Biden urges China to take steps to lower tensions in region

North Korean spies exiled in South Korea still loyalty to the North

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South Korea says North Korea ready to test missile 'any day'

 

Fox News

PYONGYANG, North Korea –  The prospect of a North Korean missile launch is "considerably high," South Korea's foreign minister told lawmakers Wednesday as Pyongyang prepared to mark the April 15 birthday of its founder, historically a time when it seeks to draw the world's attention with dramatic displays of military power.
The missile is expected to be a medium-range Musudan missile with a range of 2,180 miles capable of flying over Japan, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told lawmakers in Seoul. Earlier a Defense Ministry official said preparations appeared to be complete, and that the launch could take place at any time.
North Korean officials have not announced plans to launch a missile, but have told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang that it will not be able to guarantee their safety starting Wednesday. It has also urged tourists in South Korea to take cover, warning a nuclear war was imminent. However, most diplomats and foreign residents appeared to be staying put.
Such threats are, however, seen as rhetoric and an attempt by North Korea to scare foreigners into pressing their governments to pressure Washington and Seoul to change their policies toward Pyongyang, and to boost the military credentials of its young leader, Kim Jong Un.
On the streets of Pyongyang, however, the focus was less on preparing for war and more on beautifying the city ahead of the nation's biggest holiday. Soldiers hammered away on construction projects, gardeners got down on their knees to plant flowers and trees, and students marched off to school, belying the high tensions.
Last year, the days surrounding the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current ruler, was marked by parades of tanks, goose-stepping soldiers and missiles, as well as the failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket widely believed by the U.S. and its allies in the West to be a test of ballistic missile technology. A subsequent test in December went off successfully, and that was followed by the country's third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 this year, possibly taking the regime closer to mastering the technology for mounting an atomic bomb on a missile.
The resulting U.N. sanctions and this spring's annual U.S.-South Korean military drills have been met with an unending string of threats and provocations from the North.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday that North Korea's persistent nuclear and missile programs and threats have created "an environment marked by the potential for miscalculation."
He said the U.S. military and its allies would be ready if North Korea tries to strike.
The Musadan is a ballistic missile, and South Korea says its launch would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution banning any ballistic activity by North Korea.
Despite such tidings of war, the people of Pyongyang went about their daily lives.
Associated Press journalists in the North Korean capital saw soldiers wearing hard hats rumbling past in the back of a truck as they prepared for another day's work doing construction. In recent years, military personnel have been pressed into helping build the many urban renewal projects that have been prioritized since Kim Jong Un came to power in December 2011.
In a sign they have been diverted away from preparing for conventional warfare, they are commonly referred to as "soldier-builders," and are also called upon to help plant and harvest rice and other crops in a nation that suffers from chronic food shortages.
North Korea sporadically holds civil air raid drills during which citizens practice blacking out their windows and seeking shelter. But no such drills have been held in recent months, local residents said.
"I'm not at all worried. We have confidence in our young marshal Kim Jong Un," a cleaning lady at the Koryo Hotel said as she made up a guest's bed. "The rest of the world can just squawk all they want but we have confidence in his leadership.
"We are resolved to stay and defend him until the end," she said. "It may be hard for the rest of the world to understand, and those who are worried are welcome to leave," she said in typically nationalistic language.
But there was no sign of an exodus of foreigners from Seoul or Pyongyang. Britain and other governments with embassies in Pyongyang said they had no immediate plans to withdraw but would continue assessing the situation.
North Korea has been escalating tensions with the U.S. and South Korea, its wartime foes, for months. The tightened U.N. sanctions that followed the nuclear test drew the ire of North Korea, which accused Washington and Seoul of leading the campaign against it. Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills south of the border have further incensed Pyongyang, which sees them as practice for an invasion.
Last week, Kim Jong Un enshrined the pursuit of nuclear weapons -- which the North characterizes as a defense against the U.S. -- as a national goal, along with improving the economy. North Korea also declared it would restart a mothballed nuclear complex.
Citing the tensions with Seoul, North Korea on Monday pulled more than 50,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which combines South Korean technology and know-how with cheap North Korean labor. It was the first time that production was stopped at the decade-old factory park, the only remaining symbol of economic cooperation between the Koreas.
Pyongyang also has moved to its eastern seaboard what is believed by U.S. and South Korean intelligence to be a mid-range missile capable of hitting targets in Japan, such as the U.S. military installations on that country's main island, as well as the U.S. territory of Guam. South Korean officials say North Korea will likely test-fire the missile into the sea as a display of its military prowess.
The United States and South Korea have raised their defense postures, as has Japan, which deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo. And Locklear said the U.S. military would be ready to strike back if provoked.
One historian, James Person, noted that it isn't the first time North Korea has warned foreign embassies to prepare for a U.S. attack.
He said that in 1968, following North Korea's seizure of an American ship, the USS Pueblo, Pyongyang persistently advised foreign diplomats to prepare for a U.S. counterattack. Cables from the Romanian mission in Pyongyang showed embassies were instructed to build anti-air bunkers "to protect foreigners against air attacks," he said.
The cables were obtained and posted online by the Wilson Center's North Korea International Documentation Project.
Person called it one of North Korea's first forays into what he dubs "military adventurism."
"In 1968, there was some concern there would be an attack, but (the North Koreans) certainly were building it up to be more than it was in hopes of getting more assistance from their allies at the time," Person said by phone from Alexandria, Virginia.
"I think much of it was hot air then. Today, I think again it's more hot air," he said. "The idea is to scare people into pressuring the United States to return to negotiations with North Korea. That's the bottom line."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/10/south-korea-says-north-korea-ready-to-test-missile-any-day/#ixzz2Q4bpIRv2

What happens if North Korea gets out of hand? Here are some scenarios

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In response to North Korea's announcement that they will be deploying "small, light" nuclear strikes, the Pentagon has announced it is sending an anti-ballistic missile system to Guam. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

While political and military analysts sound pretty confident that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's threats are just bluster, you can't get around the fact that the region encompassing the Korean peninsula is one of the most heavily militarized places on Earth, home to three of the world's six-largest militaries.

If the unthinkable were to happen, how would it play out?

Leon Panetta, who stepped down as President Barack Obama's defense secretary in February, warned this week in an interview with CNBC that "we don't have as much insight as we should with regards to the inner workings of what happens in North Korea."

But based on declassified U.S. and U.N. assessments and independent analyses by military scholars, we can make some educated guesses:

How would North Korea attack?Probably with a massive ground assault backed by artillery fire. That's because North Korea's standing military, according to the best U.S. and U.N. intelligence assessments, is the fourth largest in the world, at 1.1 million members. South Korea's, by contrast, is about 690,000 strong.

Library of Congress Federal Research Division

That ratio — a manpower superiority of roughly 3-to-2 for the North — is remarkably consistent across calculations of the countries' weaponry, too. By about the same proportion, the North has more tanks, more artillery, more planes, more ships, more missiles. 

In a 2008 report commissioned by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress depicted North Korea as, in essence, one giant military installation:

How would South Korea respond?By being smarter and nimbler.

Much of the North's equipment is seriously outdated, going back to its alliance with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. 

The South's weaponry is less extensive but far more advanced, thanks to modern equipment provided by the U.S. 

"Overall, South Korea's armed forces have become one of the world's more capable militaries and present a formidable forward defense against any possible attack by North Korea," the British-based International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2011.

All of that presumes that North Korean troops could make it into the South in the first place. To get there, they would have to go through about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed along the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries, supported by about 40,000 more just a short hop away in Japan and on a large military base in Guam.

Doesn't Kim have China to back him up?In theory, yes, and that's no small matter. 

China's 2.3-million-strong military is the world's biggest, outpacing the U.S.'s by almost 40 percent. In its annual report to Congress last year, the U.S. Defense Department didn't estimate how many Chinese forces might be based in North Korea, but it did outline the massive array of forces China is believed to have inside its own borders facing the Korean peninsula:

The map at left depicts China's naval buildup around the Korean peninsula. The map at right details army deployments. Click each map for its full-size version.

But it's not clear that China has the stomach for a fight. Beijing has signaled its displeasure with the North's recent provocations — just last month, it voted for a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions in response to North Korea's announcement of a nuclear test on Feb. 12.

P.J. Crowley, an assistant secretary of state during Obama's first term, told NBC News that Kim's erratic behavior has created major "frustration" in Beijing, which he said "does not want to see an implosion of North Korea."

The U.S., on the other hand, has made it clear that it will defend South Korea. To drive home the point, it sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea as part of military exercises in a show of force Sunday. And it has sent two warships to the western Pacific to watch for missiles and will soon send an advanced anti-ballistic missile system to its base on Guam, defense officials said.

Military and political analysts say China doesn't want a showdown over the Koreas because then the superpowers' nuclear arsenals become a factor. The U.S. said in an unclassified 2010 report (.pdf) that its stockpile was about 5,100 warheads — more than 20 times that of China, which the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimated in 2011 at 240.

How long could South Korea hold out?Much longer than the North.

If North Korea were to employ nuclear weapons, it would impact U.S. troops and pressure Japan and South Korea to also consider obtaining nuclear weapons – something that could lead to an all-out arms race.  NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

To put it bluntly — as the CIA did in an economic assessment last month — North Korea is a mess internally. Industrial and power output have receded to pre-1990 levels, while frequent crop failures since a devastating famine in 1995 have compounded food shortages that have fueled chronic malnutrition. All that's keeping its people afloat are international food aid deliveries, mainly from China, which would almost certainly be disrupted or cut off in a war.

South Korea, in sharp contrast, boasts a high-tech industrialized economy — one of the 20 biggest in the world, the CIA reported. It has numerous trading partners worldwide to keep it fed and supplied. And because its communications and transportation systems are among the best in the world, it would be much better placed to coordinate civil defense and to move people and material out of harm's way.

So if a traditional assault is unwinnable, what are Kim's options?Very scary ones.

The Center for International Studies and Research, a nonpartisan French research agency, calculated in October (.pdf) that the North can deploy "a full array of what are typically described as weapons of mass destruction" — one of the biggest chemical and biological stockpiles in the world at 2,500 to 5,000 metric tons, mostly tabun (a nerve agent) and mustard gas.

In a technically secret process, South Korea is believed to have told the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that it had destroyed its chemical weapons in 2008.

And then there are North Korea's own nuclear weapons — the real wild card in the deck.

U.S. officials and other researchers say, North Korea may already have a few dozen warheads that could be fitted atop its vast fleet of ballistic missiles. They're fully capable of hitting targets in Japan, South Korea or elsewhere in the northern Pacific, the officials said.

Kim may be bluffing, as his father and grandfather did before him. But those weapons mean he must always be taken seriously.

Mission No. 1, Crowley said, is "figure out a way to denuclearize North Korea."

Panetta says US must be ’very firm’ with N. Korea as it issues more threats

 

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'Time has come': N. Korea readies rockets

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South Korea on alert after hackers strike banks, broadcasters

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By Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee, Reuters

SEOUL -- South Korean police were investigating a hacking attack on an Internet provider that brought down the servers of three broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday, and the army raised its alert level due to concerns of North Korean involvement.

The network provided by LG UPlus Corp. showed a page that said it had been hacked by a group calling itself the "Whois Team," an unknown group. It featured three skulls and a warning that this was the beginning of "Our Movement."

Servers at television networks YTN, MBC and KBS were affected as well as Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank, both major financial institutions, police and government officials said.

"We sent down teams to all affected sites. We are now assessing the situation. This incident is pretty massive, and it will take a few days to collect evidence," a police official said.

Police and government officials declined to speculate on whether North Korea, which has threatened to attack both South Korea and the United States after it was hit with United Nations sanctions for its February nuclear test, was behind the cyberattack.

North Korea has in the past staged cyberattacks on the world's most wired country, targeting conservative newspapers, banks and government institutions.

South Korea's military said it was not affected but raised its state of readiness in response.

None of South Korea's oil refineries, power stations, ports or airports was affected.

The biggest attack by Pyongyang was a 10-day denial of service attack in 2011 that antivirus firm McAfee, part of Intel Corp, dubbed "Ten Days of Rain" and which it said was a bid to probe the South's computer defenses in the event of a real conflict.

Shinhan Bank, one of the financial institutions affected, said its servers were back up by 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

North Korea vows to cancel Korean War cease-fire

foxnews

SEOUL, South Korea –  North Korea vowed Tuesday to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War, citing a U.S.-led push for punishing U.N. sanctions over its recent nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean joint military drills.
Without elaborating, the Korean People's Army Supreme Command warned of "surgical strikes" meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula and of an indigenous, "precision nuclear striking tool." The statement came amid reports that Washington and North Korean ally Beijing have approved a draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for sanctions in response to North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear test. The draft is expected to be circulated at the U.N. this week.
Such heated military rhetoric and threats are common from North Korea as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula, and Pyongyang's recent nuclear test and rocket launches, and the push for U.N. punishment that have followed, have increased already high animosity between the North and Washington and ally Seoul.
The United States and others worry that North Korea's third nuclear test pushes it a step closer toward its goal of having nuclear-armed missiles that can reach America, and condemn its nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea's largely destitute people.
North Korea says its nuclear program is a response to U.S. hostility that dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.
North Korea warned it will cancel the armistice agreement on March 11 because of ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that began March 1 which the statement called a "dangerous nuclear war targeted at us."
North Korea said Washington and others are going beyond mere economic sanctions and expanding into blunt aggression and military acts. North Korea also warned that it will block a communications line between it and the United States at the border village separating the two Koreas.
"We aim to launch surgical strikes at any time and any target without being bounded by the armistice accord and advance our long-cherished wish for national unification," the statement said.
North Korea lays the blame for its much-condemned nuclear weapons programs on the United States.
A rich vein of North Korean propaganda fueled by decades-old American threats holds that the North remains at risk of an unprovoked nuclear attack. Washington and others say brinksmanship is the North's true motive for the nuclear push.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/north-korea-vows-to-cancel-korean-war-cease-fire/#ixzz2MgCu56Td

North Korea threatens ’final destruction’ of South Korea in UN debate

worldnews

By Tom Miles, Reuters

GENEVA - North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the U.N Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday, saying it could take "second and third steps" after a nuclear test last week.

In response to North Korea's recent nuclear test, South Korea stages military exercises and artillery drills along the border with North Korea. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

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"As the saying goes, a new-born puppy knows no fear of a tiger. South Korea's erratic behavior would only herald its final destruction," North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong told the meeting.

Without specifically referring to the nuclear test, Jon said North Korea had recently taken a "resolute step for self-defence", which he described as "strong counter-actions to a foreign aggressor".

"If the U.S. takes a hostile approach toward the DPRK to the last, rendering the situation complicated, it (North Korea) will be left with no option but to take the second and third stronger steps in succession," he added, without elaborating.

His comments drew immediate criticism from other nations, including South Korea and Britain, whose ambassador Joanne Adamson said such language was "completely inappropriate" and the discussion with North Korea was heading in the wrong direction.

Ambassador Susan Rice tells reporters at the United Nations that North Korea's latest, "highly-provocative" and "regrettable" act of testing a nuclear weapon "directly violates" security council resolution and threatens international peace, "vowing a swift, credible and strong response."

"It cannot be allowed that we have expressions which refer to the possible destruction of U.N. member states," she said.

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U.S. Ambassador Laura Kennedy said she found North Korea's statement profoundly disturbing.

“I also was particularly struck by the phrase 'heralding the destruction of the Republic of Korea' and find that language incredibly inconsistent with the goals and objectives that this body is intended to pursue," she said.

North Korea warns US of retaliation

foxnews

Jan. 30, 2013: South Korea's rocket lifts off from its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea. (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea –  North Korea is threatening to retaliate for what it calls U.S. double standards over recent rocket launches by Pyongyang and U.S. ally Seoul.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman did not elaborate on what that might entail in his comments Saturday to the official Korean Central News Agency. But Pyongyang has recently threatened to conduct its third nuclear test in response to what it calls U.S. hostility.

Washington says Seoul's rocket launch Wednesday had no military intent while Pyongyang's in December was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang for its launch. Pyongyang says it should be allowed to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.

Both Koreas say their satellites are working properly. U.S. experts say Pyongyang's satellite is apparently malfunctioning.

Pyongyang's state television made no mention of the South Korean launch Wednesday, but about an hour after liftoff it showed archive footage of North Koreans cheering the North's three-stage rocket from last month. Images from the launch frequently appear in North Korean propaganda.

The satellite launched by Seoul is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauge distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space. South Korean officials said it will help them develop more sophisticated satellites in the future.

South Korea did need outside help to launch the satellite: The rocket's first stage was designed and built by Russian experts. North Korea built its rocket almost entirely on its own, South Korean military experts said earlier this month after analyzing debris retrieved from the Yellow Sea in December.

Kim Seung-jo, South Korea's chief space official, told reporters that his country should be able to independently produce a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit by as early as 2018.

Spending on science and technology is expected to increase under South Korea's incoming President Park Geun-hye, who takes office next month. She pledged during her campaign to increase such spending to 5 percent of South Korea's GDP by the end of her five-year term.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/02/north-korea-threatens-us-over-rocket-launches/?test=latestnews#ixzz2Jlg6iIuD

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address

By NBC News wire services

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.

The address by Kim, who took over power in the state after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.

But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a country that vilifies the United States and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance it gets.

North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.

North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.

Keep reading on NBC >>

South Korea elects first female president

 

(CNN) -- Emerging from victory, Park Geun-hye who will become the next president of South Korea -- the first woman for the Asian nation -- pledged to "take care of our people one-by-one."

In a speech made at the headquarters of her Saenuri political party Thursday morning, she invoked a phrase coined by her father, Park Chung-hee, who also served as president in an era when he was encouraging people to pull South Korea out of poverty.

"I would like to re-create the miracle of 'let's live well' so people can worry less about their livelihood and young people can happily go to work," said Park.

Park, 60, will assume office in February, in a country grappling with income inequality, angst over education and employment prospects for its youth, and strained relations with North Korea. South Korea is also a strategic Western ally and the fourth-largest economy in Asia.

Park won 52% of the vote, compared with 48% for her rival, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party, according to the country's National Election Commission.

Both the president-elect and Moon, the liberal candidate, had similarly moderate plans, addressing income inequality, reigning in the power of family-owned conglomerates and improving relations with North Korea.

"This wasn't the knockdown, drag out, left-against-right type of campaign," said David Kang, professor of international relations and business at the University of Southern California. "There's a surprising consensus about taking a more moderate stance."

"I think Park won by acting to the center. Her claims are that she's going to moderate many of the policies of the previous administration."

Park acknowledged Moon and his supporters Thursday.

"I believe there is common ground between myself and Moon Jae-in," she said. "We are both willing to work for the country and for the people of South Korea.

"Whether you were for or against me, I want to hear your opinions. I will try to stop the separation and conflict that has been going on for the last half century through reconciliation and harmony."

Park of the Saenuri party, won the highest office in a conservative Asian nation with traditional gender values.

Just because a woman has won the presidency, it doesn't mean South Korea has achieved everything it needs in terms of gender equality, said Kang, who is also director of Korean Studies Institute at USC.

"That a woman could be elected in South Korea is historic and important. At the same time, what you basically have to do is be political royalty. So I think gender roles are changing in South Korea. It's a step forward, but let's also remember how unique she is as a person."

Park is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, whose legacy left the Korean public divided. Some claim he was a dictator who ignored human rights and cracked down on dissent, while others credit him with bringing economic development to South Korea. Her father was assassinated in 1979. Keep reading >>

North Korea: Ready to go to war with U.S., South Korea

This Just In/

North Korea said it's ready to fight a war with the United States and South Korea as the two allies kicked off their annual joint military drills Monday, according to state-run media.

"Hundreds of thousands of troops are poised for a war carrying nuclear war equipment," North Korea's KCNA news agency reported, saying Pyongyang considers the drills to be practice for a preemptive strike on the North.

The international community has been negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program for years.

The most recent talks between North Korea and the United States ended Friday with little visible progress. They were the first high-level talks since the death of North Korea's longtime leader, Kim Jong Il, in December and the subsequent transition of power to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.   More >>

N. Korea warns of 'total war' over South's drills

Yonhap via AFP - Getty Images

South Korean residents gather in a bomb shelter on the border island of Baengnyeong Monday as a live-fire exercise began near the country's disputed sea border with North Korea.

msnbc.com news services

outh Korea on Monday conducted live-fire military drills from five islands near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea, despite Pyongyang's threat to attack. South Korea reported no immediate action by North Korea following the drills, which ended after about two hours. The drills took place in an area of the Yellow Sea that was the target of a North Korean artillery attack in 2010 that killed four South Koreans and raised fears of a wider conflict.

The heightened tension comes two months after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. His young son Kim Jong Un has taken the helm of the nation of 24 million.

Underground shelters South Korean military officials said they were ready to repel any attack. Residents on the front-line islands were asked to go to underground shelters before the drills started, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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From South Korea with love: Warm socks sent by balloon to North

Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images

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North Korea says no change, no talks with Seoul

Una comitiva surcoreana se entrevistó con Kim Jong-un en Pyongyang

Seúl, 26 dic (EFE).- La ex primera dama de Corea del Sur Lee Hee-ho y la presidenta del grupo Hyundai, Hyun Jeong-eun, se entrevistaron hoy en Pyongyang con el hijo menor y sucesor de Kim Jong-il al frente de Corea del Norte, Kim Jong-un.

Según la agencia surcoreana Yonhap, que cita al Ministerio de Unificación en Seúl, ambas mujeres visitaron el Palacio Memorial de Kumsusan, donde se encuentra el velatorio del fallecido Kim Jong-il, y mantuvieron allí un encuentro con Kim Jong-un.

Se trata de la primera reunión del joven Kim, que se cree cuenta con menos de 30 años, con ciudadanos del país vecino, destacó Yonhap.

South Korea icebreaker arrives to rescue Russian fishing boat

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Were circumstances of Kim Jong-il's death fabricated?

Kns / AFP - Getty Images

This undated picture, released from North Korea's official 
Korean Central News Agency on Dec.17, 2011, shows 
North Korean lreader Kim Jong Il (C), accompanied by 
his son Kim Jong Un (2nd-L), inspecting the Kwangbok 
Area Supermarket just before opening in Pyongyang. It is
said to be the elder Kim's last public appearance.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

The official report said that North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il died on a train at 8:30 on Saturday morning after suffering a heart attack during a "high intensity field inspection." State media reported his death on Monday.

Now, North Korea experts in South Korea are calling into question that account, saying North Korea likely made it all up, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper website.

Among the details they say don't make sense:

• Freezing weather: Kim was known for a nocturnal lifestyle and rarely got up before noon, and would have unlikely risen early in 20-degree temperatures for a field inspection.
• Train didn't move: South Korea's intelligence director testified that Kim's special train - equipped with four hospital cars - did not move out of the station the entire weekend.
• Witnesses: Kim always traveled with a large entourage, but the news of his death was kept secret for 50 hours.

Citing South Korean sources, the newspaper speculates Kim most likely died at home.

Does This Design of Two Towers Remind You of Anything?

(Photo: Concept Image MVRDV)

These residential high-rise buildings to be completed in Seoul, South Korea, by 2015 are connected in the middle by a cloud, which the designer says “differentiates the building from other luxury developments.”
The towers designed by architects at MVRDV are 300 and 260 meters high with a “pixelated” cloud in the middle at the 27th floor. The cloud allows for more light and room for decks and greenspace.

(Photo: Concept Image MVRDV)

Inside the "cloud" (Photo: Concept Image MVRDV)

As peaceful as that sounds, there is something a bit disconcerting about the design. Here’s what Gizmodo has to say about what may look a little too much like the towers of the World Trade Center beginning to come down on 9/11:

From higher angles the ten story tall pixelated cloud structure that connects the two 850+ foot towers certainly looks more whimsical, as I’m sure the architects at MVRDV intended it to be. But most people will be viewing it looking up from ground level. And I‘m afraid from that angle it’s very reminiscent of the images and events that were seen around the entire world that day. So I‘m not really sure how the eerie similarities weren’t spotted before this design was approved.

What do you think of the concept?
Update: Since the posting of this story, MVRDV has issued a statement of apology (be sure to click “read” on the site to see the statement) over the design. The design company writes “MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11. The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city.  It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, it was not our intention.”  More >>