North Korea

The Telegraph reports: There are clear signs that China is losing patience with North Korea, America’s former top diplomat in Asia has said. For several decades, China has been North Korea’s closest ally, largest trade partner and primary source of aid. However, Kurt Campbell, the former head of the State department in Asia, said there [...]

BBC News reports: North Korea has shifted a missile with “considerable range” to its east coast, South Korea’s foreign minister says. Kim Kwan-jin played down concerns that the missile could target the US mainland, and said the North’s intentions were not yet clear. Pyongyang earlier renewed threats of a nuclear strike against the US, though [...]

Joel Wit writes: [I]n November 2010, senior North Korean Foreign Ministry officials made it very clear that they were willing to relinquish thousands of fuel rods in their possession that could have been used by the reactor, rods that could help produce as many as eight nuclear bombs. That would have been a first step [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports: After a high-visibility display of military power aimed at deterring North Korean provocations, the White House is dialing back the aggressive posture amid fears that it could inadvertently trigger an even deeper crisis, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. is putting a pause to what several officials described as a [...]

The New York Times reports: North Korea announced plans on Tuesday to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, the latest in a series of provocations by its leader, Kim Jong-un, to elicit a muted response from American officials, who believe they can wait out Mr. Kim’s threats until he realizes his belligerent behavior will not force [...]

AFP reports: North Korea on Wednesday delayed the entry of South Koreans to a joint industrial complex in a rare move amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, the South’s Unification Ministry said. “North Korea has not yet given us the daily permission for the entry of 484 South Koreans into Kaesong today,” a South [...]

In a presentation to the World Affairs Council in San Francisco earlier this year, BR Myers spoke about the way North Koreans think of themselves and how their image of their own racial purity shapes their view of the world. While Kim Il-sung’s legitimacy had rested on two pillars: economic success and military strength, Kim [...]