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North Korea is now testing the backbone of South Korea by threatening war with them if they continue to join in the sanctions for which they agreed. You may read the article from ABC News here.
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Pyongyang threatens war if S.Korea joins sanctions
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea warned South Korea on Wednesday against joining U.S.-led sanctions against Pyongyang and said it would take action after any such move by Seoul.
South Korea’s participation in sanctions would be seen as a serious provocation leading to a “crisis of war” on the Korean peninsula, a North Korean spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
The North issued a similar warning in September before it conducted a nuclear test earlier this month, prompting the U.N. Security Council to impose financial and arms sanctions on North Korea.
Written by: ABC News US.
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Courtesy of DOD Multi-National Forces Iraq: Complex environment to be resolved primarily by Iraqis, Casey says.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq Commanding General U.S. Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad conduct a joint press conference in Baghdad, Oct. 24. Official Department of Defense photo.
BAGHDAD — The senior U.S. troop commander in Iraq expressed his belief, Oct. 24, that the country can be stabilized, while acknowledging the “difficult and complex” situation here.
“Several factors add to the complexity that we’re now seeing” in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad accompanied Casey at the news conference.
Since the Iraqi elections in December 2005, the nature of the conflict has evolved “from what was an insurgency against us, to a struggle for the division of political and economic power among the Iraqis,” Casey said.
The Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra fanned the existing animosity between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite citizens, Casey noted.
Al-Qaida, which has an active strategy to foment sectarian violence across Iraq, is further inflaming the situation, Casey said.
Sectarian death squads and illegal militias are attacking and murdering Iraqi civilians living in the central and southern parts of the country, Casey said. Resistance — mostly led by members of Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime – is active and causing trouble, he added.
(Courtesy of American Forces Press Service) In other developments throughout Iraq:
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UN measure would ban nuclear sales to Iran
The U.S. and its allies want the UN Security Council to ban the sale of missile and atomic technology to Iran and end most UN help for its nuclear programs, moves that diplomats said Tuesday were narrowly focused in hopes of winning Russian and Chinese backing for sanctions.
The diplomats, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the draft resolution was not public, said the proposal also would commit UN member countries to denying entry to Iranian officials involved in developing missiles or nuclear systems.
A Security Council resolution passed last week imposed similar sanctions on the sale or transfer of technology that could contribute to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs after a test explosion of a nuclear bomb there.
One of the diplomats described all three measures aimed at Iran as moderate in impact, saying that was an attempt to win Russian and Chinese support. Moscow and Beijing could be presented with the draft this week, the diplomat said.
Written by: International Herald Tribune.
NK: Special gulags for disabled, subhuman
North Korea operates a rigorous system of eugenics that locks up those deemed subnormal, ranging from the disabled to dwarves, according to a UN report released yesterday.
A system of gulags is designed to ensure that those who do not conform to the state’s designation of normal do not pass on their genes by having children.
“Those with disabilities are sent away from the capital city and particularly those with mental disability are detained in areas or camps known as ‘Ward 49′ with harsh and subhuman conditions,” wrote Vitit Muntarbhorn, a Thai lawyer who is special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea. Evidence was gathered from defectors to South Korea.
The report said that dwarves are not allowed to reproduce and that they are rounded up and relocated. Marriages at the camps are permitted but having children is not.
Shut away for life, the afflicted are subjected to harsh and sub-human conditions. Food is scarce and of poor quality and beatings are commonplace. There are extensive reports of other forms of torture, including chemical weapons tests and germ agent experiments. Those not used as laboratory guinea pigs are ordered to carry out back breaking work.
North Korea is not the only totalitarian state to retain a fascination with a goal of breeding a better population by eliminating those with “weak” genes.
Since the fall of the Soviet bloc, it is one of the last states to implement the practice. Pyongyang is also dedicated to the principle of racial purity. Women who have sexual relations with the small Chinese community in North Korea are often purged.
The report said: “If they carry a child of non-Korean ethnicity, they may be subjected to discrimination and/or violence, with a dire impact on the babies.”
The report was delivered to the UN General Assembly which has been asked to censure the Stalinist dictatorship.
Written by: (The) Telegraph.
