posted July 04, 2006 05:52 PM              

What are they thinking???
Mercury retrogrades are fated events, NO DOUBT!

U.S. official: North Korea tests long-range missile

From Elise Labott and Justine Redman
CNN
Tuesday, July 4, 2006; Posted: 4:51 p.m. EDT (20:51 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile early Wednesday in an apparently unsuccessful test that failed in flight, a senior State Department official said.

North Korea also tested at least two smaller missiles, U.S. sources told CNN.

Both missiles were launched from a site other than the one intelligence officials have watched for weeks ahead of the long-range missile test, a senior State Department official said.

The United States, Japan and other countries have warned North Korea against a long-range missile test, saying such a move would be considered a provocation.

Washington and North Korea's Asian neighbors -- South Korea, China, Russia and Japan -- have been trying to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program since 2002, but those talks have stalled in recent months.

President Bush warned last week that the isolated Stalinist state would face even further isolation if it launched the Taepodong-2, which U.S. analysts fear is capable of reaching the western United States. (Full story)

"The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past, and we expect them to keep their agreements," Bush said last month at the end of a European Union summit.

"It should make people nervous when nontransparent regimes, that have announced that they've got nuclear warheads, fire missiles," Bush said. "This is not the way you conduct business in the world. This is not the way that peaceful nations conduct their affairs."

The senior State Department official said the launches were timed to coincide with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Florida, calling it "a provocative act designed to get attention."

The North Koreans fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan in 1998, but declared a moratorium on future tests in 1999.

Two senior State Department officials said Tuesday that fuel trucks had departed the site where the Taepodong-2 sat on a launch paid, indicating that a test may have been near.

On Monday, Pyongyang's state-run media carried a report accusing the United States of harassing North Korea and vowing to respond to any pre-emptive attack "with a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war with a mighty nuclear deterrent." (Watch why North Korea is talking about annihilating the U.S. -- 2:04)

The White House has dismissed that threat as "hypothetical." (Full story)

Meanwhile, the Pentagon took steps to be ready for a possible military response to a North Korean missile launch.

The U.S. Northern Command recently increased security measures at its Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a military official confirmed.

In other planning measures instituted in the past several days, Northern Command, along with the Federal Aviation Administration, has put standby commercial flight restrictions into place over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Fort Greely, Alaska, where the U.S. interceptor missiles are based.

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"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"

"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

posted July 04, 2006 11:09 PM            

His citizens are out hunting grass and tree bark to boil for whatever nourishment they can get. At least a million have already been systematically starved to death as of about 5 years ago and there's about another million on the verge of starvation now.

posted July 06, 2006 10:52 PM              

By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 25 minutes ago

North Korea angrily mocked international criticism of its multiple missile tests, threatening on Thursday to fire off more rockets.

In the face of nearly unanimous world condemnation of the seven missile tests on Wednesday, Pyongyang's foreign minister released a blustery statement declaring that it had the right to develop and test its weapons — and vowing unspecified retaliation against anyone who tries to stop it.

"Our military will continue with missile launch drills in the future as part of efforts to strengthen self-defense deterrent," said the statement, carried in state-run media. "If anyone intends to dispute or add pressure about this, we will have to take stronger physical actions in other forms."

The statement did not specify what actions North Korea would take.

The aggressive stance from Pyongyang coincided with intense diplomatic activity in world capitals to formulate a response to the tests. Washington and its allies — particularly Japan — clamored for sanctions against the North, but struggled against resistance by China and Russia.

North Korea set off an international furor on Wednesday when it tested seven missiles, all of which landed into the Sea of Japan without causing any damage. The blasts apparently included a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke up less than a minute after takeoff and splashed into the sea.

On Friday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei — their nations' senior negotiators on North Korea — conferred on the missile tests.

Hill and Wu exchanged pleasantries before their meeting. After its conclusion, Hill was scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, before the U.S. envoy heads for Seoul.

A Japanese newspaper reported Friday that North Korea had targeted South Pacific waters in the vicinity of Hawaii with the long-range missile. The conservative daily Sankei cited unnamed U.S. and Japanese and officials as saying Japan's Defense Agency and the U.S. military reached that conclusion after analyzing the missile's path from data collected from intelligence equipment. The report couldn't be immediately independently confirmed.

The statement threatening more tests came as South Korean officials said intelligence reports showed continued activity at Northern missile sites, suggesting further firings could be in the works.

It was unclear if or when the missiles would fly. Japanese officials said they had no indications another Taepodong test was being prepared, and South Korean officials said the launches were not imminent.

Still, the North pulled no punches in its statement, hailing the launches on Wednesday as a success and making no mention of the Taepodong-2 failure.

"The successful missile launches were part of our military's regular military drills to strengthen self defense," said the statement. "As a sovereign country, this is our legal right and we are not bound by any international law or bilateral or multilateral agreements."

The ministry also denied it had violated a missile moratorium, saying it was only in effect when Pyongyang was in dialogue with the U.S. The statement also blamed the Japanese for making an international issue out of North Korea's unsolved kidnappings of Japanese citizens.

Meanwhile, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that Australia has decided to curtail its diplomatic ties with North Korea over the tests.

The report said that Michael L'Estrange, head of the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said departmental dealings with North Korean officials will be canceled.

The report did not elaborate and calls to the department seeking confirmation were not immediately returned.

posted July 06, 2006 11:08 PM              

"I have Nodong!!"

posted July 06, 2006 11:27 PM              

Either way he's an Aquarius:

1941:

Sun Aquarius 27.08
Moon Libra 23.10
Mercury Pisces 13.19
Venus Aquarius
Mars Sagittarius 28.47
Jupiter Taurus 9.15
Saturn Taurus 9.11
Uranus Taurus 22.17
Neptune Virgo 27.05 R
Pluto Leo 2.42 R
Lilith Aries 27.48

or

1942:

Sun Aquarius 26.53
Moon Pisces 6.36
Mercury Aquarius 14.03 R
Venus Aquarius 6.32 R
Mars Taurus 18.55
Jupiter Gemini 11.35
Saturn Taurus 22.10
Uranus Taurus 26.25
Neptune Virgo 29.19 R
Pluto Leo 4.10 R
Lilith Gemini 8.28

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"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"

"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

posted July 07, 2006 09:48 AM              

quote:

---

The Titans were locked up for a reason

---

Wiser words were never spoken.

Only Zeus (the Law) could defeat Typhon.

posted July 07, 2006 12:43 PM              

United States - That's not right. Please don't do that.

United States - Osama Bin laden is evil...let's attack Iraq because of it.

posted July 11, 2006 12:47 PM            

Jeong Sung-san, a 37-year-old man who defected to South Korea in 1995 after he was sentenced to 13 years to a gulag, is set to expose North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s crimes against humanity, according to a report in the Korean Herald.

Jeong’s alleged crime was listening to Korean radio. His tool of ultimate revenge: a musical entitled "Yoduk Story.”

Written and directed by Jeong, "Yoduk Story" is a musical based on the infamous Yoduk Gulag, known in the North as "the place of no return."

"Yoduk Story" is slated to go on a U.S. tour in September, starting at the Washington National Theater on Sept. 25, then to Europe next year.

"One of the things Kim Jong-Il fears is the power of art," said Jeong. "Simply protesting in the streets cannot beat Kim Jong-Il."

Jeong, who studied film and theater arts abroad in Russia, hopes that "Yoduk Story" will be but the first in a series of musicals that will comprise his own personal cultural offensive against the communist leader.

"Just one poem can sometimes touch the heart of many and inspire them to bring about social change," said Jeong, citing the French Revolution. "Through 'Yoduk Story,' I would like to show the world what is really going on in North Korea."

He also envisions that "Yoduk Story" will touch South Koreans, whose concern for human rights abuses within North Korea he says has deflated following the implementation of the "Sunshine Policy," which calls for friendly engagement with North Korea.

Kang Chol-hwan, a former Yoduk prison inmate who met Bush in June, said, "My impression of President Bush was that he was sincerely sympathetic of the suffering of North Koreans."

Kang chronicled his own gulag survival story in his memoir, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag," which was published in English in 2001.

Reportedly, Bush read the memoir and passed it on to top aides, including current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"I had an easier time explaining the plight of North Koreans to President Bush than to most South Koreans," said Kang.
***Note**Yeah, well wait until you try to explain the hellhole of North Korea to those here who supported petitions from the communists Ramsey Clark, INTERNATIONAL ANSWER and the Workers World Party who idolize the little Stalinist madman, Kim Jong Il.

Meanwhile, Jeong admits that he is facing an unknown - the perplexing nature of American culture.