Pyongyang

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.

SINGAPORE -- Closing ranks against a common concern, the United States, Japan and South Korea appealed to isolated North Korea yesterday to "seize the opportunity" for better relations with the outside world, including diplomatic recognition and an easing of sanctions.But the top diplomats for the three allies also sternly warned the Pyongyang regime that it will face severe repercussions, including cuts in aid, trade and travel, if it carries out bellicose threats to launch a new long-range ballistic missile over the Pacific.

TOKYO -- What would possess a 26-year-old American missionary to swim across a heavily patrolled river from China into North Korea, one of the world's most zealously isolated countries? And what will Pyongyang demand of the United States for his return?The arrest of Evan Carl Hunzike on charges of spying for South Korea is the latest in a bizarre series of incidents that have driven relations between the two Koreas back into a deep freeze and threaten to drag in the United States.Both Seoul and Washington have denied any connection with Hunzike.

All those dingers. It's either a juiced ball or smaller stadia.If Republicans like the Constitution so much, how come they want to rewrite every bit of it?A South Korean fitness freak trudged across the Sahara, climbed Mt. Everest and flew his flag at the Pole. If only he could walk to Pyongyang and back.The good news is that the Irish are talking. The bad news is what they are saying.Pub Date: 6/10/96

THE 1953 ARMISTICE in Korea has kept the peace for 43 years. North Korea just broke it, unilaterally ending joint supervision of the 2.5-mile demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the armies of the North from those of South Korea and the United States. If the shadowy rulers of Pyongyang merely wanted to get attention from Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, they rTC managed.The action follows decisions of Japan and the United States that they will not continue food shipments to the rice-short North.

CONCERTED EFFORTS by the U.S, Japan and South Korea this week to provide North Korea with $15 million in desperately needed food aid can be justified on security as well as humanitarian grounds. All three nations have reason to fear that a collapse of the Pyongyang regime could be accompanied by a military strike southward that would cause staggering casualties and physical damage. It might bring a peace of reunification in its aftermath, but one far more burdensome than that seen in Germany.

LAST SPRING in South Korea, I wrote after long talks with diplomats and analysts that there was really nothing very mysterious (the word always used by American diplomats) about North Korea's intentions. In Washington, this was heretical: Pyongyang seems to be eternally the regime we just love to be mystified by!At the time, I listed the late Kim Il Sung's implacable long-range goals: to get U.S. troops out of Korea, while in the process cleverly doing everything possible to delegitimize the South Korean government, so that the two Koreas can be unified under his or his son's command.

WASHINGTON -- NOW THAT high-level talks between the United States and North Korea are to resume soon, three myths that have haunted the U.S. debate over the nuclear crisis for two years need to be dispelled.But if three myths are not refuted, the administration will have difficulty winning congressional and public support for a realistic settlement.* Myth No. 1: North Korea is irrational and unpredictable, and no negotiated solution is possible.Pyongyang has pursued a consistent nuclear strategy since a showdown in 1991 between the moderates and hard-liners in the Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party.

North Korea's cruel and churlish reaction to the downing of a U.S. helicopter that strayed over its territory Dec. 17 could materially increase the Clinton administration's difficulties in selling its nuclear accord with the Pyongyang regime to the Republican-controlled Congress and the American people. As this is written, Communist authorities have not yet agreed to release Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall, the pilot of the chopper, by Christmas. And they delayed the return of his dead crew-mate, CWO David Hilemon, until Thursday.

In dealing with a country as paranoid and militarily powerful as North Korea, the United States has to be careful not to goad it into an attack on South Korea, with the incalculable damage (and potential U.S. casualties) that would cause. Yet Washington cannot allow the Pyongyang regime to capitalize on its irrationality by defying international rules to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.After months of delicate negotiations, North Korea has in effect put aside its threat to be the first nation to withdraw from theall-important Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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.

WASHINGTON -North Korea's planned missile launch is designed to demonstrate its ability to carry out an intercontinental military strike, a top U.S. official said Thursday, brushing aside Pyongyang's assertions that it is merely sending a satellite into space. "Most of the world understands the game they are playing," said Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair. "I think they're risking international opprobrium and hopefully worse if they successfully launch it." Blair's comments represented the most pointed U.S. challenge so far to Pyongyang's repeated assertions that its planned rocket launch is for peaceful purposes.

SEOUL, South Korea - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that U.S. officials and their allies are scrambling to prepare for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's possible departure from power, a development she said threatened new turbulence in one of the world's most heavily armed regions. Arriving in Seoul for security talks, Clinton said persistent signs within the secretive Pyongyang government suggest that a change of leadership might be at hand. She said the South Korean government has been especially concerned about possible developments inside its impoverished northern neighbor.

SEOUL, South Korea - The South Korean intelligence reports are ominous: North Korea appears to be preparing to test-launch a ballistic missile with sufficient range to strike Alaska and possibly the U.S. West Coast. A train transporting a large cylindrical object was recently spotted by a U.S. surveillance satellite chugging toward a new launch site west of Pyongyang, a South Korean government source said recently. Allegedly onboard was North Korea's most advanced missile, a Taepo-Dong 2, being readied for a potential liftoff within two months.

Having removed North Korea from its list of terrorist nations in order to coax it back into compliance with a previous agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and energy assistance, the U.S. still has no idea whether the reclusive communist state really intends to fulfill its commitment to disarm. The loopholes in the deal U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill managed to salvage in Pyongyang last week are big enough to drive several atom bombs through. But that may be the best the Bush administration could hope for in its waning days.

North Korea's long-awaited declaration detailing its nuclear activities, which it handed over last week in response to six-party disarmament talks with China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the U.S., was thin gruel compared with what the Bush administration originally wanted. But it was better than nothing, which is what the administration probably would have gotten had it held to its previous policy of not talking. The North had agreed to a full accounting of its nuclear activities in return for food and energy assistance.

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.

The North Koreans were eager to talk. "Did you see CNN?" was our guide's first question the morning after the missile tests. Knowing that most North Korean citizens are completely cut off from any information about the outside world, I wondered how much our guide herself knew about the tests. As guests in a Pyongyang hotel for foreigners, my companions and I had access to the 24-hour news channels we take for granted at home, and had just learned that the first of seven missiles had been launched into the Sea of Japan.

WASHINGTON -- North Korea said yesterday that it is not bound by its own moratorium on long-range missile tests, as tension over Pyongyang's intentions continued to mount. In Washington, a senior State Department official challenged North Korea's interpretation, saying that the United States expects the Pyongyang government to abide by its commitments. A North Korean Foreign Ministry official had told Japanese reporters that a missile test would not be "bound by any statement such as the Pyongyang Declaration," the Kyodo news agency reported.

BEIJING -- A North Korean test launch of a missile potentially able to reach the United States would catapult the Korean crisis back into the spotlight and leave the Bush administration with little leverage with which to respond, analysts say. As a flurry of reports yesterday suggested that Pyongyang had finished fueling a missile and could be on the verge of a launch, the United States and Japan implored North Korea not to conduct its first flight test...