a change of leaders and South Korea remains ambivalent to its anger at being cut off from economic aid. A uniformed military official appeared on North Korean TV to deliver criticism against South Korea, saying the North had been "compelled to enter an all-out confrontation posture to smash it." The official sharply criticized South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, whose insistence on tying economic aid to arms reduction cost North Korea about $300 million last year. North Korea has mounted a steady propaganda campaign...

<p>A North Korea soldier shot and killed a South Korean woman on Friday near a tourist resort in the North, a stunning incident that will test the two countries' relations after they have been fraying for several months.</p> <p>North Korean officials told the resort operator that the shooting occurred about 5 a.m. on a beach that it deems off-limits to the South's tourists. The shooting was the first in the decade since North Korea began allowing visitors to a resort at Mount Kumgang, a small range of scenic mountain peaks that's famous in both countries...</p>

Over a month has passed since sweetness and light were due to break out on the Korean Peninsula. On Feb. 13, the Six-Party Talks in Beijing ratified a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and North Korea, providing for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs. The first step, 60 days after ratification, was to be that North Korea "will shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment" the Yongbyon nuclear facility, and readmit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Other steps were to follow, but the first move was unequivocally to be made by Pyongyang. The...

North Korea has agreed to return to talks on its nuclear programme, the United States said, in a diplomatic breakthrough just three weeks after stunning the world with its first atomic test. US President George W. Bush said he was "very pleased" at the surprise announcement, which followed seven hours of secret negotiations in Beijing. The talks -- involving China, the two Koreas, Russia, the United States and Japan -- could restart as soon as November, Washington's chief negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters here. North Korea reaffirmed its pledge to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and...

by Scott Ott (2006-10-21) — North Korean President Kim Jong-Il today reportedly told Chinese diplomats that he regrets his government’s recent detonation of a nuclear device, and he revealed that he had been molested as a child. “President Kim is sorry, and he takes full responsibility for the atomic bomb test,” said an unnamed Chinese source, “but in the spirit of transparency and vulnerability, he wants people to know about the childhood molestation incident.” The North Korean leader has reportedly checked himself into a rehab center to “heal his inner child and boost his self-esteem,” but a spokesman said he...

North Korea warned on Wednesday that increased U.S. pressure over the regime's reported nuclear test could be considered an act of war, and South Korea suggested it would build up its conventional arsenal to deal with its belligerent neighbor. North Korea's No. 2 leader threatened to conduct more nuclear tests if the United States continued what he called its "hostile attitude." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion. In its first formal statement since the...

SEOUL, South Korea - Tensions rose along the Korean Peninsula Wednesday as North Korea warned of physical retaliation for increased U.S. pressure over its reported atomic test, and South Korea discussed preparations for a nuclear attack that could include an expanded conventional arsenal. North Korea said in its first formal statement since the test that it could respond to U.S. pressure with "physical" measures. "If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried...

Japan held out on Friday for a U.N. resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its missile tests, and said an alternative resolution proposed by China and Russia did not go far enough. It was unclear, however, whether Japan and its close security ally, the United States, were set for a showdown or a compromise with Beijing and Mooscow over the missile launches, which in one short week have split regional powers over how to respond. Foreign Minister Taro Aso talked of giving ground. "It is common sense that both sides cannot achieve a perfect grade so both...

Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime. Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites. "If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force general responsible for building a U.S. anti-ballistic missile shield on Friday voiced high confidence it could shoot down any U.S.-bound missile from North Korea, despite critics' doubts. "From what I've seen from our testing from the last several years ... and what I know about the system and its capabilities, I'm very confident," Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering told reporters after a speech to a seminar. Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, declined to confirm reports that ground-based U.S. interceptor missiles had been put on alert for a possible effort to shoot...

Washington (AFP) July 8, 2000 - US scientists Saturday renewed their calls for the White House not to authorize the deployment of a proposed missile defense system, following the failure of a missile interception test over the Pacific Ocean. American Physical Society spokesman Robert Park said the failure of the Pentagon's 100-million-dollar test might lead President Bill Clinton to postpone a decision on deployment. "I just don't see how, after a test like this, (Clinton) can declare that now it's going to be able to work, and call for deployment," said Park, who was formerly a researcher at the US...

The Bush administration has halted all food-aid shipments to North Korea so far this year and may not provide any through the end of 2005, according to officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The sharp curtailment in assistance comes as the dispute between Washington and Pyongyang over nuclear arms has intensified, with U.S. officials voicing concern this month that North Korea may soon test a weapon. Administration officials said there was no link between falling food aid and rising diplomatic tensions, attributing the curbs instead to an inability to monitor how the assistance is being used, as well...

Kerry's true "Band of Brothers" are not his fellow Vietnam veterans. They are the those who would weaken America... the internationalists... the terrorists who would blame us for 'intervening.' The true friends of Kerry are all of those who want us to feel guilty for the fact that America is an exceptional nation, filled with individuals whose freedoms enable us to rise constantly higher.