North Korea

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

We arrived at the frozen river separating China and North Korea at 5 o'clock on the morning of March 17. The air was crisp and still, and there was no one in sight. As the sun appeared, our guide stepped onto the ice. We followed him. We had traveled to the area to document a grim story of human trafficking for Current TV. During the previous week, we had interviewed North Korean defectors, women who had fled poverty and repression only to find themselves in a bleak limbo in China. Some had found work in the online sex industry; others were forced into arranged marriages.

Was former President Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea to bring home two American journalists wise diplomacy or an unwise reward for the country's bad behavior? Wise 64% Unwise 27% Not sure 9% (1,150 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor have a major impact on the Supreme Court? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

North Korea's surprise "special pardon" of two American television journalists may have reopened the channels of communication between the Obama administration and the secretive regime that for years has defied the world with its nuclear tests and political bombast. After a whirlwind 24-hour visit that capped months of quiet diplomatic negotiations, former President Bill Clinton left Pyongyang on a private jet with the reporters today following talks with leader Kim Jong Il, according to North Korea's state news media.

The negotiations that led to former President Bill Clinton's secret mission to North Korea began when two U.S. journalists were seized by the isolated Stalinist state, and were spurred on by the administration's hope that they might lead to a resumption of gridlocked disarmament talks, according to people close to the process. The goal was a specific deal: If the United States showed respect by dispatching a high-level emissary to Pyongyang, the North would release journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested along the border with China on March 17. "This has been an orchestrated diplomatic process, carefully calibrated in both capitals," said a person who has been close to the exchanges since they began.

James B. Foster, a decorated career Army officer who fought in World War II and Korea, where he survived the storied Battle of Chosin Reservoir, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his Oxford home. He was 90. Colonel Foster was born in Baltimore and was raised in Forest Park and Walbrook. After graduating from City College in 1937, he enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in marine engineering in 1941. He was then commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Should the United States retaliate against North Korea for a series of cyber attacks on U.S. and South Korean computer networks this past week believe to have originated in North Korea? Yes 69% No 21% Not sure 10% (852 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Should the government launch an inquiry into whether former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered a CIA counter-terrorism program to be kept secret from congressional leaders in violation of the law? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

SEOUL, South Korea - -North Korea lashed out at the United States and South Korea on Wednesday, warning that it would attack the South if any of its ships were intercepted as part of a U.S.-led initiative to stem the world trade in nuclear weapons. North Korea's state-run news service reiterated the North's anger over South Korea's decision to join 100 other nations in the so-called Proliferation Security Initiative to blockade any nation suspected of trading nuclear materials. The developments came amid reports that North Korea had staged mass rallies to celebrate its second nuclear test, an event Monday that has brought condemnation elsewhere.

BEIJING - -When is it time to dump a friend who insists on behaving badly? The debate is raging in China. North Korea's latest nuclear test Monday and missile launches the past two days raise the question of just how long the bonds forged between old Communist allies will endure. Monday's test was conducted barely 80 miles from the Chinese border. The ground rumbled in northeast China, and some schools were evacuated because of earthquake fears. "It was quite shocking. The location where they did this test was a lot closer to China than to where [North Korean leader]

The United States and allied powers threatened Monday to impose new penalties on North Korea after the defiant regime announced a second nuclear bomb test, but their leverage in derailing the weapons program appeared limited. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, meeting in emergency session in New York, denounced the test as a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution banning such actions. China and Russia, usually North Korea's defenders, joined with France, Britain and the United States in the statement.

SEOUL, South Korea -North Korea launched what was believed to be a multistage rocket Sunday, ending weeks of speculation about the regime's efforts to expand its ability to deliver nuclear weapons. The North Korean news agency announced that a rocket was launched about 11:30 a.m. The U.S. State Department, the South Korean president's office and Japanese media reports confirmed the launch. The rocket reportedly crossed Japanese airspace before plunging into the Pacific Ocean, according to news reports from Japan.