Good Luck With That: N Korea Seeks US to Pay $75T in Compensation For Korean War

Kim Jong Il must've officially gone crazy:

Cash-strapped North Korea has demanded the United States pay almost $US65 trillion ($75 trillion) in compensation for six decades of hostility.

The official North Korean news agency, KCNA, says the cost of the damage done by the US since the peninsula was divided in 1945 is estimated at $US64.96 trillion.

The compensation call comes on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

KCNA said the figure includes $US26.1 trillion arising from US "atrocities" which left more than 5 million North Koreans dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing.

Stupid: on so many levels. It's like Germany seeking restitution from the Allies and Israel for WW1/2 or a drunk driver asking the family of the people he killed to pay for the repairs on his car.

This is really just an example of more crazy ramblings from the communist despot. Nothing should come from it. Obama will most definately laugh it off as I have. Still, it's the best laugh I've had in a while.

Robert Gates Warns N. Korea Against Further Aggression, Obama Says Very Little

North Korea has spent this past week brazenly testing new missles and nuclear weapons. Apparently, Obama's call for a day when the world will be without nukes didn't resonate with the Dear Leader. While Obama is busy spending my grandkids' money, Robert Gates has had very harsh words for N. Korea:

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies.

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia -- or on us," Gates said in prepared remarks to an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

It nice to see someone in the Obama administration stand up to the North Korean crackpot. Of course, it would be the one holdover from the Bush team.

My main question is where is President Obama during all of this? Why isn't he speaking out against Kim's threats against not only South Korea but the US as well. If a madman is threatening our men and women stationed in South Korea and possibly Hawaii and Alaska, I would expect our president to protect us like Bush did for the last 7 years. People may have not like some of his tactics, but they worked.

It is no coincidence that the Dear Leader waited until Obama was in office to start making these kind of threats. After all, it was predicted by Biden before the election that the despots of the world would test him. This is Obama's major six-month exam.

N. Korea Indicts 2 US Journalists For Allegedly Crossing N. Korean Border

N. Korea is continuing to hold our citizens hostage. In fact, they've charged them with a bold
bogus charge:

SEOUL, South Korea —  North Korea said Friday it formally decided to indict two U.S. journalists arrested on its border with China more than a month ago.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were arrested after they allegedly crossed the border from China on March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees.

What was Obama's response?..............

Um, Pres. Obama?.......

N. Korea's "Dear Leader" Allegedly Cried Because He Wasted Money On Dud Rocket Instead of Food

North Korean Media: Kim Jong-Il Sobbed During Rocket Launch

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

North Korea's state-run media reported Tuesday that Kim Jong-Il shed tears of regret during the country's controversial rocket launch because he could not use the launch funds to provide aid to his people, the AFP reported.

The country on Tuesday also released footage of the weekend launch, along with the first video of Kim since his reported stroke in August, according to South Korean media.

Kim "felt regret for not being able to spend more money on the people's livelihoods and was choked with sobs," AFP quoted ruling communist party paper Rodong Sinmun as saying.

"Chants of jubilation are reverberating throughout the country on the news that our satellite is beaming back the 'Song of General Kim Il-Sung' and the 'Song of General Kim Jong-Il,'" the paper said, according to AFP.

State-run television aired video of an apparently healthy leader mingling with farmers and watching bears at the zoo.

What the TV didn't show was just as notable: footage of the "Dear Leader" during the 3 1/2 months after he is believed to have suffered a stroke that sparked fears of a succession crisis in the poor, nuclear-armed nation.

Kim, 67, is expected to make a triumphant public return when he presides over the first session of the country's new parliament Thursday for re-election as chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission.

North Korea claims Sunday's rocket launch shot a satellite into space, where it allegedly is playing melodious odes to Kim and his late father, who founded the reclusive communist country.

The U.S. and South Korea, however, say the rocket's second and third stages fell into the Pacific Ocean with the payload still attached. They say the launch was a cover for testing long-range missile technology.

Exclusive footage obtained Tuesday by APTN in Pyongyang showed a white rocket with "Chosun," the name North Koreans use for their country, emblazoned on the side in red. The 20-second clip shows the rocket blasting off, then blazing eastward across the sky.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513019,00.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts

Supposedly, "Dear Leader" cried because he wasted money on his rocket rather than on food for the starving poor in his country. That made me laugh so hard I spit out my coffee. It is a joke to think that he actually cared when every action says the complete opposite.

If you ask any of the starving peasants in N. Korea, which would you rather have a satellite in space or food for dinner. I guarantee you that most would go for the food. If N. Korea's dictator really cared about his people, he wouldn't of wasted the money he's using for his "space program" and gave the money instead to his impoverished citizens. The truth is that their "Dear Leader" couldn't care less about whether or not his people's stomachs were full everyday.

"Gird Your Loins": N. Korea Sends Obama Message in a Rocket to Test His Mettle

NKorean rocket appears to fizzle, prompts outcry

By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer Paul Alexander, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – The rocket launched by nuclear-armed North Korea on Sunday appears to have fizzled in the Pacific Ocean, but positioned a defiant Kim Jong Il to make demands from an international community worried that it indicates the capacity to fire a long-range missile.

President Barack Obama and other national leaders immediately criticized the Korean leader for threatening peace and stability of nations "near and far." The U.N. Security Council approved an emergency session for Sunday afternoon in New York, following a request from Japan just minutes after liftoff.

"North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," Obama said in Prague. "It creates instability in their region, around the world. This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon in the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

Pyongyang claims it launched an experimental communications satellite into orbit Sunday and that it's transmitting data and patriotic songs. U.S. and South Korean officials claim the entire rocket, including whatever payload it was carrying, ended up in the ocean.

But it doesn't really matter how successful the rocket launch was. Kim's critics claim he really was testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting U.S. territory.

While the rogue communist state has repeatedly been belligerent and threatening — as it was when it carried out an underground nuclear blast and tested ballistic missiles in recent years — Pyongyang showed increased savvy this time that may make severe punishment more complicated than ever.

Unlike its previous provocations, the North notified the international community that the launch was coming and the route the rocket would take. Using a possible loophole in sanctions imposed after the 2006 nuclear test that barred the North from ballistic missile activity, the government claimed it was exercising its right to peaceful space development.

Since it will be hard to positively prove otherwise, objections from Russia and China — the North's closest ally — will almost certainly water down any strong response. Both have Security Council veto power.

Iran, which also has a contentious relationship with the international community over its nuclear program and is believed to have cooperated extensively with North Korea on missile technology, defended the launch.

"North Korea, like any other country, has the right to enter space," Iran's state TV said in a commentary, adding that the "pressure on North Korea to give up its undisputable right" was "unfair and dishonest."

Analysts say sanctions imposed after the North's underground nuclear test in 2006 appear to have had little effect because implementation was left up to individual countries, some of which showed no will to impose them.

Kim is reportedly a big film buff, and his strategy appears to have borrowed heavily from the 1959 movie "The Mouse That Roared," about a fictional poor country that declares war on the U.S., expecting to lose and get aid like the Marshall Plan that Washington used to help rebuild its World War II foes.

In Kim's case, negotiation has always been about brinksmanship — develop nuclear weapons and tell everybody you're ready to use them. Rather than risk confrontation, world leaders have offered aid and concessions, figuring that such costs are better than finding out if the mouse really can roar.

Despite its policy of "juche," or "self-reliance," communist North Korea is one of the world's poorest countries, has few allies and is in desperate need of outside help. The money that flowed in unconditionally from neighboring South Korea for a decade dried up when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008.

Pyongyang has little collateral, and for years has used its nuclear weapons program as its trump card, promising to abandon its atomic ambitions in exchange for aid and then dangling the nuclear threat when it doesn't get its way.

It's been an effective strategy so far, with previous missile launches drawing Washington to negotiations. The North also has reportedly been selling missile parts and technology to whoever has the cash to pay for it.

So what does Kim want? The list is long: food for his famished people, fuel and — perhaps most importantly — direct talks and relations with Washington.

Right now, the main contact is through six-nation talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its worrisome nuclear weapons program. But that means dealing with two neighbors that the North despises most, Japan and South Korea.

It probably isn't a coincidence that the rocket was fired over Japan. North Korea had warned that debris might fall off Japan's northern coast when the rocket's first stage fell away, so Tokyo positioned batteries of interceptor missiles on its coast and radar-equipped ships off its northern seas to monitor the launch. Nary a shot was necessary.

Obama warned the launch would further isolate the reclusive nation. But pragmatism calls for engagement, especially with efforts to get North Korea back to the negotiating table for the six-party talks.

"We must deal with North Korea as we find it, not as we would like it to be," Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, said Friday. "I've long since suppressed my tendency toward frustration. What is required is patience and perseverance."

Kim Keun-sik, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University, said the launch would chill ties between Pyongyang and Washington, but likely not for long.

"Wouldn't they eventually come to hold talks? There is no other way," Kim said.

U.S. officials also are trying to obtain the release of two American journalists recently detained by the North along its border with China. Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, predicted they would be used as bargaining chips, with the North likely "to try to link them to the nuclear and missile talks."

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee, Hyung-jin Kim and Jae-soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_nkorea_missile
------------------------------------------

My Thoughts

N. Korea obviously wants something. It has been their MO to act nuts and willing to create and use a nuclear bomb. I'm sure he wants money especially since S. Korea cut them off. Obama can't let Kim Jong Il run all over him though. If he does, everyone will try and walk all over him.

Obama Pays Little Attention to American Journalists Held Captive by N. Koreans

NKorea says 2 US journalists will stand trial By JEAN H. LEE Associated Press Writer
Mar 30, 5:32 PM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Two American journalists detained at North Korea's border with China two weeks ago will be indicted and tried, "their suspected hostile acts" already confirmed, Pyongyang's state-run news agency said Tuesday.

The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial might take place, but said preparations to indict the Americans were under way as the investigation continues.

"The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements," the report said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The report did not elaborate on what "hostile acts" the journalists allegedly committed.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture, were detained by North Korean border guards March 17.

Telephones were not answered at Current TV Monday afternoon and there was no response to messages. Ling's sister, Lisa Ling, a correspondent for National Geographic Channel's "Explorer," has declined to comment.

North Korea confirmed in a brief March 21 dispatch on KCNA that two Americans had been detained and were being investigated for "illegally intruding" from China.

A report in South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper March 22 said the two were undergoing "intense interrogation" at a military guesthouse in Pyongyang's outskirts for illegal entry and alleged espionage.

Conviction on charges of spying and illegally crossing the border could draw more than 20 years in prison for each under North Korea's criminal code.

Their Korean-Chinese guide and a third American, Current TV cameraman Mitch Koss, reportedly escaped arrest but were detained by Chinese border guards. Koss since has left the country, China's Foreign Ministry said last Tuesday.

An activist who helped the team plan their trip to China, the Rev. Chun Ki-won, said the three were on a reporting trip to interview North Korean defectors living in border areas at the time. He said he last spoke to Lee by phone early March 17 when they were near the Tumen River, which divides the two countries.

The detentions come at a time of mounting tensions in the region as North Korea prepares to launch a rocket over the objections of its neighbors.

Pyongyang has declared it will send a satellite into space sometime between April 4 and 8, but the U.S. and other nations suspect the launch will be a test of the country's long-range missile technology.

The U.S., South Korea and Japan have warned Pyongyang it risks sanctions by carrying out a launch prohibited under a U.N. Security Council resolution that bans the North from ballistic activity.

KCNA said Tuesday that consular officials will be allowed contact with the detained reporters during the investigation. The suspects will be treated "according to the relevant international laws," it said.

Washington, which does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, relies on the Swedish Embassy in the North Korean capital to represent the U.S.

A Swedish diplomat met with the journalists individually over the weekend, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said in Washington. Duguid provided no other details Monday about the journalists or the weekend visit, citing privacy concerns.

In Stockholm, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Julin confirmed that the meetings took place but declined to provide any details.

Past detentions of Americans have required international intervention. In 1996, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, then a congressman, went to North Korea to help secure the release of an American detained for three months on spying charges. In 1994, he helped arrange the freedom of a U.S. soldier whose helicopter strayed into North Korea.

North Korean authorities also have custody of a South Korean citizen who works in the two Koreas' joint economic zone in Kaesong, just across the heavily militarized border, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Monday.

The man is accused of breaking North Korean law by denouncing Pyongyang's political system and inciting North Korean workers to flee the communist country, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. North Korea has assured Seoul his safety during an investigation, she said.

© 2009 The Associated Press.

-----------------------------------------------------------
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NKOREA_JOURNALISTS_HELD?SITE=AZMES&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
-----------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts

Where is Obama during this hostage crisis? He should be demanding our people back. Sec. of State Clinton should be on this situation 24/7 instead of insulting other world leaders. Instead, he's left it to low-level officials to negotiate their release. Obama hasn't even mentioned it at all. He's too busy attacking Rush Limbaugh to care about two ordinary Americans being held captive by a rogue dictator.

Obama's Grade for N. Korean Mettle Test: I

My Thoughts

Robert Gates admits that diplomacy won't work as it rarely does with despots like the "Fearless Leader" and that Obama will do nothing to stop the launch. This is a major blunder by Obama as this is a missle that should be able to reach Hawaii. He has so far failed to stand up to Russia, Venezuela, or North Korea. They continue to threaten us indirectly. He has just buried his head in the sand and pretended like it isn't happening.

N. Korea Threatens S. Korea; Blames US/S. Korea Military Drills

North Korea Threatens South Korean Passenger Planes
Thursday, March 05, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea —  North Korea threatened South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace on Thursday and accused the U.S. and South Korea of attempting to provoke a nuclear war with upcoming joint military drills.

In response, South Korea's Korean Air and Asiana Airlines rerouted their flights to stay clear of North Korean airspace, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The threat from North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland comes four days before annual U.S.-South Korean exercises are to begin across South Korea and amid concerns the North is preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.

The North is "compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air of our side and its vicinity ... while the military exercises are under way," the committee said in statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

It did not say what kind of danger South Korean planes would face or whether the threat means the North would shoot down planes. It was also unclear whether the statement was a warning to clear the air before a possible missile launch.

Analysts said there is little chance North Korea would shoot down planes because it knows such a move would lead to a full-scale war, and said the threat was aimed at escalating tensions.

The North is "exercising all its brinksmanship," said Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Seoul's Korea University. "I would say it's just rhetoric for now."

South Koreans, however, still vividly remember a North Korean bomb that exploded on a Korean Air flight in 1987, killing all 115 people on board, and another Korean Air jet that was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983, killing all 269 people aboard.

North Korea has railed for days against the U.S.-South Korean military drills at a time of mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The North called a meeting with generals from the U.S.-led U.N. Command inside the Demilitarized Zone on Monday — the first general-level talks between the two sides in nearly seven years — and reportedly demanded that Washington call off the exercises.

-----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,505168,00.html
-----------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts

This is just more foreign tests that Obama must pass to ensure lasting peace and freedom in the world. Is he up to it? So far, he has some big misses on his report card. He needs this victory to regain his footing with the rest of the world to regain their respect.

The N. Korean dictator is trying to make Obama blink by threatening war against S. Korea and blaming the US/S. Korean alliance for their aggression. They want to fracture the relationship between our two countries and ultimately make the US military leave the Korean peninsula altogether.

The military drills are normal and something that they do once a year. North Korea knows this and wasn't alarmed as they pretend to be.

Obama must begin to stand up to dictators like Putin, Chavez, and Jong Il or the whole world will suffer from the reemergence of evil dictatorships.