North Korea

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Post-Stroke Kim Jong-il Meets Chinese Official

Visit marks first appearance with foreigners since illness

(Newser) - Kim Jong-il, the North Korean supreme leader, met a senior official from China's Communist Party today—in his first known meeting with a foreigner since suffering a stroke in August. The meeting was seen as an attempt to show that Kim remains in charge of North Korea, which has strongly...

North Korea Threatens to 'Shatter' South

Pyongyang claims to have plutonium for 4 nuclear bombs

(Newser) - North Korea threatened to “shatter” South Korea today as reports surfaced that Pyongyang may have enough plutonium stocks to produce at least four nuclear bombs, the Guardian reports. The North said rising hostilities with Seoul compelled it to take “an all-out confrontational posture” over a disputed maritime border...

Kim Jong-Il Names Youngest Son as Successor: Reports

Swiss-educated Jong-Un, about 25, said to be thoughtful, intelligent

(Newser) - Kim Jong-Il has picked his third—and, at about 25, thought to be his youngest—son, Jong-Un, as his successor in North Korea, Reuters reports. Though it has yet to be confirmed, officials said they have been instructed to spread the message, possibly to quell anxiety over who would lead...

USS Pueblo Crew Awarded $65M

Judge awards damages against North Korea for torture

(Newser) - In a distant echo of the Cold War, a federal judge has ordered north Korea to pay $65 million in damages to four crewmen from a US ship captured in 1968, reports AP. The USS Pueblo was seized by North Korea on an intelligence-gathering mission, and crew members were severely...

Kim Jong-Il Cheered at Concert
 Kim Jong-Il Cheered at Concert 
Dec 29, 2008 5:41 AM CST

Kim Jong-Il Cheered at Concert

First major public appearance since stroke

(Newser) - A wildly cheering orchestra audience greeted North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il at his first major public appearance since his suspected stroke in August, reports Reuters. Western intelligence experts began speculating in September that Kim was seriously ill—or dying—when he failed to appear at an important military parade at...

Kim Jong-Il Back in Public After Stroke

North Korean leader appears recovered

(Newser) - US intelligence officials believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has recovered from a stroke he suffered last August, and has been making public appearances, Reuters reports. The 66-year-old dictator recently inspected army units and a ceramics factory, according to North Korea's state-controlled media. One appearance is believed to have taken...

23 Years in a North Korean Prison Camp

Escapee, born in prison, tells of routine, stunning torture

(Newser) - There are 14,431 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, but only one, Shin Dong-hyuk, who escaped from a Northern prison camp. In an interview with the Washington Post, Shin describes the daily horrors of life inside Kim Jong-Il's gulags, from fire torture to mutilation. He committed no crime—...

N. Korea Talks Stumble Over Rules for Probing Nukes

Pyongyang balks at demands over verification

(Newser) - Talks to curb North Korea’s nuclear-weapons activities have stalled over rules for investigating its programs, Reuters reports. Five other countries have been negotiating with Pyongyang over verifying such activities after North Korea agreed to partially shut down a nuclear complex. “It’s been a very difficult day, indeed...

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
Nov 9, 2008 7:30 PM CST

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....

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