Pyongyang

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US Reporters Languish in North Korea

Regime shuts out diplomats, refuses dialog with Washington

(Newser) - While media and diplomatic pressure on Iran seems to have won the release of Roxana Saberi, two other reporters held captive in North Korea for nearly two months are receiving far less attention, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plight of Euna Lee and Laura Ling has been overshadowed by...

North Korea Threatens 'Strong Steps' if Punished

(Newser) - North Korea says it will view any punishment for its recent rocket launch as a threat to its very sovereignty and will take "necessary and strong steps" in response, the BBC reports. It did not specify what those steps might be. "Every country has the inalienable right to...

Japan, US Ready Defenses for N Korean Missile

Navy moves ships in as Tokoy says it will shoot down debris

(Newser) - The Japanese government ordered its military to fire on a North Korean rocket if any part of it falls into Japanese airspace, reports Reuters. North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite but is presumed to be testing a long-range missile, which is currently on a launch pad....

North Korea Makes Threat Over Missile Launch

Vows to restart nuclear plants if sanctioned

(Newser) - North Korea said today it would reopen its nuclear facilities if the UN Security Council takes action over a planned missile launch, Reuters reports. If the UN adds sanctions against North Korea, Pyongyang said it would reverse the closing of both a nuclear reactor and its Yongbyon atomic plant, which...

Despite Hunger, N. Korea Rejects US Food Aid

Pyongyang boots humanitarian groups ahead of rocket launch

(Newser) - North Korea will reject future US food assistance and kicked out five groups distributing American aid, a move that could make an already precarious humanitarian situation even worse, reports the AP. Pyongyang gave no reason for refusing the aid, according to the State Department. North Korea faces chronic food shortages...

North Koreans Eat Pizza—After 10 Years' Wait

Kim Jong-Il wanted perfect recipe before authorizing restaurant

(Newser) - Millions of North Koreans suffer from undernourishment, but in Pyongyang, the ruling elite have a new dining option: the country's first pizzeria. It opened last December, more than a decade after Kim Jong-Il, reportedly a serious gourmand, brought a stable of Italian pizza chefs to teach army officers how to...

Stroke Survivor Kim Puffs Away
 Stroke Survivor Kim Puffs Away 
Feb 26, 2009 7:33 AM CST

Stroke Survivor Kim Puffs Away

Despite strict anti-smoking laws, North Korean leader takes a drag

(Newser) - President Obama isn't the only world leader with a less-than-consistent message about smoking. Despite his reported stroke last August, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was recently photographed puffing on a cigarette during a recent tour of a tobacco factory, reports the AP. One photo shown on North Korean state television...

North Korea Prepares 'Satellite' Launch

Neighbors believe country is readying test of long-range missile

(Newser) - North Korea’s announcement today that it is preparing to launch an "experimental communications satellite" on one of its rockets has raised fears that a long-range missile test is imminent, CNN reports. US and South Korean officials, citing intelligence reports, believe that the country is preparing to launch a...

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...

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 “...

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,...

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 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...

Kim's Death Unlikely to Breed Chaos
 Kim's Death Unlikely 
 to Breed Chaos 
ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2008 12:49 PM CDT

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...

N. Korea: Not So 1984- Like
 N. Korea: Not So 1984-Like 
OPINION
Sep 14, 2008 9:25 AM CDT

N. Korea: Not So 1984-Like

Pyongyang could be 'Anytown, USA,' student writes

(Newser) - When many Americans picture North Korea, they see “gulag and famine,” but what one student found was less 1984 and "more like the set of Austin Powers 4, minus the hot blondes.“ In fact, wandering Pyongyang revealed what could be “Anytown, USA,” free from...

Power Struggle Looms in North Korea

Kim's sons, military will vie to take charge in wake of president's illness

(Newser) - With no obvious successor in the shadows, North Korea may be in for a bitter power struggle if reports prove true that President Kim Jong Il is gravely ill after suffering a stroke. The North Korean autocrat was mysteriously absent from 60th anniversary celebrations yesterday. The power vacuum could be...

North Korea Sticks on 'Axis of Evil' List

Rice says Pyongyang hasn't made progress on nuclear issue

(Newser) - The US will not remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, Reuters reports. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told her Japanese counterpart that Pyongyang had not made sufficient progress on a verification plan for its nuclear programs, which was a condition for removing it from the...

Thousands Cheer Torch in N. Korea

Olympic flame hailed with songs and dancing for a change

(Newser) - Tens of thousands of North Koreans took to the streets to herald the arrival of the Olympic torch today, marking a radically different greeting for the often-harried flame, Reuters reports. People waved North Korean and Chinese flags, danced, cheered, and sang military songs. The welcome contrasted sharply with waves of...

CIA to Brief Congress on Syria-North Korea Nuke Pact

Washington moves close to N. Korea agreement

(Newser) - Details of a suspected secret pact between North Korea and Syria to supply Damascus with nuclear weapons technology will be revealed in closed-door CIA briefings of lawmakers, Reuters reports. The pact is apparently linked to an Israeli air raid on a suspected nuclear site in Syria last year. The briefing...

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