Free Republic

A high-ranking North Korean official who defected to the South six years ago has told US congressmen that Pyongyang cannot be trusted to stick to a new nuclear weapons deal. Hwang Jang-yop, who was secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party, was speaking to the House of Representatives' Committee on Homeland Security during his first visit to Washington. Mr Hwang's comments came as Chinese and North Korean media reported that Pyongyang had agreed "in principle" to further talks on its controversial nuclear programme. He said no significance should be attached to any promise by the North Korean leader, Kim...

SEOUL, South Korea, -- North Korea's highest-ranking defector left for the United States on Monday in a trip that could strain relations with the communist state amid tension over its nuclear weapons development. Hwang Jang Yop, who defected to Seoul in 1997, has been invited several times to speak before a U.S. congressional hearing, but had not been allowed to travel outside South Korea until now. He has accused the South Korean government of restricting his movements. Hwang, 81, was once chief of North Korea's parliament and the mentor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. When he came to...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Nearly 4,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War, three quarters of them in the past five years, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a report submitted Sunday. A total of 2,958 North Koreans, or 77 percent of the total 3,834 defectors, fled their country and arrived in South Korea after 1998, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The ministry expects the number to rise as thousands of North Koreans are believed to be living in hiding in China, seeking a chance to come to South Korea. Most of...

N. Korea Weapons Expert Said Detained in China 1 hour, 27 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! BEIJING (Reuters) - A North Korean biological weapons expert has been detained while trying to slip into the Australian consulate in China's southern city of Guangzhou to seek political asylum, an anti-Pyongyang activist said on Saturday. Reuters Slideshow: North Korea Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor-turned-activist, said plainclothes security agents had detained Ri Chae Woo, who planned to testify in the United States against Pyongyang's chemical and biological weapons program. Vollersten, quoted on a human rights Web site, said Li had...

A rally held today in Seoul, South Korea, by strong friends of the USA and strong opponents of brutal North Korea/Kim Jong-il. Joining were: defectors from communist North Korea, S. Korean conservatives, a German doctor who had worked in North Korea, S. Korean veterans of the Vietnam War, and others friends. They fastidiously burned the communist North Korean flag and sang in support of President Bush and a strong policy against tyrany. Enjoy.

Seoul, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- An application for a passport by Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to defect to South Korea, has been turned down, government officials said Tuesday. The National Intelligence Service refused to endorse Hwang's application, the third so far this year, for security reasons, said one official associated with the main government spy agency.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Ten Koreans, possibly from the communist North, sneaked into the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok on Thursday, diplomats said, apparently seeking political asylum. The group - consisting of four men, four women, a boy and a girl - entered the embassy compound through a gate when it opened to let a car in, said embassy spokesman Toshihisa Takata. They passed beside the car shouting "North Korea" in English. "They are safely in the building of the Japanese Embassy. We are now investigating their names and their wishes, those sorts of things," Takata told reporters. He said they...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Attack North Korea Before It's Too Late, Key Defector WarnsCharles R. SmithThursday, July 10, 2003 WASHINGTON – A prominent defector is urging the U.S. to use military force against North Korea, and predicts that once the rogue regime acquires nuclear weapons, it will use them against U.S. allies. Park Gap Dong, former chief of the European Section for Propaganda, said that the U.S. should use "pre-emptive strikes against selected targets" to overthrow the brutal North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il and destroy the nuclear weapons program. "We cannot expect to bring down the regime of Kim Jong-il by...

<p>U.S. and North Korea officials are to meet in Bangkok tomorrow to discuss access to American defectors living in North Korea &#8212; part of a seven-year effort to account for U.S. soldiers who never returned from the Korean War.</p> <p>Officials at both the Pentagon and the State Department insisted that the talks will be very "narrowly focused" on that subject and that the latest nuclear standoff with the North will not be discussed.</p>

N Korean defector's nuclear claim The most high-profile defector from North Korea has said he was told in 1996 that the secretive state had already developed nuclear weapons. Hwang Yang-jop, a former tutor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, also said that Pyongyang signed a contract with Pakistan the same year to receive help in enriching uranium for its nuclear arsenal. Mr Hwang's comments will add credence to United States intelligence reports that the North had developed a small number of nuclear weapons before it agreed to mothball its programme in 1994. The collapse of that agreement last year triggered...

World - AP Asia Defector: Kim Said N. Korea Has Nukes (Kim Jong-il said it in '96) 2 hours, 16 minutes ago By JAE-SUK YOO, Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told aides in 1996 that his country had nuclear weapons, a prominent North Korean defector said Friday. Hwang Jang Yop, who defected to Seoul in 1997, made the remarks as the United States tries to muster international pressure on North Korea (news - web sites) to drop its suspected nuclear program. Washington believes North Korea already has one or two bombs. "I...

N. Korean Defector Tries for U.S. Visit Wed Jun 11, 3:36 AM ET By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea - Six years after fleeing one of the world's most repressive regimes in search of freedom, Hwang Jang Yop remains confined to South Korea (news - web sites). Hwang, the most senior North Korean ever to defect and a former mentor to leader Kim Jong Il, has had little contact with the outside world since he fled to the South in 1997. He rarely appears in public or gives interviews. Under the protective custody of South Korea's spy...

Bok Ku Lee is not my real name, but one I've adopted to protect my family. For a number of years I served as head of the technical department at a munitions complex that made missile guidance systems and related electronic devices for North Korea's military. I was one of 100,000 or so scientific and professional people involved in the regime's weapons of mass destruction industry. While I made enough money to modestly feed my family, I witnessed mass starvation and oppression of those less fortunate, and unspeakable abuses of power and lifestyle excesses by senior political officials of the...

<p>Bok Ku Lee is not my real name, but one I've adopted to protect my family.</p> <p>For a number of years I served as head of the technical department at a munitions complex that made missile guidance systems and related electronic devices for North Korea's military. I was one of 100,000 or so scientific and professional people involved in the regime's weapons of mass destruction industry.</p>

WASHINGTON -- The US Central Intelligence Agency recruited last month a foreign nuclear scientist who had worked on North Korea's nuclear-weapons programme, Time magazine reported. Citing two unnamed US officials and a foreign-government source, the magazine reports in the Monday issue that the scientist had been relocated to the United States and had provided valuable information on North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities. US officials hope the information will give Washington a big advantage in the next round of talks with North Korea, according to the report. The CIA earlier concluded that North Korea had developed at least two nuclear devices....

N Korea Defectors Detail Drug Rings (& Missile Export)21May03 The Herald Sun, AustraliaIn a dramatic confession to the US Congress, two men identified as high-ranking North Korean defectors today said they had been intimately involved in test-firing Pyongyang's missiles in Iran and a state-sponsored drugs ring. The men, led into a congressional hearing wearing black hoods, gave evidence behind a screen to conceal their identities. They currently live in South Korea, but were brought to the United States by two refugee advocacy groups. Their appearance came as the Bush administration tries to turn the spotlight on North Korea's alleged...

IN a dramatic confession to the US Congress, two men identified as high-ranking North Korean defectors today said they had been intimately involved in test-firing Pyongyang's missiles in Iran and a state-sponsored drugs ring. The men, led into a congressional hearing wearing black hoods, gave evidence behind a screen to conceal their identities. They currently live in South Korea, but were brought to the United States by two refugee advocacy groups. Their appearance came as the Bush administration tries to turn the spotlight on North Korea's alleged criminal behaviour after making little obvious progress to end a simmering crisis over...

North Korean official casts doubt on defection story SEOUL (AFP) - A North Korean trade official cast doubt on a news report that a close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has defected to the United States, Yonhap news agency said. AFP Photo Yonhap said in dispatches Saturday and Sunday that Kil Jae-Gyong, vice director of Kim's secretariat, and Han Myong-Chol, first secretary of the North Korean trade representative's office in Macau, were seeking asylum in the United States. The agency, however, carried a separate telephone interview with Han later refuting the reports of his alleged defection. When asked...

/start my translation A close confidant of Kim Jong-Il defects to U.S. /snip Kil Jae-Gyung, a close confidant of the General Secretary of N. Korean Worker's Party, Kim Jong-Il, defected to U.S. recently. His position is a deputy depratment chief of General Secretariat's Clerk's Office, the S. Korean equivalent of the Office of Presidential Secretaries. A diplomatic source in Seoul disclosed on 17th (of May, 2003), "Deputy Department Chief Kil Jae-Gyung and two others requested a political asylum to U.S. while staying at a third country. They are now at a safe location." The source added, "We cannot disclose their...

/start my translation A N. Korean escapee, a former N. Korean missile project worker, intent on defecting to U.S. came to S. Korea in '99 ... "secured an U.S. visa, evading S. Korean gov." "N. Korea imported 90% of missile parts from Japan. (missiles) were produced in 4 different factories" A N. Korean escapee, who worked for N. Korean missile production, held a press conference on May 15, 2003, at Washington's National Press Club, announcing his intention to defect to U.S. Revealing only his last name, Lee, he remarked that he met in the morning the Representative Ed Royce(R) and...