Report: Man believed to be NKorean leader’s son thinks succession reports ‘true’

September 20th, 2009 Obama says NKorean leader seems 'pretty healthy'WASHINGTON — The leader of reclusive North Korea is "pretty healthy and in control" of the impoverished communist country. That's the assessment President Barack Obama says he got from Bill Clinton after the former president returned to the U.S.

September 16th, 2009 Former Gov. Dukakis argues for Senate appointmentBOSTON — Michael Dukakis says he favors Massachusetts changing its Senate succession law so the current governor can name a temporary replacement for Sen. Edward Kennedy, but the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee won't say if he'd be a candidate for the job.

September 10th, 2009 Report: Kim Jong Il healthy says NKorea No. 2TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is in good health and has not named his third son as his successor, the communist country's No.

September 8th, 2009 US freezes assets of 2 NKorean entitiesWASHINGTON — The United States has moved to freeze the assets of two North Korean entities for alleged involvement in the country's nuclear and missile programs. The State Department said Tuesday it was taking the action against the North Korea's General Bureau of Atomic Energy (GBAE) and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp., essentially isolating them from the U.S.

August 18th, 2009 Obama talks to Bill Clinton about NKorean missionWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to spend an hour with former President Bill Clinton in a debriefing session about Clinton's mission to North Korea that won the freedom of two imprisoned American journalists. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the session will be the second conversation between the two men, although Tuesday's meeting in the West Wing situation room will be the first in-person and in-depth debriefing.

August 11th, 2009 Officials: US missile strike kills 8 in PakistanISLAMABAD — Pakistani intelligence officials say at least eight suspected militants have been killed in a U.S. missile strike in northwestern Pakistan.

August 9th, 2009 Army: Authorities increasingly believe Mehsud deadISLAMABAD —Pakistani authorities are increasingly convinced that the notorious head of the country's Taliban movement was killed in a CIA missile strike, the military said Sunday, as reports emerged of an apparently bloody battle for his succession. Claims and counterclaims about whether Baitullah Mehsud is alive or dead have swirled since the Wednesday drone strike on his father-in-law's house in Pakistan's rugged, lawless tribal belt.

August 3rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - After deposed king Gyanendra, whose property was to have been investigated by a succession of governments, it is now the turn of his arch enemy, the Maoists, to face a similar probe -- by their own comrades. Facing growing allegations that some of their top leaders were leading an opulent lifestyle, owned luxurious cars and had invested millions in businesses, the Maoist party, which calls itself the party for the dispossessed, has formed a committee to probe the lifestyles and assets of senior leaders.

July 16th, 2009 NKorean biopic celebrates life of Kim Jong IlSEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Il's childhood in a secret guerrilla camp and early years before becoming leader of communist North Korea are the focus of a multipart film in the works in Pyongyang, state media said Thursday — widely seen as another sign the ailing 67-year-old is paving the way for a successor. The movie — chronicling the authoritarian leader's "undying feats" and his "extraordinary wisdom and distinguished leadership art, political caliber and noble personality," according to state media — is reminiscent of a 20-part film made the year before his late father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, died of heart failure at age 82.

July 5th, 2009 Report says NKorea's Kim convalescing by the seaSEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been living at an east coast villa since mid-May and is likely convalescing after reportedly suffering a stroke last year, a newspaper said Sunday citing U.S. and South Korean intelligence.

July 2nd, 2009 Obama keeps door open for NKorean nuclear talksWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the United States is trying to "keep a door open" for North Korea to return to international nuclear disarmament talks, even as Washington pursues sanctions against the North. Obama told The Associated Press on Thursday that there could be more sanctions in store for the North for its May nuclear test.

June 23rd, 2009 Closely watched NKorean ship still off China coastSEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons was plying the waters off Shanghai on Tuesday en route to Myanmar, a news report said, as regional military officials and a U.S. destroyer kept a close eye on the vessel's movements.

June 21st, 2009 McCain favors boarding NKorean shipWASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain says the U.S.

June 16th, 2009 TOKYO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's third son, Kim Jong Un, made a secret visit to Beijing last week to inform Chinese leaders that his father had chosen him as his successor, a leading Japanese daily said Tuesday. The younger Kim confirmed to Chinese President Hu Jintao that Kim Jong Il wanted him to take over as North Korea's supreme leader, Japan's Asahi Shimbun quoted Chinese and North Korean sources as saying.

March 27th, 2009 LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has opened talks with the royal family to end a three century-old ban on Catholics becoming British monarchs, a government source said. He also wants royal women to be granted equal succession rights, so that the first-born son does not automatically become king.