“North Korea” on The Daily Caller

Despite having little demonstrable interest in giving up its nuclear weapons, North Korea is once again headed for a negotiating table to do just that. That the North Koreans have been invited at all is a testament to the strange desperation of both the Obama administration and the South Korean Lee Myung-bak administration to return to the Six Party Talks. (more)

Twenty-one North Koreans, some of them children, have been found adrift in a boat off the west coast of South Korea, the authorities there say. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will make his first trip to Asia as Pentagon chief later this month, as the U.S. works to bolster its relations with countries in the region. (more)

1.) Romney and Perry square off — You know that episode of Star Trek where the Good Kirk and the Evil Kirk are battling it out on the bridge of the Enterprise? That’s kind of what Romney vs. Perry looked like at the GOP debate last night, although opinions vary on which one is which. This time they picked out different ties, at least. TheDC’s Amanda Carey reports: “Nine Republican presidential candidates squared off in Orlando, Florida Thursday night. Once again, the back-and-forth between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stole the show. The two frontrunners went after each other numerous times during the two-hour debate; Romney and Perry took turns accusing the other of flip-flopping or being too moderate on key issues. On Social Security, Perry assured viewers that he would not transition administration of the program to the states. Romney pounced on that statement, accusing Perry of flip-flopping on Social Security — a program Romney called a ‘job for the federal government.’ Perry, in turn, accused Romney of changing his position on education, and supporting President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program. Romney fired back, ‘Nice try.’” Good comeback, Mitt. Oh, and the other seven candidates said stuff too. (more)

Monumental news comes out of North Korea as the brutish Communist regime announces the release of two new propaganda posters to try to confuse their long-suffering subjects into believing that things are actually going swimmingly in the Hermit Kingdom. (more)

A coalition of 28 human rights groups, led by the Geneva-based United Nations watchdog group U.N. Watch, is urging the world’s countries to protest North Korea’s chairmanship of the U.N.’s Conference on Disarmament. (more)

As the North Korean people die of hunger, the country’s top officials have doubled imports of Chinese luxury goods since last year, reports the Straits Times. (more)

The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program asserts that the government of North Korea bribed top military officials in Islamabad to obtain access to sensitive nuclear technology in the late 1990s. (more)

In the latest ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ news from the United Nations, North Korea assumed the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament Tuesday. (more)

A new UN report documents that Iran is working with North Korea in developing ballistic missile technology. Specifically, the report finds that the two nations are transferring prohibited “ballistic missile-related items” via air shipments, in direct violation of UN sanctions. (more)

(CNN) — An American man has been detained in North Korea, two State Department officials told CNN. (more)

In the past, I have made fun of the World Wildlife Fund-sponsored “Earth Hour,” which will once again be held around the world this coming Saturday, March 26th, from 8:30-9:30 p.m. in each local time zone. Previously I have pointed out that past Earth Hours haven’t affected energy consumption levels, even in California, the “greenest” state in the country. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is considering resumption of food aid to North Korea amid fears people there could starve after a harsh winter, top officials said Tuesday. (more)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Sunday to enlarge its nuclear arsenal and “mercilessly” attack South Korea and the United States, as the allies prepared for joint military drills which the North considers a rehearsal for invasion. (more)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The foreign ministers of South Korea and China expressed worries Wednesday about North’s Korea’s recently disclosed uranium enrichment program, which could give it a second way to make atomic bombs, a South Korean official said. (more)

Today is Kim Jong-Il’s 69th or 70th birthday (depending on whether you trust North Korean or Soviet records more). From his birth under a double-rainbow to the vast economic and political progress the Korean nation has seen under his benevolent rule, the Dear Leader has lived anything but an ordinary life. (more)

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Sixty-nine. It’s not the Valentine’s Day present you gave your sweet-something on Monday. It’s how old Kim Jong-il is today. (more)

That’s a political man-bites-dog headline. The issue being debated is the proposed U.S.-Korean Fair Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) — actually it’s a managed trade deal, detailed in over a thousand pages of fine print. The leviathan arrangement is filled with favors, exceptions, obligations, and restrictions and micro-manages commerce from cows to cars — sweetheart transactions for Wall Street elites and multi-national corporations. (more)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Military officers from North and South Korea held talks inside the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone on Tuesday in the rivals’ first official dialogue since the North’s deadly artillery barrage of a South Korean island in November. (more)