N. Korea Pledges Return to Nuke Talks

Hinrichtung: Nordkorea exekutiert KP-Funktionär wegen Inflation
WELT ONLINE: In Nordkorea ist ein Funktionär der Kommunistischen Partei hingerichtet worden. Dem hochrangigen Regierungsmitglied wurde Versagen im Kampf gegen die grassierende Inflation vorgeworfen. Pak Nam-ki soll Schuld sein an der desaströsen Währungsreform, die Ende 2009 zu Hungerunruhen geführt hatte.

Nordkoreas Führer, Kim Jong-il, an einer Parade zu seinen Ehren. Der Machthaber ist bekannt für seine Willkür. Bild: Welt Online
Wegen einer verfehlten Währungsreform ist in Nordkorea ein hochrangiges Regierungsmitglied hingerichtet worden.

Der ehemalige Planungs- und Finanzdirektor in der Kommunistischen Partei, Pak Nam-ki, wurde in der vergangenen Woche auf dem Gelände einer Kaserne in Pjöngjang exekutiert, wie die südkoreanische Nachrichtenagentur Yonhap berichtete.

Dem 77-Jährigen, der Ende Februar aus dem Amt geworfen worden war, wurde Versagen im Kampf gegen die grassierende Inflation vorgeworfen. Im November hatte Nordkorea seine Währung Won abgewertet und die Lebensmittelkrise in dem Land dadurch dramatisch verschlimmert.

Pak wurde damit die Schuld an der desaströsen Währungsreform gegeben, die Ende vergangenen Jahres zu Hungerunruhen im Land geführt hatte. >>> AFP/br | Donnerstag, 18. März 2010

Broader Issues on Table in Pyongyang
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: While Negotiating Journalists' Release, Clinton and Kim Widened Talks to Security, Regional Concerns

WASHINGTON -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in more than three hours of discussions with Bill Clinton in Pyongyang, drew the former U.S. president into a wide-ranging discussion of security and regional issues.

Former U.S. officials and diplomats say the meetings, attended by the top ranks of Pyongyang's security establishment, were part of a renewed campaign by Pyongyang to stimulate direct negotiations with Washington over the country's nuclear program.

President Barack Obama and his aides stressed Wednesday that they weren't viewing Mr. Clinton's trip as anything more than a humanitarian mission focused on securing the release of two detained American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

Mr. Clinton returned to California Wednesday morning on a private jet with Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling, who had been arrested in March at the Chinese border and later sentenced to 12 years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Mr. Clinton's one-day visit secured their release.

"We were very clear this was a humanitarian mission," Mr. Obama said in an interview with MSNBC Wednesday. "We have said to the North Koreans there is a path for improved relations, and it involves them no longer developing nuclear weapons."

Mr. Clinton and his delegation were tight-lipped Wednesday about what transpired during a 75-minute meeting with Mr. Kim on Tuesday. They also attended a two-hour banquet hosted by the North Korean leader and his country's pre-eminent national-security body, the National Defense Commission.

U.S. officials briefed on Mr. Clinton's mission, however, are already outlining a broad discussion with Mr. Kim that focused on significantly more than just the two imprisoned Americans.

These U.S. officials indicated that Mr. Clinton expressed to Mr. Kim the necessity that his regime end a nuclear program that's feared to be stoking a broader arms race across Asia and the Middle East. >>> Jay Solomon | Thursday, August 06, 2009

US Journalists Return Home from North Korea with Bill Clinton
THE TELEGRAPH: Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two US journalists freed after 140 days in captivity in North Korea, have returned home with Bill Clinton to a tearful reunion with their families in Los Angeles.



Euna Lee, 36, and Laura Ling, 32, were flanked by the former US president Bill Clinton, whose meeting with the reclusive Jong-il had secured their liberty during a surprise 20-hour visit to Pyongyang, as they gave their first account of their escape from a 12-year sentence of hard labour.

"Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea," said Miss Ling, struggling to remain composed. "We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labour camp. Then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting.

"We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us president Bill Clinton. We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives [was over].

She added: "Euna and I would just like to express our deepest gratitude to president Clinton and his wonderful, amazing, not to mention super-cool team ... and the United States Secret Service who travelled half way around the world, and then some, to secure our release." >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Bill Clinton Secures 'Pardon' for Imprisoned Journalists after Meeting North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il
TIMES ONLINE: Bill Clinton burst back on to the global political stage yesterday in the unlikely setting of North Korea — and orchestrated an immediate and spectacular diplomatic coup.

Within hours of the former US President shaking hands with Kim Jong Il, his reclusive host, North Korea announced that two imprisoned American journalists would be pardoned and released. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced to 12 years of hard labour in June after being convicted of spying, are expected to be on board Mr Clinton’s private jet when he leaves Pyongyang today.

“We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms,” their families said in a statement.

Mr Kim’s “special pardon” was a sign of North Koreas’s “humanitarian and peace-loving policy”, the state’s official news agency said.

The appearance of the world’s most gregarious former head of state in the rogue state took all sides by surprise. It also suggested that President Obama is prepared to use the formidable political skills possessed by the husband of his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, when it suits him.

Mr Clinton’s success raised hopes that North Korea may soon be enticed back to multinational disarmament talks, after three months of mounting tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The breakthrough came after what the North Korea media described as “sincere and exhaustive discussions” on a range of matters between Mr Clinton and Mr Kim. The North Koreans said the former US President had flown to Pyongyang bearing a “courteously conveyed” personal message from Mr Obama.

The White House denied that a message had been sent and described Mr Clinton’s trip as a “solely private mission”. Behind the scenes, the Obama Administration had approved the trip after North Korean officials were said to have told the journalists’ families that they were prepared to release them to Mr Clinton. The families then approached the former President.

In another striking break with tradition, footage of Mr Clinton’s arrival and images of his meeting Mr Kim were aired almost immediately on North Korea’s tightly controlled state television channel. >>> Leo Lewis in Tokyo, and Tim Reid in Washington | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Clinton in Nordkorea: Botschafter ohne offizielle Botschaft
STERN.DE: Fakt ist: Ex-US-Präsident Bill Clinton hat in Pjöngjang Nordkoreas Machthaber Kim Jong Il getroffen. Fraglich bleibt, ob Clinton geschickt wurde. Während nordkoreanische Medien behaupten, Clinton habe eine offizielle Botschaft überbracht, spricht das Weiße Haus von einer "ausschließlich privaten" Reise.

Die USA haben überraschend Bill Clinton nach Nordkorea geschickt, um die Freilassung von zwei inhaftierten Journalistinnen zu erwirken. Als erster hochrangiger US-Politiker seit neun Jahren traf der Expräsident am Dienstag mit Staatschef Kim Jong Il zusammen. Clinton habe "höflich" eine mündliche Botschaft von US-Präsident Barack Obama übermittelt, hieß es in einer Meldung der amtlichen nordkoreanischen Nachrichtenagentur KCNA. Kim habe sich dafür bedankt. Bei dem Gespräch habe es einen "weitreichenden Meinungsaustausch" gegeben. Das Weiße Haus dementierte umgehend, dass Clinton eine Botschaft Obamas überbracht habe. "Diese Berichte treffen nicht zu", sagte ein Sprecher am Dienstag. >>> AP/DPA | Dienstag, 04. August 2009

Bill Clinton Meets North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il for Talks
TIMES ONLINE: Bill Clinton, who flew into North Korea today on a surprise mission to secure the release of two American journalists, was taken from the airport into a rare face-to-face meeting with the regime’s “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong Il.

The unexpected summit meeting has raised hopes across the region that North Korea may soon be enticed back to multinational disarmament talks after three months of mounting atomic tensions and provocation.

North Korea’s official news agency reported that Mr Clinton and Mr Kim engaged in “sincere and exhaustive discussions” on a range of issues and that the former US president came armed for his encounter with a “courteously conveyed” personal message from Barack Obama. The White House quickly denied there had ever been such a message.

In another striking break with tradition, footage of Mr Clinton’s arrival and images of his meeting with Mr Kim were aired almost immediately on North Korea’s tightly-controlled state television channel – an indication, said close observers of North Korea, of how the visit will likely be used by the regime to parade its out-manoeuvring of the US.

It appears that the groundwork for the talks were well-laid and that Mr Clinton is likely to return to the US with the two journalists in tow on Wednesday. Although nominally carried out in a private capacity, Mr Clinton’s visit is believed to have the double purpose of both freeing Laura Ling and Euna Lee from their sentence of 12 years hard labour and of bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table on nuclear weapons.

Relations between Washington and Pyongyang have deteriorated rapidly since May after the unpredictable regime test-fired what it said was a nuclear device and declared the six party” multinational disarmament talks with South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, America “dead in the water”.

The Pyongyang state news agency put what experts said was a predictable spin on the visit, declaring that Mr Clinton had first appealed for the release of the two American prisoners and then for the opportunity to meet Mr Kim – a request that was graciously granted. >>> Leo Lewis | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Bill Clinton Arrives in North Korea to Free Journalists
TIMES ONLINE: Former US president Bill Clinton is understood to have landed in Pyongyang earlier today for a surprise visit to North Korea as relations between the United States and the regime continue to sour and mystery surrounds the health of its enigmatic "Dear Leader".

The regime's mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, said in a bulletin this afternoon that Mr Clinton had been greeted at Pyongyang's airport by two senior government figures - the vice president of the presidium of North Korea's parliament and the vice foreign minister.

"A little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton," ran the rest of the report.

Diplomatic sources suggest that Mr Clinton, who is the highest-profile American to visit North Korea since Madeleine Albright's trip nine years ago, may be granted an audience with Kim Jong Il as early as today.

Reports from Seoul based on South Korean intelligence suggest that the former US president will use the two-day trip to "negotiate robustly" for the release of two American journalists currently serving 12 years of hard labour in a North Korean prison.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were both working for a television company run by Mr Clinton's former vice president, Al Gore, were arrested for a "grave", though unspecified, crime on the North Korea-China border earlier this year.

The two were imprisoned on a charge of committing "hostile acts" and for plotting to produce a smear campaign over human rights issues. >>> Leo Lewis | Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Bill Clinton überraschend in Nordkorea: Früherer US-Präsident bemüht sich um Freilassung von Journalistinnen
NZZ Online: Der ehemalige amerikanische Präsident Bill Clinton ist überraschend in Nordkorea eingetroffen. In Pjongjang will er sich für die Freilassung zweier amerikanischer Journalistinnen einsetzen, die im Juni zu zwölf Jahren Arbeitslager verhaftet worden waren.

Der frühere amerikanische Präsident Bill Clinton ist überraschend nach Nordkorea gereist, wo er sich laut einem südkoreanischen Medienbericht für die Freilassung der dort festgehaltenen zwei amerikanischen Journalistinnen einsetzen will.

Von Chefunterhändler empfangen

Die amtliche nordkoreanische Nachrichtenagentur KCNA meldete am Dienstag, Clinton sei auf dem Flughafen von Pjongjang unter anderem vom Chefunterhändler für Atomfragen, Kim Kye Gwan, begrüsst worden. >>> ap/sda/dpa | Dienstag, 04. August 2009

Related / liée:
La Corée du Nord arrête deux journalistes américaines >>> C.J. (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Jeudi 19 Mars 2009

Kim Jong Il soll Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs haben: Sender beruft sich auf Geheimdienstquellen
NZZ Online: Der nordkoreanische Staatschef Kim Jong Il ist laut südkoreanischen Medienberichten an Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs erkrankt. Der Bericht des Fernsehsenders YTN beruft sich auf chinesische und südkoreanische Geheimdienstkreise.

Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs wird gewöhnlich erst im letzten Stadium festgestellt. Ziehe man Kims Alter von 67 Jahren in Betracht, werde mit einer Lebenserwartung von höchstens noch fünf Jahren gerechnet, heisst es in dem Bericht vom Montag weiter.

Der südkoreanische Geheimdienst erklärte, er könne den Bericht nicht bestätigen. >>> ap | Montag, 13. Juli 2009

Welcome to North Korea!

North Korea Will Pay the Price for Nuclear Tests, Says US
ANGER: American ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said North Korea would be “further debilitated". Photo courtesy of the Daily Express
DAILY EXPRESS: NORTH Korea will “pay a price” for its nuclear missiles tests, the American ambassador to the UN warned last night.

Susan Rice said international pressure on the country would ­increase until it realised the tests had left it “further isolated and further debilitated”.

She told a US television news channel that Pyongyang’s actions were “clearly provocative and destabilising actions which threaten international peace and security”.

She said the international ­community would not “throw up our hands and let them pursue this path”, adding: “North Korea needs to understand that its ­actions have consequences.” >>> By Mark Reynolds | Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Deranged Dictator
Kim Jong Il – the deranged dictator. Photo courtesy of the Daily Express
DAILY EXPRESS: He is the ultimate renaissance man, superlatively gifted at everything he attempts. He has composed six operas and his genius at staging musicals makes an Andrew Lloyd Webber production look like amateur dramatics in your village hall.

When playing golf, he regularly shoots a hole-in-one three or four times in a single round and he personally designed his country’s most symbolic monument, the Juche Tower. No wonder his countrymen worship him.

Or he is an irredeemably flawed individual who cannot distinguish between fact and fiction, a tyrant who rules by fear and punishes ruthlessly any hint of dissent. No wonder his countrymen worship him.

If you thought Britain suffered under the manipulative skills of Alastair Campbell, then spare a thought for the poor benighted souls of North Korea living under the rule of the man they are obliged to call their “Dear Leader”: Kim Jong Il.

This is a man who, even when his people were reduced to eating grass because there was nothing else, still managed to convince them there wasn’t a famine raging through the country and that it was an ugly rumour cooked up by pro-Western agitators – or, as we know them, the Red Cross and the United Nations World Programme, the relief agencies who saved more than a fifth of the North Korean population from dying of starvation and disease in the Nineties. Meanwhile, he had his favourite dish, lobster, flown in every day, eating it with silver chopsticks.

For the past five years, Kim Jong Il has even succeeded in keeping the outside world guessing as to whether he is still alive or not; rumours persist that he died in 2003 and that since then foreign leaders have been ­dealing with one of four lookalikes.

It has been all too easy for the West to scorn Kim Jong Il as something of a figure of fun, a vain playboy in built‑up shoes presiding over all those eerily robotic mass rallies before retiring to watch the American action films he adores.

But North Korea’s nuclear tests this week are a sharp reminder of Kim Jong Il’s other side as arguably the most dangerous man in the world at the moment.

“Know thine enemy” is sage advice but when it comes to Kim Jong Il, the West is hamstrung by the paucity of fact and the abundance of fable. >>> By Anna Pukas | Wednesday, May 27, 2009

THE GUARDIAN: Photo Gallery: Kim Jong-il: a life in pictures >>>

Kim Jong Il will Obama herausfordern: Kommentar zum erneuten Atomversuch Nordkoreas
NZZ Online: Nach dem Raketentest nun der Atomtest. Der kränkelnde Diktator Nordkoreas versucht den Druck auf die neue Administration in Washington mit allen Mitteln zu erhöhen. Obama hat unter dem Banner von «Change» das Amt des amerikanischen Präsidenten übernommen. Kim Jong Il möchte diese «Veränderung» nun auf Biegen und Brechen zu seinen Gunsten nutzen. Mit Argusaugen wird er wohl jede geringste Andeutung einer Aufweichung von Washingtons Haltung gegenüber Iran, dem anderen atomaren Sünder, verfolgen und daraus seine Schlüsse für mögliche eigene Vorteile ziehen. Mit einem weicheren Präsidenten in den USA hofft er auf wohl noch leichteres Spiel als bisher. >>> B. W. | Montag, 25. Mai 2009

Barack Obama Warns North Korea over Rocket Launch as Pyongyang 'Fuels Missile'
THE TELEGRAPH: North Korea can expect a "stern, unified action" from the international community if it test-fires a ballistic missile, US President Barack Obama has said.

South Korean protesters burn a mock missile, pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and North's flags during a rally against North Korea's missile in Seoul, South Korea. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Mr Obama promised tough action at a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit as reports emerged that Pyongyang had begun fueling the long-range rocket for an impending launch.

US military officials said that technicians have started to fuel up the three-stage Taepodong-2 missile at Musudan-ri launch site in the country's northeast in defiance of a 2006 UN resolution.

Pyongyang has said that the missile-test is a satellite launch not covered by the UN resolution and has informed international agencies that it will fire the rocket as early as Saturday.

US intelligence officials said that analysis of the rocket's nose-cone appeared to confirm claims that it was a satellite launch, but added that the launch was a cover for testing ballistic missile technology capable of delivering a warhead as far as Alaska or Hawaii.

Diplomatic tensions are building on the Korean peninsula, where relations between North and South have sunk to their lowest levels in a decade. >>> By Peter Foster in Beijing | Thursday, April 2, 2009

«Ein im Himmel erzeugter Befehlshaber und liebevoller Vater»
NZZ Online: Der nordkoreanische Staatschef Kim Jong Il ist zu seinem 67. Geburtstag am Montag mit Lobeshymnen der staatlichen Medien überschüttet worden. Die Parteizeitung «Rodong Sinmun» schrieb: «Genosse Kim Jong Il ist ein grosser Politiker, ein im Himmel erzeugter Befehlshaber und ein liebevoller Vater, der das Schicksal unserer Nation und unseres Volks sichert und erleuchtet.» >>> ap | Montag, 16. Februar 2009

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