The War: On the Defensive

From the battlefields along the Demilitarized Zone to the fearful capital of Saigon and southward, the allies last week were nearly everywhere on the military and political defensive, waiting uncertainly for the Communists' next blow and by no means confident that it could be wholly blunted. A full 25 days after the Communists first launched their general offensive, South Viet Nam was still a country taut with terror and riven by fire.

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American defector Charles Jenkins

In 1965, U.S. Army Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins deserted his post in South Korea and fled to the communist Northa move he now calls “the stupidest thing I have ever done.” He spent nearly four decades inside the Hermit Kingdom, as a lingering mystery of the cold war.

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State Department: North Korea’s direct threat to U.S. ‘infinitesimal’

The State Department on Monday continued to publicly downplay the threat North Korea presents to the United States with spokesman P.J. Crowley telling reporters North Korea "represents an infinitesimal threat to the United States directly." The spokesman’s statement followed comments from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with ABC, broadcast Monday, in which she said the reason for the United States’ low-key reaction to North Korea’s recent missile test was that the United States wasn’t “going to give the North Koreans the satisfaction they were looking for, which was to elevate them to center stage.” In that interview, Clinton said North Korea has a “constant demand for attention,” and she added, “maybe it’s the mother in me, the experience I’ve had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don’t give it to them.” After calling the direct threat to the U.S

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Koreas hold first talks in more than a year

Government officials from South Korea arrived in the North on Tuesday for the first inter-Korean talks in more than a year. The details surrounding the session were sketchy. The exact nature of the talks, their agenda and location were to be determined after the delegation’s arrival, a Unification Ministry official said.

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Somalia parliament votes in Sharia law

Somalia’s transitional federal parliament has unanimously backed the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the country after a vote over the issue was brought to parliamentarians Saturday. In an announcement on state-run television, the country said it was ready to step up efforts to develop nuclear weapons and poised for a military response to any moves against it. “The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are always keeping themselves fully ready to go into action any moment to mercilessly punish anyone who encroaches upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK even a bit,” it said

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Report: North Korea to quit nuclear talks

North Korea’s foreign ministry said the country will quit talks aimed at disarming the country of nuclear weapons and strengthen nuclear capabilities, state-run media reported Tuesday. The statement, issued via North Korean state-run media KCNA, listed reasons that the country will pull out of the so-called six-party talks. “Now that the six-party talks have turned into a platform for infringing upon the sovereignty of the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and seeking to force the DPRK to disarm itself and bring down the system in it, the DPRK will never participate in the talks any longer, nor it will be bound to any agreement of the six-party talks,” KCNA said.

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Stranded South Koreans allowed to cross border

A day after North Korea shut its borders at the start of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, hundreds of South Koreans who had been in the north were allowed to cross the border Tuesday after spending a day in limbo, an official in Seoul said. When North Korea took the action, 573 South Koreans were staying at the Kaesong industrial complex, north of the demilitarized zone

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