My Top News

The U.S. military is tracking a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday.

The ship, Kang Nam, left a port in North Korea Wednesday and appears to be heading toward Singapore, according to a senior U.S. military source. The vessel, which the military has been tracking since its departure, could be carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear materials.

North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test, a show of defiance as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the dictatorship for conducting an underground nuclear explosion in May, according to a U.S. government official.

The White House National Security Council would not comment on the assessment of a possible third nuclear test in the works.

Conveniently being tried after North Korea's recent missile/nuke tests (they've been held for months), 2 US Journalists charged with illegally crossing into the communist state, have been sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp.

Despite the administration taking a hard stance, it's definitely quite interesting to see North Korea keep raising the stakes. With neither side backing down, the US has already said they are looking to intercept NK ships that may have weapons/nuke materials which will really raise the pressure.

It will be interesting to see if we keep upping the pressure or not. Something like intercepting North Korean ships would be high stakes, but also more likely to work rather than sanctions. (but by all means, sanctions are a good thing) As well, Obama is looking into a legal way to reverse the Bush decision of removing North Korea from the terrorist supporting list.

As always with North Korea, it's about limits and what each side is trying to achieve and how it's going to cool down. This time both have no intentions of backing down or making concessions which makes things more dangerous and more uncertain. North Korea is determined to be in the "Nuke Club" and build a respectable weapons armada, of course the US wants nothing of this for 1. North Korea with Nukes isn't a good idea and 2. An arms race, which seems more and more likely with the increasing aggressiveness by NK.

We'll stay tuned and hope for the journalists to be released as soon as possible.

The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of all civilian nuclear sites and their activities in the United States.

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress. Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive." - AP

After mounting tensions in the Korean peninsula, North Korea has picked the successor to Kim Jong Il - his son, 26 year old Kim Jong Un.

South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers the Pyongyang regime has begun "pledging its allegiance to Kim Jong Un," legislator Park Jie-won said Tuesday. The Hankook Ilbo newspaper said the announcement was made after North Korea's provocative underground nuclear test last week.

Every so often North Korea does something - usually not good that gets people's attention, otherwise they're ignored completely. This time North Korea REALLY wanted attention, one nuke and 6 missile tests later, here we are.

Not as often North Korea also likes to essentially threaten war - this time it disregards the 1953 armistice and threatened "nuclear war" for even any minor incidents. (right) This is the first time in a little while that North Korea has freaked out this much but there are some interesting theories.

One of the most interesting I've heard has to do with the president, Kim Jung Il. Since his apparent stroke the "dear leader" has been in declining health. One theory is that Kim is in dire health and essentially making a distraction for transfer of power or a distraction for infighting due to the transfer of power.

It's all speculation, but certainly interesting because of the apparent randomness of the latest North Korean freak out. Of course the worrying part is if the truth is something close to that, the normally crazy (but rational) leadership could do things it normally wouldn't.

But as I've heard a few say on TV. It's completely understanding why the US/SK military has upped it's alert level, but in reality North Korea does what it does best - blow smoke.