Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

வடகொரியாவின் ரியுக்யோங் விடுதி.

1987 – ஆம் ஆண்டு கட்டுமானப் பணிகள் துவக்கப்பட்டன; 1992 - ஆம் ஆண்டு எல்லாப் பணிகளும் நிறுத்தப்பட்டன.

பதினாறு ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பிறகு இப்போது விடுதி புதுப்பிக்கப்படுகிறது.

கட்டடத்தின் உயரம்: 1083 அடி. (330 மீட்டர்)

மாடிகள்: 105

[El hotel Ryogyong ha inspirado a varios artistas, como un grupo de arquitectos italianos que se presentaron a la bienal de Venecia de 2006 con 'The Demolitiohn S How', una pieza de ficción generada por ordenador en la que Ryugyong sale despegando. La página de los alemanes Richard Dank y Andreas Gruber, que se han erigido en 'custodios de la pirámide', permite hacer una visita virtual a su concepción del edificio].

roll over the pyramid to get a first impression of the structure and then...
> PROCEED to the main site

De todas las imagenes inspiradas por el comunismo, hay una en particular que lo sintetiza y captura su esencia. Los que la crearon hacen grandes esfuerzos por ocultarla; les causa demasiada vergüenza.  No, no me refiero a la momia de Lenin, exhibida en la Plaza Roja desde 1924. Estoy hablando de algo mucho más grande, monumental y horroroso; una abominación que nunca debió existir. Construirlo costó inconfesables riquezas, pero no ha hecho a ni una persona más rica, ni más feliz, ni más segura. No ha cumplido el propósito para el que fue concebido ni propósito útil alguno; sólo ha sido fuente de pobreza y desolación. Es, en suma, la representación perfecta del comunismo.

Como tantas otras mega obras, ésta se gestó en la mente de un dictador megalómano. Cuando una empresa de Corea del Sur terminó la construcción del hotel Westin Stamford en Singapur --en ese entonces el hotel más alto de Asia--, el dictator de Corea del Norte, Kim Il-Sung, se sintó personalmente desafiado. Como su hijo Kim Jong-il,  il-Sung sufría de un complejo de inferioridad que lo motivó a crear un culto a su personalidad a lo largo de los 46 años que estuvo en el poder. (En Corea del Norte se le llama simplemente "Gran Líder" y la constitución lo designó "Presidente Eterno.") Fue así como en 1987 inició la construcción de un hotel en Pyongyang cuyas dimensiones eclipsarían el logro de sus enemigos capitalistas.

Veinte años y aproximadamente 750 millones de dólares (2% del PIB de Corea del Norte) después, el hotel Ryugyong es un edificio fantasma que nunca abrió sus puertas. Con 330 metros de altura, es por mucho el edificio más alto de Pyongyang y es visible desde cualquier punto en esta ciudad. Cuenta con 105 pisos, 3,000 habitaciones y 360,000 metros cuadrados de espacio interior, todos desocupados. De hecho, ni siquiera fue completado porque los ingenieros determinaron que el diseño aparte de espantoso era inseguro, y no certificaron su habitabilidad. El viento que atraviesa toda la estructura (las ventanas nunca fueron colocadas) produce un ruido espectral que eriza el pelo de los transeúntes.

Si Drácula hubiese sido arquitecto, el hotel Ryugyong sería su magnus opus. Por consenso universal, los expertos se han manifestado en contra de este esperpento, al cual han dado por llamar el Hotel Fantasma, el Hotel Doom y, según la revista Esquire, "el Peor Edificio en la Historia de la Humanidad." Sus paredes de concreto se elevan en ángulos de 75 grados y forman tres picos filudos. Fue concebido como una demostración del poderío norcoreano, por lo que no se hizo ni el menor intento de darle calidez humana ó de armonizar sus grotescas dimensiones con el entorno. El edificio no invita sino amedrenta; sus dos picos laterales parecen los brazos de un vampiro gigante ofreciendo el abrazo de la oscuridad eterna.

Es una visión tan inquietante que en las fotos oficiales de la capital norcoreana, el gobierno borra al edificio con Photoshop. No es primera vez que los comunistas editan su propia historia para que sea leída con anteojos color de rosa. Los escritos de Lenin, por ejemplo, fueron restringidos en la Unión Soviética a partir de los 1930s porque contenían algunas ideas que eran distintas a las promulgadas por Stalin. Como el dogma era que tanto Lenin como el Comité Central eran infalibles, era necesario suprimir cualquier contradicción entre estos. Trotsky criticó a esta censura por considerarla una deificación de seres humanos imperfectos, opinión duramente recibida por los estalinistas cuyo contraargumento fue clavar un pica hielo en el cráneo de Trotsky.

El gobierno norcoreano es asiduo creyente en el poder de la deificación de los gobernantes. En los Juegos de las Masas, celebrados en los cumpleaños de Kim il-Sung y Kim Jong-il, el gobierno organiza a más de 100,000 personas, entre gimnastas y acróbatas, para glorificar a los dos grandes líderes. Como en otros países comunistas, el gobierno controla todos los medios de comunicación y enseña solo la versión de las noticias y la historia que le favorece. Por ejemplo, Corea del Norte enseña que Corea del Sur es un país controlado por los Estados Unidos a través del dominio militar, que cualquier surcoreano que intente cruzar la frontera para reunirse con sus hermanos del norte sería acribillado por los estadounidenses, y que en Corea del Sur hablar o leer sobre Corea del Norte es un crimen castigado con la muerte. Es natural, entonces, que en Corea del Norte nadie quiera hablar sobre el edificio que pone en evidencia el fracaso de su sistema y la incompetencia de sus líderes, y que las autoridades se esfuercen mucho por ocultarlo.

El Hotel Fantasma es un ejemplo perfecto de la producción en una economía centralmente planificada, donde la asignación de recursos se hace arbitrariamente conforme a decisiones políticas. Corea del Norte es un país muy pobre, donde se restringe la visita de extranjeros y el turismo no existe. ¿En qué mente febril cupo que era necesario construir un hotel con 3,000 habitaciones? En un sistema de libre mercado, donde el cálculo económico se fundamenta en las preferencias reales de las personas, el Ryugyong jamás habría visto la luz del día.

En las ciudades soviéticas se construyeron cientos de bodegas con el propósito de rellenar con cachivaches que nadie quería o nadie podía usar, como tostadores de pan en un país sin pan, pero que debían seguir siendo fabricados por decisión del Gosplan en Moscú. La ineficiencia económica era tal que, por primera vez en la historia de la humanidad, se fabricaban cosas cuyo valor era inferior a las materias primas usadas en su fabricación. Es decir, habría sido mejor para la Unión Soviética vender en el mercado el hierro y el plástico que las tostadoras fabricadas con estos materiales. De igual manera, es evidente que para Corea del Norte habría sido mejor tener los 750 millones de dólares para alimentar a sus ciudadanos famélicos, o bien los materiales para construir viviendas, escuelas y hospitales, en vez de un hotel incompleto, abandonado e inútil.

En todos sus aspectos, el hotel Ryugyong representa lo absurdo del comunismo. Como la ideología inspirada en los textos delirantes de Marx, no es solo un fracaso sino un gigantesco, costoso y estrepitoso fracaso. Como el comunismo, es un artefacto del materialismo y la fe ciega en la razón; es inhumano, mecanizado e intolerante. Cuando alguien ve al edificio, piensa lo mismo que hoy pensamos cuando recordamos al comunismo: "¿en qué diablos estaban pensando?" El comunismo fue un ambicioso experimento en el que se pretendió demostrar que la planificación central a gran escala, el control político de la economía y las personas, y la minuciosa regimentación de todos los aspectos de la vida conducirían a una utopía donde todos los seres humanos serían iguales y felices. El hotel Ryugyong fue un ambicioso proyecto cuyo objetivo fue demostrarle a Corea del Sur y al mundo la superioridad de este sistema.

La historia del comunismo es la historia del Ryugyong. No pudo ser completado porque el financiamiento se secó en 1992, cuando ya no existían los subsidios de la Unión Soviética. La caída del Imperio del Mal terminó con las esperanzas del coloso. Alguna vez el pueblo de Corea del Norte se liberará del yugo de sus amos y gozará los frutos de la libertad. Espero que cuando esto ocurra, los norcoreanos no decidan demoler al horror de Pyongyang, sino que lo conserven tal como se encuentra hoy para que sirva de memorial y testamento a la grandísima estupidez que fue el comunismo. Así, tal vez, cuando en el futuro nos aburramos otra vez del derecho natural y su órden espontáneo, recordemos lo que pasó la última vez que nos dejamos llevar por el canto utópico de las sirenas.

 

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A story in Reuters reports construction on Pyongyang's "Hotel of Doom" has resumed. Apparently begun in 1987 by the late great Kim Il Sung, the project was initiated in response to South Korea's hosting of the 1988 Olympics, but remained in a "coma" for close to 16 years prior to now. A 330-meter pyramid with well over 3000 rooms, the project is slated to cost $2 billion, or ten percent of the nations economic output.

The New York Times reported that John Bolton called the move a sign of "the Administration's complete intellectual collapse." This is exceptionally ironic as I think that most students of diplomacy, including the vast majority of conservative international relations experts, would consider these moves as signs of intellectual life.

The stance of not being involved in negotiations until after one has won the concessions one seeks is an interesting position to come from people who pride themselves on being bold, because it seems so cowardly. It is as if they don't believe that the US can hold its own in negotiations, but rather will be run roughshod over by the negotiators of Kim Jong Il or Ahmedinejad if they even enter into negotiations. An admittedly cynical way to view this neocon stance is that it is a way to ensure that progress not made. Some of these individuals may have been mortified when the Reagan Administration began negotiating with Gorbachev, and Gorbachev began giving way the farm. I would hate to think that there are people shaping policy who are influenced by stock positions in defense firms, but I find this fear of negotiations hard to explain. Perhaps we have not been cautious enough in following Eisenhower's admonition to guard against the influence of the Military-Industrial Complex in politics.

As the title of this post states, "you can't win if you don't play." International diplomacy is a game of strategy, and, as such, refusing to move does not create game-winning conditions but rather stagnation.  By "winning" I am just talking about achieving one's objective at a cost that is acceptable (at or below ones reservation price.) This is obviously counter to the common definition in which there is no possible overlap of acceptable outcomes, such that one side's "win" is inherently the other side's "loss." The point is, the opposition has no incentive to consider ones demands if one does not have a seat at the table. They can maintain their existing trajectory. After all, with no one at the table, there is no ability to offer anything for which they might find it worth altering their course. There is no company that would do business with a firm that said: "we won't negotiate a contract until you conceded to all these things that we want first." If a business did say such a thing, one might expect they had little to offer.

Seoul has condemned the killing of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean soldier, saying it cannot be justified, and demanding access to investigate the tragedy.

Pyongyang has expressed regret but refused to apologise over the death of the 53-year-old woman, who was shot twice after straying into a military zone during a dawn beach stroll at a North Korean resort.

"Whatever the reason may be, it cannot be justified," the South Korean government said Sunday, urging the North to cooperate with an investigation after Pyongyang refused access to the scene of the shooting.

"It is the position of our government and people that the reason and truth should be thoroughly revealed because this is a grave issue concerning the life and safety of an innocent civilian," Seoul said in a statement.

"We urge North Korea to take responsible steps so that such an incident should not repeated."

South Korea has suspended tours to the scenic east coast resort of Mount Kumgang, opened in 1998 as a symbol of reconciliation, and the tragedy has heightened tensions between the two neighbours.

The North described the suspension of tours, which have earned it millions of dollars over the years, as an "intolerable insult" and said it would refuse to accept South Korean tourists until it received an apology.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak condemned the killing, while North Korea blamed the South for the incident.

The North said the tourist had gone "beyond the clearly marked boundary fence" and intruded deep into the military-controlled area.

It said she fled when challenged and did not stop even when the soldier discharged warning shots, forcing him to open fire.

There is lot of Controversy also going on over the exact time of killing. According to the witnesses, South Korean tourist was shot at a North Korean resort at 5:20 a.m., not 4:50 a.m., as North Korea had claimed earlier.

"I heard the gunshots when I came out of Haegeumgang Hotel and went to the beachside for a walk," Yonhap News quoted the witness identified only as Lee as saying.

Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old South Korean female, was shot dead early Friday by an unidentified number of North Korean soldiers during her visit to the Mt. Geumgang resort on the east coast of North Korea. She had been taking a pre-dawn stroll on a beach near the resort before she was shot.

Lee was on a separate organized tour of Mt. Geumgang with Park, as Park stayed at a different hotel, called Beach Hotel. The distance between the two hotels is a 10-minute walk, Yonhap reported quoting South Korean authorities.

North Korea claimed that the woman crossed deep into a fenced-off military area, but fled toward her hotel when the soldier ordered her to halt. The communist country said she was killed at 4:50 a.m.

"I came out of the hotel where I was staying at 5:00 a.m. and came back at 5:40. I walked the esplanade at an even speed, so I think it was around 5:20.
"The sun had already come up. When I went back to the hotel, the tour guide told me, 'It is a sunny day.'"

Another witness, Lee In-bok, said last week he heard two gunshots and a scream five to 10 minutes after seeing a middle-aged woman dressed in black strolling along the beach early Friday.

Having visited Mt. Kumgang, I'd bet all I'm worth that the most sensitive thing that grandma would've seen was run-down houses or thin, poorly dressed kids.

Even if the poor woman had glimpsed a tank or machine gun, so effing what? "Hey Americans, I have the exact coordinates of one of their machine guns. Time to attack! Go kill my relatives!"

Unbelievable. North Korea is the most paranoid, autistic nation ever.

At the time, the current President Pervez Musharraf was head of the army.

He has repeatedly stated that no-one apart from Dr Khan had any knowledge of the nuclear transportations which caused international concern.

Dr Khan said that uranium enrichment equipment was sent in a North Korean plane loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials.

Will this have any effects on the present result of the six-party talks about NK nuclear program?

Tags Technorati: North Korea, Six Party Talks, South Korea, North Korean nuclear deal, US, Pakistan, AQ Khan, Pakistani supervision of centrifuges' flight to Pyongyang, Pyongyang, Pervez Musharraf,

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is downplaying speculation in the media he may be headed to North Korea for a short visit. Speaking in his native South Korea, the U.N. chief did call on North Korea to improve its human rights, and urged his home country to contribute more to U.N. operations.

Speaking at a Seoul press conference Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea is not on his itinerary on this Asia trip.

Ban said he has expressed a willingness, in principle, to travel to the North but that no concrete plans had been made.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, arrived here Thursday for his first visit home since taking the top job at the U.N. more than a year ago.

Ban said he is concerned about human rights in the North.

"North Korea should also take necessary measures to improve the human rights situation ... there are still many areas in the world whose human rights are not properly protected and promoted, and even abused. This is a very undesirable and unacceptable situation."

Earlier in the day, Ban told South Korean lawmakers he feels "ashamed" at the relatively low amount of aid and peacekeeping personnel South Korea contributes to U.N. operations.

A U.S.-led United Nations coalition repelled North Korean and Chinese forces to the current North-South border after North Korea invaded the South in 1950. The United Nations is still active in monitoring the armistice along that border.

Still, Ban says South Korea is at the bottom among rich nations in providing funds for less developed countries, and calls upon the South to "repay its debt" to the international community.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

It is probably one of the most ambitious buildings of the 20th century. Over 1,000 feet high, with 105 floors and no less than 7 revolving restaurants.  A gigantic triangular tower of frankly bizarre proportions that utterly dominates the city.  The Ryugyong hotel was put Pyongyang (and North Korea) on the map. In fact, the North Koreans put the Ryugyong on the map before a spade was even put in the ground. Work started in 1987, and initial progress was impressive. When work was halted in 1992, as the collapse of the Soviet Union threw North Korea into chaos, the concrete superstructure of the building was completed. Despite this, the vast tower has sat as a silent, dark shadow, the only colour being the construction crane that continued to sit atop it's main pinnacle.

Much talk circulated about finding foreign investors to finish the work (the original budget for the structure consumed 2% of the entire North Korean GDP) but (unsurprisingly, given the political climate) no one came forward with the estimated US$300 million required for the work. Rumors even circulated tha the building had a fatal design flaw (including reports that the elevator shafts were not straight) but no evidence or reliable reports ever confirmed it. And now, an Egyptian firm has stepped up to the task.

But, this year, construction work finally recommenced (after a 16 year hiatus) with investment from Orascom.. Yes, Orascom as in the phone company, but they do far more, having been involved in construction and technology in a big way for some years now, particularly on the Red Sea.

It's not actually as bizarre as one may at first assume. This is not Orascom's first foray into the surreal world of the DPRK. They have also been heavily involved in the rapid spread of mobile phones in North Korea. There are now believed to be more than 20,000 mobile phone users in Pyongyang alone. It is also perhaps telling that prior to the plans for the Ryugyong becoming known, Orascom also invested US$115m in purchasing a 50% stake in a cement factory near Pyongyang (the Sangwon Cement Factory), and extensively upgraded and modernised it's facilities.

So, we wait with baited breath. Can the Ryugyong be brought back into the limelight, and achieve the fame it was originally intended to? Is this, along with the nuclear cooling off, a prelude to some form of opening up?

Numerous overtures have been made to foreign businesses and tourism in recent years, including a small resort operated by the South Korean conglomerate, Hyundai, in a North Korean beauty area for foreign visitors. Industrial parks have also been set up near the DMZ, for South Korean businesses to pour money into N.K. and reap the benefits of a very cheap but well educated workforce. The Ryugyong, however, is in a different league entirely, both in terms of ambitions, the sums involved, and the fact it sits smack in the centre of Pyongyang itself... The cult centre and impregnable fortress of the Dear Leader. Interesting times we live in...

di Simone Di Stefano

Il programma di denuclearizzazione della Corea del Nord ha preso avvio oggi con l'abbattimento della torre del reattore atomico della centrale di Yongbyon (nella foto vista dal suo interno). A questo atto faranno senz'altro seguito nuovi interventi di demolizione fino al completo disfacimento della centrale. Ieri infatti era stata consegnata al governo cinese, seppure con sei mesi di ritardo rispetto a quanto pattuito in origine, la solenne dichiarazione concernente le attività di Pyongyang nei campi dell'arrichimento di plutonio e uranio, e della proliferazione nucleare.

In tutto sono stati 16 i giornalisti, tutti di nazionalità degli stati interessati ai negoziati (Cina, Stati Uniti, Russia, Giappone e Corea del Sud) che hanno potuto prendere parte all'esplosione e alla demolizione della torre del sito nucleare più importante dello stato coreano. Dalle autorità è poi giunta l'indicazione alle televisioni di riprendere esclusivamente l'esplosione della torre di raffreddamento. L'abbattimento è avvenuto alle ore 17,05 locali, le 10,05  italiane.

E' stata la Cina a ribadire attraverso la propria agenzia di stampa ufficiale 'Xinhuà che la torre era stata abbattuta . La stessa 'Xinhuà ha citato al riguardo la testimonianza di uno dei suoi inviati, che ha assistito alla scena. La demolizione della struttura era già stata in precedenza annunciata dall'emittente televisiva sudcoreana Mbc, una cui troupe era anch'essa presente; la Mbc si era tuttavia limitata a riferire che nel sito era risuonata un'esplosione, collegata verosimilmente all'abbattimento della torre. La notizia non era stata peraltro confermata dal ministro degli Esteri di Seul, Yu Myung-hwan, il quale aveva precisato di non essere in grado di farlo poichè non esistono comunicazioni dirette con Yongbyon. 

Le immagini mandate in onda dall'emittente statunitense Cnn e dall'emittente britannica Bbc, hanno poi fugato ogni dubbio, mostrando la struttura fatta saltare in aria con l'esplosivo: la torre si è ripiegata su se stessa nel mezzo di una fitta coltre di fumo, polvere e detriti. La trasmissione in origine sarebbe dovuta avvenire in tempo reale, ma i vari mass meda hanno spiegato di essere sati costretti a rinunciare alla diretta per via dei problemi tecnici incontrati.  

All'operazione ha assistito, come da patti, un rappresentante dell'amministrazione americana: Sung Kim, alto funzionario del Dipartimento di Stato, di origini coreane. «È stato un passo significativo e di importanza estrema», ha commentato. «Per quanto ho potuto vedere, la demolizione della torre è stata completa». La centrale atomica di Yongbyon si trova 96 chilometri a nord di Pyongyang: è qui che era prodotto il plutonio arricchito, utilizzato infine per il test nucleare sotterraneo annuniato dalla Corea del Nord, a cose ormai fatte, nell'ottobre di due anni fa.

L'affaire nordcoreano è stato inevitabilmente al centro del dibattito del G8 che si sta tenendo a Kyoto in queste ore.  «Ci sono ancora tanti passi da compiere per la deneuclearizzazione - dice il capo della diplomazia Usa, Condoleeza Rice - saremo ben attenti affinché la Corea del Nord rispetti gli impegni presi con la comunità internazionale».

Gli otto grandi del pianeta, Stati Uniti, Giappone, Germania, Gran Bretagna, Francia, Italia, Canada e Russia hanno infine sottolineato la «seria preoccupazione» per i rischi legati al programma atomico iraniano e invitato «fortemente» Teheran a «cooperare pienamente con la comunità internazionale senza ulteriori ritardi.  Dopo aver invitato al dialogo con l'Aiea gli otto ministri si dicono «convinti di raggiungere la  soluzione diplomatica» con il doppio binario della pressione della comunità internazionale e il pacchetto di incentivi.

The cooling tower is demolished at the Yongbyon nuclear complex near Pyongyang, North Korea.

The massive implosion, which came at about 5pm local time Friday at the Yongbyon facility, was intended to be a powerful public symbol of a move to end nuclear activities by the Communist nation once branded a member of an "axis of evil" by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The destruction of the highly visible symbol of North Korea's long-secret nuclear program came just a day after the country released details of its program.

A signal flare gave a three-minute warning as U.S. State Department officials and observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) watched from a reviewing stand.

"The whole thing came tumbling down," Amanpour said.

"This is a very significant disablement step," the U.S. envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, said.

Nuclear experts say that the plant's destroyed central water-cooling tower would take a year or longer to rebuild if North Korea were to try using the plant again.

"This is a critical piece of equipment for the nuclear reactor," said analyst John Wolfsthal, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has been following North Korea since the 1980s. "Without this facility, the reactor can't operate and can't produce more plutonium for weapons." Watch President Bush claim progress over the N. Korea nuclear issue »

North Korea has been dismantling other parts of the facility under the watchful eyes of representatives of the five other nations, including the U.S., that have been involved in six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

On Thursday, North Korean officials turned over to China a 60-page declaration, written in English, that details several rounds of plutonium production at the Yongbyon plant dating back to 1986.

In it, North Korea acknowledges producing roughly 40 kilograms of enriched plutonium -- enough for about seven nuclear bombs, according to the U.S. State Department.

In response, Bush said he would lift some U.S. sanctions against North Korea and remove the country from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But he made clear that other sanctions remained in place on North Korea -- which has been on the terrorism list since its alleged involvement in the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner which killed 115 people.

"The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang," Bush said. "We remain deeply concerned about North Korea's human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programs and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbors."

U.S. analysts will pore over the document to resolve Washington's outstanding concerns, which include questions about the extent of North Korea's proliferation of nuclear technology and the status of any uranium enrichment program. Watch what's still unknown after Pyongyang's declaration »

Friday's event at the nuclear plant marked at least an effort by North Korea -- dubbed "The Hermit Kingdom" in the international community for its isolationist tendencies -- to show the world a good-faith effort to end its nuclear weapons program.

Media outlets from the five other nations involved in the talks were invited to view the tower's implosion, a rare move in North Korea. CNN was among the media outlets present.

But there appeared to be no mention of the declaration or planned implosion at Yongbyon on the Web site of North Korea's state-run news agency on Thursday. And an article Wednesday noted the 58th anniversary of the Korean war, calling it "a war of aggression started by the U.S. imperialists in an attempt to occupy the whole of Korea."

Found while flickr surfing for Pyongyang.

Mitt Romney was on the air defending John McCain's attack ad. The ad talked about Barack Obama being partisan for not working together with republicans on issues.

CNN said "What about the fact that a Republican Senator from Washington Gordon Smith has touted his work with Barack Obama:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGDJijGCeO4

Or the bill he passed with Senator Dick Lugar in order to prevent Nuclear proliferation and to keep weapons out of terrorists hands."

Sounds good right?.....

Mitt Romney's response...

"Ah well, those are... those are liberal issues. Nucelar proliferation and energy are liberal issues, those come from the left wing of the party."

Really?  Nuclear Proliferation is a liberal issue?

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION?

4 minutes later....

"We must stop nuclear proliferation"
- President Bush

Thank you Mitt Romney, thank you for saying that terrorists attaining nuclear weapons is not important to the republican party. Thank you for saying energy independence does not matter to americans. You're a d*ck.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea is to blow up a key part of its controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor on Friday.

Hyun Hak-Bong (right), North Korea's deputy negotiator to six-party talks, crosses the border into South Korea on June 5.

The destruction of the plant's cooling tower is part of an agreement with the United States aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula in exchange for loosening some restrictions on the highly secretive Communist country.

The North Korean government has invited news organizations, including CNN, to witness the event.

Earlier this year, Pyongyang agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile, "acknowledge" concerns about its proliferation activities and its uranium enrichment activity, and agree to continue cooperation with a verification process to ensure no further activities are taking place.

North Korea has been taking Yongbyon's main reactor apart, but imploding the cooling tower is an exceptionally important psychological step given that the highly recognizable shape of the structure is synonymous with nuclear power plants.

(More at CNN.com…)

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to Asia next week amid signs of an imminent breakthrough in efforts to get North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons and bring a formal end to the Korean War.

After months of delay, the communist North appears set to hand over an accounting of its atomic activities by the end of the month, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process that will trigger an announcement by the Bush administration that it intends to lift sanctions against Pyongyang, U.S. officials said Friday.
 
A propaganda poster in Pyongyang. Japan has hinted that countries negotiating with North Korea may accept an incomplete declaration of its nuclear programmes in a bid to push forward a stalled disarmament process(AFP/Mark Ralston)

Once that announcement is made, North Korea is expected to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor complex in what would be a dramatic, if only symbolic, televised signal of its intent to abandon nuclear arms, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic discussions.

All of these developments could happen within the next 10 days while Rice is on her Asian trip — she is visiting Japan, South Korea and China. But that timeline is regarded as a best-case scenario given the difficulty in predicting North Korean behavior due to the closed nature of its authoritarian regime. North Korea has in the past unexpectedly backed out of completing promised actions, confounding attempts to read the country's opaque leadership.

However, as Rice prepares to leave Washington on Monday, she and her aides have been setting the stage for potential movement by North Korea and how the administration will respond under the terms of agreements reached in what are known as the "six-party talks." Those involved are China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States.

North Korea, which detonated a nuclear device in 2006, has stopped making plutonium and began disabling its nuclear facilities so they cannot be quickly restarted, but it still has a stockpile of radioactive material that experts believe is enough to make about a half-dozen bombs.

The talks have been stalled since Pyongyang failed to meet an earlier obligation to provide a declaration of its nuclear activities by the end of 2007.

Since then, the United States has been pushing hard for progress, hoping to reach a final deal before President Bush leaves office. There has been a flurry of exchanges between U.S. and North Korean officials.

After a series of incremental steps forward in recent months, including the North's hand-over to the United States of nearly 19,000 documents related to its plutonium production, Rice said Wednesday she expected Pyongyang soon to produce its declaration to the Chinese hosts of the talks.

In return, she reiterated, the Bush administration would notify Congress of its intent to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and lift sanctions on it under the Trading With the Enemy Act. But, she also stressed, unless the North's denuclearization actions are verified, U.S. policy toward the country would not change.

Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_on_go_
ca_st_pe/us_nkorea_nuclear;_ylt=AvtGILsQOaL
PwPnWEgD.EZGs0NUE

Delisle stavolta non è stato inviato in Birmania alla ricerca di manodopera "globalizzata" per il suo editore, come succedeva nei suoi precedenti reportage da Shenzen e da Pyongyang, ma molto più semplicemente ci è andato al seguito della moglie che lavora per Medici senza frontiere, col compito di prendersi cura del loro bambino piccolo mentre lei era impegnata nelle missioni mediche.

In ogni caso, la tentazione è irresistibile e il nostro canadese racconta la pesantissima dittatura birmana, le piccole, infrangibili resistenze umane nascoste nelle pieghe delle città, la segregazione di Aung San Suu Kii, la vita delle famiglie dei diplomatici occidentali scandita in ogni caso da feste e ricevimenti, e le tante cose che al netto di ogni situazione geo-politica non cambiano mai e fanno l'umanità quella che è: amicizia, dedizione, rispetto... e l'effetto speciale di portarsi in giro un bambino nella culla.

Come sempre io applaudo al lavoro di Guy Delisle, sia per come realizza testi e disegni, sia perchè riesce a farci vedere e sentire parti del mondo che ci sarebbe gran bisogno (per noi e soprattutto per loro) di avere molto più presenti... bravo, bravo.

In a statement from the North's Foreign Ministry, the country said it "will firmly maintain its consistent stand of opposing all forms of terrorism" and also keep nonproliferation pledges made at the nuclear talks.

The ministry also said the North will take part in international efforts to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into terrorists' hands.

The U.S. has promised to remove the North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if it gives a complete declaration of nuclear programs to be eventually dismantled.

North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to provide a complete declaration, but handed 18,500 pages of nuclear records to the U.S. in May.

The North is on the list for its alleged involvement in the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner that killed 115 people. The designation effectively blocks North Korea from receiving low-interest loans from the World Bank and other international lending agencies.

The ministry's statement came after Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top Korea expert, traveled by land from South Korea to the North for two days of talks.

In his meetings, Kim will discuss how the North can finish several remaining steps in disabling its Yongbyon reactor as well as the possibility of blowing up a cooling tower there, according to the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.

Click to read more ... ]]> http://joejolly.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/asking-obama-the-wrong-questions/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:06:56 +0000 joejolly http://joejolly.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/asking-obama-the-wrong-questions/ Senator McCain Commenting on the Answers:

On Tuesday, hours before Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, McCain, signaling the start of the general election, told a crowd in New Orleans, "Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he's ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang."

This article was written by FRED KAPLAN. The complete article, along with a "neoconnified" picture of Senator Obama can be seen at :

http://www.slate.com/id/2192940/

How does Mr. McCain mean his word tyrant? Is it the standard Webster's meaning or the neocon meaning? Neocons take great liberty with the meaning of English words.

Tyrants: As Possibly Seen Through the Eyes of a Neocon:

From: Frontline's the Age of 'neocons'

Tyrant:

For the neocon, a "tyrant" is someone who does not adopt capitalist democracy. The desire to remove Saddam Hussein - then the other "rogue states" and those that belong in the "axis of evil" - comes from this impulse as much as from the corporate elites within the Bush administration who want to secure markets and privatise the delivery of services. The ideological justification for Bush's evangelical imperialism is driven by such neocon assumptions.

And the neocons seems to look at negotiation in a different way:

In the foreign policy field, concepts like detente, containment and negotiation make little sense to the neocons who are more interested in an outright war against all their enemies. In this sense, the neocons draw much from an unlikely source, someone who influenced many of them in their youth: Leon Trotsky. Many prominent acolytes of Trotsky within the U.S. took to the path of conservatism, most dramatically, James Burnham, who wrote the 1964 anti-liberal screed `Suicide of the West' and then won the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan. Irving Kristol began his political life at the City University of New York in the 1930s as a follower of Trotsky, whose own critique of the USSR allowed Kristol to abandon an early flirtation with Marxism.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2102/stories/20040130000506400.htm

This article can be read at the above link.

The world is slowly "cratering" and McCain is concerned about who would sit down and talk to what he calls tyrants. Neocons are noted for wars - not negotiation. If Senator Obama was as "trigger happy" as the neocons, that would be more to the liking of the neocon:

You can't MAKE a neocon talk about the elusive yellowcake. You can't MAKE a neocon talk about why the Iraq war was started. You can't MAKE a neocon talk about KATRINA. You can't MAKE a neocon talk about how they "managed" the high price of gasoline. The neocons have been working in the employ of America for eight years and now they campaign on who Obama would talk to if elected.

Why not tell America how the neocons managed to save those "wheel chair bound" American citizens from New Orlean's floods. Obviously they could not swim.

Why not tell America why the neocons started a war of aggression against Iraq. Human beings are "funny". If they want to know something that nobody wants to talk about, they will figure it out themselves. Why did the Bush team go to war with Iraq?

Some guessed that the Iraq war was started because Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate the senior bush. No matter how much America wanted to know why its money was being spent and why its children were being killed in Iraq - MUM was the word for the Bush team. Senator McCain would rather TELL AMERICA who Obama would talk to. It is more important to TELL AMERICA why it is fighting a war in Iraq. Only the bush team knows for sure. And apparently Senator McCain feels it is more important to tell America who Obama would talk to than to tell America why its sons and daughters are being killed in Iraq. It's not about the OIL. the 2003 Secretary of Defense said: "It's not about the oil". We all know it's not about the oil - RIGHT?

Technorati : age of neocons, gasoline, havana, iraq, kaplan, katrina, mccain, pyongyang, slate, tyrants, yellowcake

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

I took cuts from North Korean propaganda videos with English narration -

- and I added running subtitles --- that presented quotes taken from studies done on North Korean refugees who tell about life inside North Korea and North Korean concentration camps.

Many of the studies I used to gather the quotes used in the video can be read in full by following the links below:

My purpose in creating the video is to generate the desire to learn more about North Korea’s Holocaust and Tyranny in casual web-surfers who do not know much about North Korea.

If you would like to learn much more, visit the NKHR category (and others) at One Free Korea’s blog. Each week, he posts multiple items on North Korea with some others on South Korea (and some US-only related topics).

Here are some pdf files with extensive background on the horrors taking place in North Korea to this very day:

North Korea’s regime is horrible. It is one of the worst regimes in modern history. It’s crimes are every bit as infamous as the worst of the worst.

And we do nothing about it.

But, we, especially educated and intellectual people in the West, like to believe “We would have been different” when looking back at the Hitlers, the Pol Pots, the Stalins….

We deceive ourselves…

A secondary goal of creating and promoting this video is hopefully to draw in donations to some of the smaller NGOs who do good work on North Korea Human Rights issues and helping North Korea refugees.

The links to those orgs are:

If you know about North Korea, or you know little, please pass on the link to this site and others.

Spreading the word is one avenue of hope.

And North Korea has so little hope.