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Say what you want about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, the man liked his Hennessy. For two years in the mid-1990s, he was the world's largest buyer of Hennessy Paradis cognac, importing up to $800,000 of the stuff a year, both to quaff himself and to give as gifts, and his death has caused a resurgence in discussion and commentary on his expensive cognac habits. So does Hennessy appreciate all of the free advertising provided by the coveted Dear Leader seal of approval? "There's been no negative feedback, but it hasn't affected sales either," Jennifer Yu, Director of Communications...

North Korea's decision to not welcome foreign delegations to the funeral of former leader Kim Jong-il has some analysts in South Korea speculating about instability in the North, with the abrupt death of Kim heightening the uncertainty surrounding his untested heir-apparent. North Korea declared a 13-day mourning period through Dec. 29 from the day of Kim's death on Saturday, while stating it will not accept foreign delegations at a state funeral set for Dec. 28 in Pyongyang. No entertainment will be allowed during the mourning period.

The most dangerous regime on earth may reveal the identity of its next leader on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the North Korean regime, always opaque and endlessly fascinating, will reveal the identity of its next leader.Maybe.The Korean Workers’ Party will hold its first major gathering since 1980 this week. At the 1980 Congress, Kim Jong Il, the current leader, made his debut. Analysts think his son, Kim Jong Un, will be introduced at the event as the next Kim to rule the North.Not much is known about the autocrat-in-waiting. He is the youngest of the three acknowledged sons of Kim Jong...

Fifa has launched an investigation into allegations that the North Korean World Cup coach and players were punished by the government after they lost all three of their games in the tournament in South Africa. Last month, Radio Free Asia said that the Korean squad, apart from two foreign-based players, were subjected to 'harsh ideological criticism' after their team conceded the most goals of all 32 at the tournament. Their coach Kim Jong-hun was also publicly humiliated and sentenced to hard labour for their performance. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1302110/Claims-North-Korea-World-Cup-squad-tortured-early-exit.html#ixzz0wKV1nAuy

The Kim Jong-Il regime in North Korea is moving closer to appointing Kim's son as the new dictator by preparing official portraits of Kim Jong-Un. The Daily NK, which boasts of having sources and communications with people inside the totalitarian state, reported March 15 that authorities in Pyongyang are preparing to distribute portraits of Kim Jong-Un, Kim's youngest son. Some analysts have interpreted the portrait preparations as a further sign in the decline of Kim's health. The leader suffered a stroke last year but U.S. intelligence analysts said he appeared to have recovered after treatment by foreign doctors. Lee Young...

Nuclear Diplomacy: President Obama has sent a "personal" letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, hoping to coax him back to the table to talk about cutting his nation's nuclear program. Good luck with that. Repeated U.S. entreaties to the hermit state to cut its nuclear arsenal have availed us nothing. Just this month, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth traveled to North Korea with a bunch of new diplomatic carrots for the regime. The result? Bosworth put it this way, in classic diplomatese: "We identified some common understanding on the need for and a role of six-party talks and the...

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...

CNN's John Vause looks at the life of North Korea's reclusive leader. Everything you wanted to know about the man behind the insane dictator in under 3 minutes!

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that it's late, but I thought you might find this Youtube video interesting. First and foremost, most of us have seen the disturbing "Sing For Change" video that was posted by a bunch of brainwashed cultists who support Obama. These people not only remind me of the Jonestown people, but they scare me even more now that I realize the amount of mental illness which pervades our Republic. Second, I found this video to be both humorous and disturbing when we examine the similarities of Kim Jung Il and Barack Hussein Obama. The cults...

The following is from an interview of John Lott by Dave Bose, substituting for Michael Medved on the Michael Medved radio show. Lott is currently a professor at the University of Maryland and is the author of "More Guns, Less Crime" and "Freedomonics." Lott taught at the University of Chicago the same time Obama was an instructor at Chicago. The transcript picks up approximately half way through the audio file... Dave Bose: Just before the break, Professor Lott, I was mentioning that actually know Barack Obama. You met at the college. John Lott: We were both at the University of...

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA -- A simple question about Kim Jong Il's health provokes a torrent of angry, broken English. "It's a pack of lies," declared Oh Keum Suk. The 26-year-old North Korean tour guide jumped from his seat at a coffee shop and in an exaggerated motion stormed away. Then he turned on his heels to chew out the foreigner who had dared ask about reports that the North Korean leader had suffered a stroke. "Kim Jong Il is my father, my grandfather, my family. How do you talk about my family that way?" The topic is so taboo that...

Bluebird to Nest-egg, Operation Scout the "O" a go. Just kidding. Anyway, stopped by Metro Park to see what the Dems are up to, size of crowd. Long lines. Heard numbers of 14,000 - very possible, yet can't see into park. In addition to cameras being banned, no cell phones are allowed being blared by volunteers on bullhorns. No lawn chairs either, nor food or drink. Hyper-controlling Dems for ya there. Saw one guy holding an "Abortion is Black Genocide" sign and "Abraham Lincoln was a Republican". Gave him a nod and a thumbs up. After a few minutes, I...

Most of my Chinese friends and students act as if I am claiming that men live on Mars when I tell them about the atrocities that are taking place in North Korea. For them, North Korea is their friendly Communist neighbor and the mere suggestion that people there are dying of starvation or that the regime is murdering entire generations seems to offend people here. Most Chinese people are in complete denial about what is happening in North Korea as is the Chinese government which continues to support, defend, and even praise North Korea at every turn. On Monday, Beijing...

The Communist government of North Korea has stepped up the number of public executions of cell phone users and those who circulate outside information in the country. Under that nation’s laws, citizens are prohibited from communicating with the outside world. “The peace and happiness of the Korean people must not be disturbed through the transmission of unauthorized information,” said Wee Fat, Minister of Happiness and Tranquility for the government. “All that we need to know will be told to us by our great leader, Kim Il Jong.” Wee defended the severity of the punishment saying it was “necessary to stamp...

Seoul - A North Korean general cracked a joke about US President George W Bush at the start of military talks on Tuesday with South Korea that takes aim at president's unpopularity for being mired in the Iraq war and other issues. "I read a political joke, called 'Saving the President,' on a US internet site a while ago," Lieutenant General Kim Yong Chol told his South Korean counterpart as they opened three days of meetings at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas, according to pool reports. "US President Bush, distressed by the Iraq...

The first stop on Condoleezza Rice's post-detonation, nuclear reassurance tour was Tokyo. There she dutifully unfurled the American nuclear umbrella, pledging in person that the United States would meet any North Korean attack on Japan with massive American retaliation, nuclear if necessary. An important message, to be sure, for the short run, lest Kim Jong Il imbibe a little too much cognac and be teased by one of his "pleasure squad" lovelies into launching a missile or two into Japan. But Rice's declaration had another and obvious longer-run intent: to quell any thought Japan might have of going nuclear to...

NOT even in the lowest moments of the Third Reich, or of the gulag, or of Mao's "Great Leap Forward" was there a time when all the subjects of the system were actually enslaved. In North Korea, every person is property and is owned by a small and mad family with hereditary power. Every minute of every day, as far as regimentation can assure the fact, is spent in absolute subjection and serfdom. The private life has been entirely abolished. One tries to avoid cliche, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year...

For several years, North Korea has said it had nuclear weapons and the world has generally assumed that it did. With Pyongyang's apparent underground detonation of such a device on Monday, whatever lingering uncertainty there may have been has dissipated. Call it Kim Jong-Il's coming-out party. Now the question of what to do about one of the most dangerous regimes on the planet -- a state-sponsor of terror that has expressed a willingness to sell its nuclear technology to those with the cash to buy it -- recurs with fresh urgency. Let's get one thing straight at the outset: The...

Last week, ABC News and CNN were told by unidentified U.S. officials that North Korea seems to be preparing for an underground nuclear test. "It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is a real possibility," a senior State Department official told ABC News on Aug. 17. A U.S. intelligence agency has recently picked up "suspicious vehicle movement" at a location suspected by the U.S. to be a nuclear test site, a senior military official was quoted as saying. The suspicion seems to be widely shared among members of the U.S. Intelligence community. "It is the view...