Free Republic

Why N.Korean Girl Band Canceled Beijing Gig The all-girl North Korean pop band Moranbong abruptly canceled a concert series in Beijing on Saturday because Beijing objected that their program was chock-full of paeans to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, intelligence officials here believe. China was going to send a politburo member to the concert, but decided on a lower-ranking official when it discovered the contents of the show, Saenuri lawmaker Joo Ho-young quoted the National Intelligence Service as saying. "The NIS viewed this perceived slight as the primary reason for the abrupt cancelation," Joo added. Radio Free Asia quoted a...

Chinese censors are scrubbing sites of mentions of North Korean girl band By Victoria Ho 19 minutes ago After the Moranbong Band's abrupt cancelation of their performances in Beijing over the weekend, it appears Chinese censors went to work deleting speculation and chatter about the North Korean girl band on mainland sites. The Moranbong Band, whose members were said to be handpicked by North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, were on a goodwill mission to Beijing and were set to perform three concerts starting Saturday night. But just hours before the first, they abruptly canceled the gig and headed home on...

If true, North Korea has created a major escalation in the standoff on the peninsula. But is it true that Pyongyang has a hydrogen bomb ready to deploy? Reuters reports that analysts remain skeptical of the claim: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared on Thursday to claim his country has developed a hydrogen bomb, a step up from the less powerful atomic bomb, but outside experts were skeptical.Kim made the comments as he toured the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, which marks the feats of his father who died in 2011 and his grandfather, state founder and eternal president, Kim...

North Korea claims to have developed a new kind of nuclear weapon to add to its arsenal – the hydrogen bomb. It is still unclear whether the latest claim of Kim Jong-un is a gimmick or a real threat. Pyongyang is capable of launching hydrogen bombs and not just nuclear weapons, declared the country's leader, Kim Jong-un. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), he was speaking at Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, a historic venue for the regime, in the North Korean capital.

South Korea's Catholic Church announced on Monday it had reached agreement with North Korea to send priests there on "a regular basis," seeking an opening in a country with a long history of tight religious control, AFP reported. The agreement, which should see priests leading services in Pyongyang on major holy days from next year, followed a visit to the North Korean capital by South Korean bishops last week. The announcement by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of Korea (CBCK) came at the end of a 4-day visit to North Korea by a delegation of 4 bishops and 13 priests, on...

North Korea has launched a new purge, targeting citizens with long hair and ordering them to copy Kim Jong-un's much-mocked "ambitious" style. Sources in Pyongyang, quoted by South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper, said authorities in the North Korean capital have issued an order requiring that men keep their hair to a maximum 2 cm (0.8 inches) in length. They are also being instructed to pay homage to Mr Kim by copying his trademark swept-back bouffant that emerges upwards from the shaved patches above his ears.

Could North Korea again save Taiwan? Continued risks of instability north of the DMZ may distract from coming cross-Straits tensions Dennis P. Halpin November 16th, 2015 /snip Beijing had previously used the collapse of its former advisory, the Soviet Union, to reposition its military strength from the northern frontier to areas adjacent to Taiwan. And Xi gave no indication that his meeting with Taiwan’s Ma Ying-jeou would lead to any reduction in the estimated 1,800 missiles aimed at Taiwan. What could, however, lead to a redeployment of PLA forces northward and a re-evaluation of priorities would be another crisis triggered...

(3rd LD) U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to visit Pyongyang this week NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit North Korea this week, a high-level U.N. source said Sunday, a surprise trip that raises hope for progress in inter-Korean relations and efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff. Ban's visit to Pyongyang will be the first time in his capacity as U.N. chief, the source told Yonhap News Agency without providing exact dates of the trip. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip has not been formally announced. It was also...

US Navy say "light in the West Coast sky" was a Trident II (D5) missile test at sea from the submarine "Kentucky" www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xLmB81v-BI

Family Dresses Up Baby As Kim Jong-un & Dennis Rodman For Halloween October 31, 2015 3:26 PM By Garret Heinrich An American family decided that there was no better costume for their eight-month old’s first Halloween than North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un and his friend Dennis Rodman. The little girl does look amazingly like the baby-faced supreme leader as she totes around a stuffed Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls doll.

North Korea is getting ready to conduct a fourth nuclear test to respond to policies of the United States, according to details from South Korea’s spy agency published by the Yonhap news agency. USA Today reported: The North is getting ready to conduct the test because of what it says are the confrontational policies of the United States and its allies, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Yonhap reported. The spy agency said the test was not imminent. It did not elaborate on the type of test that would be held. North Korea last conducted a nuclear test in...

The U.S. is ready to negotiate with longtime adversary North Korea as it has with Iran, but Pyongyang has to be serious about abandoning nuclear weapons, President Obama said Friday. Obama was speaking after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, a close ally, who echoed the U.S. leader's view. ·

North Korea reportedly rejected the idea of resuming talks to abandon its nuclear program on Saturday, but said it would welcome negotiations for a peace treaty with Washington. North Korea’s foreign ministry made the statement one day after President Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye said they were ready to open talks with Pyongyang on sanctions if they were serious about dissolving its nuclear program, according to Reuters. “If the United States insists on taking a different path, the Korean peninsula will only see our unlimited nuclear deterrent being strengthened further,” the North said in a statement. North and...

North Korean Soldiers Assist Assad in the War Against the Syrian People. 7/20/2015 At 09:21 AM Activists and eyewitnesses confirmed that 5 buses full of fully armed Korean soldiers were seen in the capital Damascus, heading towards Jobar and Eastern Ghouta. It's not the first time Assad has used korean, not to mention the Shiite and Asian militias, fo fight in his side, Many media sources confirmed that korean soldiers from what is called Tshulima units has been assigned as Assad's personal details two years ago, after the large advance opposition forces achieved inside the capital Damascus. Tshulima special unit...

Mark Levin responded to resident Obama’s concerns over economic globalization and automation, saying that if liberal changes to capitalism were feasible, the most prosperous society on earth would be North Korea. “You can’t impose success. You can’t impose living wages. You can’t do any of those things,” Levin said. “If you could do those things, the most successful, prosperous, paradisiacal society on the face of the earth would be North Korea.” ... We don’t need lectures from leftists who’ve never produced a damn thing and never can produce a damn thing, who are taking this country down the toilet. We...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

Pyongyang says it has developed miniaturized nuclear BBs making it possible to fit them into standard BB and Air-soft projectors. The report comes just days after North Korea claimed a joint venture with Lucas Films to build a golf-ball-sized Death Star. “It has been a long time since we began miniaturizing and diversifying our means of nuclear strike,”North Korea’s National Autocratic Defense Commission said in a statement, as cited by the official Korean Nuclear Agency (KNA). "We have also reached the stage where the highest accuracy rate is guaranteed not only for short- and medium-range BBs such as 10 yards...

N.Korea Tidying Up Rocket Launch Site North Korea has fenced off and tidied up a rocket launch site as the Workers Party's 70th anniversary on Oct. 10 approaches, a government source here said Wednesday. But there are no signs of an imminent launch at the remote site in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. "There's lively activity at the Tongchang-ri missile launch site," the source here said. "We've found out that there's more movement of people and equipment there and they're putting the launch site into order." But no rocket parts have been taken to the site yet, the source added. Seoul...

Raising $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 is challenging, but possible through mechanisms including carbon markets, domestic carbon taxes and a variety of international transportation taxes, a United Nations advisory group said in a report Friday. Earlier this year, the UN's Ban established the panel, which includes U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, billionaire financier George Soros and Deutsche Bank vice-chairman Caio Koch-Weser. The financing will be used to support mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries--in particular, for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Six months ago, authorities seized a cargo plane in Bangkok that contained 35 tons of North Korean military weapons. These included versions of the Chinese HN-5 “man-portable air defense system,” or MANPADS. The MANPADS were being shipped to Iran. The HN-5 — a copy of the Soviet SA-7— is less capable than the MANPADS Iran produces on its own. Why, you ask, would Iran be importing more primitive missiles than the ones it already makes? The only conceivable answer is that Iran was planning to provide North Korean missiles to Iran’s proxy terrorist groups, to gain plausible deniability in case...