Good friend to have if you are under threat:
"North Korea considers nuclear testing moratorium, leader says; Agreement comes during visit to Russia and could jump-start stalled talks" by Choe Sang-Hun and Seth Mydans, New York Times / August 25, 2011
MOSCOW - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has agreed to consider a moratorium on nuclear weapons tests and production and said he would return to stalled six-party talks on the nation’s nuclear program, Russia’s presidential press secretary told the Russian media yesterday.
Kim made the agreement at a meeting with President Dmitry A. Medvedev in the southern Siberian city of Ulan Ude, where he stopped during a weeklong trip in his armored train....
“Russia has consistently advocated a peaceful, political, and diplomatic solution to this problem, for the restoration of dialogue and cooperation between North and South Korea,’’ the Kremlin said in a statement.
The U.S., on the other hand....
Medvedev said on television that progress had also been made on a Russian proposal to build a natural gas pipeline to South Korea that would pass though North Korean territory....
These are the important things that concern governments.
--more--"
And the old man is really trying to have a smooth a hand-off of power to the son, 'eh?
"N. Korea to discuss recovery of remains" August 20, 2011|Washington Post
WASHINGTON - North Korea announced an agreement yesterday to discuss how the US could recover remains of American troops killed in the Korean War, the most significant sign of progress since US officials halted such work in 2005 amid growing tension over Pyongang’s nuclear program.
Roughly 8,000 US service members remain missing, with 5,500 of them believed to be buried in North Korea, according to the Pentagon.
The North’s state media quoted an unidentified foreign ministry official yesterday saying that Pyongyang had accepted the US proposal to talk and that preparations for discussion had begun.
Relatives of the missing soldiers reacted to the news with hope.
“The void that was created all those years ago never gets filled,’’ said Rick Downes, 63, whose father’s plane went down in North Korea when Downes was 3 years old. For decades, relatives like him have followed the ups and downs of North Korea’s turbulent diplomacy, with the chances of recovering their loved ones changing with each development.
“There’s some bitterness there,’’ said Downes, president of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, “because of how people over time have politicized this as an issue.’’
Same with Vietnam.
Washington has been careful in calibrating its reengagement with Pyongyang, declining to resume broader multinational talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament without some sign of commitment.
Any excuse not to talk from the U.S.
--more--"
