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North Korea (Superthread)

This should be a further indication of where China and Russia really stand this time around, unlike the "first" Korean War.

June 10 (Bloomberg) -- China and Russia have agreed on a United Nations draft resolution backed by the U.S. and Japan that would seek to curb loans and money transfers to North Korea as punishment for its nuclear-bomb test and missile launches, according to diplomats representing Security Council members.

The countries also will support the interdiction at sea of cargo ships suspected of carrying nuclear-related material to or from North Korea, according to a copy of the draft resolution obtained by Bloomberg News.

The measure will be circulated to the 15-nation UN Security Council today and put to a vote this week, the diplomats said. Support from China and Russia, which have resisted tighter sanctions on North Korea, makes it likely the draft resolution will be adopted unanimously.

The text calls on UN members to inspect cargo at seaports, airports or in international waters if there’s any suspicion that it contains material that might contribute to North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. The resolution also would prohibit the refueling or servicing of such vessels.

The U.S. would be authorized to stop and inspect North Korean vessels “if there are reasonable grounds” to believe the cargo includes prohibited goods. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on ABC-TV’s “This Week” program on June 7 that the U.S. was working “very hard to create a mechanism where we can interdict North Korean shipments.”

(....) 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aLHFniH1sBD0
 
And here we go again:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_nkorea_nuclear

:o

AP source: NKorea may be prepping new nuclear test

23 mins ago
WASHINGTON – A U.S. government official says North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the dictatorship for conducting an underground nuclear explosion in May. Word of a possible new test comes from an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

North Korea conducted an underground explosion on May 25, its first since a 2006 atomic test.

A draft U.N. resolution proposed Wednesday would impose tough sanctions on North Korea's weapons exports and financial dealings and allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas. North Korea has threatened to retaliate if new sanctions are adopted.
 
You've got to ask the question though, why do journalists or freelancers keep trying or ignoring the warnings not to enter NK? Am sure some that enter try to get juicey stories to sneak out and then when they get caught, they cry foul  ::)

It's simple, stay away from there if you don't want to labeled a "spy". It's hardly a hot vacation destination.
 
The DPRK is in dire economic straights and is reverting to form since nuclear blackmail was quite successful during the Clinton admininstration. They almost certainly perceive the Obama administration as being weak and uninterested in foreign policy and probably expect the usual shower of food, oil and cash in response to their actions.

The new wild cards are the Russians and Chinese seeing that an unstable nuclear DPRK is not in their national interests (although how Russia and China see the DPRK or a unified "Greater Korea" fitting into their national interests is an interesting question). The recent support of increased sanctions indicates these powers no longer see the benefits of tying the United States down with the DPRK's nuclear sabre rattling outweigh the risks, and are preparing to stabilize the situation to their own benefit.

Of course the most frightening potential outcome is if the Russians and Chinese come to the conclusion that their national interests are best served by opposite outcomes in the DPRK......
 
And in response to your last post CougarDaddy....

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Saturday threatened military action if the United States tried to isolate it after the U.N. Security Council imposed widened sanctions against the reclusive communist state for a nuclear test in May.


The North also vowed to start a programme to enrich uranium and to weaponise plutonium at its nuclear weapons plant, the North's official news agency KCNA quoted its foreign ministry spokesman as saying.


The sanctions resolution approved on Friday banned all weapons exports from North Korea and most arms imports into the state. It authorized U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.


A senior South Korean official said that North Korea may possibly respond to U.N. punishment with "another nuclear test and maybe more missiles."


"They will never, never give up their nuclear weapons," said the official who asked not to be named due to the sensitive subject matter.

Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090613/world/international_us_korea_north
 
A post at Dust my Broom:

Kim Bomb Il (cont.), a "Brilliant Comrade", and...
http://dustmybroom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11853:kim-bomb-il-cont-a-qbrilliant-comradeq-and&catid=43:drama-city

...useless UN Security Council sanctions...

Mark
Ottawa
 
MarkOttawa said:
A post at Dust my Broom:

Kim Bomb Il (cont.), a "Brilliant Comrade", and...
http://dustmybroom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11853:kim-bomb-il-cont-a-qbrilliant-comradeq-and&catid=43:drama-city

Mark
Ottawa

Very fitting name- Kim Bomb Il.
;D
 
China and Russia on board for North Korea sanctions
Robust message for North Korea

_45916470_007481920-1.jpg

There are fears of a possible incident
between North and South Korean ships


"Actions must have consequences." That was US President Barack Obama's cry in the wake
of North Korea's second underground nuclear test at the end of last month. Accordingly, the
unanimous adoption of this resolution containing tougher sanctions against North Korea
represents a significant rebuff for the Pyongyang government.

Russia and China backed the agreed text. North Korea can be in no doubt about the concerted
international disapproval for its actions. Tough words have been accompanied by tougher
actions - up to a point.

A battery of measures are set to reinforce the sanctions regime against Pyongyang. There is a
total embargo on exports of weaponry from North Korea and significantly expanded controls
on arms exports to it. A new framework is being established for international co-operation to
inspect North Korean cargoes for anything associated with weapons of mass destruction. There
are additional financial sanctions too, along with strengthened measures to monitor the whole
sanctions regime.

However, much of this still depends upon the actions of individual governments and none more
so than North Korea's giant neighbour - China.

'Complex and sensitive'

China's UN ambassador Zhang Yesui took a more nuanced approach to the resolution insisting that
it was "an appropriate and balanced response" and that it sent a positive signal to Pyongyang that
its nuclear problems had to be resolved by negotiation. It is clear that China remains deeply uneasy
about the whole business of cargo inspections. This was, he said, a "complex and sensitive" matter.
China is urging countries to approach this in a legal and reasonable way and that there should be no
question of using force.

Russia too stressed that this resolution was not offering an opportunity for military action against
Pyongyang and that the measures outlined on stopping and searching ships were circumscribed and
narrow in scope. None of this suggests that the new sanctions regime is necessarily going to bite.

But the US and its allies like Japan and South Korea will want to bank the fact that Russia and China
are on board. The diplomatic front at least against Pyongyang is reasonably solid with a clear message
for North Korea to return to the negotiating table.

Dangerous times

What is not yet clear is what additional unilateral steps the Obama administration might take against
Pyongyang. It could seek to toughen financial restrictions and it might even restore North Korea to the
list of countries sponsoring terrorism. North Korea's actions are clear but its motivation is much less so.

Some analysts argue that North Korea is trying to attract the attention of the new US president to push
the whole issue of its nuclear programme higher up Washington's agenda.

Others argue that North Korea's nuclear and missile tests relate more to internal developments, bolstering
the public image of the regime and possibly preparing the way for a transfer of power from the ailing,
elderly Kim Jong-il to one of his sons. But these are dangerous and uncertain times.

There are growing fears of a possible incident between North and South Korean ships along the Northern
Limit Line - the disputed western maritime extension of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.
All eyes now will be on Pyongyang's reaction with many analysts fearing it may respond with more bangs
- in the form of missile tests - and more bluster.
 
Another notable update: the South Korea/ROK President is in the US for a visit/summit, supposedly to get security guarantees from Obama.

Agence France-Presse - 6/15/2009 8:35 PM GMT
SKorean leader in US as NKorea tension soars
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on Monday started a visit to the United States to plan action on North Korea, which staged a giant rally in a defiant show of support for its nuclear drive.

The US Congress approved a resolution supporting Lee against the North hours after he arrived. Lee was due to meet late Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before a summit Tuesday with President Barack Obama.

Lee was expected to ask Obama for explicit security guarantees after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb, stormed out of a six-nation disarmament accord and scrapped six decades of accords with the South.


The North's ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Monday that Lee's request was "intolerable" and said that such commitment would be "virtually formalizing a provocation for nuclear war."

Dennis Blair, the US intelligence chief, said Monday that a scientific analysis concluded that North Korea "probably" carried out its second-ever nuclear test in May with a yield of "a few kilotons."

The UN Security Council last week tightened sanctions against North Korea over the test, including calling for stricter inspections of cargo suspected of containing banned missile and nuclear-related items.

North Korean state media said that some 100,000 people rallied in Pyongyang against the UN Security Council resolution, blaming Washington for organizing it.

North Korea is ready to "deal telling blows at the vital parts of the US and wipe out all its imperialist aggressor troops no matter where they are in the world," military officer Pak Jae-Gyong was quoted as telling the rally.

Lee, a conservative businessman, took office last year. To the delight of many in Washington, he reversed a decade-long "sunshine policy" under which Seoul provided aid to the impoverished North with few conditions.

In Seoul, Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek said that North Korea never intended to give up its atomic weaponry and is thought to have been developing a secret program for seven to eight years despite taking part in talks.

In its response to the UN Security Council resolution, the communist state vowed Saturday to build more bombs and to start a new weapons program based on uranium enrichment.

Hyun told a parliamentary hearing he believes the enrichment program -- a second route to an atomic bomb after the North's admitted plutonium operation -- had in fact been in existence for years.


"As the US raised the accusation in 2002, I believe (the uranium enrichment program) had started before that. I believe it has been there for at least seven to eight years," Hyun said in answer to a question.

Several analysts and officials believe ailing leader Kim Jong-Il, 67, is intensifying military tensions to bolster his authority as he tries to put in place a succession plan involving his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un.

Amid US reports that North Korea could be preparing its third nuclear test, South Korea has sent extra troops and naval units to border islands seen as a likely flashpoint.
The US House of Representatives approved a resolution demanding that North Korea end its "hostile rhetoric" against Seoul and abide by UN resolutions and the six-nation nuclear accord.

"I think it's important that the president and the secretary of state know that Congress will stand behind them if they have to take stronger action," said the resolution's main sponsor, Republican Congressman Peter King.

"I think everything should be on the table," he said.
 
Reporters 'admit' N Korea entry

_45865849_9c10a658-43c2-4b43-8cf8-061eb4970614.jpg

The reporters were arrested while
working on the China-N Korea border


Two US journalists who were jailed last week in North Korea have admitted entering the country illegally,
according to state news agency KCNA. Laura Ling and Euna Lee "admitted and accepted" their sentences,
KCNA said.

The two women were given jail terms of 12 years' hard labour, after being found guilty of crossing into
North Korea from the Chinese border in March. KCNA also said they had admitted getting footage for a
"smear campaign" about North Korea's human rights.

The women's families have always claimed that Lee, 36, and Ling, 32, had no intention of crossing into
North Korea. They fear the two reporters may become political pawns in negotiations between Washington
and Pyongyang, amid growing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme and recent missile tests.

'Criminal acts'

Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, were arrested by North Korean guards
on 17 March while filming a video about refugees for California-based internet broadcaster Current TV. They
were detained in Pyongyang, and on 8 June they were found guilty of "hostile acts" and illegal entry into
North Korea.

"The accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts... prompted by the political motive to isolate
and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK [North Korea]," KCNA said on Tuesday, giving its first details
about the women's alleged crimes. The news agency added that the pair had crossed the border "for the
purpose of making animation files to be used for an anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described the charges against the two women as "baseless". She
is thought to be considering sending an envoy to try to negotiate their release. But supporters of Ling and
Lee are concerned that their plight will be exacerbated by worsening relations between North Korea and
the US.

Bargaining chips?

Tensions have increased in the region since North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May and then test-
fired several missiles. Another long-range missile test is believed to be planned for later this month.
Pyongyang announced on Saturday that it would start enriching uranium and use all its plutonium to
make nuclear weapons in response to tighter UN sanctions passed on Friday.

The new UN sanctions include the inspection of ships suspected of taking banned cargo to and from North
Korea, a wider ban on arms sales and further measures to cut Pyongyang's access to international
financial services.

There are fears Lee and Ling will be used by North Korea as bargaining chips to try to win concessions
from Washington, such as humanitarian aid or direct talks. The US has so far said negotiations can only
be held under the currently-stalled six-party talks on nuclear disarmament, which also include South
Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

The KCNA report on the two journalists was released just hours before South Korean President Lee Myung-
bak was due to hold talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington.
 
U.S. to Confront, Not Board, North Korean Ships

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect
North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by
force, senior administration officials said Monday.

The new effort to intercept North Korean ships, and track them to their next port, where Washington
will press for the inspections they refused at sea, is part of what the officials described as “vigorous
enforcement” of the United Nations Security Council resolution approved Friday.

The planned American action stops just short of the forced inspections that North Korea has said that
it would regard as an act of war. Still, the administration’s plans, if fully executed, would amount to
the most confrontational approach taken by the United States in dealing with North Korea in years,
and carries a risk of escalating tensions at a time when North Korea has been carrying out missile
and nuclear tests.

In discussing President Obama’s strategy on Monday, administration officials said that the United
States would report any ship that refused inspection to the Security Council. While the Navy and
American intelligence agencies continued to track the ship, the administration would mount a
vigorous diplomatic effort to insist that the inspections be carried out by any country that allowed
the vessel into port.

The officials said that they believed that China, once a close cold war ally, would also enforce the
new sanctions, which also require countries to refuse to refuel or resupply ships suspected of
carrying out arms and nuclear technology. “China will implement the resolution earnestly,” said
Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said.

One official in Washington said the administration was told by their Chinese counterparts that China
“would not have signed on to this resolution unless they intended to enforce it.”

The strategy of ordering ships to stop but not provoking military action by boarding them was negotiated
among Washington, Beijing and Moscow. It is unclear to what degree South Korea or Japan, at various
times bitter adversaries of North Korea, would order their naval forces to join in the effort to intercept
suspected shipments at sea, largely because of fears about what would happen if North Korean ships
opened fire.

A senior administration official said Monday evening that the United States believed that it already had
sufficient intelligence and naval assets in the Sea of Japan to track North Korean ships and flights. The
country’s cargo fleet is relatively small, and the North is wary, officials say, of entrusting shipments
banned by the United Nations to Panamanian-flagged freighters or those from other countries.

Until now, American interceptions of North Korean ships have been rare. Early in the Bush administration,
a shipment of missiles to Yemen was discovered, but the United States permitted the shipment to go
through after the Yemenis said they had paid for the missiles and expected delivery. Under the new
United Nations resolution, American officials said they now had the authority to seize such shipments.

The senior administration officials outlined Mr. Obama’s approach a day before the president was to meet
for the first time on Tuesday with South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who has been
far more confrontational in his dealings with North Korea than most of his predecessors.

The resolution authorizes nations to seek to stop suspect North Korean shipments on the high seas, but
they do not authorize forcible boarding or inspections. “The captains will be confronted,” one official said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing a security operation that America’s
key allies had only been partially briefed on. Even if they refused to allow inspections, the official said,
“These guys aren’t going to get very far.”

While the captain of a ship may refuse inspection, as the North Koreans almost certainly would, the Obama
administration officials noted that most North Korean vessels have limited range and would have to seek
out ports in search of fuel and supplies. American officials believe that previous North Korean shipments
of nuclear technology and missiles have gone undetected. The North Koreans were deeply involved in the
construction of a reactor in Syria until September 2007, when the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air
raid. But no ships or aircraft carrying parts for that reactor were ever found.

Mr. Obama’s decisions about North Korea stem from a fundamentally different assessment of the North’s
intentions than that of previous administrations. Nearly 16 years of on-and-off negotiations — punctuated
by major crises in 1994 and 2003 — were based on an assumption that ultimately, the North was willing
to give up its nuclear capability. A review, carried out by the Obama administration during its first month
in office, concluded that North Korea had no intention of trading away what it calls its “nuclear deterrent”
in return for food, fuel and security guarantees.

Mr. Obama’s aides have said that while the new president is willing to re-engage in either the talks with
North Korea and its neighbors, or in direct bilateral discussions, he will not agree to an incremental
dismantlement of the North’s nuclear facilities. “There are ways to do this that are truly irreversible,”
said one of Mr. Obama’s aides, declining to be specific.

North Korea is already working to reverse the dismantlement of some of its facilities negotiated in
Mr. Bush’s last days in office. In the weeks ahead of and after its second nuclear test, conducted May 25,
North Korea has disavowed its past commitments to give up those weapons, and said it would never bow
to the demands of the United States, its allies, or the United Nations. On Saturday the North said that it
would reprocess its remaining stockpile of spent nuclear fuel into plutonium, adding to an existing stockpile
believed sufficient to make six or eight weapons.

Such announcements have heightened fears that North Korea’s next step could be to sell more of its nuclear
or missile technology, one of the few profitable exports of a broken, starving country. The result is that
Mr. Obama, in his first year in office, is putting into effect many of the harshest steps against North Korea
that were advocated by conservatives in the Bush White House, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

The new approach, officials said, will also exploit elements of the Security Council resolution to try to close
down the subsidiaries of North Korean missile makers in China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, where
the North has its biggest customers.

Xiyun Yang contributed reporting from Beijing.
 
Sorry, help the dumb guy out.  What is the point of that? 
"Hey, do you mind if we come aboard and prove that you are engaged in nuclear proliferation?"
"Yes I do.  Go pound salt."
"Okay, thanks, just asking.  Calm seas and fair winds!".

And what if they don't want to stop?  Can you open fire or disable a ship, then not board it and leave?  This doesn't make sense to me.  And KJI doesn't strike me as the kind to be impressed by sabre rattling. 
 
Same rational as in almost any other "crisis" situation, make a grand gesture so you appear to be doing something......
 
And here we go again.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 18, 7:48 am ET
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.


While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country's main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.

The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.

It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.

The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.

The comments — contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues — included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.

"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.

___

Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Jae-soon Chang and Ji-youn Oh in Seoul and Mike Eckel in Moscow contributed to this report.
 
Obama comments on N Korea 'test', 21 June 2009, BBC News
President Barack Obama says the US is "fully prepared" for a possible missile test
by North Korea over the Pacific.

North Korea accuses Obama of war plot, June 22, 2009, The Daily Star
North Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the
communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North's
state media said. In a first official response to last week's US-South Korean summit, the
state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition Obama and South Korean
President Lee Myung-Bak "are trying to ignite a nuclear war".

"The US-touted provision of 'extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella' (for South
Korea) is nothing but 'a nuclear war plan,'" Tongil Sinbo said. It said it wasn't a coincidence
that the United States has brought "nuclear equipment into South Korea and its surroundings
and staged massive war drills every day to look for a chance to invade North Korea."

Pyongyang has created weeks of tension by conducting a second nuclear test and test-firing
missiles.



U.S. Destroyer Shadows N. Korean Ship, June 21, 2009, NY Times

SEOUL — A North Korean cargo ship shadowed by a United States Navy destroyer
was reportedly steaming toward Myanmar on Sunday, posing what could be the first
test of how far the United States and its allies will go under a new United Nations
resolution to stop the North’s military shipments
.

The United States began tracking the 2,000-ton freighter Kang Nam after it left Nampo,
a port near Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday. Pentagon officials have said they
suspect the ship of carrying prohibited materials, but have declined to say where it may
be headed. North Korea has said it would consider interception an “act of war” and act
accordingly.

Over the weekend, the North’s state-run news media vowed to “respond to sanctions with
retaliation.” It also threatened “unlimited retaliatory strikes” against South Korea if it
cooperated with the United Nations Security Council sanctions.

A South Korean cable news channel, YTN, quoted an unidentified intelligence source on
Sunday as saying that American authorities suspected the ship of carrying missiles or
related parts. The network also said the Kang Nam 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.

The Kang Nam is the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the resolution adopted
by the United Nations Security Council on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May 25
nuclear test. The resolution bans North Korean trafficking in a wide range of nuclear and
conventional weaponry, and calls upon United Nations members 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 local authorities there.

If the ship is heading to Myanmar, another nation defying international weapons sanctions,
a port there would be unlikely to comply with the United Nations request.

Shortly after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, the Kang Nam was
detained in Hong Kong following a Security Council resolution banning trade in nuclear
and ballistic missile technology. But then the ship was found to be carrying no cargo.
The potential high-seas confrontation over the Kang Nam came as United States defense
officials planned to travel to South Korea, Japan and China this week to discuss how to
enforce the sanctions. Last week, Washington urged banks to become more vigilant
against financial transactions involving North Korea. It also said it has deployed a floating
radar base near Hawaii to guard against a long-range North Korean missile.

The North’s hostility toward the outside world was also driving the country deeper into
isolation. According to a report released Sunday by South Korea’s customs authorities,
trade between the two Koreas plunged 38 percent from a year earlier to $106 million
in May. It marked the ninth straight monthly decline in inter-Korean trade.
 
NKorea threatens to harm US if attacked, The Daily Star

N Korea defends nuclear programme, BBC News

North Korea has boasted of being a "proud nuclear power" and warned the US
that it will strike back if attacked. The statement came after US President Barack
Obama said Washington was "fully prepared" for a possible North Korean missile
test.

There have been recent warnings in South Korean and Japanese newspapers that
the North is preparing another long-range missile launch. The UN toughened sanctions
against the North after a nuclear test on 25 May.

The North has also recently test-fired a number of short-range missiles recently, and
in April launched a long-range rocket - which it said was to put a satellite into orbit but
which the US said was a missile test. Military analysts say North Korea's longest-range
missile - the Taepodong-2 - has the potential range to reach Hawaii and parts of Alaska.


'Grave mistake'

"As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the US should take a correct
look at whom it is dealing with," said the commentary in Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper
of North Korea's ruling communist party. "It is a grave mistake for the US to think it will
not be hurt if it ignores this and ignites the fuse of war on the Korean Peninsula."

The commentary was published after President Obama said the US military was ready to
defend American territory. "This administration - and our military - is fully prepared for
any contingencies," Mr Obama said in an interview to be aired by CBS television on
Monday.

Asked if Washington was warning of a military response, Mr Obama said no. He added:
"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals. But I do want to give assurances to the
American people that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted."

Meanwhile, a US naval vessel is tracking a North Korean ship believed to be heading for
Burma via Singapore. South Korea's YTN news reported, citing intelligence sources, that
the ship was suspected of carrying illicit weapons in violation of sanctions agreed under
a new UN resolution.

China and Russia - the country's traditional allies - approved the sanctions earlier this month,
and called for North Korea to return to international talks on its nuclear programme. The UN
resolution calls for inspections of ships to or from North Korea believed to be carrying goods
connected to weapons of mass destruction. It also broadens the arms embargo and further
cuts the North's access to the international financial system, but does not authorise the use
of force.
 
Hawaiians Shrug Off Missile Threat

HONOLULU — Hawaii has long lived with the threat of wipe out, whether by tsunami,
volcano or foreign invader. Now the Obama administration says North Korea could
launch a ballistic missile in the state’s direction — possibly around the Fourth of July,
according to the Japanese news media — prompting the United States military to
beef up defenses here.

Antimissile interceptors are in place, the Defense Department said, and Hawaiians
watched the other day as a giant, towering radar commonly known as the golf ball
set out to sea from the base where it is normally moored. But if lifelong residents
like Gerald Aikau are on any state of alert, it would be the one telling him that his
octopus, caught in the waters here with a spear and his bare hands, is overcooked.

“What are you going to do?” Mr. Aikau, 34, a commercial painter, said as he proudly
grilled his catch at a beachfront park. “You are going to go sometime, whether it’s
on a wave, or a missile, or your buddy knocking you down and you hit your head.”

Vulnerability, and a certain fatalism about it, are part of the fabric of life in this
archipelago, 2,500 miles from the mainland and, as many residents seem to have
memorized since the Obama administration raised the alarm last week, 4,500 miles
from North Korea. People took comfort in the heavy, year-round military presence
provided by several bases here but also wondered if it made the state more of a
target.

In an interview Monday on CBS’s “Early Show,” President Obama, who was born and
spent much of his youth here, said, “Our military is fully prepared for any contingencies”
regarding North Korea.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Thursday that the military had deployed
ground-based interceptors and sea-based radar to help deflect any long-range missile
from North Korea. Calls to Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, were referred to Maj. Gen.
Robert G. F. Lee, the state’s defense department director, who suggested the threat was
more saber-rattling from North Korea. He questioned whether its missiles had the
technological capacity to go very far, but just the same, he said, the state was ready
for hostile action.

“Our military assets should be able to protect us,” said General Lee, whose duties include
civil defense. “We, like all states, are prepared for natural disasters down to terrorism.”
He said the state’s disaster sirens were working, and residents, as always, were advised
to keep a three-day supply of food, water, medicine and other essentials in stock. “Out
here by ourselves, we have to be a little more prepared, just in case help does not get
here quickly from the mainland,” he said.

Of course, the specter of Pearl Harbor still figures prominently here, as well as the cat-
and-mouse of cold war maneuverings off the coast, including the mysterious loss of a
Soviet ballistic-missile submarine 750 miles northwest of Oahu in 1968.

“We are first strike from Asia,” said State Representative Joseph M. Souki, 76, a Democrat,
who still remembers the wave of anxiety that swept his neighborhood on Maui as Pearl
Harbor was bombed. “It’s not like we are in Iowa.” Still, he said, “more than likely nothing
is going to happen.” “Hawaii is like a pawn in a chess game,” he added.

The state can ill afford anything approximating a calamity. The recession has been blamed
for a nearly 11 percent drop in the number of visitors here last year compared with the year
before. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May reached 7.4 percent, up from
6.9 percent in April and the highest in three decades. The tourists that did come carried on
as usual, taking surfing lessons, strolling Waikiki Beach and reflecting at the U.S.S. Arizona
Memorial, whose park includes a display of old Polaris submarine-launched missiles.

“Send one of these babies up,” suggested Clifton Wannaker, 45, an accountant from South
Dakota, when told of the North Korean threat. He knocked on the missile’s skin for good
measure.

Standing at the shoreline in view of the Arizona Memorial, Steve Brecheen, 54, a pharmacist
from Oklahoma City, seemed a bit more unnerved. “North Korea seems the most unstable
government as far as a threat to the U.S. is concerned,” Mr. Brecheen said. He motioned to
the memorial, which sits over the remains of the battleship sunk by the Japanese in the Pearl
Harbor attack. “In 1941, some of these people didn’t think the Japanese were an extreme
threat, and they got their minds changed pretty quickly,” he said.

But among Hawaiians, skepticism is mixed with annoyance and even anger that their state,
hypothetically at least, could be a testing ground. “I think they would be stupid to do that test,”
said Misioki Tauiliili, 39, a delivery truck driver, taking in the placid scene at a city beach near
Waikiki. “The U.S. should go out there and shake them.” By that he meant the United States
perhaps firing its own rockets in North Korea’s direction, “to test them.”

Mark N. Brown, 49, an artist painting nearby, was less bellicose. He said he took comfort in
the steps the military had taken and remained concerned that an act of aggression by North
Korea would lead to war. But, with a wry smile, he added that a neighboring island, far less
populated but a bit closer to North Korea, would probably take the hit.

“It would hit Kauai,” he said. “We are on Oahu.”

Mele Connor, 55, a lifelong Hawaiian shopping with visitors from the mainland at a clothing store
on Waikiki, laughed off the threat. “After North Korea, it will be somebody else,” she said. “They
know Obama is from here, so they want something. Everybody wants something from our pretty
little islands.”
 
An update: It appears that the North Korean ship being monitored by the USN has been carrying weapons destined for Myanmar, or Burma, another pariah state.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 4 mins ago
SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Myanmar carrying small arms cargo banned under a new U.N. resolution, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday.

Still, analysts say a high seas interception — something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war — is unlikely.

The Kang Nam, accused of engaging in illicit trade in the past, is the first vessel monitored under the new sanctions designed to punish the North for its defiant nuclear test last month. The U.S. military began tracking the ship after it left a North Korean port on Wednesday on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons.

A South Korean intelligence official said Monday that his agency believes the North Korean ship is carrying small weapons and is sailing toward the Myanmar city of Yangon.


The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the information, said he could provide no further details.

Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the U.S. and the European Union, reportedly has bought weapons from North Korea in the past.

The Irrawaddy, an online magazine operated by independent exiled journalists from Myanmar, reported Monday that the North Korean ship would dock at the Thilawa port, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Yangon, in the next few days.

The magazine cited an unidentified port official as saying that North Korean ships have docked there in the past. The magazine's in-depth coverage of Myanmar has been generally reliable in the past.

South Korean television network YTN reported Sunday that the ship was streaming toward Myanmar but said the vessel appeared to be carrying missiles and related parts. The report cited an unidentified intelligence source in South Korea.


Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the North is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Myanmar but not missiles, which it has been accused of exporting to Iran and Syria.

The U.N. sanctions, which toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea, ban the country from exporting all weapons and weapons-related material, meaning any weapons shipment to Myanmar would violate the resolution.

The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states 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. But that requires approval from the North.

If the North refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."

North Korea, however, is unlikely to allow any inspection of its cargo, making an interception unlikely, said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul.

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Any chance for an armed skirmish between the two ships is low, analysts say, though the North Korean crew is possibly armed with rifles.

"It's still a cargo ship. A cargo ship can't confront a warship," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.


Tension on the Korean peninsula has been running high since the North's May 25 nuclear test, with Pyongyang and Washington exchanging near-daily accusations against each other.

President Barack Obama assured Americans in an interview broadcast Monday that the U.S. is prepared for any move North Korea might make amid media reports that Pyongyang is planning a long-range missile test in early July.

"This administration — and our military — is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama said during an interview with CBS News' "The Early Show."

Still, ever defiant, North Korea declared itself a "proud nuclear power" and warned Monday that it would strike if provoked.

"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 country's main Rodong Sinmun said in commentary. "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."
 
They are really asking for it(to be pulverized), aren't they?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090624/world/as_koreas_nuclear

NKorea threatens US as Washington, allies watch for signs of another missile launch
1 hour, 3 minutes ago



By Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press


SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.


Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.


The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.


The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.



"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.


The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.


The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.


Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.


Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.


North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.


South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometres) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometres) during the no-sail period.


A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short-or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.


U.S. defence and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short-to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.


South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.


Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.


Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.


In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defence officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defence Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

-

Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang in Seoul; Pauline Jelinek, Pamela Hess and Lolita Baldor in Washington and Min Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
 
Here's my solution:

Hire Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, Nuke Raider. Her mission? To seek out Kim Jong Il, Dear Leader, abduct him and subject him to a good spanking, by none other than Lara Croft.

But he'd probably enjoy that!!  ;D
Seriously, Kim Jong Il is asking for a good b!tch slapping.
 
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