A Reuters source in Beijing, sounding suspiciously like a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman, imparts the warning shot:
North Korea will feel compelled to announce plans for another nuclear test if a financial dispute with Washington is not resolved, a source said on Wednesday, a sign of Pyongyang’s impatience with a lack of progress in talks.
[...]
“If the [...]

Yesterday Gypsy Scholar commented on an opinion piece in the Washington Times by Robert Carlin and John Lewis titled, “What North Korea Really Wants” (27 Jan). Their argument is that:
Above all, it wants, and has pursued steadily since 1991, a long-term, strategic relationship with the United States. . . The North Koreans believe in their [...]

CFR: China’s Relationship with a Nuclear North Korea
Reuters: INTERVIEW - U.S. envoy sees steps to possible N. Korea deal
AFP: US, South Korea discuss peace treaty for peninsula
Bloomberg: Negroponte Says Sanctions May Aid North Korea Nuclear Talks
Reuters: U.S. presses North Korea to act at talks
Yonhap: N.K. missiles threat to neighbors, not yet to U.S.: Adm. Fallon
Korea [...]

From the Korea Times: “One-fifth of North Koreans who defected to South Korea have gotten swindled here, according to the Korean Institute of Criminal Justice Policy. The majority of the swindlers were other North Korean defectors… Those with more education were more subject to fraud… none of those who had elementary school education was a [...]

From Japan Today: “Japan imported nothing from North Korea in December following Tokyo’s import ban imposed on the country in October for its nuclear test… It was the first time for imports from North Korea to total zero in a month since comparable monthly data became available in 1988…”

Recently added are Gizmodo and Engadet, two geek gadget blogs that are full of interesting technology news, tips, and of course gadgets. Here is an example of what someone with far too much time on their hands created with some resistors and LEDs.

From Reuters: “Japanese police said on Monday they had arrested an engineer and his wife suspected of violating the country’s labor law… Media reports said police were investigating whether a group of scientists for which the engineer served as an adviser had been involved in leaking missile and other advanced technologies.”

One can dream: “Maybe instead of cutting Kim off, we should flood his country with people and things many in America have come to know and loathe… how about we send both Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell to North Korea… We could always flood Kim’s in-box with a year’s worth of e-mail spam, with a [...]

From the Prague Monitor: “The Czech Interior Ministry has stopped granting work visas for North Korean citizens and will not extend the validity of the existing ones… [per UNSC sanctions] As a result, no North Korean employee is to be registered at the Czech job offices by the end of the year… The measure is [...]

A suspect is in custody for the apparent beating death of a North Korean construction worker in Vladivostok, Russia:
A suspect in the case of a North Korean national beaten to death in a Russian Far Eastern city has been arrested, an aide to the regional prosecutor said Monday.
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Witnesses said Friday the victim had returned to [...]