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Seoul, Aug. 21 (AP):U.S. and South Korean forces launched annual joint military exercises on Monday, mostly computer-simulated drills that North Korea has labelled a rehearsal for invasion and demanded be canceled. The exercise takes place amid renewed concerns about North Korea after a news report last week said the communist country might be preparing to conduct its first-ever known nuclear test. The North stoked tensions in the region last month by test-launching seven missiles _ including a new long-range model believed capable of reaching the U.S. _ drawing U.N. Security Council sanctions. Some 17,000 troops, including 10,000 Americans, are participating...

Ansaman has been keeping a lil' strip on Kim Jong Il's latest fun shennanigans.... http://www.ansaman.com/kim/kimcomix.html

In a preview of her strategy for handling terrorist states, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is urging a brand new aid package for North Korea in the hope of persuading brutal dictator Kim Jong Il to scuttle his nuclear weapons program. In a Washington Post op-ed piece co-authored with Sen. Carl Levin on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton blamed President Bush for bungling the nuclear face-off. "While the [Bush] administration wrangled internally about whether to negotiate seriously with North Korea, Pyongyang was using the time to break out as a nuclear power," she complained. "Indeed, in February the North Koreans declared that they...

It pays to take a look at the books George W. Bush hands out to his staffers. Last year Bush's book was Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which argues that countries that do not protect individual rights cannot be reliable partners for peace. You could hear Sharansky's arguments in Bush's extraordinary second inaugural speech in which he promised to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East and around the world. Bush's critics like to mock him as the sort of person who never read books. But he does, and...

Our area takes great pride in the role many organizations and residents here played in the Underground Railroad during the years leading up to the Civil War. Thousands of slaves were freed because of the courage of individuals who either housed fugitive slaves or went south to escort them to freedom here in the north. It is a heritage we can be proud of. Today, there is a similar effort underway. It is happening in a land divided along lines of north and south. Race is a component. Other nations are involved. And the bravery of conductors and engineers on...

Diplomats from North Korea today announced they would return to six-nation talks over nuclear weapons in the wake of U.S. Secretary State Condaleezza Rice's apology for referring to their nation as an "outpost of tyranny." North Korea had boycotted the talks after the offensive remark. "I should not have referred to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as an 'outpost' of tyranny," said Secretary Rice, in an unusal moment of contrition for a Bush-appointee. "Tyranny, of course, implies that North Korea is a place where a single ruler is vested with absolute power, with little regard for the condition of...

In his FrontPage Magazine article Andrew Alexander’s Lies About the Cold War, Jamie Glazov speaks of the Soviet regime’s aggressive and expansionist designs against the West in the post-WWII period, and how de-classified Soviet sources prove that they had extensively infiltrated their agents into Western society. "...the Venona transcripts are thousands of Soviet intelligence messages that were intercepted and decoded over four decades by the FBI and the NSA (National Security Agency). Released over the past few years, these files prove that there was a large-scale Communist penetration of the U.S. government, and that Communist spies passed on valuable information...

Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) - - The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to render emergency relief aid amounting to $150,000 U.S. dollars as regards the strong quake and tsunami that occurred in the waters off Sumatra Island of Indonesia on December 26 last year, causing huge material losses to Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and other countries. The government and people of the DPRK express deep condolences and sympathy to the governments and peoples of the afflicted countries and hope that the aftermath of the quake and tsunami will be eradicated and the living...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a week-long series of excerpts from Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America by William C. Triplett, which as released Monday. The first installment of this series can be read here and the second here.While the Kim family and its supporters live like royalty, the bulk of the North Korean population lives like serfs. Survival depends on your rank and circumstances. North Korea has the most rigid class system in the world. We see this most clearly in public health. At the top is Ward 2 of the Ponghwa Clinic in...

North Korea has put off further negotiations on its nuclear program with five other nations until after the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential elections, intelligence officials say. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, center in front row, poses with members of Air Force Unit 447 of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed place in North Korea in this undated photo, released by Korea News Agency Thursday, on Oct. 14 The North Koreans believe they will have an easier time negotiating with a new administration headed by Sen. John F. Kerry, who has said publicly he would begin direct U.S.-North Korea...

Pyongyang hinted last week that it might pull out of the next round, slated to be held next month, citing a hostile U.S. "smear campaign." With the U.S. presidential election approaching, some say Kim is stalling, hoping that John Kerry will win—and that the North will be able to get a better deal from a Democratic Administration.

KIM JUNG-IL TERRIFIED BY DEAN Former Vermont Gov. a ‘Madman,’ Says Madman North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Il got his first glimpse of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean on the evening of the Iowa caucuses last week and is now “terrified” by the former Vermont governor, associates of Kim revealed today. According to those sources, the ruthless North Korean had spent a long, hard day reprocessing nuclear fuel rods and was looking for something relaxing to watch on TV when Dean first appeared on the screen, delivering his bizarre post-Iowa concession speech. As Dean built to a crescendo, Kim appeared alarmed...

war storiesPingponging PyongyangAt last, a sign President Bush wants to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.By Fred KaplanPosted Friday, August 1, 2003, at 3:21 PM PT Today brings news of a major concession by North Korea that might indicate a new willingness to end its nuclear-weapons program. "North Korea has dropped its insistence on one-on-one talks with the United States," the Associated Press tells us, "and is ready to accept a U.S. proposal for six-nation negotiations" that would involve Japan, China, and Russia, as well as the United States and both Koreas.The Los Angeles Times similarly leads its story: "North...

A couple of things come to mind when the situation in North Korea is looked at. North Korea has a nuclear weapons program with at least a couple of atomic bombs, and an utterly ruthless and quite insane leader......