Below The Beltway

Sometimes, its an underground nuclear test by a regime run by a nutcase:
TOKYO, Oct. 9 — North Korea declared on Monday that it had conducted its first nuclear test, asserting a claim to be the world’s newest nuclear power and drawing strong international condemnation.
The South Korean government informed officials in Washington that an explosion occurred [...]

Things are getting tense on along the 38th parallel:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Shots were fired Saturday along the heavily armed no man’s land separating the divided Koreas as regional tensions mounted in anticipation of communist North Korea’s plan to test its first atomic bomb.
South Korean soldiers fired warning shots shortly before noon (0300 GMT) [...]

Now that the Middle East is cooling down, relatively speaking of course, it’s time for North Korea to start making noise again.
Aug. 17, 2006 ??There is new evidence that North Korea may be preparing for an underground test of a nuclear bomb, U.S. officials told ABC News.
“It is the view of the intelligence community that [...]

If reports are to be believed, that North Korean missile test on July 4th may have been aimed at America’s 50th state:
TOKYO (Reuters) - A North Korean missile launched on Wednesday was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday.
Experts estimated the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile to have [...]

While America was celebrating its 230th birthday, North Korea was providing some fireworks of its own:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — North Korea test-fired a long-range missile and five shorter-range rockets early Wednesday, but the closely watched long-range test failed within a minute, U.S. officials said.
The tests began shortly after 3:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. Tuesday ET) [...]

From Will Collier at Vodkapundit comes a link to photos taken by a Russian web designer on a recent visit to North Korea. Most of these photos were taken without permission, meaning we get a glimpse of what life inside one of the world’s last Gulag’s is really like.

As North Korea apparently gets ready to test a missile capable of reaching Western North America, the United States has put its missle defense system into operational mode.
The Pentagon activated its new U.S. ground-based interceptor missile defense system, and officials announced yesterday that any long-range missile launch by North Korea would be considered a “provocative [...]