North Korea shuts down universities for 10 months

Pyongyang has told the North Korean people that the nation will have achieved its aim of becoming “a great, prosperous and powerful nation” in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of the founder of the reclusive state, Kim Il-sung. (more…)

North Korea severs all ties with South Korea

North Korea is to cut all relations with South Korea, Pyongyang’s official news agency reports.

KCNA said the North was also expelling all South Korean workers from a jointly-run factory north of the border.

The move comes after an international report blamed North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship. (more…)

U.S.:In Event of WMD Attack, ‘All Bets Are Off’

The Obama administration’s nuclear posture review may have removed some of the intentional ambiguity from U.S. nuclear policy, but it does not leave the country any less safe, President Obama’s top national security advisers said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

In fact, they said, it gives a clear warning to other state actors that the U.S. will not ignore any growing threats. (more…)

North Korea detains another American

North Korea notified the U.S. that it has another American in custody for allegedly entering the country illegally, the State Department announced Friday.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the North Koreans, in a bare-bones message through their representative at U.N. headquarters in New York, provided no identifying information about the detainee, including the name or gender, or details of the alleged offense.
This is the second case of a detained American in North Korea to surface in the past month
Washington Post

Seized North Korean arms were Iran-bound: report

A plane loaded with weapons from North Korea that was recently impounded in Bangkok was bound for Iran, according to documents obtained by arms-trafficking experts.
The flight plan of the Ilyushin-76, obtained by researchers in the U.S. and Belgium, shows that after Bangkok the plane was due to make refueling stops in Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine before unloading its cargo in Tehran. Iranian officials didn’t respond to requests for comment. WSJ

North Korea arms plane linked to 2 East European arms traffickers

The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga.
The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Times

Thailand seizes North Korea plane carrying smuggled arms seized in Thailand

A lethal cargo of rocket launchers, grenades and other weapons seized in Thailand at the weekend may be just a glimpse of what US and UN investigators say is a global North Korean illegal arms smuggling network used to finance its proscribed nuclear weapons programme.
Authorities in Bangkok said today it was unclear where the plane carrying the 35-tonnes of arms, an Ilyushin IL-76 registered in Georgia, was heading. But suspicion immediately fell on Iran, the destination of a previous illegal weapons shipment impounded in the United Arab Emirates in July. Source: Guardian.uk

Analysis: Arms smuggling heightens Iran fears

Five Iranian vessels were caught this year carrying large, secret caches of weapons apparently intended for Hezbollah, Hamas or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard