“We don’t need to pay all this money to keep troops all over the country, 130 countries, 900 bases. But also, just think, bringing all the troops home rather rapidly, they would be spending their money here at home and not in Germany and Japan and South Korea, tremendous boost to the economy.” Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
Ron Paul’s strange claim about bases and troops overseas

North Korea said that it would place the body of Kim Jong-il on permanent display in a Pyongyang mausoleum and install his statues, portraits and memorial towers across the country.

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North Korea to Display Dead Leader’s Body

A great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction. That’s the genius of “ The Orphan Master’s Son .” Adam Johnson has taken the papier-mache creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable. This is a novel worth getting excited about, one which more than delivers on its pre-publication buzz. The setting in remote North Korea is oddly more timely because of the recent death of Kim Jong Il , the “Dear Leader” whose malign spirit hovers over the story like a dark fog. The country’s baby-faced new leader, Kim Jong Eun , the second son of the opera star who was his father’s third spouse, seems almost to walk out of these pages as one of Johnson’s characters; I hope CIA analysts read literary fiction. Read full article > >

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‘The Orphan Master’s Son’ an audacious, believable tale

North Korea’s state-run television called its young untested leader, Kim Jong-un, a “military genius” and showed him inspecting military hardware.

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North Korea Tries to Build the Image of Kim Jong-un, Its New Leader

BEIJING — In the days after Kim Jong Il’s death, China’s most powerful leaders hurried to the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, where they fanned across the embassy’s parquet floor and bowed three times to Kim’s portrait. One Chinese state councilor was “hardly” able to keep back tears , North Korea’s state-run news agency later said. Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
Amid N. Korea succession, China makes push for stability

The Korean peninsula is at a “turning point” with opportunities for change, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak says in a new year address.

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Two Koreas ‘at a turning point’

North Korea on Sunday vowed an all-out push to improve the economic life of its impoverished people, criticized South Korea and rallied internal support for Kim Jong-un.

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North Korea Pledges a Drive for Prosperity in New Year’s Message

BEIJING — North Korea on Sunday vowed an “all-out drive” toward economic prosperity, setting the vision for a nation with fewer food shortages, a stronger military, and a people who defend their new supreme leader with their lives. “The whole Party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong Eun unto death,” said an editorial carried in the country’s three major state-run publications. Read full article > >

The rest is here:
North Korea promises prosperity, demands loyalty to new leader

North Korea calls on the country to defend the new leader, Kim Jong-un, to the death, in a New Year’s message released by state media.

Original post:
N Korea urges Kim Jong-un loyalty

North Korea announced on Friday that under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, it would remain hostile to President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

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North Korea Vows No Engagement With South’s President

Tells ‘foolish’ politicians and ‘puppet’ leaders in South Korea.

Continued here:
North Korea Vows No Change

North Korea tells the international community not to “expect any change” in the wake of Kim Jong-il’s death, as the US sends a top diplomat to the region.

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North Korea: ‘Expect no change’

North Korea hails Kim Jong-un as “supreme leader of the party, state and army”, a day after the elaborate funeral of his father, Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang.

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N Korea hails Kim’s son as leader

North Korea begins two days of funeral services for late leader Kim Jong-il with a huge procession in Pyongyang led by successor Kim Jong-un.

Link:
VIDEO: North Korea holds funeral for Kim

Thousands of North Koreans are attending the funeral for the former leader Kim Jong-il, many of whom have been seen crying and wailing on state television.

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VIDEO: Is N Korea’s grief ‘choreographed’?