Free Republic

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a ceremony for the launch of a “new multipurpose destroyer,” state media KCNA reported on Saturday. The 5,000-tonne warship was equipped with the “most powerful weapons” and built “within 400-odd days perfectly with our own strength and technology,” the report said, quoting Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the ruling Workers’ Party.

Christina Marie Chapman, a 48-year-old woman from Litchfield Park, Arizona, has pleaded guilty in federal court for her role in a scheme that funneled millions of dollars to North Korea. Over the course of three years, Chapman and her co-conspirators helped overseas IT workers pretend to be U.S. citizens so they could illegally secure remote IT jobs in the United States. The scheme involved more than 300 American companies, including some of the nation’s largest corporations. The fraudulent operation, which ran from October 2020 to October 2023, generated over $17 million in revenue. According to prosecutors, Chapman and her team...

Wars are often chaotic, but the introduction of foreign troops can add another layer of confusion. In the Kursk region of Russia, that confusion appears to have turned deadly. According to Ukraine’s defense intelligence (GUR) and Hotnews, North Korean soldiers accidentally killed eight Chechen fighters from the Akhmat battalion. The incident, GUR claims, was caused by a language barrier between the North Korean troops and their Russian allies. The Chechens, loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, were reportedly mistaken for enemy forces. The North Koreans fired on their vehicles, leading to the deaths. This is part of a larger development. Ukraine says...

"Wen obtained firearms, ammunition, and export-controlled technology with the intention of shipping them to North Korea — a violation of federal law and United States sanctions against that nation," the agency says An illegal immigrant from China was arrested for allegedly shipping "firearms, ammunition and other military items" to North Korea from California, according to a Justice Department indictment released on Tuesday. Shenghua Wen, 41, of Ontario, California, was arrested on Tuesday after hiding the weapons "inside shipping containers bound from Long Beach," the agency said. Wen, who was a Chinese national illegally residing in the United States, was expected...

A top Russian general, along with 500 North Korean soldiers, have allegedly been killed by British Storm Shadow missiles in a devastating attack. The strike launched by Ukraine on November 20 wiped out Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk and also resulted with 18 Putin officers reported lost, with a further 18 wounded, it has been claimed. Earlier reports suggested that a Kim Jong-un general had also been left injured in the attack as he commanded troops backing Vladimir Putin's Ukraine invasion. The strike carried out by Ukraine was the first time UK Storm Shadow missiles had been used blast targets deep inside...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday, its neighbors said, as it continued its weapons demonstrations hours before the U.S. presidential election. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said at least seven North Korean missiles flew as far as 400 kilometers (250 miles) with a maximum altitude of 100 kilometers (60 miles). He said they landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan

Transcript linked below video Li'l Kim blew up roads and railway between Nork and Sork. Sork fired back. Trump has commented.

North Korea floated hundreds of balloons across the border with South Korea on Thursday, Seoul's military said, continuing its latest campaign for the second day in a row. "Our military confirmed that North Korea had launched more than 420 garbage balloons from last night to early this morning," Lt. Col. Lee Chang-hyun, spokesman for Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a press briefing. "Since around 9 a.m. [Thursday], balloons have been launched again, so I emphasized to the public that they should be careful of falling loads, and if they see a fallen balloon, do not come into contact...

North Korea experts say her 'extremely obese' 40-year-old father may keel over at any moment – leaving daughter at the helm of this bizarre 26 million-strong nation and, perhaps, setting off a fierce succession fight with her notoriously ruthless, 'psychopath' aunt. 'If he does not improve his current health condition, there is a strong possibility that he may develop cardiovascular disease, of which there is a family history.' Jong Un's father, Kim Jong il, died in 2011 and it is believed that he suffered a massive heart attack. Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, said...

Multiple senior members of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration and the head of his People Power Party (PPP) tendered their resignations on Thursday after vote counts confirmed that the left-wing Democratic Party decisively took over the National Assembly in Wednesday’s midterm election. The Democrats overcame a chaotic campaign season in which leader Lee Jae-myung survived a would-be assassin stabbing him in the neck. The day he was released from the hospital, three members of his party defected, protesting that Lee was running an authoritarian and corrupt “regime” within the party. Lee was in court on Tuesday for a hearing addressing...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher urged students not to go to elite colleges because doing so “just makes you stupid” and that these elite schools are “a North Korean re-education camp” that are racist towards Asian applicants that don’t teach history and “if ignorance is a disease, Harvard Yard is the Wuhan wet market.”

SEOUL, South Korea — Travis King, the U.S. Army private who intentionally ran across the border into North Korea this summer, is back in U.S. custody, an American official said Wednesday, shortly after the isolated East Asian country said it would expel the soldier. “U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement. He went on to thank the U.S. military personnel who worked to "bring Private King home," as well as the governments of Sweden and China. King, 23, bolted across...

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Amanpour,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel stated that he’s not sure China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran have formed an alliance, but rather “an agreement among players that are isolated in the world.” Host Christiane Amanpour asked, [relevant exchange begins around 6:05] “China is involved, too. China has a certainly friendly relationship with Russia. Does this grouping, this alliance pose a threat to the United States and its Western allies? China, North Korea, Russia, and whoever else, Iran.”

I have traveled, stayed, and worked in Japan quite a bit, and think I understand that land and its people about as well as a gaijin can. It’s a beautiful country, with (mostly) friendly people, wonderful food, a great culture based on respect and consideration, and even some pretty good beers and whiskeys. I wouldn’t want to live there permanently; I’m too indelibly a red state – and RedState – American for that. But I’m very fond of the Land of the Rising Sun, and so keep abreast of events that affect Japan. To that end, it was interesting to...

On 23 February, Israel joined 140 other UN member states voting in favor of a nonbinding resolution that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces.“For the past year, Israel has stood alongside the people of Ukraine in solidarity both on the ground and here in the UN,” Tel Aviv’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan said following the vote. The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its western allies, passed 141-7, with 32 abstentions. Belarus, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, and Mali were the only member states to vote against the resolution.Israel’s condemnation of Russia’s...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

The latest Tweet by BNO News states, 'Japan emergency alert: "North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please evacuate to the inside of a building or go to the basement. Target area: Hokkaido"'

Russia is reportedly buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea to shore up its arsenal in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The New York Times reported on Monday, citing newly declassified U.S. intelligence, which lacked detail on the type of North Korean weaponry being sent to Russia, as well as the scale and timing of their shipment. The Times quoted a Washington official as saying that Moscow was expected to seek additional purchases of military equipment from Pyongyang in the future. Other global media outlets also issued similar reports, with the Associated Press citing a U.S. official...

The international community has entered “a new era of crisis,” Japan’s recently installed defense chief said Monday, pointing to a drastic need for Tokyo to rethink its security approach amid growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea. “The international community as a whole has entered the most trying time since the end of the previous war, and the existing order is being seriously challenged,” Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Monday in an interview. “We believe that we are entering a new era of crisis.” Pacifist Japan has found itself in a precarious security position, with China’s massive military buildup...

The two North Korean fishermen were captured near the eastern sea border after their boat drifted into South Korean waters. They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and expressed a desire to defect, the South Korean government said at the time. The Moon administration said then that the men’s intentions to defect were insincere given their murder confessions—and deported them five days after taking them into custody. North Korean defectors, upon arriving in South Korea, are typically held for up to a month for a period of investigation and debriefing with Seoul’s intelligence officials. Human rights groups said the...