North Korea

The way U.S. officials see it, there's little mystery behind the most notorious shipwreck in recent Korean history. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls the evidence "overwhelming" that the Cheonan, a South Korean warship that sank in March, was hit by a North Korean torpedo. Vice President Joe Biden has cited the South Korean-led panel investigating the sinking as a model of transparency. But challenges to the official version of events are coming from an unlikely place: within South Korea.

He looks more like a graying clergyman than the boogeyman of thousands of South Korean childhoods. But Kim Shin-jo is both. The 69-year-old may preside over a Protestant church in this picturesque community where the Han River bends among mountain peaks. But he is also the reluctant grandfather of North Korean spies, a reminder of a cloak-and-dagger world that refuses to be dispatched to the history books on this divided peninsula. On a recent day, Kim read a news story about the sentencing of two North Korean military spies.

A powerful four-day show of joint U.S. and South Korean sea and air power entered its second day without incident Monday, despite North Korea's pledge to start a "sacred war" over the maneuvers. Dubbed "Invincible Spirit," the participants in the joint military exercises — featuring about 20 vessels, including the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington — left port just after dawn Sunday, shadowed by hundreds of U.S. and South Korean fighter jets. The drills provided a potent reminder for the government in Pyongyang of the consequences of escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 1, 2009 -- The Los Angeles Times today announced the publication of Laura Ling and Euna Lee's first-hand account of the story that took them to the North Korean-Chinese border and the events leading up to their detention in a North Korean prison. The lengthy Op-Ed article will be published on latimes.com tonight and in The Times Wednesday, Sept. 2nd print edition, as well as made available to other publications tomorrow via the LA Times- Washington Post news service.

Not since 1950 when the U.S. Army briefly captured Pyongyang during the Korean War have so many Americans descended on the world's most reclusive, anti-U.S. capital. This time, though, the invasion is not military, but musical. A 747 jumbo jet from Beijing is scheduled to arrive Monday in Pyongyang carrying a full symphony orchestra -- 130 members of the New York Philharmonic and their instruments, minus only the piano.

— Evidence overwhelmingly proves North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, investigators said Thursday. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed "stern action" for the provocation and called an emergency security meeting for Friday. The long-awaited investigation results from a multinational team said a torpedo caused a massive underwater explosion that tore the Cheonan apart on March 26. Fifty-eight sailors were rescued from the frigid Yellow Sea waters near the two nations' maritime border, but 46 perished, South Korea's worst military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War. Recovered fragments from the sea floor indicate the torpedo came from communist North Korea, investigators said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday announced new U.S. sanctions against North Korea that are aimed at halting moneymaking schemes it uses to fund its nuclear program. The U.S. will freeze assets of businesses and individuals associated with the North Korean regime, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will target luxury items purchased by the regime's ruling elite and seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.

U.S. and South Korean armed forces on Monday began their annual military joint exercises, prompting North Korea to chastise the war games as "a foolish act of banging their heads on a rock." The 11-day exercises involving tens of thousands of troops are a routine training event designed to improve the ability to defend South Korea, according to U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command. That's not the way Pyongyang sees it. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Monday released a statement calling the drill an "undisguised adventurous saber-rattling [that]

Joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises announced Tuesday are intended to impress on North Korea the need to change its behavior, but not allow the sinking of a South Korean warship four months ago to stymie nuclear talks, analysts said. The naval and air exercises will begin Sunday in the Sea of Japan and include the aircraft carrier George Washington. They were announced by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young after a meeting in Seoul.

Defying weeks of international pressure, North Korea launched a multistage rocket today, a move that the U.S. and its allies fear masked a test of its ability to deliver nuclear weapons. Reaction was swift and harsh to the launch from a site in the country's northeast. The Obama administration, confronted by an early foreign-policy challenge, said the launch violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and that the U.S.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off large exercises on Sunday to underscore deterrence against North Korea after accusing the reclusive communist state of sinking a warship. Pyongyang warned that the drill had pitched the peninsula onto the brink of war. U.S. naval vessels, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, began the drills by setting off from South Korean ports where they had called last week in a show of force timed with a high-level meeting between the two allies.

A powerful four-day show of joint U.S. and South Korean sea and air power entered its second day without incident Monday, despite North Korea's pledge to start a "sacred war" over the maneuvers. Dubbed "Invincible Spirit," the participants in the joint military exercises — featuring about 20 vessels, including the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington — left port just after dawn Sunday, shadowed by hundreds of U.S. and South Korean fighter jets. The drills provided a potent reminder for the government in Pyongyang of the consequences of escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Kim Jong-ik recalls the odd feeling of being watched, a sixth sense that often made him shoot a look over his shoulder. "I had a hunch," he said, "that I was some sort of target." For months, government officials here conducted a surveillance campaign focues on the 56-year-old chief executive of a financial company, monitoring his e-mails and credit card charges and secretly searching his office. Kim, whose firm performed work for a former state-owned bank, was later indicted on charges of criminal libel after he posted a video on a company blog that was critical of President Lee Myung-bak.

A roundup of Friday morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Joss Whedon is officially directing "The Avengers." ( Los Angeles Times ) Guillermo del Toro will revamp Disney's "Haunted Mansion" franchise. ( Los Angeles Times ) GLAAD gives the CW high marks for diversity. ( The Envelope ) Oksana Grigorieva claims Mel Gibson said, "I want Jew blood on my hands." ( Radar Online ) Can Mindjolt do for video game developers what MySpace did for musicians?

The way U.S. officials see it, there's little mystery behind the most notorious shipwreck in recent Korean history. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls the evidence "overwhelming" that the Cheonan, a South Korean warship that sank in March, was hit by a North Korean torpedo. Vice President Joe Biden has cited the South Korean-led panel investigating the sinking as a model of transparency. But challenges to the official version of events are coming from an unlikely place: within South Korea.

A roundup of Thursday morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Attention, genre fans: Comic-Con has begun! ( Los Angeles Times ) Lindsay Lohan is reportedly using her jail time to do some songwriting. ( PopEater ) Now Oksana Grigorieva is being investigated too. ( Los Angeles Times ) Don't hold your breath for a 50th anniversary Beach Boys reunion. ( Los Angeles Times ) Brad Pitt has signed on to star in 'World War Z.' ( MTV )

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday announced new U.S. sanctions against North Korea that are aimed at halting moneymaking schemes it uses to fund its nuclear program. The U.S. will freeze assets of businesses and individuals associated with the North Korean regime, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will target luxury items purchased by the regime's ruling elite and seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.

A roundup of Wednesday morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Is Chris Isaak going to replace Simon Cowell on "American Idol"? ( Hollywood Reporter ) Two comedians keep "Seinfeld" going as a Web series. ( Wall Street Journal ) A lawsuit alleges all kinds of nefarious behavior by the crew of "House." ( TMZ ) Guns N' Roses will play its first U.S. show in four years in Sturgis, S.D. ( MTV ) Steve Coogan could send up geek culture in "Cruise of the Gods."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced new U.S. sanctions against North Korea Wednesday focused on halting money-making schemes employed by the regime to fund its nuclear program. "These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government," Clinton said at a news conference. "They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit, and provocative policies pursued by that government." The U.S. will freeze assets of businesses and individuals associated with the North Korean regime, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Seoul on Monday for a high-level show of unity expected to include the announcement of major military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea four months after the sinking of a South Korean warship. Gates will be joined in Seoul by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in talks with South Korean counterparts, meetings that U.S. officials said were aimed at sending a signal to North Korea in response to the sinking of the Cheonan, allegedly by Northern forces.