NEWS
By New York Times News Service | February 12, 2007
BEIJING -- Negotiations on a step-by-step deal that the Bush administration hopes will lead North Korea to give up its nuclear arms program appeared near collapse yesterday over Pyongyang's demands for huge shipments of oil and electricity before agreeing to a schedule for turning over its nuclear weapons and fuel. The chief U.S. envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said he and North Korea's envoy, Kim Kye Gwan, had held a "lengthy and very frank" meeting yesterday. But Hill seemed much less optimistic than at the start of the five days of talks that a deal could be struck.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | January 7, 2007
WASHINGTON --The Bush administration is expected to announce this week a major step forward in the building of the country's first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades. It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky. The new weapon would replace the nation's arsenal of aging warheads, with a new generation meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and more secure from theft.
NEWS
March 1, 2007
NATIONAL Faith tested in court A Bush administration lawyer urged the Supreme Court yesterday to shield the president's faith-based initiative from legal challenges in court. pg 3a WORLD North Korea may regain assets China and the United States are close to an accord to let North Korea regain some of the $25 million in its funds frozen now that it has agreed to start dismantling its nuclear arms program, officials said yesterday. pg 10a MARYLAND Man wanted in dating scheme Authorities in Illinois are investigating a Baltimore-area suspected of conning at least 10 women from eight states out of more than $1 million through elaborate schemes.
NEWS
By Mark Magnier | June 3, 2007
PYONGYANG, North Korea -- The way Son Hye Suk sees it, having nuclear weapons means more than security for this Stalinist state. It means North Koreans will have more food on their plates. "Our nuclear weapons are a source of great pride in our country, and if anyone insults us now, they won't survive," said Son, an ideologically vetted worker at the International Friendship Museum north of the capital. "Now that we have our pride, our great political and military power and nuclear weapons, the economic problems can be solved.
NEWS
By STEVE CHAPMAN | April 9, 2007
CHICAGO -- There are some jobs you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Joke writer for Vladimir V. Putin, say, or literary agent for O. J. Simpson. But it would be hard to find a more onerous assignment than the one inflicted on Christopher Hill: chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea. For the last two years, Mr. Hill has been asked to do what many people consider the equivalent of alchemy, trying to turn one of the world's least cooperative and most belligerent regimes into a partner in stopping nuclear proliferation.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service. | April 12, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said it would begin shutting down its main nuclear reactor within a day of retrieving about $25 million that had been frozen in a Macau bank because of U.S. sanctions, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said yesterday. North Korea also offered to admit United Nations nuclear inspectors for the first time in more than four years, said Richardson, after an official visit to North Korea and a meeting with senior officials there. Fulfilling those offers would resolve North Korea's long dispute with the U.S. Treasury.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | May 11, 1999
TOKYO -- On the walls of the classrooms are stern portraits of North Korea's late "Great Leader" and his son the "Dear Leader," and a huge banner on the gymnasium declares, "Great Leader Marshal Kim Il Sung Is With Us Forever."But it is obvious that this high school is in Tokyo, not North Korea, when a cluster of giggly teeny-boppers bounce up and test their English by asking about something really important to 16-year-old hearts."Do you like the Backstreet Boys?" asked Yun Mi Hyang, a junior at the Korean High School in Tokyo, and she and her friends paused breathlessly.
NEWS
By George F. Will | February 21, 1999
WASHINGTON -- George Shultz, Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, believes Mr. Reagan bolstered foreign policy by an act of domestic policy -- the 1981 confrontation with the air traffic controllers. Mr. Reagan warned that if the controllers struck, they would be fired. They struck. They were fired. And, says Mr. Shultz, leaders around the world noted Mr. Reagan's forcefulness.Now leaders may have drawn some conclusions from President Clinton's domestic difficulties, may have noted his self-absorption, his willingness to sacrifice anyone and anything to his short-term calculations of personal convenience, his inattention to anything (including everything in foreign policy)
NEWS
August 10, 1999
THE WORLD is getting ample rain. It merely cries out for redistribution.What is not falling on the dry gulch that was once Maryland has been drenching much of Asia. Last week, catastrophic floods killed at least a thousand people and displaced millions. Although this week began with a respite, forecasters predicted monsoon winds for the rest of the month.Acts of God play no political favorites. Floods north of Seoul wiped out modern suburbs in South Korea that displaced natural forests that would have absorbed the water better, and wiped out grain crops in North Korea, which is already starving.
NEWS
June 16, 1999
AT ONE LEVEL, the naval battle -- in which South Korea sank a North Korean patrol boat and possibly a second while taking minor damage to several vessels -- is easily understood. Crabs.Juicy, succulent crabs that are harvested only during a few weeks in June fetch $17.60 apiece in Seoul. North Korean fishermen sell them for more in Japan. North Korea is starving for hard currency as well as food. The waters are on the southern side of a U.S.-proclaimed 1953 buffer zone, but within 12 miles of both Koreas and legitimately disputed.