NORTH KOREA . . . THE BRASS BUTTS IN

North Korea's military, in a rare public intervention, said it wouldn't allow U.N. inspectors near the country's nuclear power plants to see whether they house anything fishy -- like nuclear warheads. The Ministry of the People's Armed Forces apparently wants to stymie the talks between the U.S. and Pyongyang, but some North Korean diplomats have suggested its sights are set lower: all the Ministry want is to halt U.S.-Japanese naval maneuvers off the Korean Coast, which the brass has unilaterally construed as an unfair scare tactic.

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.