Kim fires another projectile toward Japan

According to South Korea, their neighbors in the north fired a new projectile off its east coast Monday that evidently landed in the Sea of Japan. No Japanese were hurt in this, the latest of likely test-launching of a ballistic missile, but that doesn't mean they're not planning something in the future.

A statement by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred near the North Korean coastal town of Wonsan, but they did not identify the type of projectile fired or whether it was successful.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the projectile is believed to be a ballistic missile, but did not cite a source for that information. They are still analyzing exactly what it was the North launched.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, the Japanese government's chief Cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said the projectile may have splashed down in Japan's "exclusive economic zone" in the Sea of Japan, stating that there had been "no damage to vessels and aircraft in the area."

Thanks to former President Clinton, North Korea is a few more years away from its goal of being able to target a U.S. mainland city with a nuclear ICBM, but they are getting closer day by day.

And you cannot put the genie back in the bottle if Kim goes nuclear.

This is our biggest foreign policy challenge both to the new leaders in Washington and Seoul.

Making it hard to guess where he stands, President Trump has both praised and warned North Korea but his administration is still trying to solidify a policy to deal with their nuclear ambitions--perhaps by a doing a dramatic demonstration (heaven forbid).

The new liberal president in Seoul, Moon Jae-in, has signaled that  he will be more flexible in expanding civilian exchange with the North, which sounds good on paper, but is probably a very stupid thing to do.

Many analysts say Moon will probably not push for any rapprochement projects because the North has gone too far in its nuclear program.

But who knows--he's a liberal and they think with their hearts, which have no brains.

Moon has begun steps toward engaging Kim by restarting stalled civilian aid and exchange programs in order to improve strained ties. He has even said recently that the South will allow a civic group to contact the North about potentially helping in the treatment of malaria, the first government approval on cross-border civilian exchanges since January 2016.

If this can go forward, fewer North Koreans will die of malaria which should leave more of them alive to die of starvation.


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Baltimore seeks federal help as murders soar

(Photo: Fox News screen grab)

Baltimore's Democratic Mayor Catherine Pugh is up to her liberal eyeballs in murders. "We are looking for all the help we can get," she said Monday. "As you know, our murder rate is up. Murder is out of control. Too many guns on our streets."

Of course, the guns on the streets she's referring to are illegal handguns, not "military style assault weapons," or legal guns in general, but you won't hear her say that publicly.

After the total failure of gun-control to stem the violence in the Democratic-led city, Pugh has asked the FBI and other federal agencies to help deal with the large increase in the murder rate.

Last year, 318 people were murdered in Baltimore; that's about one out of every 2,000 residents. In 2015, it was worse with 344 homicides. Already this year, Baltimore had 108 murders, four of which happened over this past weekend and the most in the city since 1993 when 110 people were murdered. (The city, however, had about 110,000 fewer residents that year.)

(Photo: AP)

So instead of handcuffing police as happened in the Freddy Gray incident in 2015 when then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave people permission to riot, the new mayor wants to increase police effectiveness and even get assistance for them from the feds. 

According to the Baltimore Sun, violent crime has jumped by 23 percent in the city compared to last year. Gun-related crimes, such as homicides, robberies and shootings have all experienced double-digit increases.

Councilman Brandon Scott blames the violent repeat offenders who are "holding the city hostage" with more and more crimes. Perhaps if there were tougher consequences for violent crime, those violent repeater offenders wouldn't be able to repeat offending from prison. 

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