“I do this job for the opportunity to kill the enemies of my country and also to get that boat I always wanted… . [W]hen engaged I will lay waste to everything around me.” – Contractor slogan.

“It’s the perfect war… everybody is making money.” - US intelligence officer in Afghanistan.

The imbroglio over the new Sony film The Interview is a sideshow that reveals that the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it, has lost the plot with regard to North Korea. The real game is to stop, reverse and end North Korea's nuclear weapons breakout. Its handling of The Interview has managed to distract the US government from this strategic imperative, increase the risk of war, including nuclear war, and made it harder than ever to advance American vital security interests in relation to North Korea's nuclear threat.

Since the turn of the century, Sinohydro has become the world's dominant dam builder. The company is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with International Rivers, having prepared a strong environmental policy framework in 2011. Yet Sinohydro is now considering building a series of highly destructive dam projects. The world's biggest hydropower contractor is at a crossroads.

“And if it does start a war, hopefully people will say, ‘You know what? It was worth it. It was a good movie!‘”

–Seth Rogen

“Wacky dictators sell newspapers, and magazines-for example, the 2003 Newsweek cover depicting Kim [Jong Il] in dark sunglasses over a cover line that read ‘Dr. Evil.’ …But demonization, and ridicule, can be dangerous. At its worst, dehumanizing the other side helps to lay the groundwork for war.”

–Donald Macintyre

On December 19, 2014, South Korea's Constitutional Court delivered an unprecedented ruling to dissolve the opposition Unified Progressive Party and disqualify all five of its representatives from the National Assembly.

The ruling was in response to a petition filed by the Park Geun-hye government in November 2013 to dissolve the party based on allegations that it was under orders from North Korea to subvert the South Korean state through violent revolution. The government filed the petition two months after it arrested UPP lawmaker and National Assembly member, Lee Seok-ki, who is currently behind bars on charges of inciting an insurrection and violating the National Security Law (NSL).