| June 28, 2008 | - President George W. Bush announced that North Korea was off the “state sponsors of terrorism” list. North Korea then blew up the obsolete nuclear cooling tower at Yongbyon and took delivery of a U.S. ship carrying 38,000 tons of food; the nuclear and food deals, said officials, were unrelated.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| June 15, 2008 | - Sheikh Ali al-Neda, the head of Saddam Hussein's tribe, was killed by a car bomb, and it was reported that Pakistani smuggler A. Q. Khan possessed blueprints for nuclear warheads more advanced than those he is known to have sold to Libya, though it was unclear whether he had sold them to North Korea or Iran.
| Source:
Fox News
|
| April 28, 2008 | - The United States accused North Korea of helping Syria build a nuclear reactor on a site that was destroyed last year by an Israeli air strike.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| April 28, 2008 | - South Korean intelligence officials told the Japanese press that ten North Koreans working on the site were killed in the attack.
| Source:
Bloomberg
|
| November 2, 2007 | - The U.S. Navy pursued and seized a North Korean tanker hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| September 15, 2007 | - A U.S. State Department official speculated that North Korea was helping Syria develop nuclear weapons.
| Source:
NYT
|
| June 25, 2007 | - The North Korean government announced it would begin dismantling its nuclear program after the U.S. Treasury unfroze certain bank accounts in Macau.
- The North Korean government announced it would begin dismantling its nuclear program after the U.S. Treasury unfroze certain bank accounts in Macau.
| Source:
Bloomberg
|
| June 19, 2007 | - In North Korea, 110 people foraging for gasoline were killed in an explosion at a fuel pipeline.
- In North Korea, 110 people foraging for gasoline were killed in an explosion at a fuel pipeline.
| Source:
Al Jazeera
|
| May 21, 2007 | - For the first time since the Korean War a train traveled between North and South Korea and a North Korean cargo ship docked in a South Korean port.
| Source:
ABC Radio Australia
|
| April 3, 2007 | -
North Korea ordered its diplomats to send all but one child home as collateral against defection.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| March 6, 2007 | - For the first time in more than fifty years, talks aimed at normalizing U.S.-North Korea relations were taking place.
| Source:
BBCnews.com
|
| February 27, 2007 | - Disclosures about North Korea's
plutonium bomb suggested that U.S. intelligence about other countries' weapons programs is frequently wrong.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 26, 2007 | -
North Korea
demanded 44 million euros from
the insurance company Lloyd's
of London as compensation for damages in
an alleged catastrophic helicopter accident in April 2005. According
to their filed claim, a helicopter owned by the state airline was
flying from Pyongyang to a remote island to save a woman who was in
labor with triplets when it crashed into a warehouse full of
humanitarian-relief supplies, causing a fire. “All this business
about spending their money on
their nuclear program,” said a source
close to the North Koreans, “is
complete
tosh.”
| Source:
London
Times
|
| January 15, 2007 | - A German breeder was selling giant rabbits to North Korea in the hope of relieving famine.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 29, 2006 | - The Mexican Committee for the Study of Kimilsungism hosted a seminar on the deceased North Korean dictator's seminal academic tome, “The Workers' Party of Korea Is the Party of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung.”
| Source:
North Korea News Service
|
| October 27, 2006 | -
North Korea warned the United States not to make any “madcap nuclear moves” or to proceed with any “wild design to ignite a nuclear war.”
| Source:
Korean Central News Agency
|
| October 25, 2006 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin blamed a failure to adopt a “proper tone” in diplomatic negotiations with North Korea for the current weapons crisis.
| Source:
United Press International
|
| October 18, 2006 | - South Korea's government warned that North Korea might be preparing to conduct a second nuclear test.
| Source:
FT
|
| October 16, 2006 | -
China insisted that the U.N. request, rather than require, countries to inspect North Korean cargo. An American expert called the sanctions “kabuki theater,” and North Korea called them a “declaration of war.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 14, 2006 | -
North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong Il was said to be at risk of losing his access to McDonald's hamburgers and Hennessy cognac if sanctions on luxury goods are imposed in response to his country's recent nuclear testing.
| Source:
All Headline News
|
| October 13, 2006 | - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld showed reporters a satellite image of North Korea. “Except for my wife and family,” said Rumsfeld, “that is my favorite photo.”
| Source:
Daily Mail
|
| October 9, 2006 | -
North Korea later detonated a nuclear bomb.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| October 7, 2006 | -
South Korean soldiers fired 60 warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed into the demilitarized zone, but it was not clear if North Korea's action was a deliberate provocation or an attempt to go fishing.
| Source 1:
CNN
Source 2:
Chicago Sun-Times
Source 3:
CNN.com
|
| August 23, 2006 | - The Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said banks that handle money for Iran and North Korea were the same as those that accepted Nazi assets.
| Source:
Associated Press via Yahoo News
|
| July 5, 2006 | -
North Korea launched six rockets over the Sea of Japan, including a Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, which apparently was aborted after just 40 seconds. One thing we have learned, said President George W. Bush, who strongly dislikes North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, “is that the rocket didn't stay up very long.” The president, who expressed annoyance when a reporter pointed out that Kim Jong Il had on all accounts increased his nuclear potency since Bush took office, claimed that his antimissile system, which has failed repeated tests, had a “reasonable chance” of intercepting the Taepodong.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| June 21, 2006 | -
North Korea reserved the right to test missiles capable of hitting the United States.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 8, 2006 | - The U.S. State Department issued a report criticizing human rights abuses in China, North Korea, Iran, and Cuba. It also criticized the rights records of Jordan and Egypt, two countries where the United States has sent detainees to be interrogated. The report noted that the United States' "own journey towards liberty and justice for all has been long and difficult," and is "far from complete."
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
The Independent
|
| January 15, 2006 | -
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il rode an armored train to China, where he toured hi-tech firms.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| September 19, 2005 | -
North Korea announced that it would halt its nuclear programs in exchange for oil, energy aid, and diplomatic recognition.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 7, 2005 | - And North Korea would not make changes to its nuclear program, despite the efforts of China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and South Korea.
| Source:
VOA.com
|
| June 29, 2005 | - A South Korean pastor announced that he had raised enough money to send 1.2 million rabbits to North Korea.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| June 22, 2005 | - It was revealed that North Korea had approached the United States in 2002, offering to “resolve the nuclear issue” if North Korea's sovereignty was acknowledged; the Bush Administration rejected the offer.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 24, 2005 | -
North Korea refused to rule out a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
| Source:
AP
|
| May 16, 2005 | -
North Korea needed food.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 28, 2005 | - George W. Bush gave his fourth prime-time news conference and took a firm stance against North Korea. “Perhaps Kim Jong Il has got the capacity to launch a weapon,” he said. “Wouldn't it be nice to be able to shoot it down?” North Korea then fired a missile into the Sea of Japan.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
VOA
|
| March 27, 2005 | - There was an outbreak of avian flu in North Korea.
| Source:
UPI
|
| February 16, 2005 | -
North Korea celebrated Kim Jong Il's sixty-third birthday. “The Americans swagger like a tiger around the world,” said North Korea's Pyongyang Radio, “but they whimper before our Republic as the tiger does before the porcupine.”
| Source:
AP
|
| February 15, 2005 | - Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that U.S. policies on Iran and North Korea are inconsistent, and that no evidence exists to implicate Iran in the development of nuclear weapons.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| February 14, 2005 | -
North Korea decided to ramp up its nuclear program in response to threats from the U.S.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| February 4, 2005 | -
South Korea downgraded North Korea from "main enemy" to "military threat."
| Source:
BBC News
|
| December 6, 2004 | - ElBaradei said he believed that North Korea has converted thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods into enough weapons-grade plutonium for four to six bombs.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 18, 2004 | - People were still starving in North Korea.
| Source:
BBC
|
| June 4, 2004 | -
North Korea banned cellphones.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 23, 2004 | - A railway station exploded in North Korea soon after Kim Jong Il, on his way home from China, passed through in his special armored train, which was a gift to his father from Joseph Stalin; much of the surrounding community was damaged or destroyed.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 5, 2004 | - The Treasury Department indicated that scholarly publications might be able to edit articles produced by evil countries such as Iran, Cuba, Libya, or North Korea without risking fines of up to $500,000 and ten years in prison.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 28, 2004 | - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking of Pakistan's
nuclear-weapons trafficking, said, "I do not believe that there's any evidence or any suggestion that President Musharraf was involved." Musharraf, for his part, denied that he had made a deal with the Americans to crack down on Al Qaeda in return for lenient treatment for selling nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya, Iran, and others; he also denied that his country's proliferation had done much harm. "If I hand over a missile or a bomb to any extremist, believe me, he can do nothing about it," Musharraf said. "He cannot explode it."
| Source:
Reuters
|
| February 6, 2004 | - The Bush Administration praised Pakistan after General Pervez Musharraf pardoned Abdul Qadeer Khan, the nuclear scientist who took the blame for selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea; Khan claimed that no one in the government or in the military was aware of his activities.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| February 4, 2004 | -
North Korea agreed to resume talks with the United States.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 16, 2003 | -
Chinese troops were said to be massing along the North Korean border.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 5, 2003 | - The Bush Administration retreated from its position that North Korea must simply submit to American demands; one State Department source said that the policy shift was accomplished while many of the Pentagon officials who have driven the administration's hard-line stance were on vacation.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 4, 2003 | -
North Koreans danced in the streets holding bunches of flowers to celebrate the reelection of Kim Jong Il as chairman of the National Defense Commission, his primary office; Kim Il Sung, who has been dead for almost ten years, is still officially the head of state.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 29, 2003 | -
North Korea announced plans to test a nuclear device.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 18, 2003 | -
North and South Korean troops had a gunfight at the border.
| Source:
Sydney Morning Herald
|
| July 15, 2003 | -
North Korea announced that it has made enough plutonium to construct several nuclear bombs.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| June 18, 2003 | -
North Korea announced its intention to accelerate its program to build a nuclear deterrent and said that a U.S. naval blockade or embargo could lead to "all-out war"; a state-run newspaper said that "the Iraqi war proved that disarmament leads to war.
Therefore it is quite clear that the DPRK can never accept the U.S. demand that it scrap its nuclear weapons program first."
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| June 9, 2003 | -
Cannibalism was on the rise in North Korea.
| Source:
Daily Telegraph
|
| June 9, 2003 | - It was announced that U.S. troops will be pulled back from the "tripwire" along the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
| Source:
International Herald Tribune
|
| January 7, 2003 | -
President George W. Bush, who spent much of his holiday clearing brush down at the ranch in Crawford, Texas, mentioned North Korea on his way to grab a cheeseburger and said that Saddam Hussein still “hasn't heard the message.”
| |
| December 18, 2001 | -
North Korea said it will sign five international antiterrorism conventions.
| |
| December 4, 2001 | - Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and North Korea were also being mentioned as future targets.
| |
| December 4, 2001 | -
South and North Korea exchanged fire in the demilitarized zone separating the two countries.
| |
| October 2, 2001 | -
Al Gore, still wearing a beard, declared that “George W. Bush is my commander in chief.” North Korea issued a statement of support for President Bush's crusade against terrorism.
| |
| July 31, 2001 | - Kim Jong Il, North Korea's Dear Leader, while on a train to Moscow to meet with President Putin, promised that his country won't shoot missiles at the United States.
| |
| July 24, 2001 | - Human-rights groups were putting the finishing touches on Peekabooty, anticensorship software that would defeat all Web filters and allow Internet users in countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, and North Korea access to government-censored sites.
| |
| May 29, 2001 | -
South Korea's advertising review board banned a Kim Jong Il impersonator from television ads, apparently worried that the public was not yet ready to buy soap from the Dear Leader of North Korea.
| |
| May 8, 2001 | -
Japan arrested Kim Jong Nam, son of Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader of North Korea; the Little General, as he is known in the Hermit Kingdom, was trying to sneak into Japan to take a four-year-old boy to Tokyo Disneyland.
| |
| May 1, 2001 | -
South Korea announced that it would send 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North.
| |
| April 3, 2001 | - The United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change; Christie Whitman, the administrator of the EPA, announced that “we have no interest in implementing that treaty.” President Bush told German chancellor Gerhard Schröder that “We will not do anything that harms our economy, because first things first are the people who live in America.” North Korea's dear leader Kim Jong Il sent a large floral wreath to the funeral of Chung Ju Yung, the founder of the Hyundai group, in a further display of goodwill toward the south by the ruler of the Hermit Kingdom.
| |
| March 20, 2001 | -
North and South Korea exchanged mail for the first time since the Korean War.
| |
| March 20, 2001 | - Apparently offended by President Bush's comments last week about dear leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea cancelled peace talks with South Korea and denounced the United States as a “nation of cannibals.” South Korean scientists discovered over 100 endangered species thriving in the Demilitarized Zone along the border with North Korea.
| |
| March 13, 2001 | -
President Bush told South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, that the United States would not continue the Clinton Administration's efforts to make peace with North Korea. Bush said: “We're not certain as to whether or not they're keeping all terms of all agreements.” A White House spokesman later admitted that North Korea has not violated its single agreement with the U.S. and explained that although the president did not use the future tense he was in fact referring to future agreements. “That's how the president speaks,” the spokesman said.
| |
| March 6, 2001 | - American advocates of the missile scheme typically justify it by professing fear of tiny North Korea.
| |
| January 23, 2001 | - Kim Jung Il, the dear leader of North Korea, made a surprise visit to China, where he toured the Shanghai Stock Exchange and a Buick plant.
| |
| November 21, 2000 | -
North Korea was looking forward to another winter famine.
| |
| October 31, 2000 | - Thirty thousand Koreans flipped cards on command to entertain Secretary of State Madeleine Albright with images of tractors and potatoes as she sat next to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
| |
| October 3, 2000 | - The defense ministers of North and South Korea met and decided to fix a railroad.
| |
| September 26, 2000 | -
South Korea urged Japan to get friendly with North Korea.
| |
