Was part of greater Japan for a while.
"Two Koreas hold first high-level talks in five years" by Anna Fifield | Washington Post October 05, 2014
KYOTO, Japan — North and South Korea have agreed to hold another round of talks after a top-level Northern delegation, including the men thought to be second and third in command behind Kim Jong Un, paid a surprise visit to the South on Saturday.
The unusual and unannounced trip — the first such high-level visit in more than five years — comes at a time of intense speculation about North Korea’s leadership, given that Kim, the third-generation leader of the communist state, has not been seen in public for a month.
See: Kim Jong Un is Ill?
It also comes amid a steady stream of disparaging comments from both sides, with President Park Geun Hye of South Korea recently calling for the international community to help in ‘‘tearing down the world’s last remaining wall of division’’ and the North calling Park an ‘‘eternal traitor’’ in response.
‘‘It’s a big deal, it’s really a big deal, because it’s completely unprecedented,’’ said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea scholar who studied in Pyongyang and now teaches in Seoul.
The 11-strong group from North Korea was led by Hwang Pyong So, widely considered Kim’s deputy. He’s the top political official in the Korean People’s Army and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, which is led by Kim.
Other members of the delegation included Choe Ryong Hae, who has performed both the roles currently performed by Hwang, and is currently chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission. That job was previously held by Jang Song Taek, the influential uncle that Kim Jong Un had executed last December, according to NK News, a website that monitors the North.
The third top official was Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the central committee of the Korean Workers’ Party and head of the United Front Department, the North’s equivalent of the South’s unification ministry.
The delegation had lunch with South Korea’s unification minister, Ryoo Kihl Jae, and Kim Kwan Jin, the national security adviser to Park. South Korean media showed photos of Ryoo shaking hands with Hwang, who was in North Korean military uniform, bedecked with medals, and later sitting down for a meeting together.
They also met South Korea’s prime minister, Chung Hong Won, who later said he viewed the visit as a good omen.
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The sudden visit, which analysts said appeared to take South Korea by surprise, sparked talk of a thaw on the divided peninsula.
The delegation arrived Saturday morning, ostensibly to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, which had been held in Incheon, the airport city about an hour west of Seoul.
‘‘This group has way too much firepower for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games,’’ said John Delury, a North Korea watcher at Yonsei University in Seoul. ‘‘The games are a subterfuge for some kind of inter-Korean movement.’’
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The two sides agreed to hold another round of talks, perhaps even before the end of this month, and in a sign of what counts as progress when it comes to diplomatic relations with North Korea, the delegation from Pyongyang even agreed to call the talks ‘‘talks.’’
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When I read that article I was very happy because I always prefer peace talk to war drumming.
The only thing left to wonder now is how the U.S. will f**k it all up.
Related: No casualties after South Korean tourist boat runs aground
After it was fired on by North Korean warships.
"North Korea continues to investigate abductions of Japanese" Associated Press September 30, 2014
SHENYANG, China — North Korea said Monday that it is moving ahead with an investigation into the abduction of Japanese civilians by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ’80s but is not yet ready to provide a preliminary report demanded by Japan.
Japanese negotiator Junichi Ihara and North Korea’s Song Il Ho held a day of talks in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. Tokyo was hoping to receive preliminary results of the inquiry, which North Korea had earlier agreed to conduct. However, Song said after the meeting that the talks were not intended for reporting any results.
‘‘Both sides agreed to . . . cooperate well, and both sides shared the view to continuously put effort into doing so,’’ Song said. Ihara said the Japanese delegation strongly urged North Korea to ‘‘promptly conduct a comprehensive and thorough reexamination’’ of Japanese believed to have been abducted.
In 2002, North Korea acknowledged that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese, mainly to train spies in Japanese language and culture.
It allowed five of them to return to Japan that year but said the others had died. Japan has officially recognized 17 such cases, but believes hundreds more people may have been abducted and many of them may still be alive.
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That get's us across the sea to Japan:
Luck, instinct determined fates of volcano hikers
More bodies found on Japanese volcano; toll now 47
Four more bodies found on volcano
Related: Japanese Eruption
Also see:
"The US Air Force confirmed that three of its airmen were washed out to sea Sunday and that one had died. In Suzuka, in central Japan, a French driver was severely injured after an accident in the Japanese Grand Prix, which had to be shortened due to the heavy rain because conditions were deemed too dangerous. Elsewhere in the Pacific, a separate typhoon whipped the Mariana Islands, including Guam, with high winds and heavy rain."
We will see if things quiet down.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"A powerful typhoon that washed three American airmen in Okinawa out to sea, killing at least one, slammed central Japan on Monday, stalling trains and flights and triggering mudslides, before swerving to the Pacific Ocean.... The eye of Typhoon Vongfong skirted Rota, a small island in the Marianas. Power outages and minor flooding were reported."
Some stuff is, some stuff is not. Sorry.
