It is the latest step by the hermit North to end near complete isolation by the outside world over its months of military grandstanding, including a second nuclear test in May.
But in a reminder of tensions on the peninsula, North Korea's KCNA news agency followed the report on the border deal with one warning of a "merciless and prompt annihilating strike," including nuclear weapons, if U.S. and South Korean military drills that started on Monday infringe on its sovereignty.
The agreement to ease restrictions on the border, effectively closed since last December, and restart lucrative tourism to the North came during four-hour talks between the reclusive state's ruler Kim Jong-il and the head of the South Korean Hyundai Group.
"(Kim Jong-il) said to tell him all that I wanted, so I did," Hyundai's Hyun Jeong-eun told reporters on arrival back in the South after her trip to Pyongyang, at the North's invitation, to seek the release of a worker detained for nearly five months for insulting the North Korean leadership.
Hyun, who described the meeting over lunch on Sunday as convivial, said Kim also agreed to talks over the fate of four South Korean fisherman detained late last month after straying into North Korean waters.
The Hyundai Group runs tourism to the North and operates the Kaesong industrial park just across the border and an important source of income for Pyongyang's leadership.
The group is linked to one of the most powerful corporate families in South Korea, one of whose senior members is also a close political ally to President Lee Myung-bak.
Hyun's visit followed hot on the heels of one earlier in the month by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who also met Kim, to win the release of two jailed American journalists.
Wu Dawei, the top nuclear envoy from China, the closest North can claim as a major ally, is planning to go to Pyongyang later on Monday in a bid to restart the six-country talks on ending North Korea's atomic ambitions, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
"North Korea ... wants a better relationship with the U.S. In order for that to happen, they must have a well-established relationship with South Korea," said Cho Myung-chul, an expert on North Korea at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
Relations between the two Koreas, technically at war for more than half a century, have become increasingly bitter after the South's conservative president took office 18 months ago, ending years of aid unless his neighbour gave up nuclear weapons.
Analysts say tightened U.N. sanctions over its military provocations are starting to bite, especially its profitable weapons exports.
Yang Moon-soo, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, estimated that Pyongyang had earned about $30 million (18.3 million pounds) last year from its business with the Hyundai Group.
"Although this might not look like a great amount to South Korea, it means a great deal to North Korea."
Adding to the North's problems are reports that its 23 million population, routinely on the edge of famine, could be facing another poor harvest.
North Korean state TV reported that flooding in recent weeks had damaged farmland.
Though recent nuclear and missile tests have infuriated the international community, analysts say they have helped Kim's stature at home, notably with his hard-line military.
North Korea's media has also been careful to portray both recent visits as tribute to iron leader Kim, 67, whose health is the subject of intense speculation and believed to be trying to ensure his youngest son becomes the third generation in the family to head the destitute communist dynasty.
Tours across the Cold War's last frontier have ground to a halt last year and the industrial park itself has looked under threat as relations between the two, technically at war for more than half a century, have worsened.
Under the latest agreement, land passage across their heavily armed border will be resumed, allowing normal traffic to the Kaesong factory park.
They agreed that officials from both sides would start talks on resuming tourism to the scenic Mount Kumgang resort, halted a year ago after a North Korean soldier shot dead a tourist from the South who had wandered into a military area.
Pyongyang also agreed to let Hyundai launch tours to Mt Paektu, a sacred peak in Korea, and for the resumption in October of reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War
Aug 17, 2009
North Korea reopens to South as economy weakens
Aug 12, 2009
Exercising First Amendment Now “Vandalism” As Corporate Media Attacks Obama Joker Contest
In an effort to chill freedom of speech and intimidate people from exercising their first amendment rights, the establishment media is claiming that posting flyers in public places represents vandalism and is a criminal offense, despite the fact that such practice has been commonplace in America for hundreds of years.
A WFTV news report about the Infowars Obama Joker poster contest does its best to manufacture artificial outrage that President Obama, whose entire agenda is being ferociously opposed at town hall events across the country, and whose popular approval is sinking in polls, has been “disrespected” by the posters despite the fact that satirical lampooning of political figures is an integral part of American history.
The two separate video reports put out by WFTV concentrate on one instance where the posters were placed in an inappropriate place, a post office mailbox, while ignoring the hundreds of other perfectly legal and legitimate locations where the posters have been put up, and indeed the tone of the entire piece suggests that it is illegal and an act of “vandalism” to put up flyers at all.
In that case, the millions of flyers plastered up on light poles, telephone poles, trees and other public areas across the country each year must also represent an act of vandalism. Want your neighbors to help you find a lost cat by putting up a flyer? You’re a vandal. Want to advertise a garage sale? You’re a criminal, according to the definition of “vandalism” concocted by WFTV.
The media only seized upon this story when they could flag up the fact that a few posters were placed on a mailbox, while ignoring the hundreds of other locations where they could be seen for the last week. This clearly represents agenda-driven bias and calculated editorial spin aimed at demonizing people who dare question Obama’s saintly image – which is a proven manufactured hoax because as all the polls show, his actual approval ratings are sinking even faster than those of Bush.
Of course, this has nothing to do with concerns about “vandalism” and everything to do with the establishment trying to protect the fast diminishing God-like image of the anointed one – Barack Hussein Obama. This is about chilling free speech and intimidating people against exercising their first amendment right to simply put up a flyer espousing their political opinion.
According to the definition implied by the establishment media, placing all of these signs is a criminal offense.
As our contest rules clearly state, “Obama Joker posters should be posted in public commons where other fliers, public announcements, handbills, etc., are posted. Please do not post on federal or private property as this will be considered vandalism and will be counterproductive and diminish the message of the Obama Joker poster.”
Posting flyers on telephone and light poles is not a criminal offense, it’s called the first amendment.
The corporate media has also attempted to claim that the posters are racist, despite the fact that Obama is being depicted as a fictional character from the Batman comic book, just as George W. Bush was characterized as the joker before him.
There were no cries of racism when Bush was satirized as the Joker nor when he was characterized as a blood-sucking vampire and nor should there have been – this has nothing to do with racism, it’s about freedom of speech.
When George W. Bush was depicted as a blood-sucking vampire and the Joker, there were no cries of racism.
The establishment plays the race card over and over again to divide the people, distract them from government corruption and get us at each other’s throats. They are the real racists because they are promulgating racism and exploiting it for their own ends.
Residents of Clermont and WFTV may not realize it, but political satire and parody have a long history dating back well before the author Jonathan Swift wrote his A Modest Proposal in 1729. Political cartoons were instrumental in the American Revolutionary War. Scathing political cartoons appeared in Ben Franklin’s newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette and the Massachusetts Centinel. In the 1870s, cartoonist Thomas Nast published a series of illustrations lampooning the Tammany Ring, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics.
The Obama as Joker meme fits in that esteemed tradition — and may be considered “subvertisement” of a popular Hollywood movie as well — but then history is lost on a dumbed-down public all too ready to fawn and grovel at the feet of political leaders who betray them at every turn.
Indeed, the point is to “deeply offend” the sensibilities and get people to think about what Obama stands for and the people he represents.
Our rulers were shrewd when they selected Obama to be president — they understood the politically correct mechanism at work in American society, an ethic inculcated over the last three decades. It will now be considered a racist crime to criticize and parody Barack Obama. How long before this criticism and disagreement becomes a punishable crime?
Jul 8, 2009
Are You Being Spied On? The Truth About Cell Phones
For my first post of the Uncensored News I will list a few ways your government (USG) spies on you and your family and some ways to protect yourself from them.
Now, unless you are a terrorist or a fan of Rage Against The Machine, The USG has no reason to spy on you, however they probably will anyway. The goal of the rich and powerful is to get richer and more powerful. But what if one of the sheeple - I mean people of the U.S were to step out of line? Are they a threat to the rich? It has been proven throughout history one man can change the world, Ghandi and Martin Luther King are just two quick examples that came to mind, and without Che Guevara the 26J Movement would have never been a success. So if one person decides to stop the poor from getting poorer and the rich from getting richer, the rich would need to stop him/her before s/he gains to much power and stops their plan, thus the reason we are all spied on. If someone knows to much information they are also put on the list of Potential Terrorists.
Some other reasons we are spied on is possibly for them to see how their experiments are going.
They can see how the subliminal messages and GWEN Towers affect our minds, how the Chem Trails and Genetically Modified food affects our health and how we respond to the lies they spoon-feed us on a daily bases.
The truth is that even right now you are being monitored, listened to and watched. Continue reading to find out how to make it stop.
1. Cell Phones.
First we will begin with Cellular phones. Not only the USG listens to your conversations, but anyone can listen perfectly clear.
While The USG can listen to your phone with much higher quality than a normal person could, anyone could listen to your cell phone with the proper program. FlexiSpy is one of them. It lets you listen to conversations, read email, SMS and their call history log, use GPS tracking to know were they are and more. It doesn't come free though. FlexiSpy pro is up at $349!
Anyone can track you (as long as you carry your phone wherever you go,) and have an exact idea as to were you are, they can listen through your phone even when it is off (so stop saying bush is an asshole and start paying taxes!) they can even recover any deleted info.
But before you go download this wonderful product to eavesdrop on your grandma, non of the above is actually legal. If you already downloaded this you should probably get a lawyer... a Jewish one considering you could get a few years in jail for this.
The website, FlexiSpy, states that this product can only be used on your own phone for recovering lost data or to protect your child.
But then how does The USG get away with spieing on us? Same way they always do, they are rich and powerful and thus above the law... way above the law.
So how do you know if someone is listening?
1. You seem to have trouble shutting it off, or it stays lit up after you’ve powered down.
2. The phone sometimes lights up when you aren’t making or receiving a call, or using any other function.
3. You regularly hear odd background noises or clicks when you’re on the phone.
4. The battery dies quicker than normal.
So, how can you protect yourself from the watchful eye of Big Brother? (or your even your big sister if she buys FlexiSpy.)I know of three options to protect yourself from being spied on.
1. Remove the battery
2. Take your phone back to the provider and have them format it completely, thus getting rid of any spyware, as well as everything else, making it a factory default again.
3. Put your cell phone near a loudspeaker and play Brittney Spears until whoever may be listening can't take it anymore and uninstalls all spy programs.
I will keep you informed on all the ways the USG is spying on us, and what their other plans are, but until then, always remember; YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE.
