Last September, North Korea, a country that has been plagued with famine deaths for the last decade, announced they were going to encourage farmers to breed rabbits to supply meat.
Actually this makes sense. When I worked in Africa, one of the nutrition outreach programs was a club to teach people to raise rabbits as a […]

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All of the news sites make it appear that the 6 party talks with North korea are over.
Envoys: Nuke talks depend on North Korea - Houston Chronicle/Chron.com
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks had snagged on the amount of energy assistance Pyongyang would receive as an inducement for disarming. But he said […]

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There are big hopes for next week’s 6-party talks with North Korea. Christopher Hill, key negotiator for the US, has said that the US is hoping for progress.
It’s likely that this progress will happen, and that the Koreans will get what they’ve been seeking, which is aid. It is also very likely that the financial […]

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OffStumped For All Things Right of Center, Bringing a Right of Centre Reality Check to Indian Politics, News Media Reporting and Opinion now in Hindi अब आप के लिये हिंदी मे.
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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that nuclear weapons became a “strategic compulsion” for India, “born out of the failure to persuade the world […]

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On the eve of US-North Korea financial talks, which have been tentatively set to take place on the week starting January 22, the idea of a second nuclear test by the DPRK is being talked about yet again.
Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese lawmaker Taku Yamasaki quoting North Korean official Song Il-ho as saying that a […]

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Following this week’s flurry of activity around the DPRK, with suggestions of a second nuclear test, the US and North Korea have now agreed to hold financial talks later this month.
The question of financial sanctions imposed in 2005 played a big role in the failure of the six party nuclear negotiations held in December. It […]

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In the past few days there’s been reports of activity in North Korea, with concerns over the possibility of a second nuclear test by the DPRK. In response, the Koreans have said the US is carrying out training exercises on hitting “major” targets in the DPRK.
A likely scenario of what actually is going on is […]

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Judging by conflicting reports coming out of the Unites States Military and Intelligence offices, that really is the question. ABC news has reported that North Korea is preparing for another test of their nuclear capabilities. They base this upon seeing preparations being made which are similar to the ones made prior to the October 9th […]

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Afghanistan. Often forgotten because of the headlines from Iraq, Afghanistan is not a solved affair. Only Kabul is somewhat stable, with Kandahar and other cities remaining unsafe.
Global Warming. Scientists have been talking about it for years, and Al Gore has now popularized it with a documentary film . Yet there is still no clear policies […]

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When the US went to war with Iraq a few years ago, it cited the possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by Saddam Hussein’s regime as a reason for the war. Since the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, there has been no proof of WMD in the country. Luckily, the US (as […]

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It was reported yesterday that the US had offered to remove North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism, if the DPRK agreed to dismantle its nuclear program. With the talks failing to lead to any result, it’s clear that North Korea declined. The regime is not interested in soft power assets, but wants […]

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Beijing, China — After four days, the Beijing talks on North Korea’s nuclear program have not generated much progress, with US negotiator Christopher Hill entering day five without much optimism.
Hill is blaming North Korea for its stubbornness in not budging on its demand that financial sanctions against it are lifted. The US claims that the […]

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Beijing, China — North Korea is refusing to renege on its demand that financial sanctions against it be lifted, before it dismantles its nuclear program.
While the negotiations are continuing, they risk coming to a standstill if either side does not change its position. Following North Korea’s October 9 nuclear test, the US wants the Koreans […]

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While it appears that there is still no consensus on an Iranian resolution, the US wants the UN Security Council to vote on one this week. State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the US wants the vote before the weekend.
It’s not clear yet what the resolution would be and what kind of sanctions could be […]

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Christopher Hill, the US negotiator for the North Korea nuclear talks says he is ready to talk to his North Korean counterpart. The BBC reports that Hill has once again iterated the US unwillingness to accept North Korea as a nuclear power.
North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan has confirmed that North Korea is using its nuclear […]

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Russia is refusing to comment on this weekend’s reports from Japan, which suggested that North Korea would offer Russia exclusive rights to its uranium in exchange for open support at the forthcoming nuclear negotiations. A representative of Rosatom, Russia’s Nuclear Agency, said that the agency does not comment on rumors, while Russia’s foreign ministry called […]

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Reports from Japanese media indicate that progress may be made when negotiations with North Korea are resumed later this month.
Kyodo News reports that the US and others have urged North Korea to abandon is nuclear program by 2008 in return for economic aid as well as security guarantees. All the while, the US and its […]

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No goodies for North Korea
A U.N. effort that would ban exotic goods to North Korea’s Kim divides South Koreans.
File this one under the heading of “Might help, couldn’t hurt”, given that Kim “I’m So Ronery” Jong Il is notoriously fond of high-end imported luxuries, is reported to use them as a control device over his […]

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Don’t let anyone tell you that Michigan teens are low-achieving slackers. For example, 17-year-old Thiago Olson has built a working atomic fusion reactor in his spare time.
[QUOTE]
As the machine runs, the atoms in the chamber are attracted to the center and soon — ta da — nuclear fusion.
Thiago said when that happens, a small […]

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By sheer coincidence I happened to be reading through Ian Bremmer’s The J Curve when this story broke today. The U.S. is banning exports of some entertainment products to North Korea.
The move mirrors Bremmer’s assessment quite well: The U.S. tries to scold North Korea by isolating it. However, North Korea is a successful, stable communist […]

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In the past several years, we’ve seen all sorts of counterfeit financial instruments (money orders, cashiers checks and now American Express gift cheques) being passed in Internet scams.
A recent TimesOnline story stated “that Nigerians are forging passports and cheques on an industrial scale and that huge numbers of false documents are passing through provincial British […]

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President Bush, speaking Friday in Vietnam at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, urged other nations to take a tough line on enforcing U.N. sanctions against North Korea, adopted after the communist nation’s Oct. 9 test that may have only partially detonated.

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by Ted Lipien
FreeMediaOnline.org Free Media Online, Dublin, CA, November 9, 2006 — Rather than scoring flamboyant propaganda points, state-controlled media in countries considered strident enemies of President Bush’s policies reacted slowly and cautiously to Republican defeats in U.S. midterm elections.
Slow media response in countries like Cuba, Iran, and North Korea can be explained by authoritarian […]

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 by Ted Lipien
FreeMediaOnline.org Free Media Online, Dublin, CA — Using similar language to score propaganda points, the North Korean communist party newspaper and Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro accused the Bush Administration of genocide and other grave crimes against humanity. Both North Korea and Cuba themselves face accusations from democratic governments and international organizations of […]

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Recent UN sanctions against North Korea are seeming to go unnoticed. Chinese inspection of North Korean goods crossing into the country are minimal, at best, with few being inspected at all. According to the Chinese news media, everything remains the same.
China and North Korea have a uniquely developing trade relationship. Although China has long […]

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U.S. nuclear umbrella deters strike by DPRK
I don’t think I’d be venturing very much to guess that American military forces, with their nasty guns and jets and warships and all are suddenly…. Well, if not exactly popular in Japan these days, somewhat comprehensively less un-popular.
The realization that “holy $#@!$%, that bats**t insane little regime just […]

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That economic sanctions alone are unlikely to work does not mean that they cannot make a useful contribution toward the changes that are sought to be attained

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Analysis of Air Particles Confirms N. Korea Test
That is sure to ramp up the pucker factor in Seoul and Tokyo, but according to this story, China will not inspect shipments entering and departing North Korea… not precisely helpful when it comes to a UN resolution to isolate the “Hermit Kingdom”, and brings me to wonder […]

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The UN sanctions imposed on the newly nuclear N Korea are being seen as an act of war by the authorities in the reclusive communist nation.
The North Korean ambassador to the UN accuses the Council of a “gangster-like” action and warns Pyongyang will consider increased US pressure a declaration of war.
Wonder what N Korea implies […]

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News and commentary by: Whymrhymer
The sanctions imposed by the United Nations against North Korea today are a message to Kim Jong-il, but little more than that. The message is that his primary (and almost only) friends in the world, China and Russia, are unhappy with the trouble he has stirred up.
In particular, the sanctions, as […]

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