North Korea warned that “our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now”. The Guardian reported that North Korea said it would deliver “sledgehammer blows” in South Korea as a result of “hostile forces hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership”.

South Korean leadership said that the “North Korea ultimatum was not worth a response”. South Korean President Park has

•     In a move that could help pull tensions down, South Korean leadership has asked the North for dialogue concerning the Kaesong manufacturing zone which sits 10km inside North Korea. More than 53,000 workers and about $469.9 million USD in annual sales count on North Korea agreeing to open this zone back up. The North closed it late last week and banned South Korean owners to enter the zone. This is a double-edged sword for the North, they count on the annual GDP contribution from the zone and hurt themselves just as much. But, this placates to the North and puts Kim back in the driver’s seat with regard to the South. He can cite this internally as a “victory” against the South since they are essentially begging him to reconsider and reopen the zone. It plays to his desire for power.
•     Intelligence sources say that the North is currently playing a bit of cat and mouse with three very different types of rocket launchers. Two of the largest medium-range missiles that

The Syrian Rebel groups have allowed their Al Qaeda contingent to fight alongside them – and those troops are currently at the spearhead of a push across Syria. The important piece of this story is that the spearhead operations aimed at toppling Assad will take this advance near the chemical weapons stores. Al Qaeda would love to get their hands on

For instance, there are reports all over the media about the North moving a medium range missile to its east coast. And linking this story with one in which the North said that they had perfected a mini-sized nuclear bomb has led to many speculating that this medium

Here’s what we are concerned about: this would represent an interference in a significant way by an outside country – and it supports the FSA. Iran, Russia, and even China will look upon this with concern as interference by an outside

The data is a bit difficult to get to, but one statistic showed that in 2007, US Private Assistance for foreign aid was $71.2 billion alone – while government spending on foreign aid in 2011 was $49.5 billion. These are rough figures. Far more

China has instituted a number of actions – including the approval of a major dam projected along the Nu River in southwest China’s Unnan province. There will be a series of 4 dams used to produce hydroelectricity along the Nu River – but that isn’t the controversy. The controversy is that there will be about 60,000 Chinese that will lose their homes in this one act. In an already tight housing market in which prices are high and inner-province jobs are a bit harder to come by, this is creating a wave of dissatisfaction. Outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao had vetoed the projects just prior to leaving office – the new government resurrected and approved the dams in January just after taking office.

If we couple that with other programs being introduced that would essentially create greater “income distribution” from the wealthy to the poor, there is growing animosity among the rich and powerful against portions of the

There are many conditions of this test that are absolutely “wrong” and the repercussions should be severe from the international community – but frankly – what can they do? North Korea has already been under the guise of the strongest UN sanctions imposed on any country. Their people are starving. Their economy is in shambles. And yet, this