Word: pyongyang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...clan. He is short, a bit overweight and "aggressive," Fujimoto has said, "just like his father." And Kim Jong Un is now, many analysts believe, officially in line to succeed Kim Jong Il as the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - which helps explain Pyongyang's recent explosively belligerent behavior. (Read "Time to Face Facts on Our North Korea Ignorance...
...What does this have to do with Pyongyang's recent belligerence? According to diplomats and intelligence sources in Washington and East Asia, plenty. The North Koreans have chosen what could have been a period of weakness - with an ailing leader trying to arrange the eventual transfer of power to an untested son - to state that it does not intend to give up its nuclear weapons program. "It's pretty clear they have made the strategic choice to be a nuclear power, period, and will no longer hold out the weapons program as a thing to be bargained away in talks...
...Enter the Hostages But Washington's desire to isolate the North has been complicated by Pyongyang's June 8 sentencing of two Americans to 12 years of hard labor. Euna Lee, 36, and Laura Ling, 32, were filming a report for Current TV, a San Francisco - based network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, on North Korean refugees in China. They were working near the border city of Dandong in northeastern China when they were arrested on March 17. The two were convicted of illegal entry into North Korea - accounts differ as to whether the women inadvertently crossed...
...successful, would play no direct part in ridding North Korea of its nuclear arsenal, they could play an indirect role. The weapons trade "has been a main source of revenue for the North for quite some time," Morrell said. Choking it off, he said, would reduce funding for Pyongyang's nuclear program as well as halt the proliferation of arms to other countries and terrorists, "where it could pose a threat to us and our allies...
Pentagon officials acknowledge that their track record on monitoring North Korean shipping leaves something to be desired. Pyongyang played a major role in the development of a nuclear reactor that Syria was building until the Israeli air force bombed it into rubble in 2007. U.S. intelligence never has been able to identify what North Korean ships, if any, were involved in its construction. Which raises a troubling notion: North Korea's nuclear know-how may be able to elude even the tightest naval noose...