The scary enemies to humanity over in North Korea launched their long-range rocket yesterday, and let’s just say it had some… problems. North Korea’s long-range rocket failed early Friday, U.S. officials said, calling it a blow for the reclusive state’s propaganda efforts. The rocket broke up about 90 seconds after taking off, an official told [...]

In a reminder that negotiation and diplomacy is a far preferable course to war and belligerence, North Korea, still in flux after the death of Kim Jong-il, has agreed to suspend its nuclear testing and uranium enrichment, as well as an agreement to allow nuclear weapons inspectors back into the country. In exchange, the North [...]

The death of Kim Jong-il comes just as the United States was about to re-engage with North Korea, a plan now thrown into doubt because of the succession to Kim Jong-un. Hours before Kim’s death, news leaked about an imminent large grain shipment to North Korea, seen as an olive branch to restart talks on [...]

Bill Richardson, the utility diplomat on the Democratic bench, has secured a deal with North Korea to allow nuclear inspectors back in their Yongbyon nuclear facility. They also agreed to allow fuel rods to ship to an outside country, probably South Korea, for enrichment. And, the US will receive some remains from Korean War-era soldiers: [...]

South Korea has initiated live-fire drills for the first time since North Korea shelled a local island, killing at least four. This escalates the tensions and could lead to further attacks. These military exercises are what North Korea claimed led to the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong; however, they are confined to areas far away from [...]

The Obama Administration rejected emergency multiparty talks with North Korea after the Yeonpyeong artillery bombing, using that old chestnut about “rewarding bad behavior.” China called for the talks, but the US sees no need to negotiate without a pre-negotiation, not only on the incident at Yeonpyeong but the nuclear weapons issue. The South Koreans and [...]

We have plenty of people here at FDL willing and plenty able to deal with the Wikileaks release of State Department cables (the entire result of which will be, probably, more debriefings in person and on the telephone instead of by email or telegram). But I’ve been struck by the emphasis in the documents on [...]

Overnight, North Korea fired artillery shells at Yeonpyeong, an inhabited South Korean island, prompting a response from South Korea and the scrambling of fighter jets. At least four soldiers were wounded in the attack, and according to the BBC two marines died. It’s unclear why North Korea would suddenly shell the island. Pyongyang claimed that [...]

John McCain never met a war he didn’t like, and so he wants the United States to basically enter into a war with North Korea. “South Korea presented evidence today that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship, which [...]

The President released the Nuclear Posture Review today, a sweeping statement of nuclear weapons strategy. He has since the campaign called for an end to nuclear weapons on the planet. However, in this review, while he limited the scope of when the United States can use nukes, he held out the possibility in certain cases. [...]

During last week’s trip by the President to China, the 24-hour media seemed all to ready to pronounce it a failure based on their own evidence that Obama had not changed the entire US-China relationship in a matter of minutes. It was maybe the worst example of split-second journalism and ridiculous expectations in the Obama [...]