ENTERTAINMENT
April 18, 2012 | By David Ng, Los Angeles Times
Classical music has a long and fruitful history serving as an informal olive branch between hostile countries. Cultural exchanges between the former Soviet Union and the West helped to thaw Cold War tensions as early as the 1950s. Few people today know the diplomatic power of classical music better than Myung-Whun Chung, the South Korean conductor who has embarked on a one-man mission in recent months to reestablish cultural ties with North Korea. Chung, who leads the Seoul Philharmonic, is in a unique position to use the podium as a diplomatic vehicle.
OPINION
April 18, 2012 | By Donald Kirk
SEOUL - North and South Korea played their own distinctive games of power politics last week. The processes of leadership selection were enacted almost simultaneously, a coincidence that defined them so sharply as to provide a classroom lesson on the differences between the two systems. North Korea got all the publicity, not all of it because of the long-range missile it insisted on firing in the face of warnings to cease and desist. There was also the huge outpouring in Pyongyang for the centennial of the birth of the nation's "Great Leader," Kim Il Sung at which his grandson, Kim Jong Un, made his maiden speech before thousands of wildly cheering soldiers.
WORLD
April 13, 2012 | By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times
Fear that North Korea might be positioning itself to market weapons technology to other developing nations may have been eased by its latest failure - the fourth in 15 years - to build a functioning rocket. But the demonstration that Pyongyang has not mastered and may not be able to afford such a sophisticated weapons program may not be enough to deter it from continuing to try, according to arms control and security analysts. North Korea's neighbors as well as the United States and other world powers are worried that its efforts to launch a rocket mask a program to build a delivery system for a nuclear warhead.
WORLD
April 13, 2012 | By Barbara Demick and Jung-yoon Choi, Los Angeles Times
SEOUL — North Korea failed in its much-hyped effort to launch a satellite into space Friday, undercutting its claims to be a "strong and prosperous" nation on the centennial of founder Kim Il Sung's birth. After weeks of boasting by the country, the missile launched at 7:39 a.m. on a sunny, wind-free morning from a base near the west coast city of Sinuiju. U.S. and South Korean intelligence reports say the rocket quickly broke up and splashed into the Yellow Sea. "The missile traveled one to two minutes and broke apart in the air. It broke into 20 separate pieces," Shin Won-shik, a South Korean Defense Ministry official, said at a briefing Friday morning.
WORLD
April 13, 2012 | By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - The spectacular failure of a North Korean rocket, and the humiliation it presumably caused the nation's young new leader, makes it likely the regime will soon test a nuclear device or take other provocative actions, according to U.S. officials and outside analysts. The United Nations Security Council condemned North Korea for Friday's launch, saying it violated two previous U.N. resolutions. And the White House said it would not honor a promise to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid to the impoverished nation.
WORLD
April 13, 2012 | By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
BEIJING - For decades,North Korea's leaders have bet heavily on a stark calculation: In order to survive, they need to nurture their rocket and nuclear programs at the expense of feeding their people. Rarely have the consequences been as clear. Friday's attempted satellite launch was an inglorious failure for Kim Jong Un, the twentysomething who has been in power only four months. The launch was supposed to be the marquee event of 100th anniversary celebrations this weekend marking the birth of his grandfather, North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, and the emergence of the third generation of the dynasty.