North Korea: Afghanistan

North Korea Dept: The highly anticipated announcement on the next phase of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal will cut the size of the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan by more than half by a year from now. The drawdown of 34,000 forces puts the U.S. on pace to formally finish the war by the end of 2014, according to The Star. The president will say that the only way North Korea will rejoin the world community is if they stop these threats and live up to their international obligations, said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council and wASHINGTON President Barack Obama will announce the pullout of nearly half of American forces still in Afghanistan and denounce North Korea's latest nuclear test Tuesday in his State of the Union speech, an annual address to a joint session of Congress that is bitterly divided over his dramatic plans to shift domestic policy on taxes, spending, gun control and investment in the country's crumbling infrastructure. While Obama is expected to focus the bulk of his prime-time address on the economy and job creation, foreign policy grabbed the spotlight after North Korea said it successfully detonated a nuclear device Tuesday in defiance of UN warnings. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.