Free Republic

Excerpt - SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- In a major incentive for North Korea, the United States is willing to provide the communist regime with a written security guarantee if it agrees to take concrete actions to end its nuclear weapons program at next week's six-way talks, diplomatic sources here said Thursday. The U.S. offered the olive branch at a meeting between its chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing late last month, according to the sources. The offer came as the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan are set to...

‘Hill Said U.S., N.Korea Ties Depend on Human Rights’ Washington’s chief negotiator in six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, Christopher Hill, reportedly said the Stalinist country must discuss its human rights record, plans to develop biochemical weapons, support for terrorism and other illegitimate activities before the U.S. is ready to normalize ties. Reports on Sunday said Hill made the remark in a closed-door address right after signing a statement of principles that ended the fourth round of the talks on Sept. 19. He said other parties in the talks must take a clear stance in the next round slated...

Scholar: N. Korea Won't Dismantle Weapons Sat Apr 9, 3:30 PM ET By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer BEIJING - North Korea says it won't even discuss dismantling its nuclear weapons until Washington has normalized relations, a U.S. scholar who visited the North said Saturday. The new demand for formal relations is a victory for North Korean hard-liners and adds another complication to stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear program, according to Selig Harrison, a Washington-based researcher. He said it reflects frustration at a lack of results from contacts with Washington and fears of a U.S. attack. "The chance to...

Declassified documents anger victims' families, stir up potential lawsuits Confidential documents drawn up between Seoul and Tokyo when normalizing diplomatic ties four decades ago were unveiled to the public yesterday under a court ruling, stirring up long-buried dust on victims of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of this nation. The government's partial release of its "X-files," consisting of about 1,200 pages, awakened memories of past victims and their families - and incited new claims for compensation. "The documents will inevitably become a catalyst for compensation lawsuits from victims of the colonial rule," an official at the Foreign Ministry said. "And with...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday that Baghdad will not make any moves to normalize relations with Israel before other Arabs do as part of a Mideast settlement. The U.S.-backed prime minister, speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, also dismissed Arab press reports that Israelis have established a presence in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. "Future relations with Israel are determined by two issues: international resolutions and a just and comprehensive peace that has been adopted by Arab leaderships, including the Palestinian leadership. Iraq will not take...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to begin the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War, a Vietnamese official said. The two sides were still working out final details, but were expected to initial an agreement on Thursday, said the official from Vietnam's Civil Aviation Administration, who declined to be named. The agreement came after negotiations broke down three years ago before resuming this spring. It would open direct flights between the United States and Vietnam, but no details were available on when the service...

The Politics of Deviance Anne Hendershott Encounter Books 2002 194 pages Occasionally a book is published that examines the dogmas of the dominant culture with such clarity that the gatekeepers can only regard it as subversive. Anne Hendershott's "The Politics of Deviance" is such a book. Hendershott, a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego, follows the lead of former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who warned in the 1965 speech "Defining Deviancy Down" that "[society] has chosen not to notice behavior that would be otherwise controlled, disapproved, or even punished." Moynihan's warning proved true. Behaviors once considered deviant...

The Jordanian government has ordered the dissolution of trade-union affiliated agencies that oppose the normalization of ties with Israel. The Kingdom’s Anti-Normalization Committee remains opposed to the peace treaty with Israel, which removed trade barriers between the neighboring nations in 1994. According to Jordan’s Minister of State for Political Affairs Mohammad Adwan, the peace treaty signed between the Hashemite Kingdom and Israel is legally binding, therefore “any practice against national interest” will be halted. Government officials claim that the Committee’s circulation of a list of company’s which they consider “normalizers” with Israel caused losses of millions of dinars from the...

<p>I have long thought that John Kerry is wrong on Vietnam. I don't mean wrong 30 years ago, when, as a decorated combat veteran, he returned from Vietnam and became a leading antiwar activist. I mean wrong in the years since, when he has been, with John McCain, the Senate's foremost advocate of normalized relations with Vietnam.</p>