North Korea

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US Claims Success in Latest Missile Defense Test

System shoots down projectile over Pacific

(Newser) - The Pentagon says the latest test of its missile-defense system, performed today, was a success, Reuters reports. An interceptor missile dispatched from an Air Force base in California shot down a test projectile—similar to those Iran and North Korea claim to possess—fired from Alaska over the Pacific this...

Obama to Fill WMD Post Bush Ignored

Dem has long focused on stopping proliferation of nuclear, chemical arms

(Newser) - President-elect Obama will hire an official to oversee efforts to stop terrorists from gaining nuclear and biological weapons, the Boston Globe reports, a position the Bush administration approved but left unfilled. Such efforts are currently spread among many agencies, and a report predicting a deadly attack within 5 years using...

N. Korea Clamps Down on Border

Major setback to years of economic, tourist ties between Koreas

(Newser) - North Korea today made good on its threat to restrict border crossings from South Korea, severely hampering trade and ending tourism with its neighbor. The move, blocking large numbers of South Koreans and reducing border-crossing hours, is a protest against South Korea's new hardline president that negates years of hard-fought...

N. Korea to Shut Border With South

Pyongyang angered by South Korean government's actions

(Newser) - North Korea says it will cut access to South Korea on Dec. 1, by closing the border and severing the sole civilian phone link between the two nations, the BBC reports. The North has grown increasingly hostile to the South since it elected President Lee Myung-bak, who promised to “...

Kim Jong-Il Had a 2nd Stroke: Japanese TV

Report suggests that North Korea leader could be incapacitated

(Newser) - Uncertainty grew this morning about the health of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il after a Japanese television station reported that he has suffered a second stroke, Reuters reports. The claim came from a source connected to an American intelligence agency, but South Korean officials rejected the assertion. North Korea...

World Policy Can Wait a While, Obama
 World Policy Can Wait
a While, Obama

opinion

World Policy Can Wait a While, Obama

For a while, inaction may be the best course

(Newser) - From Iran to Venezuela, President-elect Obama's best foreign policy option is to lie low for now, John Barry writes in Newsweek. Sudden forays into tricky hotspots—think Bay of Pigs, or President Bush's North Korea missteps—can prove costly, and most of the world's problems need a breather anyway. In...

Brother-in-Law Pilots N. Korea for Ailing Kim

Head of secret police fills in as dictator heals from stroke: analysts

(Newser) - Kim Jong-Il’s brother-in-law is running North Korea as the dictator recovers from a stroke, experts tell the Times of London. South Korean analysts say that while Kim is conscious and probably mobile, he remains weak. But Pyongyang appears to be functioning normally in the hands of Chang Sung Taek,...

Efforts to Show Off Kim's Health Raise More Eyebrows

Observers can't tell whether recently released photos are legit

(Newser) - Recently released photos of Kim Jong-il are baffling observers, who still speculate the North Korean leader may have suffered a stroke despite officials’ insistence otherwise, the New York Times reports. One photo has green foliage, although North Korea’s trees are now sporting autumn colors; in another, Kim’s left...

Kim Calls Shots from Hospital: Japan

Leader is sick, but able to run the country

(Newser) - Kim Jong-Il is probably in the hospital but still calling the shots, Japanese PM Taro Aso says, citing intelligence reports and adding that if the North Korean leader were incoherent, "we would be seeing different developments." A Japanese professor returning from Pyongyang says North Koreans are calm, a...

Son Appears to Fetch Brain Doc for Kim

North Korean leader's eldest son seen soliciting surgeon in Paris

(Newser) - Adding to the evidence that Kim Jong-Il is in grave health, the North Korean leader’s eldest son was filmed while apparently securing the services of a brain surgeon in Paris, the Times of London reports today. Fuji TV also showed clips of an unnamed surgeon being driven in a...

North Korea Threatens to Sever Ties With South

Calls South Korean government 'traitors'

(Newser) - North Korea is threatening to sever ties with South Korea in a war of words that has plunged relations between the partitioned neighbors to a new low, Reuters reports. North Korean officials are upset about hardline policies of South Korea's conservative government.  "If the traitors keep to the...

US Removes N. Korea From Terrorism Blacklist

(Newser) - The US has removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist after Pyongyang agreed to all nuclear inspection demands, the State Department said today. North Korea will allow atomic experts to take samples and conduct forensic tests at its nuclear facilities. If it balks, it will go back on the list....

US May Yank N. Korea Off Terror List

Strategy to restart nuclear diplomacy

(Newser) - The US is expected to provisionally remove North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, possibly as early as today, reports the Washington Post. It may be the Bush administration's last "carrot" to offer as diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear...

N. Korea Readies Test Launch Missiles

UN monitoring halted, disarmament pact nearing collapse

(Newser) - North Korea sent 10 missiles to test-launch sites off the Yellow Sea today and halted UN monitoring of its nuclear complex, Reuters reports, in the latest hardline signal from the Communist regime as it flirts with scrapping a nuclear disarmament deal. Meanwhile, Pyongyang tested two ship-to-ship missiles in the West...

He's Back? N. Korea Says Kim Watches Soccer Match

(Newser) - North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, rumored to be seriously ill, made his first public appearance in nearly 2 months, says the state news agency. It offered few details and no photos, but said that Kim attended a recent soccer match between universities and congratulated the players afterward, Reuters reports. US and...

US Rep Heads to North Korea With New Nukes Proposal

Verification system at heart of new mission aimed at restarting process

(Newser) - The chief US nuclear negotiator with North Korea will propose a face-saving compromise during a trip tomorrow to the isolated communist nation to try to salvage the derailed disarmament pact, officials said. Envoy Christopher Hill said his goal was to persuade North Korea to agree to a verification system to...

N. Korea Restarts Nuke Program

Pyongyang tells IAEA to remove seals from processing plant

(Newser) - North Korea plans to reactivate its nuclear program and will start reinserting plutonium-producing nuclear material within a week, reports the AP. Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said that his inspectors removed all agency seals and surveillance equipment from the country's main nuclear facility....

In Final Visit, Bush Touts UN
 In Final Visit, 
 Bush Touts UN 

In Final Visit, Bush Touts UN

Multinational bodies key against extremists, president tells General Assembly

(Newser) - President Bush, who once expressed disdain for the United Nations, said today that multinational organizations are now "needed more urgently than ever" to combat extremists threatening world order. In his eighth and final speech to the General Assembly, Bush said the international community must stand firm against North Korea...

Kim's Death Unlikely to Breed Chaos
 Kim's Death Unlikely 
 to Breed Chaos 
ANALYSIS

Kim's Death Unlikely to Breed Chaos

Doomsday scenarios for North Korean succession farfetched

(Newser) - With Kim Jong Il conspicuously out of the public eye in recent months, some speculate that his death could shatter the North Korean government and precipitate humanitarian and possibly military crises. But the reality of succession, Philip Bowring writes in the International Herald Tribune, is likely to be far more...

Kim Jong-Il a 'Pigmy', 'Tyrant' US Will Miss
Kim Jong-Il a 'Pigmy', 'Tyrant' US Will Miss
analysis

Kim Jong-Il a 'Pigmy', 'Tyrant' US Will Miss

Like a good dictator, he kept N. Korea's nukes in check

(Newser) - The Bush administration felt a pending bittersweet goodbye when news leaked that North Korea's Kim Jong-Il likely had a stroke last month, the New York Times reports. True, officials had called Kim a "tyrant" and a "pigmy," but they knew he kept close tabs on his nation's...

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