SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's weekend missile launches show the communist country is improving its capability and accuracy and are a cause for concern, officials said Sunday.
North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast Saturday in a show of military firepower that defied U.N. resolutions and drew international condemnation and concern. It also fired four short-range missiles Thursday believed to be cruise missiles.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency — citing a South Korean government source it did not identify — reported that five of the seven ballistic missiles landed in the same area, indicating their accuracy has improved.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said North Korea's capabilities were getting better.
"If you look at their most recent efforts, the most worrying thing is not their current capacity in terms of distance or scope but how they have improved," he told the Nine Network on Sunday.
"We have seen improvements regrettably in their technology and their approach," he said, emphasizing the latest missile tests were clearly a provocative act aimed at the U.S.
Saturday's launches on U.S. Independence Day appeared to be a slap at Washington as it moves to enforce U.N. as well as its own sanctions against the isolated regime for its May 25 nuclear test.
An official, speaking on condition of anonymity citing department policy, said the Defense Ministry was investigating the launches and it would take about a week to complete an analysis.
He also said no signs of additional missile launches had been detected, but more were possible given North Korea warned ships to stay away from the area through July 10.
North Korea's state news agency did not mention the launches. In Washington, the White House had no immediate comment.
South Korea said Saturday that the missiles likely flew more than 250 miles (400 kilometers), apparently landing in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
South Korea and Japan both condemned the launches, with Tokyo calling them a "serious act of provocation." Britain and France issued similar statements.
Russia and China, both allies of North Korea, expressed concern over an "escalation of tension in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement after a meeting in Moscow.
Separately, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement that Beijing "hopes all parties will keep calm and restrained and jointly safeguard the overall peace and stability in this region."
The North has engaged in a series of acts this year widely seen as provocative. It fired a long-range rocket it said was a satellite in early April, and in late May it carried out its second underground nuclear test following the first in late 2006.
The country has also stoked tensions with rival South Korea and last month threatened "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked.
Yonhap also reported that the North is believed to have spent between $34 million and $46 million in test-firing the seven missiles Saturday. It cited no source.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it cannot confirm the report.
by the associated press
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Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Condeming North Korea's missile tests
TRIESTE, Italy (AP) — Foreign ministers from Group of Eight countries on Friday condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and urged the country to return to the negotiating table.
After its nuclear explosion last month, the United Nations slapped sanctions on Pyongyang.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear tests" in May, and the April launch using ballistic missile technology, "which constitute a threat to regional peace and stability," the G-8 foreign ministers said in a statement during their meeting in Italy.
They welcomed the U.N. Security Council resolution calling on all 192 U.N. members to inspect North Korean vessels on the high seas, "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.
The foreign ministers urged Pyongyang to abide by U.N. resolutions and "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs."
The ministers called on North Korea "not to conduct further destabilizing actions" and to return to six-nation disarmament talks.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said during a news conference that the tests conducted in April and May are "a challenge to the peace and the stability of the international community, and this is something that we cannot abide by."
In Washington, officials said the White House will dispatch a career diplomat to Beijing and other capitals in coming days to coordinate implementation of the new U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
Philip S. Goldberg, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and other countries, will lead a delegation representing other key U.S. departments, including Treasury, Defense and State. He also will be the administration's full-time North Korea sanctions coordinator, according to two senior administration officials who discussed the plan on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly announced.
by the associated press
After its nuclear explosion last month, the United Nations slapped sanctions on Pyongyang.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear tests" in May, and the April launch using ballistic missile technology, "which constitute a threat to regional peace and stability," the G-8 foreign ministers said in a statement during their meeting in Italy.
They welcomed the U.N. Security Council resolution calling on all 192 U.N. members to inspect North Korean vessels on the high seas, "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.
The foreign ministers urged Pyongyang to abide by U.N. resolutions and "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs."
The ministers called on North Korea "not to conduct further destabilizing actions" and to return to six-nation disarmament talks.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said during a news conference that the tests conducted in April and May are "a challenge to the peace and the stability of the international community, and this is something that we cannot abide by."
In Washington, officials said the White House will dispatch a career diplomat to Beijing and other capitals in coming days to coordinate implementation of the new U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
Philip S. Goldberg, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and other countries, will lead a delegation representing other key U.S. departments, including Treasury, Defense and State. He also will be the administration's full-time North Korea sanctions coordinator, according to two senior administration officials who discussed the plan on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly announced.
by the associated press
Sunday, June 21, 2009
US, South Korea holds defense talks with North Korea threats
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Top U.S. and South Korean defense officials met Friday for talks expected to focus on heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the North a "stumbling block" to world peace and security.
Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy's trip to Seoul came as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month.
North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" and "wipe out the (U.S.) agressors" in the event of a conflict.
On Thursday, the communist regime organized a massive anti-American rally in Pyongyang where some 100,000 participants vowed to "crush" the U.S. One senior speaker told the crowd that the North will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with "an annihilating blow."
That was seen as a pointed threat as an American destroyer shadowed a North Korean freighter sailing off China's coast, possibly with banned goods on board. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.
Flournoy's Asia trip, which already took her to Beijing and Tokyo, also followed signs that North Korea is gearing up to test-fire short- or medium-range missiles in violation of the U.N. resolution. Pyongyang has issued a no-sail zone in waters off its east coast, effective from Thursday through July 10.
Details of Flournoy's talks with South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee were not immediately available. She made no comments to reporters upon arrival at the Defense Ministry for the meeting.
President Lee criticized the North for "threatening compatriots with nuclear weapons and missiles." The regime is a "stumbling block to world peace and security," Lee said in a speech read by one of his aides at a ceremony marking the death of a renowned independence fighter.
It is not clear what was on board the North Korean freighter, but officials have mentioned artillery and other conventional weaponry. One intelligence expert suspected missiles.
The U.S. and its allies have made no decision on whether to request inspection of the ship, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday in Washington, but North Korea has said it would consider any interception an act of war.
If permission for inspection is refused, the ship must dock at a port of its choosing so local authorities can check its cargo. Vessels suspected of carrying banned goods must not be offered bunkering services at port, such as fuel, the resolution says.
A senior U.S. defense official said the ship had cleared the Taiwan Strait. He said he didn't know whether or when the Kang Nam may need to stop in some port to refuel, but that the Kang Nam has in the past stopped in Hong Kong's port.
Another U.S. defense official said he tended to doubt reports that the Kang Nam was carrying nuclear-related equipment, saying information seems to indicate the cargo is banned conventional munitions. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about intelligence.
North Korea is suspected to have transported banned goods to Myanmar before on the Kang Nam, said Bertil Lintner, a Bangkok-based North Korea expert who has written a book about leader Kim Jong Il.
by the associated press
Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy's trip to Seoul came as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month.
North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" and "wipe out the (U.S.) agressors" in the event of a conflict.
On Thursday, the communist regime organized a massive anti-American rally in Pyongyang where some 100,000 participants vowed to "crush" the U.S. One senior speaker told the crowd that the North will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with "an annihilating blow."
That was seen as a pointed threat as an American destroyer shadowed a North Korean freighter sailing off China's coast, possibly with banned goods on board. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.
Flournoy's Asia trip, which already took her to Beijing and Tokyo, also followed signs that North Korea is gearing up to test-fire short- or medium-range missiles in violation of the U.N. resolution. Pyongyang has issued a no-sail zone in waters off its east coast, effective from Thursday through July 10.
Details of Flournoy's talks with South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee were not immediately available. She made no comments to reporters upon arrival at the Defense Ministry for the meeting.
President Lee criticized the North for "threatening compatriots with nuclear weapons and missiles." The regime is a "stumbling block to world peace and security," Lee said in a speech read by one of his aides at a ceremony marking the death of a renowned independence fighter.
It is not clear what was on board the North Korean freighter, but officials have mentioned artillery and other conventional weaponry. One intelligence expert suspected missiles.
The U.S. and its allies have made no decision on whether to request inspection of the ship, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday in Washington, but North Korea has said it would consider any interception an act of war.
If permission for inspection is refused, the ship must dock at a port of its choosing so local authorities can check its cargo. Vessels suspected of carrying banned goods must not be offered bunkering services at port, such as fuel, the resolution says.
A senior U.S. defense official said the ship had cleared the Taiwan Strait. He said he didn't know whether or when the Kang Nam may need to stop in some port to refuel, but that the Kang Nam has in the past stopped in Hong Kong's port.
Another U.S. defense official said he tended to doubt reports that the Kang Nam was carrying nuclear-related equipment, saying information seems to indicate the cargo is banned conventional munitions. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about intelligence.
North Korea is suspected to have transported banned goods to Myanmar before on the Kang Nam, said Bertil Lintner, a Bangkok-based North Korea expert who has written a book about leader Kim Jong Il.
by the associated press
President Obama ready for any threat from North Korea
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said the United States is "prepared for any contingencies" involving North Korea — including the regime's reported threat to launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii.
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered additional protections for Hawaii in case a missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean.
"This administration — and our military is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama said Friday during an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith, to be broadcast Monday on "The Early Show."
"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals," Obama said. "But I want ... to give assurances to the American people that the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted in terms of what might happen."
On Monday, North Korea's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said it is "nonsense" to say the country was threatening the U.S. The paper also warned that Pyongyang is prepared to strike back if attacked.
"As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the U.S. should take a correct look at whom it is dealing with," the paper said. "It would be a grave mistake for the U.S. to think it can remain unhurt if it ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula."
The South Korean news network YTN reported Sunday that a U.S. Navy destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam, suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar.
A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, was relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it and had not requested that authority. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive issue of ship movements.
The Navy ship, a guided missile destroyer, is named after the grandfather and father of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Both were admirals.
Sen. McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, said Sunday that the U.S. should board the Kang Nam even without North Korean permission if hard evidence shows it is carrying missiles or other cargo in violation of U.N. resolutions.
"I think we should board it. It's going to contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations that pose a direct threat to the United States," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
The Kang Nam is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under new U.N. sanctions.
Obama said Friday that those sanctions demonstrate "unity in the international community," including Russia and China.
"What we're not going to do is to reward belligerence and provocation," Obama told CBS.
by the associated press
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered additional protections for Hawaii in case a missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean.
"This administration — and our military is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama said Friday during an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith, to be broadcast Monday on "The Early Show."
"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals," Obama said. "But I want ... to give assurances to the American people that the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted in terms of what might happen."
On Monday, North Korea's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said it is "nonsense" to say the country was threatening the U.S. The paper also warned that Pyongyang is prepared to strike back if attacked.
"As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the U.S. should take a correct look at whom it is dealing with," the paper said. "It would be a grave mistake for the U.S. to think it can remain unhurt if it ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula."
The South Korean news network YTN reported Sunday that a U.S. Navy destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam, suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar.
A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, was relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it and had not requested that authority. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive issue of ship movements.
The Navy ship, a guided missile destroyer, is named after the grandfather and father of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Both were admirals.
Sen. McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, said Sunday that the U.S. should board the Kang Nam even without North Korean permission if hard evidence shows it is carrying missiles or other cargo in violation of U.N. resolutions.
"I think we should board it. It's going to contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations that pose a direct threat to the United States," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
The Kang Nam is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under new U.N. sanctions.
Obama said Friday that those sanctions demonstrate "unity in the international community," including Russia and China.
"What we're not going to do is to reward belligerence and provocation," Obama told CBS.
by the associated press
U.S. Destroyer tailing North Korean Ship
SEOUL — A North Korean cargo ship was reportedly steaming toward Myanmar on Sunday even as it was shadowed by a U.S. Navy destroyer, posing the first test of how far the United States and its allies will go to stop the North’s suspected arms trade under a new United Nations resolution.
The United States began tracking the 2,000-ton Kang Nam after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, on Wednesday. U.S. officials have declined to say where the ship was headed and what it might be carrying but said it was “a subject of interest.”
Fox News quoted a senior U.S. military source as saying the U.S. Navy destroyer John S. McCain was positioning itself in case it gets orders to intercept. North Korea has already said it would consider interception an “act of war” and act accordingly.
YTN, a news cable channel in South Korea, reported on Sunday that the ship was headed for Myanmar, a country long suspected of buying North Korean arms and providing transit services for North Korean vessels engaged in illicit trade.
Quoting an unidentified intelligence source, YTN said that the U.S. authorities suspected the ship of carrying missiles or related parts.
South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Kang Nam is the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the resolution the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.
The resolution bans North Korean trafficking in a wide range of not only nuclear but also conventional weaponry.
But it only “calls upon” countries to search North Korean ships, with their consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is aboard. If the crew does not accept inspection on high seas, North Korea is required to direct the vessel to a port for inspection by the local authorities there.
Singapore, a U.S. ally and the regional refueling hub for ships, said it would act “appropriately” if the vessel docks at its ports. But there was doubt that Myanmar would cooperate with such an inspection.
U.S. officials have long sought legal tools to stop the North Korean arms trade.
In 2002, the Spanish and U.S. navies intercepted a North Korean ship carrying missile parts to Yemen but had to let it go because there was then no legal cause.
Even now, the U.N. resolution, whose wording was watered down because of concerns voiced by Russia and China, left questions about its effectiveness, a loophole highlighted by the Kang Nam’s reported voyage.
The Kang Nam was detained in Hong Kong shortly after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and the Security Council adopted a resolution banning its trade in nuclear and ballistic missile technology. But then the ship was found to be carrying no cargo.
from the new york times
The United States began tracking the 2,000-ton Kang Nam after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, on Wednesday. U.S. officials have declined to say where the ship was headed and what it might be carrying but said it was “a subject of interest.”
Fox News quoted a senior U.S. military source as saying the U.S. Navy destroyer John S. McCain was positioning itself in case it gets orders to intercept. North Korea has already said it would consider interception an “act of war” and act accordingly.
YTN, a news cable channel in South Korea, reported on Sunday that the ship was headed for Myanmar, a country long suspected of buying North Korean arms and providing transit services for North Korean vessels engaged in illicit trade.
Quoting an unidentified intelligence source, YTN said that the U.S. authorities suspected the ship of carrying missiles or related parts.
South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Kang Nam is the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the resolution the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.
The resolution bans North Korean trafficking in a wide range of not only nuclear but also conventional weaponry.
But it only “calls upon” countries to search North Korean ships, with their consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is aboard. If the crew does not accept inspection on high seas, North Korea is required to direct the vessel to a port for inspection by the local authorities there.
Singapore, a U.S. ally and the regional refueling hub for ships, said it would act “appropriately” if the vessel docks at its ports. But there was doubt that Myanmar would cooperate with such an inspection.
U.S. officials have long sought legal tools to stop the North Korean arms trade.
In 2002, the Spanish and U.S. navies intercepted a North Korean ship carrying missile parts to Yemen but had to let it go because there was then no legal cause.
Even now, the U.N. resolution, whose wording was watered down because of concerns voiced by Russia and China, left questions about its effectiveness, a loophole highlighted by the Kang Nam’s reported voyage.
The Kang Nam was detained in Hong Kong shortly after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and the Security Council adopted a resolution banning its trade in nuclear and ballistic missile technology. But then the ship was found to be carrying no cargo.
from the new york times
North Korea criticizes US nuclear protection of South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has accused the United States of plotting atomic war against the communist regime, saying President Barack Obama's recent reaffirmation of nuclear protection of South Korea only exposed his government's intention to attack.
In what would be the first test for the new U.N. sanctions against the North, South Korean media also reported Sunday that a North Korean ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the U.S. military over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.
U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port Wednesday.
South Korean television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the U.S. suspected the 2,000-ton-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons toward Myanmar — which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
The report said the U.S. has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.
South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test.
Obama reaffirmed Washington's security commitment to South Korea, including through U.S. nuclear protection, after a meeting Tuesday in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Obama also said the U.N. sanctions will be aggressively enforced.
In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's comments only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.
"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday.
The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to "stifle" the North.
North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.
On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North's threats.
The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.
by the associated press
In what would be the first test for the new U.N. sanctions against the North, South Korean media also reported Sunday that a North Korean ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the U.S. military over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.
U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port Wednesday.
South Korean television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the U.S. suspected the 2,000-ton-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons toward Myanmar — which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
The report said the U.S. has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.
South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test.
Obama reaffirmed Washington's security commitment to South Korea, including through U.S. nuclear protection, after a meeting Tuesday in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Obama also said the U.N. sanctions will be aggressively enforced.
In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's comments only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.
"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday.
The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to "stifle" the North.
North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.
On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North's threats.
The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.
by the associated press
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Hawaii anti-missile
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials said Friday.
The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.
The North's Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.
A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan's Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea's west coast on May 30.
U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not currently seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.
"I don't see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.
It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.
If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.
However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of American islands.
The North Korea missile launched in April traveled just under 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.
by the associated press
The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.
The North's Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.
A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan's Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea's west coast on May 30.
U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not currently seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.
"I don't see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.
It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.
If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.
However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of American islands.
The North Korea missile launched in April traveled just under 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.
by the associated press
US, regional powers might meet on North Korea next month
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan may hold talks next month on neutralizing North Korea's rogue nuclear program after the secretive regime abruptly ended a formal six-nation disarmament dialogue by conducting an atomic test, an official said Saturday.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak floated the idea of bringing together officials of the five countries during his summit with President Barack Obama at the White House this past week, the South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.
The U.S. and Japan have voiced support for the five-way talks but China and Russia have yet to reply to Seoul's proposal, the official said, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
The official said "it remains to be seen" where or when the meeting — if it materializes — will take place, but one possibility is on the sidelines of a regional security forum scheduled in Phuket, Thailand in July.
"We have to see how things will play out," he said.
The proposal for the meeting comes amid rising tensions over the North's missile and nuclear tests and its reported preparations for another long-range missile launch in growing defiance of a U.N. resolution on North Korea over its May 25 nuclear test.
Last week, the communist regime vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest sanctions imposed by the U.N.
The Foreign Ministry official said North Korean officials could also be invited as they are scheduled to attend the Phuket meeting, in a bid to revive the six-party process.
But he cautioned that the envisioned meeting — either among the five nations or the six — was still in preliminary planning stages and it was still not clear whether nuclear envoys or foreign ministers would participate.
The six-party talks started in 2003 with the aim of giving North Korea economic aid and other concessions in exchange for it dismantling its nuclear program. The last round of talks were held in December 2008 when negotiations became deadlocked.
In April this year, the North announced it would no longer participate in the talks and went on to test-fire a ballistic missile followed by a nuclear test in May. The reclusive communist regime of North Korea has little interaction with the world, but it does attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, an annual Asia-Pacific security dialogue.
Last year, then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun along with their counterparts from the four other nations on the sidelines of the forum in Singapore. Rice later held a brief one-on-one exchange with Pak.
Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam, which may be carrying illicit weapons.
The vessel, which has been involved in weapons proliferation before, left a port in North Korea on Wednesday and was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China on Thursday, the officials said. They asked not to be identified because they were discussing intelligence.
South Korea's Defense Ministry declined to give any information on the vessel.
by the associated press
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak floated the idea of bringing together officials of the five countries during his summit with President Barack Obama at the White House this past week, the South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.
The U.S. and Japan have voiced support for the five-way talks but China and Russia have yet to reply to Seoul's proposal, the official said, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
The official said "it remains to be seen" where or when the meeting — if it materializes — will take place, but one possibility is on the sidelines of a regional security forum scheduled in Phuket, Thailand in July.
"We have to see how things will play out," he said.
The proposal for the meeting comes amid rising tensions over the North's missile and nuclear tests and its reported preparations for another long-range missile launch in growing defiance of a U.N. resolution on North Korea over its May 25 nuclear test.
Last week, the communist regime vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest sanctions imposed by the U.N.
The Foreign Ministry official said North Korean officials could also be invited as they are scheduled to attend the Phuket meeting, in a bid to revive the six-party process.
But he cautioned that the envisioned meeting — either among the five nations or the six — was still in preliminary planning stages and it was still not clear whether nuclear envoys or foreign ministers would participate.
The six-party talks started in 2003 with the aim of giving North Korea economic aid and other concessions in exchange for it dismantling its nuclear program. The last round of talks were held in December 2008 when negotiations became deadlocked.
In April this year, the North announced it would no longer participate in the talks and went on to test-fire a ballistic missile followed by a nuclear test in May. The reclusive communist regime of North Korea has little interaction with the world, but it does attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, an annual Asia-Pacific security dialogue.
Last year, then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun along with their counterparts from the four other nations on the sidelines of the forum in Singapore. Rice later held a brief one-on-one exchange with Pak.
Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam, which may be carrying illicit weapons.
The vessel, which has been involved in weapons proliferation before, left a port in North Korea on Wednesday and was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China on Thursday, the officials said. They asked not to be identified because they were discussing intelligence.
South Korea's Defense Ministry declined to give any information on the vessel.
by the associated press
Thursday, June 11, 2009
North Korea going through Limits
UNITED NATIONS — Western powers joined with North Korea’s key allies Wednesday on a proposal that would impose tough sanctions against the communist nation for its second nuclear test, paving the way for quick approval by the U.N. Security Council.
The sanctions would allow foreign countries to stop and search ships heading to and from North Korea, pending approval from the country whose flag the vessel was flying.
The resolution does not, however, authorize the use of military force.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice presented the draft resolution to the 15-member council saying it would create "an unprecedented, detailed” regime in which nations "are expected to inspect suspected contraband cargo” on land and the high seas, and then seize and dispose of any contraband.
"This sanctions regime if passed by the Security Council will bite, and bite in a meaningful way,” she said. "We think that the message that the council will send should it adopt this resolution is that North Korea’s behavior is unacceptable. They must pay a price.”
The agreement comes after two weeks of closed-door negotiations by ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council nations — the United States, Britain and France, and the North’s closest allies China and Russia — as well as the two countries most closely affected by the test, Japan and South Korea.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would expand an arms embargo against North Korea, seek to curtail the North’s financial dealings with the outside world, and freeze assets of North Korean companies.
It would also enhance the inspection of cargo heading to and from North Korea suspected of carrying banned weapons, nuclear and missile-related material, including on the high seas.
by the associated press
The sanctions would allow foreign countries to stop and search ships heading to and from North Korea, pending approval from the country whose flag the vessel was flying.
The resolution does not, however, authorize the use of military force.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice presented the draft resolution to the 15-member council saying it would create "an unprecedented, detailed” regime in which nations "are expected to inspect suspected contraband cargo” on land and the high seas, and then seize and dispose of any contraband.
"This sanctions regime if passed by the Security Council will bite, and bite in a meaningful way,” she said. "We think that the message that the council will send should it adopt this resolution is that North Korea’s behavior is unacceptable. They must pay a price.”
The agreement comes after two weeks of closed-door negotiations by ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council nations — the United States, Britain and France, and the North’s closest allies China and Russia — as well as the two countries most closely affected by the test, Japan and South Korea.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would expand an arms embargo against North Korea, seek to curtail the North’s financial dealings with the outside world, and freeze assets of North Korean companies.
It would also enhance the inspection of cargo heading to and from North Korea suspected of carrying banned weapons, nuclear and missile-related material, including on the high seas.
by the associated press
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
North Korea could use U.S. journalists as political pawns
SEOUL, South Korea — Prisoners spend long days toiling in rice paddies and factories. Survivors say beatings are frequent, hunger is constant and clothing is scarce in the freezing winter.
But experts said that based on past experiences, the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won’t see this side of the nation’s notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters — Laura Ling and Euna Lee — will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators try to cut a deal for their release.
"I don’t think the reporters will do hard labor. It’s simply not in the North Koreans’ interests to make them go through that,” said Roh Jeong-ho, director of the Center for Korean Legal Studies at Columbia Law School in New York.
Roh agreed with several other analysts who have said Pyongyang will likely use the women to maximize its leverage in talks with Washington. Discussions have already begun about who would represent the U.S. as an envoy, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Vice President Al Gore named as possibilities.
The reporters were arrested on the China-North Korea border three months ago while reporting on the trafficking of women for Gore’s Current TV. Their five-day trial ended Monday when they were sentenced 12 years of "reform through labor.”
by the associated press
But experts said that based on past experiences, the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won’t see this side of the nation’s notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters — Laura Ling and Euna Lee — will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators try to cut a deal for their release.
"I don’t think the reporters will do hard labor. It’s simply not in the North Koreans’ interests to make them go through that,” said Roh Jeong-ho, director of the Center for Korean Legal Studies at Columbia Law School in New York.
Roh agreed with several other analysts who have said Pyongyang will likely use the women to maximize its leverage in talks with Washington. Discussions have already begun about who would represent the U.S. as an envoy, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Vice President Al Gore named as possibilities.
The reporters were arrested on the China-North Korea border three months ago while reporting on the trafficking of women for Gore’s Current TV. Their five-day trial ended Monday when they were sentenced 12 years of "reform through labor.”
by the associated press
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
North Korea events, dangerous mix
WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea's nuclear tests and missile launches follow a familiar pattern of provocation but take on dangerous significance with Kim Jong Il's designation of his successor last week, the top U.S. intelligence official said Monday.
The North Korean leader last week named his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 26, to follow him into the family dictatorship. Kim Jong Il has ruled the country since 1994.
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said missile and nuclear tests are calculated to scare the West into offering North Korea money and other inducements to abandon the weapons programs.
"The character of North Korea's behavior is a fairly familiar pattern of doing something outrageous and then expecting to be paid for stopping doing it," Blair said in a speech to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an intelligence and defense industry group.
But he said the combination of a succession in a tightly controlled dictatorship and provocative military behavior is a "potentially dangerous mixture."
North Korea conducted its second underground nuclear test in May. The blast came less than two months after the North fired an intermediate-range rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Though North Korea claimed it launched a satellite into space, the U.S. and other countries believe it was meant to test ballistic missile technology.
U.S. intelligence agencies are also closely monitoring the world economy for signs of crumbling governments that might result in U.S. military or humanitarian intervention. Blair said established democracies and totalitarian regimes are likely to weather the instability best, but fragile young democracies are in more peril the longer the global recession continues. He said the government of Ukraine and countries in South Asia, except for India, are the most vulnerable.
"Another year or two might bring a different and worse story," he said.
He said the United States already is getting less help from other countries around the world on military and humanitarian projects because of the economic situation.
But Blair praised Pakistan's recent military crackdown on the Taliban in the Swat Valley, a resort area that had not been under the group's sway or power previously. He said the United States and Pakistan are more closely cooperating in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida. He said there has been a "long legacy of mistrust" between the two countries but said Pakistan seems willing to work with the United States in ways that did not seem possible previously.
Blair also defended the legality of the Bush administration's so-called warrantless wiretapping program.
"In fact, it wasn't illegal" he said. "You'll have to take my word for it."
For years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to intercept phone conversations and e-mails inside the United States. He did so without the knowledge or permission of a court created by law 30 years ago to oversee just such activities to prevent government abuse of its surveillance powers.
Critics of the secret program — the extent of which has never been revealed — contend the government has illegally wiretapped and used data-mining techniques to sweep up vast amounts of phone and e-mail communications.
A federal judge last week tossed out more than three dozen lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies for allegedly helping the government eavesdrop, and ordered officials in five states to drop their investigations of the companies.
Several lawsuits that directly accuse the government of wrongdoing rather than the companies are still pending.
by the associated press
The North Korean leader last week named his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 26, to follow him into the family dictatorship. Kim Jong Il has ruled the country since 1994.
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said missile and nuclear tests are calculated to scare the West into offering North Korea money and other inducements to abandon the weapons programs.
"The character of North Korea's behavior is a fairly familiar pattern of doing something outrageous and then expecting to be paid for stopping doing it," Blair said in a speech to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an intelligence and defense industry group.
But he said the combination of a succession in a tightly controlled dictatorship and provocative military behavior is a "potentially dangerous mixture."
North Korea conducted its second underground nuclear test in May. The blast came less than two months after the North fired an intermediate-range rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Though North Korea claimed it launched a satellite into space, the U.S. and other countries believe it was meant to test ballistic missile technology.
U.S. intelligence agencies are also closely monitoring the world economy for signs of crumbling governments that might result in U.S. military or humanitarian intervention. Blair said established democracies and totalitarian regimes are likely to weather the instability best, but fragile young democracies are in more peril the longer the global recession continues. He said the government of Ukraine and countries in South Asia, except for India, are the most vulnerable.
"Another year or two might bring a different and worse story," he said.
He said the United States already is getting less help from other countries around the world on military and humanitarian projects because of the economic situation.
But Blair praised Pakistan's recent military crackdown on the Taliban in the Swat Valley, a resort area that had not been under the group's sway or power previously. He said the United States and Pakistan are more closely cooperating in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida. He said there has been a "long legacy of mistrust" between the two countries but said Pakistan seems willing to work with the United States in ways that did not seem possible previously.
Blair also defended the legality of the Bush administration's so-called warrantless wiretapping program.
"In fact, it wasn't illegal" he said. "You'll have to take my word for it."
For years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to intercept phone conversations and e-mails inside the United States. He did so without the knowledge or permission of a court created by law 30 years ago to oversee just such activities to prevent government abuse of its surveillance powers.
Critics of the secret program — the extent of which has never been revealed — contend the government has illegally wiretapped and used data-mining techniques to sweep up vast amounts of phone and e-mail communications.
A federal judge last week tossed out more than three dozen lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies for allegedly helping the government eavesdrop, and ordered officials in five states to drop their investigations of the companies.
Several lawsuits that directly accuse the government of wrongdoing rather than the companies are still pending.
by the associated press
Journalists unlikely to see nasty NKorean prisons
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Prisoners spend long days toiling in rice paddies and factories. Survivors say beatings are frequent, hunger is constant and clothing scarce in the freezing winter.
But experts said that based on past experiences the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won't see this side of the nation's notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters — Laura Ling and Euna Lee — will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators try to cut a deal for their release.
"I don't think the reporters will do hard labor. It's simply not in the North Koreans' interests to make them go through that," Roh Jeong-ho, director of the Center for Korean Legal Studies at Columbia Law School in New York, said Tuesday.
Roh agreed with several other analysts who have said Pyongyang will likely use the women to maximize its leverage in talks with Washington. Discussions have already begun about who would represent the U.S. as an envoy, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Vice President Al Gore named as possibilities.
"We are working, as I said yesterday, in every way open to us to persuade the North Korean government to release the two journalists on a humanitarian basis and we are going to continue to pursue every possible avenue," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.
The reporters were arrested on the China-North Korea border three months ago while reporting on the trafficking of women for Gore's Current TV. Their five-day trial ended Monday when they were sentenced 12 years of "reform through labor."
The sentencing came as North Korea's relations with the rest of the world have been roiled by the unpredictable nation's second nuclear test and a barrage of missile launches. Pyongyang appears to be preparing to launch another long-range missile, and almost daily the hard-line leadership issues a stream of threats.
On Tuesday, Pyongyang's news agency warned that its nuclear weapons would be used for defense as well as for a "merciless offensive." It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature.
The mysterious nation stayed quiet about the journalists' fate Tuesday, and no information was provided about where they would be imprisoned.
One former North Korean official who defected to the South said the reporters would not be sent to an ordinary labor prison because the government wouldn't want the foreigners to witness the severe human rights violations at such places.
The Americans would likely be sent to a prison in Sariwon, about 58 kilometers (36 miles) south of Pyongyang, said the defector, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of his job. The Sariwon prison usually houses purged party members, he said.
The facility was built in the early 1990s as a "showcase" prison for international human rights groups doing inspection tours. The prison's architecture is better than ordinary government buildings, and it has televisions, refrigerators and beds in each room, the former official said.
Although foreign military prisoners have reported harsh conditions and abuse, some of the most recent civilian prisoners in North Korea have had no major complaints.
American Evan C. Hunziker was accused of spying and detained for three months in 1996 after he swam across the Yalu River, which marks the border with China, apparently on a drunken dare. After his release, he said little about the experience, but his father said he was treated well but thought the food was lousy. He was kept in a hotel and the North Koreans collected a $5,000 fee for the room.
Retired Japanese journalist Takashi Sugishima was arrested in Pyongyang in 1999 and accused of spying — an allegation he denied. He said he wasn't mistreated during the two years he spent in a cozy cell in a mountain facility and was served three hot meals a day.
The worst North Korean prisons are part of a network of five large political labor camps where people accused of being spies, defectors and dissidents get locked away. The U.S. State Department estimates the camps hold a total of between 150,000 to 200,000 inmates.
Lee Ok-suk, 52, a North Korean defector, said she was imprisoned from 1999 to 2001 in a more moderate labor camp for petty criminals in the east coast city of Hamhung. The woman, jailed for her Christian beliefs, said she suffered constant beatings, insufficient clothing and meager food rations that caused her to lose nearly 45 pounds (20 kilograms).
She said the men built textile machines, while the women grew corn, rice and other grains. Many died of abuse and malnutrition, she said. North Korea is believed to have about eight to nine such labor camps.
"We were not human beings there," said Lee, who defected to the South in 2006. "We were being treated worse than dogs."
Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
by the associated press
But experts said that based on past experiences the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won't see this side of the nation's notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters — Laura Ling and Euna Lee — will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators try to cut a deal for their release.
"I don't think the reporters will do hard labor. It's simply not in the North Koreans' interests to make them go through that," Roh Jeong-ho, director of the Center for Korean Legal Studies at Columbia Law School in New York, said Tuesday.
Roh agreed with several other analysts who have said Pyongyang will likely use the women to maximize its leverage in talks with Washington. Discussions have already begun about who would represent the U.S. as an envoy, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Vice President Al Gore named as possibilities.
"We are working, as I said yesterday, in every way open to us to persuade the North Korean government to release the two journalists on a humanitarian basis and we are going to continue to pursue every possible avenue," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.
The reporters were arrested on the China-North Korea border three months ago while reporting on the trafficking of women for Gore's Current TV. Their five-day trial ended Monday when they were sentenced 12 years of "reform through labor."
The sentencing came as North Korea's relations with the rest of the world have been roiled by the unpredictable nation's second nuclear test and a barrage of missile launches. Pyongyang appears to be preparing to launch another long-range missile, and almost daily the hard-line leadership issues a stream of threats.
On Tuesday, Pyongyang's news agency warned that its nuclear weapons would be used for defense as well as for a "merciless offensive." It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature.
The mysterious nation stayed quiet about the journalists' fate Tuesday, and no information was provided about where they would be imprisoned.
One former North Korean official who defected to the South said the reporters would not be sent to an ordinary labor prison because the government wouldn't want the foreigners to witness the severe human rights violations at such places.
The Americans would likely be sent to a prison in Sariwon, about 58 kilometers (36 miles) south of Pyongyang, said the defector, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of his job. The Sariwon prison usually houses purged party members, he said.
The facility was built in the early 1990s as a "showcase" prison for international human rights groups doing inspection tours. The prison's architecture is better than ordinary government buildings, and it has televisions, refrigerators and beds in each room, the former official said.
Although foreign military prisoners have reported harsh conditions and abuse, some of the most recent civilian prisoners in North Korea have had no major complaints.
American Evan C. Hunziker was accused of spying and detained for three months in 1996 after he swam across the Yalu River, which marks the border with China, apparently on a drunken dare. After his release, he said little about the experience, but his father said he was treated well but thought the food was lousy. He was kept in a hotel and the North Koreans collected a $5,000 fee for the room.
Retired Japanese journalist Takashi Sugishima was arrested in Pyongyang in 1999 and accused of spying — an allegation he denied. He said he wasn't mistreated during the two years he spent in a cozy cell in a mountain facility and was served three hot meals a day.
The worst North Korean prisons are part of a network of five large political labor camps where people accused of being spies, defectors and dissidents get locked away. The U.S. State Department estimates the camps hold a total of between 150,000 to 200,000 inmates.
Lee Ok-suk, 52, a North Korean defector, said she was imprisoned from 1999 to 2001 in a more moderate labor camp for petty criminals in the east coast city of Hamhung. The woman, jailed for her Christian beliefs, said she suffered constant beatings, insufficient clothing and meager food rations that caused her to lose nearly 45 pounds (20 kilograms).
She said the men built textile machines, while the women grew corn, rice and other grains. Many died of abuse and malnutrition, she said. North Korea is believed to have about eight to nine such labor camps.
"We were not human beings there," said Lee, who defected to the South in 2006. "We were being treated worse than dogs."
Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
by the associated press
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Putting Pressure on against N. Korea
SINGAPORE — North Korea’s progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is "a harbinger of a dark future” and has created a need for more pressure on the reclusive communist government to change its ways, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.
He said the North’s nuclear program does not "at this point” represent a direct military threat to the United States. However, the North’s efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region, he added.
At an annual meeting of defense and security officials, Gates said past efforts to cajole North Korea into scrapping its nuclear weapons program have only emboldened it.
Patience wears thin
North Korea’s yearslong use of scare tactics as a bargaining chip to secure aid — only to later renege on promises — has worn thin the patience of nations negotiating with them, he said.
"I think that everyone in the room is familiar with the tactics that the North Koreans use. They create a crisis and the rest of us pay a price to return to the status quo ante,” he said in a question and answer session after his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
"As the expression goes in the United States, ‘I am tired of buying the same horse twice.’ I think this notion that we buy our way back to the status quo ante is an approach that I personally at least think we ought to think very hard about. There are perhaps other ways to try and get the North Koreans to change their approach.”
The statements were echoed by the South Korean defense minister and even China, North Korea’s strongest ally. They reflect fears in the region that last week’s nuclear and missile tests by North Korea could spiral out of control and lead to fighting.
by the associated press
He said the North’s nuclear program does not "at this point” represent a direct military threat to the United States. However, the North’s efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region, he added.
At an annual meeting of defense and security officials, Gates said past efforts to cajole North Korea into scrapping its nuclear weapons program have only emboldened it.
Patience wears thin
North Korea’s yearslong use of scare tactics as a bargaining chip to secure aid — only to later renege on promises — has worn thin the patience of nations negotiating with them, he said.
"I think that everyone in the room is familiar with the tactics that the North Koreans use. They create a crisis and the rest of us pay a price to return to the status quo ante,” he said in a question and answer session after his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
"As the expression goes in the United States, ‘I am tired of buying the same horse twice.’ I think this notion that we buy our way back to the status quo ante is an approach that I personally at least think we ought to think very hard about. There are perhaps other ways to try and get the North Koreans to change their approach.”
The statements were echoed by the South Korean defense minister and even China, North Korea’s strongest ally. They reflect fears in the region that last week’s nuclear and missile tests by North Korea could spiral out of control and lead to fighting.
by the associated press
Saturday, May 30, 2009
North Korea could launch more missiles
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday vowed to retaliate if punitive U.N. sanctions are imposed for its latest nuclear test, and U.S. officials said there are increasing signs Pyongyang may be planning more long-range missile launches.
With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch — the sixth this week.
Perhaps more significantly, officials in Washington said there are indications of increased activity at a site used to fire long-range missiles.
The officials, spoke on condition of anonymity, also said an initial U.S. air sampling from near the underground test site was inconclusive.
They said the initial analysis doesn’t prove the North successfully completed an atomic reaction. At least one more test is coming, they said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the latest test launch was a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against aircraft or other missile attacks. It said the missile was believed to be a modified version of the Russian SA-5.
The nuclear test and flurry of missile launches, coupled with the rhetoric from Pyongyang that it won’t honor a 1953 truce ending the fighting in the Korean War, have raised tensions in the region and heightened concerns that the North may provoke a skirmish along the border or off its western coast — the site of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.
But officials said the border remains calm and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington does not see the situation as a crisis warranting any more troops to augment the 28,000 U.S. forces already in South Korea.
"I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates said.
by the associated press
With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch — the sixth this week.
Perhaps more significantly, officials in Washington said there are indications of increased activity at a site used to fire long-range missiles.
The officials, spoke on condition of anonymity, also said an initial U.S. air sampling from near the underground test site was inconclusive.
They said the initial analysis doesn’t prove the North successfully completed an atomic reaction. At least one more test is coming, they said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the latest test launch was a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against aircraft or other missile attacks. It said the missile was believed to be a modified version of the Russian SA-5.
The nuclear test and flurry of missile launches, coupled with the rhetoric from Pyongyang that it won’t honor a 1953 truce ending the fighting in the Korean War, have raised tensions in the region and heightened concerns that the North may provoke a skirmish along the border or off its western coast — the site of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.
But officials said the border remains calm and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington does not see the situation as a crisis warranting any more troops to augment the 28,000 U.S. forces already in South Korea.
"I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates said.
by the associated press
NKorea missile preparations
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — Spy satellites have spotted signs that North Korea may be preparing to transport another long-range missile to a test launch site, South Korean officials said Saturday, as the U.S. defense secretary issued his harshest warning to the North since its recent nuclear test.
"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a regional defense meeting in Singapore. He said the North's nuclear program was a "harbinger of a dark future," but wasn't yet a direct threat.
Since last Monday's nuclear blast, North Korea has test-launched six short-range missiles in a show of force and announced it won't honor a 1953 truce ending fighting in the Korean War.
The reclusive communist state appears to be preparing to move a long-range missile by train from a weapons factory near Pyongyang to its northeastern Musudan-ni launch pad, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. Images of the movements were captured by U.S. satellites, said the official, who was not allowed to be identified when discussing intelligence matters.
North Korea will need about two weeks to complete the launch preparations, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified intelligence official.
Officials in Washington said Friday they noticed indications of increased activity at the missile test site, but did not provide many details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because methods of gathering information about North Korea are sensitive.
Yonhap said the size of the missile was similar to a long-range rocket the North tested in April.
Experts have said the three-stage rocket has a potential range of more than 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers), putting Alaska within its striking distance.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said the North is likely to fire the missile shortly after the U.N. Security Council adopts a resolution criticizing its recent nuclear test.
A partial draft resolution — obtained Friday by The Associated Press — calls on all countries to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier U.N. resolution after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.
The sanctions include a partial arms embargo, a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented, with many of the 192 U.N. member states ignoring them.
The draft would also have the Security Council condemn "in the strongest terms" the recent nuclear test "in flagrant violation and disregard" of the 2006 resolution.
China, which ignored the previous sanctions, has been unusually outspoken in its criticism of Monday's blast.
"As a close neighbor of North Korea, China has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test," Chinese Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian said at the Singapore defense meeting.
North Korea says it conducted the nuclear test in self-defense. Its main Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned Saturday that it "will deal decisive and merciless blows at the enemies who desperately run amok to dare pre-empt an attack on it," according to its official Korean Central News Agency.
Despite the rising tensions, the atmosphere was calm Saturday at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.
The area is a cluster of blue huts inside the 154-mile (248-kilometer) -long DMZ that is jointly administered by the U.S.-led United Nations Command and North Korea to supervise the cease-fire.
Some analysts say one of the aims of the North's nuclear and missile tests is to strengthen its regime and boost morale in the impoverished nation.
Rallies were being held across the country for citizens and soldiers who were celebrating the nuclear test, KCNA said Saturday. It said speakers offered their "ardent congratulations" to nuclear scientists and engineers for bolstering the country's dignity.
by the associated press
"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a regional defense meeting in Singapore. He said the North's nuclear program was a "harbinger of a dark future," but wasn't yet a direct threat.
Since last Monday's nuclear blast, North Korea has test-launched six short-range missiles in a show of force and announced it won't honor a 1953 truce ending fighting in the Korean War.
The reclusive communist state appears to be preparing to move a long-range missile by train from a weapons factory near Pyongyang to its northeastern Musudan-ni launch pad, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. Images of the movements were captured by U.S. satellites, said the official, who was not allowed to be identified when discussing intelligence matters.
North Korea will need about two weeks to complete the launch preparations, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified intelligence official.
Officials in Washington said Friday they noticed indications of increased activity at the missile test site, but did not provide many details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because methods of gathering information about North Korea are sensitive.
Yonhap said the size of the missile was similar to a long-range rocket the North tested in April.
Experts have said the three-stage rocket has a potential range of more than 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers), putting Alaska within its striking distance.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said the North is likely to fire the missile shortly after the U.N. Security Council adopts a resolution criticizing its recent nuclear test.
A partial draft resolution — obtained Friday by The Associated Press — calls on all countries to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier U.N. resolution after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.
The sanctions include a partial arms embargo, a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented, with many of the 192 U.N. member states ignoring them.
The draft would also have the Security Council condemn "in the strongest terms" the recent nuclear test "in flagrant violation and disregard" of the 2006 resolution.
China, which ignored the previous sanctions, has been unusually outspoken in its criticism of Monday's blast.
"As a close neighbor of North Korea, China has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test," Chinese Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian said at the Singapore defense meeting.
North Korea says it conducted the nuclear test in self-defense. Its main Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned Saturday that it "will deal decisive and merciless blows at the enemies who desperately run amok to dare pre-empt an attack on it," according to its official Korean Central News Agency.
Despite the rising tensions, the atmosphere was calm Saturday at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.
The area is a cluster of blue huts inside the 154-mile (248-kilometer) -long DMZ that is jointly administered by the U.S.-led United Nations Command and North Korea to supervise the cease-fire.
Some analysts say one of the aims of the North's nuclear and missile tests is to strengthen its regime and boost morale in the impoverished nation.
Rallies were being held across the country for citizens and soldiers who were celebrating the nuclear test, KCNA said Saturday. It said speakers offered their "ardent congratulations" to nuclear scientists and engineers for bolstering the country's dignity.
by the associated press
Friday, May 29, 2009
Korean tension escalate
SEOUL, South Korea — The U.S. and South Korea put their military forces on high alert Thursday after North Korea renounced the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas since 1953.
The North also accused the U.S. of preparing to attack the isolated communist country in the wake of its second nuclear bomb test, and warned it would retaliate to any hostility with "merciless” and dangerous ferocity.
Seoul moved a 3,500-ton destroyer into waters near the Koreas’ disputed western maritime border while smaller, high-speed vessels were keeping guard at the front line, South Korean news reports said.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, positioned artillery guns along the west coast on its side of the border, the Yonhap news agency said. The Joint Chiefs of Staffs in Seoul refused to confirm the reports.
The show of force along the Korean border comes three days after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and fired a series of short-range missiles.
The South Korea-U.S. combined forces command rates its surveillance alert on a scale to 5, with 1 being the highest level. On Thursday, the level was raised from 3 to 2, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said. He said the last time the alert level was that high was in 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test.
Won said both militaries were raising their surveillance activities. South Korean media reported that the higher alert would involve increased monitoring of North Korea using satellites and navy ships.
by the associated press
The North also accused the U.S. of preparing to attack the isolated communist country in the wake of its second nuclear bomb test, and warned it would retaliate to any hostility with "merciless” and dangerous ferocity.
Seoul moved a 3,500-ton destroyer into waters near the Koreas’ disputed western maritime border while smaller, high-speed vessels were keeping guard at the front line, South Korean news reports said.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, positioned artillery guns along the west coast on its side of the border, the Yonhap news agency said. The Joint Chiefs of Staffs in Seoul refused to confirm the reports.
The show of force along the Korean border comes three days after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and fired a series of short-range missiles.
The South Korea-U.S. combined forces command rates its surveillance alert on a scale to 5, with 1 being the highest level. On Thursday, the level was raised from 3 to 2, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said. He said the last time the alert level was that high was in 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test.
Won said both militaries were raising their surveillance activities. South Korean media reported that the higher alert would involve increased monitoring of North Korea using satellites and navy ships.
by the associated press
Monday, May 25, 2009
North Korean nuclear test
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United Nations swiftly condemned North Korea for its test of a powerful nuclear bomb and South Korean announced Tuesday it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of spreading weapons of mass destruction.
The U.N. Security Council said the test was a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution banning North Korea from conducting nuclear development, and that it would start work immediately on a new resolution that could result in even stronger measures.
Russian officials said the nuclear bomb that the North detonated underground Monday was comparable to those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, raising fears that the communist country could spread such technology abroad.
In a further sign of the North's mounting standoff with the world, a report said the country was likely preparing to fire short-range missiles Tuesday off its western coast.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a defense source it did not identify, said North Korea banned ships from waters off its western coast and would probably fire short-range missiles as early as Tuesday. Yonhap reported Monday that the North fired short-range missiles off its eastern coast.
A Defense Ministry spokesman in Seoul said he was aware of the report though could not confirm it. He added that the North has routinely issued such shipping bans at this time of year due to military exercises.
President Barack Obama told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that the United States will protect his country from any possible North Korean aggression and called for a "strong resolution" by the U.N., Lee's spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said after the two leaders spoke by telephone Tuesday.
South Korea, which previously stayed out of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative in order to pursue reconciliation efforts with North Korea, set aside its reservations and announced it would join the pact immediately. The program involves stopping and searching ships suspected of carrying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, materials to make them, or missiles to deliver them.
North Korea previously has warned the South that its joining the program would be considered an act of war.
Earlier, Obama had criticized Pyongyang's "blatant defiance" of existing resolutions. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the test as a "danger to the world." Russia's Foreign Ministry called it "a serious blow to international efforts" to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
On Tuesday, North Korea accused the U.S. of hostility and said its army and people are ready to defeat an American invasion, accusing Obama of attempting to "militarily stifle" the communist country.
"The current U.S. administration is following in the footsteps of the previous Bush administration's reckless policy of militarily stifling North Korea," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
French officials said they would push for new sanctions, and even traditional Pyongyang ally China said it was "resolutely opposed" to the test, which Russian officials estimated yielded a powerful 10- to 20-kiloton blast — enough to flatten a city and far more than North Korea managed in a 2006 atomic test.
Pyongyang's unprecedented defiance has raised the stakes in the mounting standoff over its nuclear program.
Last month, Pyongyang launched a rocket despite international calls for restraint, abandoned international nuclear negotiations, restarted its nuclear plants and warned it would carry out the atomic and long-range missile tests.
"We're heading for a full-blown crisis with the North," said Peter Beck, a Korean affairs expert who teaches at American University in Washington.
The rise in tensions comes amid speculation about who will succeed North Korea's authoritarian leader, 67-year-old Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last August.
Kim, who inherited the leadership from his father in 1994 and rules the nation of 24 million with an iron fist, has three sons but has not publicly named a successor.
Though desperately poor, North Korea increasingly has turned inward. With last month's controversial rocket launch and Monday's nuclear test, Kim clearly wants to show that the nation remains strong, analysts said.
"Kim Jong Il is trying to demonstrate his virility and that they are a power to be reckoned with," Beck said.
Monday's atomic test was conducted shortly before 10 a.m. about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of the northern city of Kilju, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said, speaking on state-run Rossiya television.
The ministry said it estimated the test's yield at 10 to 20 kilotons.
Kilju, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, is where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 in a surprise move that drew wide-ranging sanctions from the Security Council.
North Korea boasted that Monday's test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control."
U.S. and French officials have said the 2006 test measured less than a kiloton; 1 kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT. Russia estimated the force of the 2006 blast at 5 to 15 kilotons, far higher than other estimates at the time.
by the associated press
The U.N. Security Council said the test was a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution banning North Korea from conducting nuclear development, and that it would start work immediately on a new resolution that could result in even stronger measures.
Russian officials said the nuclear bomb that the North detonated underground Monday was comparable to those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, raising fears that the communist country could spread such technology abroad.
In a further sign of the North's mounting standoff with the world, a report said the country was likely preparing to fire short-range missiles Tuesday off its western coast.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a defense source it did not identify, said North Korea banned ships from waters off its western coast and would probably fire short-range missiles as early as Tuesday. Yonhap reported Monday that the North fired short-range missiles off its eastern coast.
A Defense Ministry spokesman in Seoul said he was aware of the report though could not confirm it. He added that the North has routinely issued such shipping bans at this time of year due to military exercises.
President Barack Obama told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that the United States will protect his country from any possible North Korean aggression and called for a "strong resolution" by the U.N., Lee's spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said after the two leaders spoke by telephone Tuesday.
South Korea, which previously stayed out of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative in order to pursue reconciliation efforts with North Korea, set aside its reservations and announced it would join the pact immediately. The program involves stopping and searching ships suspected of carrying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, materials to make them, or missiles to deliver them.
North Korea previously has warned the South that its joining the program would be considered an act of war.
Earlier, Obama had criticized Pyongyang's "blatant defiance" of existing resolutions. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the test as a "danger to the world." Russia's Foreign Ministry called it "a serious blow to international efforts" to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
On Tuesday, North Korea accused the U.S. of hostility and said its army and people are ready to defeat an American invasion, accusing Obama of attempting to "militarily stifle" the communist country.
"The current U.S. administration is following in the footsteps of the previous Bush administration's reckless policy of militarily stifling North Korea," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
French officials said they would push for new sanctions, and even traditional Pyongyang ally China said it was "resolutely opposed" to the test, which Russian officials estimated yielded a powerful 10- to 20-kiloton blast — enough to flatten a city and far more than North Korea managed in a 2006 atomic test.
Pyongyang's unprecedented defiance has raised the stakes in the mounting standoff over its nuclear program.
Last month, Pyongyang launched a rocket despite international calls for restraint, abandoned international nuclear negotiations, restarted its nuclear plants and warned it would carry out the atomic and long-range missile tests.
"We're heading for a full-blown crisis with the North," said Peter Beck, a Korean affairs expert who teaches at American University in Washington.
The rise in tensions comes amid speculation about who will succeed North Korea's authoritarian leader, 67-year-old Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last August.
Kim, who inherited the leadership from his father in 1994 and rules the nation of 24 million with an iron fist, has three sons but has not publicly named a successor.
Though desperately poor, North Korea increasingly has turned inward. With last month's controversial rocket launch and Monday's nuclear test, Kim clearly wants to show that the nation remains strong, analysts said.
"Kim Jong Il is trying to demonstrate his virility and that they are a power to be reckoned with," Beck said.
Monday's atomic test was conducted shortly before 10 a.m. about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of the northern city of Kilju, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said, speaking on state-run Rossiya television.
The ministry said it estimated the test's yield at 10 to 20 kilotons.
Kilju, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, is where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 in a surprise move that drew wide-ranging sanctions from the Security Council.
North Korea boasted that Monday's test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control."
U.S. and French officials have said the 2006 test measured less than a kiloton; 1 kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT. Russia estimated the force of the 2006 blast at 5 to 15 kilotons, far higher than other estimates at the time.
by the associated press
Thursday, May 14, 2009
N. Korean arms
SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean authorities have found no concrete evidence yet that North Korea is reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to harvest weapons-grade plutonium, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed official.
North Korea said last month it had begun the reprocessing work at its once-mothballed Yongbyon nuclear complex — one of a series of steps the communist nation has taken in protest over international criticism of its April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang also has quit international nuclear talks, kicked out all international nuclear monitors and threatened to conduct its second nuclear atomic blast and a missile test.
The North conducted its first-ever nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said the ministry does not comment on intelligence matters.
by the associated press
North Korea said last month it had begun the reprocessing work at its once-mothballed Yongbyon nuclear complex — one of a series of steps the communist nation has taken in protest over international criticism of its April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang also has quit international nuclear talks, kicked out all international nuclear monitors and threatened to conduct its second nuclear atomic blast and a missile test.
The North conducted its first-ever nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said the ministry does not comment on intelligence matters.
by the associated press
Saturday, May 9, 2009
U.S. urges North Korea to open nuclear talks
SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama’s top envoy for North Korea warned of possible "consequences” if the regime pushes ahead with a threatened atomic test and urged Pyongyang to instead return to dialogue with Washington to defuse nuclear tensions.
Stephen Bosworth arrived in Seoul from Beijing just hours after North Korea accused the Obama administration of harboring a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, saying it would expand its nuclear arsenal in response.
"Nothing would be expected from the U.S., which remains unchanged in its hostility toward its dialogue partner,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried Friday by state media. The North "will bolster its nuclear deterrent as it has already clarified.”
Bosworth urged North Korea — which shocked the world by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 — not to carry out another atomic test, as the communist regime has threatened to do in retaliation for U.N. sanctions against its recent rocket launch
"If the North Koreans decide to carry out a second nuclear test, we will deal with consequences of that. And there will be consequences,” Bosworth said, without elaborating.
Bosworth’s trip to the region came as North Korea continued to ratchet up nuclear tensions following its controversial April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang characterized the launch as a successful bid to send a satellite into space.
The U.S. and others saw it as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from ballistic missile-related activity since the same technology can be used to fire an intercontinental missile mounted with nuclear arms.
by the associated press
Stephen Bosworth arrived in Seoul from Beijing just hours after North Korea accused the Obama administration of harboring a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, saying it would expand its nuclear arsenal in response.
"Nothing would be expected from the U.S., which remains unchanged in its hostility toward its dialogue partner,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried Friday by state media. The North "will bolster its nuclear deterrent as it has already clarified.”
Bosworth urged North Korea — which shocked the world by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 — not to carry out another atomic test, as the communist regime has threatened to do in retaliation for U.N. sanctions against its recent rocket launch
"If the North Koreans decide to carry out a second nuclear test, we will deal with consequences of that. And there will be consequences,” Bosworth said, without elaborating.
Bosworth’s trip to the region came as North Korea continued to ratchet up nuclear tensions following its controversial April 5 rocket launch.
Pyongyang characterized the launch as a successful bid to send a satellite into space.
The U.S. and others saw it as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from ballistic missile-related activity since the same technology can be used to fire an intercontinental missile mounted with nuclear arms.
by the associated press
Thursday, April 30, 2009
If North Korea don't get apology they threaten nuclear test
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Wednesday to conduct nuclear and missile tests unless the U.N. apologizes for criticizing its April 5 rocket launch, dramatically raising its stake in the worsening standoff over its atomic programs.
North Korea is known for harsh rhetoric, but it is unusual for it to threaten a nuclear test.
The North’s ministry also said the country will build a light-water nuclear reactor and start developing technologies to produce nuclear fuel.
Pyongyang conducted its first-ever atomic test blast in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least half a dozen nuclear bombs. But experts have said the country is not believed to have mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile.
The U.N. Council adopted a statement earlier this month denouncing the North’s rocket launch and calling for tightening sanctions. Pyongyang has claimed the rebuke is unfair because the liftoff was a peaceful satellite launch. But the U.S. and others believe it was a test of long-range missile technology.
Wednesday’s threat came days after the North said it had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex — a move aimed at harvesting weapons-grade plutonium.
Maximizing stakes
"The North is trying to maximize the stakes as the United States keeps ignoring it,” professor Kim Yong-hyun at Seoul’s Dongguk University said of the threat.
by the associated press
North Korea is known for harsh rhetoric, but it is unusual for it to threaten a nuclear test.
The North’s ministry also said the country will build a light-water nuclear reactor and start developing technologies to produce nuclear fuel.
Pyongyang conducted its first-ever atomic test blast in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least half a dozen nuclear bombs. But experts have said the country is not believed to have mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile.
The U.N. Council adopted a statement earlier this month denouncing the North’s rocket launch and calling for tightening sanctions. Pyongyang has claimed the rebuke is unfair because the liftoff was a peaceful satellite launch. But the U.S. and others believe it was a test of long-range missile technology.
Wednesday’s threat came days after the North said it had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex — a move aimed at harvesting weapons-grade plutonium.
Maximizing stakes
"The North is trying to maximize the stakes as the United States keeps ignoring it,” professor Kim Yong-hyun at Seoul’s Dongguk University said of the threat.
by the associated press
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