Country: Korea
North Korea capital:
Pyongyang,
North
Korea Democratic People's Republic of Korea: DPRK
South Korea capital:
Seoul,
South
Korea Republic Of Korea: ROK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
/ /
KOREA News:
North
& South
20081014
 John
McCain -  William
Timmons -  Criminal
-  Oil
-  Money
-  Terrorism
-  Politics
- Government
-  Iraq
-  International
-  Law
- South
Korea -  US
-  2008
Election
"McCain
Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort."
... "William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain has named to head his presidential
transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime." ...
"The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period
on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted
of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents
of Saddam Hussein's government." ... "During the same period beginning
in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and
Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis
in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi
oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if
the business deal went through." ... "Timmons' activities occurred in the
years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to
be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism." ... "Virtually everything
Timmons did while working on the lobbying campaign was within days conveyed
by Vincent to either one or both of Saddam Hussein's top aides, Tariq Aziz
and Nizar Hamdoon. Vincent also testified that he almost always relayed
input from the Iraqi aides back to Timmons." ... "Talking points that Timmons
produced for the lobbyists to help ease the sanctions, for example, were
reviewed ahead of time by Aziz, Vincent testified in court. Proposals that
Timmons himself circulated to U.S. [United States] officials as part of
the effort were written with the assistance of the Iraqi officials, and
were also sent ahead of time with Timmons' approval to Aziz, other records
show." ... "Vincent, an Iraqi-born American citizen with whom Timmons worked
most closely, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in January 2005
that he had acted as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Tongsun Park, the second lobbyist who Timmons worked closely with, was
convicted by a federal jury in July 2006 on charges that he too violated
the Foreign Agent Registration Act." ... "At the time Timmons introduced
the two men, Park's notorious background was well known:" ... "In the 1970s,
Park had admitted to making hundreds of thousands in payments and illegal
campaign contributions to U.S. congressmen on behalf of the South Korean
government. Park was indicted on 36 counts by a federal grand jury, but
fled to South Korea before he could face trial. All of the charges were
later dismissed in exchange for Park providing information about which
public officials received funds from the South Korean government." -By
Murray
Waas with contributions by Patrick B. Anderson
-HuffingtonPost.com
20080702
Secret
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Prisons
- US
- Guantanamo
-  Cuba
-  Chinese
- Korean
-  History
-  Medical
-  Science
-  Psychological
-  Military
-  Intelligence
- Politics
- Investigators
"China
Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo." ...
"The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] in December
2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects
of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including
“sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”" ... "What
the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart
had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist
techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them
false, from American prisoners." ... "The recycled chart is the latest
and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that
the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations
both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by
the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "Some methods were used against a
small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress
banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized
by [Republican] President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative”
interrogation methods." ... "Several Guantánamo documents, including
the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed
Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came
to be employed." ... "But committee investigators were not aware of the
chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed
out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who
spoke on condition of anonymity." ... "The 1957 article from which the
chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions
From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist
then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed
American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed
by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities."
... "Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American
prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its
training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh
methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured." ...
"In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance,
Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and
the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical
amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware
that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions
by American prisoners." ... "The only change made in the chart presented
at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive
Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”" (1, 2)
-By Scott
Shane -NYTimes
PDF
Documents via NYTimes:
"Communist
Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From the Air Force Prisoners of War
(pdf) [September
1957 article by A. D. Biderman, Bull, N.Y. Acad. Med, Vol. 33, No.9, pp
616-625. 10 pages. NB: p. 4 (619), Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting
Individual Compliance]."
"Documents
Released at Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on SERE Tactics (pdf)."
20080122
-
World
- US
-
 India
-  Japan
- China
-  Hong
Kong - South
Korea -  Singapore
-  Indonesia
- "World
markets continue to sink over U.S. woes: India exchange
briefly suspended after 9% drop tied to investor pessimism." ... "Japan's
Nikkei 225 index, the benchmark for Asia's biggest bourse, plummeted 5.7
percent to close at 12,573.05 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the lowest close
since Sept. 8, 2005. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 7.2 percent
to its lowest close since early August." ... "Trading was halted in India
when the Sensex index plummeted 9.75 percent within minutes of opening.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 8 percent by midday after diving 5.5
percent the day before." ... "Asian markets have fallen sharply since the
start of the year: Japan's benchmark index has sunk nearly 17 percent,
while the Hang Seng is down a stunning 22 percent." ... "That slide continued
Tuesday, with benchmark indices in China, South Korea and Singapore falling
at least 4 percent. Australia's benchmark index slid 7.1 percent and Indonesia's
market was down 9 percent." -AP
via -MSNBC
20080121
-
US
- India
- Japan
- Hong
Kong - China
-
 Australia
- South
Korea - Singapore
- "Asian
stocks tumble on US recession fears." ... "Asian
stock markets fell sharply on Monday as a $140bn fiscal stimulus package
outlined on Friday by [Republican] President George Bush did nothing to
assuage investor fears of a recession for Asia’s most important trading
partner." ... "India led the declines, with the benchmark Sensex Index
plunging nearly 11 per cent at one point, before finishing down about 7
per cent." ... "In Tokyo [Japan's capital], the Nikkei 225 slumped 3.9
per cent to close near a 27-month low of 13,325.94. The index has lost
a quarter of its value in the past six months." ... "Hong Kong stocks dropped
5.5 per cent while H shares, or Hong Kong-listed shares of mainland Chinese
companies, skidded 7.1 per cent. Australian stocks extended their losing
run to an 11th straight session, falling 2.9 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi
shed 3 per cent to 1,683.56 as exporters LG
Philips LCD dropped 1.1 per cent to Won40,400 and Hyundai
Motor dropped 0.5 per cent to Won67,100. Singapore was down over 5
per cent in late afternoon trading." -By Lindsay Whipp
and Joe Leahy -FT.com
20071209
-
Secret
-
 Rudy
Giuliani
-  Drug
- Government
- Politics
-  Qatar
- Hong
Kong - North
Korea - Crime
- Global
- US
- 2008
Election - "Giuliani
Won't Release Client Names." ... "For the past year,
though, Giuliani has declined to identify his clients on the grounds that
they entered into confidentially agreements with his firm." ... "Giuliani
formed the consulting firm in early 2002, offering "management consulting
service to governments and business" and over the next five years it earned
more than $100 million. That income, along with a robust speaking schedule,
helped transform the moderately well-off public servant into a globe-trotting
consultant whose net worth is estimated to be in the tens of millions of
dollars." ... "Giuliani Partners has represented a pharmaceutical company
mired in a lengthy investigation; a confessed drug smuggler who hired Giuliani
to ensure his security company could do business with the federal government;
and the horse racing industry, which was eager to recover public confidence
after a betting scandal." ... "But many of the firm's clients have never
been listed on its web site or identified publicly by associates, and two
of the most controversial arrangements among them only surfaced in recent
weeks. One involved a 2005 agreement to provide security advice to the
government of Qatar. The second stemmed from a deal to assist a partnership
proposing a Southeast Asian gambling venture. Among the partners were relatives
of a Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's
Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime, according
to a report in the Chicago Tribune." -By Matthew Mosk
-WashingtonPost
20071121
-
Secret
- Rudolph
Giuliani
-
 Nevada
-  New
York
- US
- Singapore
- China
- North
Korea - International
- Crime
- Law
- 2008
Election - "Giuliani's
business ties create challenge: Was a consultant
for controversial tycoon." ... "Nine days after registering his presidential
exploratory committee last November, [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] Rudolph Giuliani appeared in Singapore to help a Las Vegas [Nevada]
developer make a pitch for a $3.5 billion casino resort." ... "Though the
bid ultimately failed, and there was nothing illegal about the involvement,
it drew Giuliani into a complex partnership with the family of a controversial
Hong Kong [China] billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's
Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime by the
U.S. government." ... "Giuliani's participation as a security consultant
in the Singapore gambling venture illustrates the challenge he faces while
attempting to win the Republican presidential nomination with a law-and-order
message while maintaining a far-flung, international business portfolio,
an unknown portion of which remains in the shadows." ... "Even today, more
than a year after the former New York mayor signaled his intention to run
for the presidency, it remains impossible to fully evaluate Giuliani's
business dealings because he has declined to list all of the clients in
Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm he founded and heads." (1, 2,
3)
-By Andrew Zajac and Evan Osnos with contributions
by Rick Pearson -ChicagoTribune
20070827
-
China
-
 Environmental
- Health
- Politics
-  Air
-  Land
-  Water
- Coal
-  Weather
- Science
- Industrial
- History
- International
- South
Korea - Japan
- USA
-  California
- Los
Angeles -  EU
- Sports
-  Children
- "As
China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes."
... "No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without
creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big
dollops of public wealth to undo." ... "But just as the speed and scale
of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history,
so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation
is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions,
that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public
but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And
it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut." ...
"Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause
of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed
for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people
lack access to safe drinking water." ... "Chinese cities often seem wrapped
in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city
dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing [China's
capital] is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological
deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics." ... "Environmental
woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace
in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed
or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline
so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer
sustain marine life." ... "China is choking on its own success. The economy
is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates.
But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from
a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires
colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available,
and dirtiest, source." ... "China’s problem has become the world’s problem.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants
fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea [capital], and Tokyo [Japan's capital].
Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles [California, USA] originates
in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research." (1, 2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
-By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley
-NYTimes
20070816
-
US
- Iraq
-
 Afghanistan
- Korean
- Military
- History
- "Short
of Purple Hearts, Navy tells vet to buy own." ...
"Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn
a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine
on June 22, 1952." ... "But there was no medal. Just a certificate and
a form stating that the medal was "out of stock."" ... "The form letter
from the Navy Personnel Command told Reed he could wait 90 days and resubmit
an application, or buy his own medal." ... "After waiting 55 years, however,
Reed decided to pay $42 for his own Purple Heart and accompanying ribbon
— plus state sales taxes — at a military surplus store." ... "The Department
of Defense estimates that 29,098 troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan
through Thursday." -By Anne Marie Kilday
-AP via -Chron
20070815
-
North
Korea -
 Food
- Farmland
- Disaster
- History
-  UN
- Economy
- "North
Korea Suffers Worst Rains Ever: Floods Destroy 11
Percent Of Impoverished Country's Farmland At The Height Of Growing Season."
... "Floods caused by the largest rains ever recorded in parts of North
Korea have destroyed more than one-tenth of the impoverished country's
farmland at the height of the growing season, official media reported Wednesday."
... "The U.N. food agency estimated the damage claimed by the North so
far was about a quarter of the crop losses the country said it suffered
in 1995 floods. That previous disaster, along with mismanagement of the
economy and the loss of [North Koreas's capital] Pyongyang's Soviet benefactor,
led to famine that is believed to have killed as many as 2 million North
Koreans." ... "Precipitation along some areas of the Taedong River were
the "largest ever in the history" of measurements taken by the country's
weather agency, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported."
-AP via -CBSNews
20070802
-
South
Korea - US
-
 Human
- Stem
Cell - History
-  Massachusetts
- Medical
- "Korean
Cloner Redeemed... Sort Of." ... "In a study published
today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, a team of Harvard [Massachusetts]
researchers reveals that the dubious stem cells created by [South] Korean
scientist Woo Suk Hwang were indeed historic, just not for the reason that
he originally claimed." ... "In 2004, the world heralded Hwang, who reported
that he had created the world's first human embryonic stem cells using
a delicate cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
If Hwang had actually done what he had claimed, he would certainly have
brought stem-cell-based therapies closer to reality, by making it possible
to develop patient-specific cells to treat diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's.
Two years after his announcement, however, allegations of fraud led to
an investigation by an independent committee of scientists, which failed
to verify his findings, and Hwang and his feat were discredited; last year
he and his principal researchers were fired from their posts at Seoul National
University." ... "But the new study,
led by Dr. George Daley at the Children's Hospital in Boston [Massachusetts],
shows that Hwang's stem cell line contains the first human cells to be
generated not through SCNT, but through a process called parthenogenesis,
sometimes referred to as virgin birth, since development is sparked spontaneously
from the egg alone, rather than from the union of egg and sperm." ... "In
nuclear transfer, stem cells are created by inserting the nucleus from
a donor's cell, usually a skin cell, into an egg cell, whose DNA-containing
nucleus has been removed. The new cell then starts to divide and produce
stem cells." -By Alice Park
-TIME.com
20070612
-
US
- Iraq
- Terrorism
- Politics
- South
Korea - History
- "US
signals permanent stay in Iraq: Critics say a long-term
US military presence may provoke greater Iraqi resistance of the 'occupier.'"
... "This spring's debate over a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq may
have implied that the US presence there is likely to wind down soon, but
recent comments from both the administration and military officials suggest
a different scenario." ... "In Washington and among American military officers
in Iraq, the idea of establishing permanent US bases there is under discussion
– with one official citing as an example the decades-long presence of US
troops in Korea. The aim would be to keep American soldiers on Iraqi soil
well into the century as a support for the Iraqi government against outside
aggression, a means of training and developing a new Iraqi military, and
a platform from which the US could fight Al Qaeda and other war-on-terror
opponents." ... "Yet as early proposals in notebooks at the White House
and the Pentagon are slowly revealed to a US public increasingly opposed
to the Iraq war, many Iraq and Middle East experts warn that any plan for
permanent bases would cement the US image in Iraq and the region as that
of an occupying force." ... "In recent comments to the press, White House
spokesman Tony Snow broached the idea of a long-term US military presence
in Iraq and specifically drew a comparison to Korea and the 30,000 troops
the US keeps there [over] five decades after the end of the Korean War.
At the same time, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke of a "protracted"
US presence in Iraq." ... "The Korea comparison and comments from military
officers in Iraq suggest the US may be contemplating a long-term presence
in Iraq of 30,000 to 50,000 troops – perhaps one-quarter of the numbers
there today. But many experts caution against equating Iraq in the 21st
century with South Korea in the 20th.v"The analogy doesn't make sense,"
says [Brookings Institution military expert Michael] Mr. O'Hanlon. "South
Korea was threatened by an external enemy. Iraq is threatened by internal
chaos."" (1, 2,
3)
-By Howard LaFranchi -CSMonitor
20070418
-
US
- Korea
-
John Doolittle
-  Brent
Wilkes
-  Abramoff
-  Buckham
-  DeLay
- Politician
- Lawmaker
- Government
- Military
- Money
- Sports
-  Virginia
- Calif
-  Texas
- "FBI
searches Republican lawmaker’s home." ... "The FBI
searched the Virginia home of [California Republican Representative] Rep.
John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into ties between
the congressman and his wife, Julie, and disgraced former lobbyist Jack
Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street
sources." ... "Doolittle used Abramoff’s luxury sports box for a fundraiser
without initially reporting it to the Federal Election Commission." ...
"Doolittle also has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra
Dominion Financial Solutions, a 15 percent commission on all contributions
that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership
PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig;
Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council,
which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader [Texas
Republican Representative] Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created." ... "Doolittle
also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes
and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions
are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’ company
obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks." -By
Mike Soraghan and Susan Crabtree -TheHill.com
-
Virginia
-
 University
- Mental
Health - "Police:
Cho taken to mental health center in 2005." ... "Cho
Seung-Hui was referred to a mental health facility in 2005 after officers
responded to accusations he was suicidal and stalked female students, police
said Wednesday." ... "Authorities received no more complaints about the
23-year-old English major until Monday when he killed at least 30 people
before taking his own life on the Virginia Tech campus, university police
Chief Wendell Flinchum said." ... "The gun owner who sold him the Glock
9 mm, one of the guns used in the rampage at Norris [Hall], said the resident
alien from South Korea easily passed a background check last month before
purchasing the weapon." -CNN
20061015
-
US
- North
Korea -
 Nuclear
- Military
- History
- Politics
- "N.
Korean Nuclear Conflict Has Deep Roots: 50 Years
of Threats and Broken Pacts Culminate in Apparent Atomic Test." ... "Democrats
and Republicans have been quick to use North Korea's apparent nuclear test
to benefit their own party in these final weeks of the congressional campaign,
but a review of history shows that both sides have contributed to the current
situation." ... "There is more than 50 years of history to Pyongyang's
attempt to gain a nuclear weapon, triggered in part by threats from Presidents
Harry S. Truman [Democrat] and Dwight D. Eisenhower [Republican] to end
the Korean War." ... "In 1950, when a reporter asked Truman whether he
would use atomic bombs at a time when the war was going badly, the president
said, "That includes every weapon we have."" ... "Three years later, Eisenhower
made a veiled threat, saying he would "remove all restraints in our use
of weapons" if the North Korean government did not negotiate in good faith
an ending to that bloody war." ... "In 1957, the United States placed nuclear-tipped
Matador missiles in South Korea, to be followed in later years, under both
Republican and Democratic administrations, by nuclear artillery, most of
which was placed within miles of the demilitarized zone." ... "It was not
until President [Democrat] Jimmy Carter's administration, in the late 1970s,
that the first steps were taken to remove some of the hundreds of nuclear
weapons that the United States maintained in South Korea, a process that
was not completed until 1991, under the first [Republican] Bush administration."
-By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
20061009
-
North
Korea - International
- US
- Japan
- South
Korea - China
-
 Russia
- UN
- Military
- Politics
- "Outcry
at N Korea 'nuclear test': North Korea's claim to
have successfully tested a nuclear weapon has sparked international condemnation."
... "President George W Bush said the US was working to confirm the claim,
which he branded a "provocative" act." ... "Japan and South Korea also
condemned the test and even Pyongyang's closest ally China expressed its
"resolute opposition", calling the move "brazen"." ... "Members of the
United Nations Security Council have begun meeting in New York to discuss
their reaction." ... "The size of the bomb is uncertain. South Korean reports
put it as low as 550 tons of destructive power but Russia said it was between
five and 15 kilotons. The 1945 Hiroshima bomb was 12.5-15 kilotons." ...
"South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said it would be "difficult" to maintain
his country's policy of engagement with the North." ... "He feared the
move could "spark a nuclear arms build-up in other countries", although
Japan quickly said it would maintain its ban on nuclear weapons." ... "If
confirmed, the test would make North Korea the ninth country known to have
nuclear weapons." -BBC
/News
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/-
"Two Koreas."
-CNN.com
- "A
Look at North Korea." -CNN.com
- "The
North Korea file." -USATODAY
/
- "Timeline
of a divided Korea." -MSNBC
- "New
missiles in the Far East." ... "North Korea's two-stage
liquid fuel missiles can be deployed with nuclear, biological or chemical
warheads." -MSNBC
|
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HavenWorks.com/world/korea/#North-Korea-Facts
