From East-Asia-Intel.com (subscription):
The Dair el Zor raid in Syria on Sept. 6 was not against a nuclear facility but a major arms depot… “Dair el Zor houses a huge underground base where the Syrian army stores the long and medium-range missiles it mostly buys from Iran and North Korea,” the newsletter reported. “The […]

After years of denying having any highly enriched uranium (HEU) program, some of the details are now beginning to surface. Earlier in September North Korea reportedly admitted to purchasing equipment – aluminum tubes for centrifuges – for an HEU program. Now there are additional details on what was purchased and from where (h/t DPRK […]

Excerpts from the 26 September Department of State Daily Press Briefing on sanctions being placed on a state owned North Korean company for missile technology transfer (not Syria), and possible effects on the Six-Party Talks. Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey is responding to questions:
QUESTION: Yeah, North Korea. I know that you touched on this yesterday, […]

Reuters: North Korea may be dropped from terrorism list, U.S. hints
Asahi: Rice: U.S. won’t ignore Japan
AFP: No US decision on NKorea, terror list
Japan Times: House bill would require US to keep NK on terrot list
Reuters: U.S. envoy expects N.Korea action by year-end
Kyodo: Hill says ‘on same wavelength’ with N. Korea over […]

From the Joongang Ilbo: “ ‘President Roh will propose to Kim Jong-il. . . to completely pull out 100 South Korean GPs [guard posts] and 280 North Korean GPs from the DMZ. . . Removing the GPs means the withdrawal of soldiers and arms located inside the zone.’ ”

Excerpts from the 25 September Department of State Daily Press Briefing on the election of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and new sanctions on North Korean company producing missiles. Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey is responding to questions:
QUESTION: A new Japanese cabinet was formed today under the LDP leader Yasuo Fukuda and what are U.S. expectations […]

Japan Probe points to a survey of Japan, China, and South Korea about who they fear the most in the context of a military threat. Neither Japan or China worry about South Korea, but South Korea worries about North Korea, China, and Japan, in that order. Fits nicely with theories of an East Asian […]

As described by a Korean-American former ESL teacher: ” ‘It’s a stupid system,’ he said. ‘You’ve got a whole bunch of people who don’t want to be learning English being taught by people who don’t want to teach English in a country that’s really resentful about English.’ “

Update: Jun Okumura of GloboTalk21 compares the 2005 and 2006 versions of the Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism and notes that:
What at the end of 2005 remained a contentious issue was [in 2006] merely a continuing demand from the Japanese government for a full accounting. All reference to other abductees, including South […]

Update: Via the Nomad, an interesting theory on Syria’s relatively mild protests to Israels attack:
Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge […]