North Korea

Under its new ruler, Kim Jong Un, North Korea has reverted to its old tactics of provocation and aggression with the launch this week of a long-range missile it claims was intended to put the country's first satellite into orbit. It's unclear whether the satellite made it into orbit, but that really isn't the point. The U.S. and its allies fear the country's space program is just an excuse to develop technology that can be used to build nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Wednesday's launch showed the North Koreans are making progress toward that goal.

Army personnel at Aberdeen Proving Ground are developing methods to detect biological weapons in response to recent threats from North Korea, including a 15-foot-high device that soldiers have dubbed "the Kraken. " North Korea has issued a series of threats in recent weeks, and U.S. officials are monitoring the Korean peninsula, from which Kim Jong-un's government could launch ballistic missiles. While the danger of missiles is more pressing, Army officials said developing better capabilities to detect biological warfare threats has also been a priority for the past six years.

Last April, when a North Korean missile launch appeared to be imminent, this newspaper published my commentary urging the U.S. to "get tough with North Korea. " My determination that U.S. actions to date had produced little or no effect in deterring the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the DPRK - from engaging in irresponsible, downright hostile behavior, and that an unmistakable stance of intolerance toward further provocations was needed, was based on four years of experience negotiating in and with the DPRK.

North Korea's recent threats to target South Korean and American cities with atomic destruction have the shrill belligerence of a 6-year-old's temper tantrum. But while few analysts believe North Korea has the means to carry out its threats, U.S. and South Korean officials would nevertheless be unwise to ignore them. With tensions on the peninsula higher than at any time since the end of the Korean War, there's great danger a conflict could break out by accident or through miscalculation.

After four years of negotiating in and with North Korea, I cannot say that I have all of the answers to deal with a regime that defies the expectations of rational thinking, but I do have at least one of them: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea leadership, whoever happens to be the leader of the moment, whether Great, Dear, or Supreme, can only be dissuaded from chronically irresponsible behavior and from crossing a so-called red line (i.e.,...

BEIJING — He is the new public face of North Korea: Jong Tae-se is a 26-year-old publicity hound with his own blog, where he strikes a sultry, bare-chested pose. He has appeared in television commercials. He drives a silver Hummer and likes to dress like hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. When he goes on the road, he travels with a laptop, iPod and sometimes a Nintendo DS and a Sony PlayStation Portable. Jong is the star striker of North Korea's 2010 World Cup team. That makes him at this particular moment the most recognizable living North Korean, with the possible exception of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. This is the first time North Korea has qualified for the World Cup since 1966.

The U.S. is the world's leading humanitarian nation and has been one of the largest donors of emergency food to North Korea. The New York Times insists policymakers should continue to focus on the humanitarian virtues of giving food to madman Kim Jong Il while ignoring unpleasant realities, one of which is that doing so may not be in the security interests of the U.S., the region or the suffering citizens of North Korea. The UN says that North Korea will need international food assistance again this year, which is tragic.

He was born into freedom in Pusan, South Korea, 60 years ago. Still, Jong C. Jang of Marriottsville spent much of his boyhood hearing his father, Ok Kyun Jang, rhapsodize about growing up in a place about 350 miles to the north. Families were close-knit in the mountainous region around Pyongyang , now the capital of North Korea, Ok Kyun Jang said. Life was stable and opportunity abounded. But that was before 1950, when a Communist army invaded the South, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and helping give rise to one of the world's most harshly repressive dictatorships.

Army personnel at Aberdeen Proving Ground are developing methods to detect biological weapons in response to recent threats from North Korea, including a 15-foot-high device that soldiers have dubbed "the Kraken. " North Korea has issued a series of threats in recent weeks, and U.S. officials are monitoring the Korean peninsula, from which Kim Jong-un's government could launch ballistic missiles. While the danger of missiles is more pressing, Army officials said developing better capabilities to detect biological warfare threats has also been a priority for the past six years.

WASHINGTON -- Amid a growing dispute over reports that North Korea has built its own nuclear bomb, Chinese Premier Li Peng told United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali yesterday that Beijing opposes international sanctions to force North Korea to accept nuclear inspections.China supports efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula, but Mr. Li said Beijing favors negotiations to resolve the crisis, the official New China News Agency reported.The Clinton administration has indicated that it will press for a U.N. oil embargo on North Korea if the dispute reaches an impasse.

President Barack Obama's call during the State of the Union address to reduce the threat of nuclear war could not have been more timely. The day before the president spoke, North Korea tested a primitive nuclear device, and the following day reports surfaced of Iranian attempts to buy technology that would greatly speed up its production of weapons-grade uranium. Mr. Obama's remarks focused on cutting the U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals in a way that maintains their deterrent function but reduces the chances of a conflict breaking out by accident or miscalculation.

Last April, when a North Korean missile launch appeared to be imminent, this newspaper published my commentary urging the U.S. to "get tough with North Korea. " My determination that U.S. actions to date had produced little or no effect in deterring the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the DPRK - from engaging in irresponsible, downright hostile behavior, and that an unmistakable stance of intolerance toward further provocations was needed, was based on four years of experience negotiating in and with the DPRK.

Under its new ruler, Kim Jong Un, North Korea has reverted to its old tactics of provocation and aggression with the launch this week of a long-range missile it claims was intended to put the country's first satellite into orbit. It's unclear whether the satellite made it into orbit, but that really isn't the point. The U.S. and its allies fear the country's space program is just an excuse to develop technology that can be used to build nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Wednesday's launch showed the North Koreans are making progress toward that goal.

After four years of negotiating in and with North Korea, I cannot say that I have all of the answers to deal with a regime that defies the expectations of rational thinking, but I do have at least one of them: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea leadership, whoever happens to be the leader of the moment, whether Great, Dear, or Supreme, can only be dissuaded from chronically irresponsible behavior and from crossing a so-called red line (i.e.,...

He was born into freedom in Pusan, South Korea, 60 years ago. Still, Jong C. Jang of Marriottsville spent much of his boyhood hearing his father, Ok Kyun Jang, rhapsodize about growing up in a place about 350 miles to the north. Families were close-knit in the mountainous region around Pyongyang , now the capital of North Korea, Ok Kyun Jang said. Life was stable and opportunity abounded. But that was before 1950, when a Communist army invaded the South, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and helping give rise to one of the world's most harshly repressive dictatorships.

Perhaps there has been nothing more baffling to American eyes than the photographs of hordes of obviously grief-stricken North Koreans mourning the death of their 69-year-old dictator, Kim Jong Il. Under his reign and that of his father, the people of the globe's most closed society have remained mired in repression and poverty for 63 years. The genuine remorse, akin to what customarily is reserved for the passing of close personal family members, demonstrated the uncommon hold the departed leader had over his people.

When President Clinton visits South Korea after the Group of Seven summit in Tokyo, and makes the ritual visit to the demilitarized zone facing an ever-hostile North Korea, the nuclear threat posed by the Pyongyang regime will shadow every gesture he makes, every word he utters.A crisis of worldwide significance was averted June 11 when North Korea "suspended" its decision to become the first country ever to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But it still refuses to permit spot inspections at any suspected nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Did North Korea blink, or did it merely wink? Although Pyongyang's acceptance of international inspections at its seven declared nuclear facilities comes as a profound relief, the crisis is not over. Until the Stalinist state accepts inspections at still-secret sites where there may be evidence it has made one or more nuclear weapons, there will be a perception that the genie is out of the bottle in one of the world's most explosive hot spots.President Clinton had it right last year when he declared the United States will not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il leaves a cloud of uncertainty over North Asia and complicates efforts by the U.S. and its allies to halt the nuclear weapons program that is the principal legacy of his 17-year rule. Kim was a canny and manipulative despot who repeatedly thwarted efforts by more powerful neighbors and adversaries like the United States to stabilize the Korean peninsula. Now that he is gone, the internal power struggle over succession could have unpredictable and perhaps dangerous consequences for the region and the world.

The U.S. is the world's leading humanitarian nation and has been one of the largest donors of emergency food to North Korea. The New York Times insists policymakers should continue to focus on the humanitarian virtues of giving food to madman Kim Jong Il while ignoring unpleasant realities, one of which is that doing so may not be in the security interests of the U.S., the region or the suffering citizens of North Korea. The UN says that North Korea will need international food assistance again this year, which is tragic.