Word: pyongyang
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...done about its nuclear program, North Korea has never, to anyone's knowledge, tested a nuclear bomb. That's why the world grew alarmed when satellite photos showed what looked like an explosion and a mushroom-shaped cloud over a remote area in the northern part of the country. Pyongyang denied it had exploded a nuke and even escorted a group of foreign ambassadors to the area, where they saw thousands of workers toiling mostly by hand to build a dam. A local official said the blasts were part of an effort to speed up the project. An ambassador...
...government-run research labs?and a whole lot of hot fuel rods. But it is also a major player in the six-nation talks that are trying to arm-twist North Korea into shuttering its own uranium- and plutonium-based nuclear-weapon programs. After hearing the South's explanations, Pyongyang quickly trumpeted a "double standard." Then came news that the South had noticed an enormous explosion in North Korea last week, though the source was unclear...
...That unlikely tale was Seoul's explanation last week for the startling news that its scientists had been caught enriching uranium?the very activity Washington is trying to get North Korea to halt. (Pyongyang also has a plutonium-based weapons program, the focus of continuing six-nation negotiations.) South Korea foreswore its nuclear weapons program in 1975, and has since been under the inspection regime of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Last February, the government signed a protocol giving the IAEA the right to more information and to inspect sites anywhere in the country. Seoul had six months...
...Pyongyang watchers are trying to divine what Ko's death might mean for the leadership of North Korea. Some observers believe her eldest son, Kim Jong Chol, in his early 20s, is the strongest contender to succeed his father, who himself inherited the job of paramount leader?although her youngest son, Kim Jong Woon, is rumored to be his father's favorite. The only other known contender is 33-year-old Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Il's son by another union, but he's believed to have been in the doghouse since 2001 when he was caught trying...
...paranoid to think that calls for improvements in human rights are synonymous with calls for regime change." U.S. lawmakers insist, however, that the legislation is meant only to address a humanitarian crisis. Says Congressman Jim Leach, the House bill's co-sponsor: "If it is such an embarrassment [to Pyongyang], they might want to move to treat their people better...