Topic - North Korea

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  U.S. plans new talks with North Korea

  The State Department said Monday that U.S. officials will engage in direct talks with North Korea later this month, signaling the first major development in the tense relations between the West and Pyongyang since the death of longtime North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

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  State Department: U.S. envoy to meet N. Koreans in Beijing

  A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea in Beijing next week on its nuclear program, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader, Kim Jong-il, in December.

• Norwegians seek A-ha! moment in North Korean music

  It's not the face of North Korea the world is used to: five young musicians adding a playful twist to one of the most popular Western pop songs of the 1980s.

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  HUNTER: Sinking Navy in sea of red ink

  Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, California Republican, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the first Marine combat veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars elected to Congress.

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  Familiar faces in Kim's inner circle

  Wherever North Korea's young new leader goes, they're there: a group of graying military and political officials who shadow Kim Jong-un as he visits army bases, attends concerts and tours schools.

• Briefly

  North Korea is open to immediate talks with rival South Korea if Seoul responds to several preconditions for dialogue, a North Korean military official told the Associated Press on Thursday.

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  N. Korea's new leader is grandfathered in

  North Korea's young new leader gets rock-star treatment when he visits his troops - just as his father did.

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  YOUNG: States of repression

  The only thing "new" in North Korea's new year is that their hell is under new management. "The great leader," Kim Jong-il, has been replaced by Kim Jong-un, "the great successor," but the state that causes incomprehensible misery for its unfortunate inhabitants continues tyrannically along.

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  Panetta says 2013 defense budget to cut land forces

  Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday presented the first act in shrinking the war-on-terrorism military over the next five years, saying his 2013 budget will cut land forces by 92,000, ask Congress to close bases and slow production of the F-35 stealth fighter.

• Briefly

  South Korea staged live-fire drills Thursday from a front-line island shelled by North Korea in 2010. It was the first such exercise since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died last month.

• Inside the Ring

  CIA Director David H. Petraeus recently replaced the agency's director of support, a senior manager who also runs the agency's massive worldwide logistics, including the security office.

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  The cold reality of Korean reunification

  A single, reunified Korea has long been a cherished dream of people on both sides of the world's most heavily fortified border. South Korea even has a Cabinet-level ministry preparing for the day. Yet few are eager to talk about the cold reality: Sudden reunification could be traumatic for both countries

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  Many Bush-era hard-liners are Romney security advisers

  GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has assembled a cast of conservative George W. Bush-era veterans as his key national security advisers. Some of them played important roles in the war on terror and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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  Elder Kim slams N. Korea's leader, military and future

  The eldest half brother of North Korea's new leader says Kim Jong-un is unprepared for command, the totalitarian regime will collapse and the military has become too strong for the impoverished nation to support.

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  U.S., Myanmar to exchange diplomats

  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday announced that the U.S. and Myanmar will start the process of exchanging ambassadors, a distinct sign of a thaw in once frosty relations between the two countries.

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