Free Republic

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda gave a state banquet late Thursday in honor of North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, praising Pyongyang for what he said was its prominent role in fighting imperialism. Kim Yong Nam, the president of the country’s parliament, is in Uganda as part of a rare tour of Africa, where North Korea has actively tried to cultivate potential allies like the long-serving, increasingly anti-West Museveni. The North Koreans are training Ugandan police in martial arts and Museveni hailed North Korea for helping to mechanize Uganda’s military over the years. North Korea is also training Ugandan military...

N.Korea's No. 2 Leader Says Nuclear Talks Are Over North Korea's Kim Yong-nam says the six-party nuclear talks are over for good. The reclusive regime's second-highest official told delegates at the Non-Aligned Meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that there can be no dialogue or negotiations "where the principles of respect for sovereign rights and equality are denied." Kim claimed Pyongyang had no choice but to take "decisive measures" to further strengthen its nuclear deterrence. The six-party nuclear dismantlement talks were suspended late last year and Pyongyang declared this April it was not returning to the talks after...

Excerpt - North Korea's No. 2 leader said Wednesday that whether the country will carry out further nuclear tests following one earlier in the week would depend on how the United States treats the country. In a meeting with Kyodo News, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said North Korea also considers U.S. policy toward the country the main factor for determining whether to return to the stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programs. ~ snip ~

SEOUL - North Korean officials denied reports that the communist regime was preparing to conduct a nuclear test, a Czech delegation told Yonhap news agency Tuesday following a visit to Pyongyang this week. But North Korea was still reluctant to return to six-way talks aimed at winding down its nuclear program despite recent bilateral contact with the United States in New York. “North Korean officials said the reports of a nuclear test is nonsense,” Lubomir Zaoralek, chairman of the lower house of the Czech Parliament, said in an interview with Yonhap. Zaoralek and his team stopped over in South...