North Korea expelled 11 South Korean officials from the Kaesong Industrial Zone in response to rising criticism of its regime and human rights record from the new South Korean administratin of Lee Myung-Bak:
For a month, the new president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has been warning North Korea to clean up its act on […]

LA Times staff writer Barbara Demick has been covering North Korea for several years. Her latest article is brief but a must read: “Within hours after our plane left, the lights went out. The cellphone kiosk closed down and the broadband was disconnected. Pyongyang looked again like what it really is: the capital of […]

Now over three months past the deadline, still no nuclear declaration from North Korea:
Rice urged China to press North Korea to disclose its nuclear programs so that the stalled accord can move forward…
And dark, probably true allegations:
North Korea earlier this week publicly executed 15 of its citizens for trying to flee the country by […]

If ever there was a time to drop the hammer on North Korea for habitually reneging on nuclear deals, now would be the time:
Speaking to reporters in Beijing Saturday, [Sigfried Hecker] said North Korean officials have told him they will not provide a full declaration of the country’s nuclear programs until other countries provide […]

The New York Philharmonic will be performing in Pyongyang, North Korea on 26 February. The Philharmonic’s conductor and music director Lorin Maazel wrote a response to critics who charged that playing for Kim Jong-il would only lend credibility to a human rights abusing regime:
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks, should they?” […]

A North Korean defector to South Korea had to go to court to get a passport to travel to the U.S. Why?
The [foreign] ministry had said Kim, 69, could be a target of North Korean assassination attempts during planned trips to the U.S., and the trips could cause diplomatic friction. [. . .] […]

From the AP, 11 Jan 2008:
President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel’s Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial’s chairman said.
Assuming that reporting is accurate, what about the concentration camps in North […]

Earlier this week Chinese security officials removed four persons believed to be North Korean defectors – who likely will face imprisonment or execution if sent back to North Korea – from a South Korean government run school in Beijing, which South Korea protested. Aside from the fact that it was a ROK government facility, […]

The report is:
…based on interviews with 80 North Korean former political prisoners and prison guards, comes amid fresh signs that Beijing is cracking down on North Koreans trying to flee across the border into China, a move ascribed to preparations for next year’s Olympic games.
Most of the witnesses have experience in the camps from […]

If the requirement to fully disclose all nuclear programs, including highly enriched uranium (HEU), doesn’t cause North Korea to balk during the remainder of the 60 day deadline to the 13 February agreement, then this might:
The U.S. envoy to the North Korea nuclear talks said Monday that Pyongyang needs to meet international standards, especially […]