North Korean leader Kim Jong-il toured a hydroelectric plant Sunday as his train traveled through Russia's Far East on his first visit to the Cold War-era ally in nine years.
The head of a leading news service covering North Korea is predicting that the ruling communist regime is headed for the dustbin of history - and soon.
As his right hand grips the mouse, the physics major's eyes are fixed on a flat-screen monitor labeled with a red sticker reminding him the computer was a gift from Kim Jong Il.
An Islamist militant accused in dozens of killings and a 2009 attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team was freed on bail Thursday after 14 years in custody because the Supreme Court decided there is not enough evidence to keep holding him, his lawyer said.
A delegation of Japanese officials and activists urged the Obama administration on Thursday redesignate North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism over its failure to resolve cases of missing Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago and taken to the Stalinist state.
The pro-democracy protests in the Middle East and North Africa have provoked China and Vietnam to crack down harshly on their dissidents lest they think they can emulate the "Jasmine Revolutions." But from North Korea, arguably the most repressive dictatorship in Asia, there continues to be nothing but radio silence. The silence doesn't mean everything is fine there, though. In fact, people are starving, and the situation is dire. It is hard to find the energy to protest when you are focused on survival.
South Koreans are divided over Jimmy Carter's call for unconditional food aid to North Korea, reflecting their ambivalence over the 39th president's 35 years of activism on the Korean Peninsula.
May is usually a pleasant time to visit China. This year, however, the month was one of the busiest in recent memory as numerous leaders of several of the world's rogue states traveled to Beijing, one after another.
A prominent North Korean defector says that the totalitarian regime's officials have begun to voice discontent with Kim Jong Il, going so far as to call the "Dear Leader" crazy.
