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US Envoy to Travel to North Korea to Seek Release of Detained American Missionary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A U.S. envoy will travel to North Korea later this week to try and secure the release of an American missionary sentenced to 15 years hard labor in the country earlier this year.

The State Department says in a statement Bob King, who is special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, will travel to North Korea on a humanitarian mission Aug. 30 to request freedom and a pardon for 45-year-old Kenneth Bae.

“Ambassador King will request the DPRK pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment,” the statement said.

Bae, a tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November and accused of subversion. In April, North Korea’s Supreme Court convicted him of committing hostile acts against the country and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor.

Bae was recently hospitalized and reportedly has lost 50 pounds since he was sentenced. While King’s visit is a humanitarian mission, it could help improve relations severely strained by Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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North Korean Defector Says Mother Forced to Kill Own Child at Prison Camp

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A North Korean mother inside one of the country’s notorious prison camps was forced to kill her own baby, a former inmate said, during a U.N. panel hearing in South Korea that’s ongoing this week.

Jee Heon-a, a 34-year-old defector, told the Commission of Inquiry Tuesday in Seoul that a security guard at one camp made the mother turn the baby upside down into a bowl of water.

“The mother begged the guard to spare her, but he kept beating her,” she said, according to Reuters. “So the mother, her hands shaking, put the baby face down in the water. The crying stopped and a bubble rose up as it died. A grandmother who had delivered the baby quietly took it out.”

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Don’t Underestimate North Korea

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Photo Credit: US Mission GenevaEarlier this year, there were cyber-attacks on South Korean computers that erased much data, harmed bank records, and silenced the websites of anti-North Korea political groups. Some speculated that these attacks were planned intrusions of North Korean cyber-warfare agents.

Recent official reports confirm that these attacks are indeed the work of North Korean government agencies. Japan Times reported the findings of an extensive study by South Korea, including work by the American company McAfee. North Korea was indeed the culprit, as witnessed by the cyber-“fingerprints” left by the perps…

The image of North Korea in the United States is that of a backward country that can barely feed itself, let alone engage in sophisticated computer intrigue. Nah, it couldn’t be North Korea, some wags would say. It must be China behind the scenes, they speculate.

The recent investigations into the March and June cyber-attacks on South Korea brought to light the shape and methodology of North Korea’s cyber-weapon. They do indeed have their own resources to do damage over the internet. Although much of the country may live hand-to-mouth, North Korea cultivates quite a serious computer-hacking capability.

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Dennis Rodman Wants a Nobel Peace Prize For His NBA Diplomacy (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Jessica Chasmar. Dennis Rodman sat down with Sports Illustrated’s Franz Lidz to talk about his controversial trip to North Korea, saying that his efforts in world diplomacy should be enough to earn him a Nobel Peace Prize.

“My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries,” he said. “Why it’s been left to me to smooth things over, I don’t know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it’s the black guy’s [Obama’s] job. But I’ll tell you this: If I don’t finish in the top three for the next Nobel Peace Prize, something’s seriously wrong.”

The former NBA player recently traveled to Pyongyang with a few members of the Harlem Globetrotters and a crew from HBO’s television series “Vice,” Sports Illustrated reported.

Mr. Rodman said he knew very little of North Korea or Kim Jong-un before the trip. Read more from this story HERE.

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Dennis Rodman says he should be considered for Nobel Peace Prize

By Cindy Boren. It’s been a busy year for Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad-boy-turned-diplomat.

He’s traveled to North Korea. He’s talked with Kim Jong Un and pronounced him a “friend for life.” He’s gone to Vatican City and kindly offered to assist with the selection of a new pope. All of which leads him to one conclusion: He should win the Nobel Peace Prize, like some sort of blond, pierced, tattoed version of, oh, Jimmy Carter or Al Gore.

“My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries,” Rodman told Sports Illustrated in an interview for its annual “Where are they now?” issue. “Why it’s been left to me to smooth things over, I don’t know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it’s the black guy’s [that would be President Obama] job. But I’ll tell you this: If I don’t finish in the top three for the next Nobel Peace Prize, something’s seriously wrong.”

Rodman, who said in March that “I want to be anywhere in the world that I’m needed,” plans to return to North Korea next month.

“I’m just gonna chill, play some basketball and maybe go on vacation with Kim and his family,” Rodman said. “I’ve called on the Supreme Leader to do me a solid by releasing Kenneth Bae.” Read more from this story HERE.

The Obama Age of Proliferation: While the President Dreams, Nuclear Weapons Spread

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

‘We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation,” President Obama declared on Wednesday, “but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.” He’s right about the last point, because even as the President offers new dreams of U.S. nuclear disarmament, the world is entering a new proliferation age.

Mr. Obama returned this week to Berlin to give his long-promised speech laying out his plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons. His idea is to remove those weapons initially and primarily from American hands. North Korea and Iran each got a single line in his speech, which is at least more than he gave to China, which is investing heavily in the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. Nukes in the hands of terrorists? Mr. Obama said he’ll hold a summit on that one in 2016.

Give Mr. Obama points for consistency. Since his college days at Columbia in the 1980s, he has argued for American disarmament and arms-control treaties. When he last issued a call for a nuclear-free world on European soil four years ago in Prague, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rewarded him with a peace prize.

This week he announced that the U.S. could “maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent” with a third fewer strategic nuclear weapons, or about 1,000 in all. He also called for “bold” cuts in tactical nukes in Europe without offering specifics, which suggests that was mostly for show.

He said he’ll work on reducing U.S. stockpiles through “negotiated cuts” with Russia. Whenever this Administration negotiates with Russia, beware. But there’s another danger. President Obama left the door open to unilateral U.S. reductions, possibly without Congressional approval.

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South Korea says North Korea Fires 3 Short-Range Missiles

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Photo Credit: APNorth Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.

The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North’s intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case it conducts a provocation against South Korea.

In March, North Korea launched what appeared to be two KN-02 missiles off its east coast. Experts believe the country is trying to improve the range and accuracy of its arsenal.

North Korea recently withdrew two mid-range “Musudan” missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast earlier this year, U.S. officials said. The North is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

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Dennis Rodman to Kim Jong Un: ‘Do Me a Solid’

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Photo Credit: OPEN SportsNBA great-turned-unofficial diplomat Dennis Rodman asked North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Tuesday to release an imprisoned American citizen.

Bae, a devout Christian who worked as a tour operator near the Chinese-North Korea border, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor earlier this month, accused by the North Korean government of fomenting a revolution. The 44-year-old Bae was born in South Korea and is a naturalized American citizen.

Bae, a devout Christian who worked as a tour operator near the Chinese-North Korea border, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor earlier this month, accused by the North Korean government of fomenting a revolution…


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North Korea ‘Scared to Death of Christianity’, Jails Christian American for 15 Years

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Photo Credit: ReutersNorth Korea’s sentencing on Thursday of a US citizen to 15 years of hard labor could be a ploy by leader Kim Jong-un to get a high-profile American visit and burnish his leadership standing

But there may be another explanation for what is the toughest sentence ever handed to an American by a North Korean court, some North Asia analysts say. Kenneth Bae, the Korean-American arrested in November 2012 and accused of attempting to overthrow the government, is a devout Christian.

“The regime is scared to death of Christianity,” says Michael Green, a former senior director for Asia on the National Security Council.

Mr. Bae, a tour operator from Washington state who was living in a Chinese city near North Korea, was charged with carrying out “hostile acts” against the state that included having unspecified materials in his possession that prompted the accusations of planning the overthrow.

Was Bae carrying a Bible when he was arrested? The North Korean regime is particularly harsh with anyone found with a Bible, says Mr. Green, now the senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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Pentagon Report: N. Korea Will Eventually Reach US with Nuclear Arms

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Photo Credit: AFPNorth Korea’s continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said on Thursday.

The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang’s Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket that delivered a satellite into orbit in December, an advance that “contributes heavily” to the country’s development of a long-range ballistic missile capability, the report said.

It is also continuing to refine its atomic weapons capability, including with a nuclear detonation in February, and is capable of conducting “additional nuclear tests at any time,”the report said.

“These advances in ballistic-missile delivery systems, coupled with developments in nuclear technology … are in line with North Korea’s stated objective of being able to strike the US homeland,” the report said.

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Israeli Minister: Nuclear Iran is Like 30 Nuclear North Koreas (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeInternational Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz warned on Sunday that Iran having a nuclear weapon would be equal to “thirty nuclear North Koreas”.

“We have the right and the ability to defend ourselves,” he said in a speech at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York. “The cooperation with the United States is very important but ultimately each country will make its own decisions on maintaining its security,” said Steinitz, stressing that “Israel can deal with any threat.”

80 years ago, said Steinitz, “only one person identified on time and warned the world against the rearmament of Nazi Germany. This was Winston Churchill, but people refused to listen. Some people even mocked him.”

Watch video here:

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