South Korean warship sinks

[buglerbilly]

North Korea at it again? Bit of a mystery this one at the moment.............

South Korea investigates whether North involved in ship sinking

A South Korean warship sank on Friday killing dozens of sailors after an explosion ripped a hole in its stern close to the disputed maritime border with North Korea.

By Rob Crilly

Published: 6:42PM GMT 26 Mar 2010

The government in Seoul convened an emergency meeting of security ministers as officials investigated whether a North Korean torpedo attack was responsible.

Earlier in the day, North Korea's military threatened "unpredictable strikes," including a nuclear attack, in anger over a report that South Korea and the US were preparing for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

Last night six naval ships and two coast guard vessels were deployed to rescue survivors among the 104-strong crew.

More than 50 sailors were plucked alive from the Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong island but fears were growing for the safety of the others.

The stretch of water has been the scene of deadly clashes between the rivals in the past and tensions have grown in recent months.

A second South Korean vessel opened fire on an unidentified target to the north shortly after the explosion, amid fears the explosion was caused by a torpedo strike, according to the country's Yonhap news agency.

However, the target turned out to be a flock of birds, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The 1500-ton Cheonan began sinking at about 21.45 local time (1245 GMT).

"The ship appears to have begun sinking after an explosion at the rear of the ship," said the South Korean Navy in a statement. "We have been unable to find the exact cause of the incident as of this moment."

A government source told YTN television that officials were investigating several possible causes, including an attack by a North Korean torpedo boat, a mine or an explosion of munitions aboard the ship.

The explosion took place near a disputed Yellow Sea maritime border off the west coast of the peninsula that was the scene of two deadly naval fights between the rival Koreas in the past decade.

Last November the two navies exchanged fire in the area for the first time in seven years. Seoul's officials said a North Korean patrol boat had retreated in flames but its casualties were unknown. No South Koreans were hurt.

In January the North fired 370 artillery shells into the sea near the border, raising tensions between the two sides.

The North refuses to accept the maritime frontier known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn up by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War. It says the line should run further to the south.

The latest incident comes as destitute North Korea, led by Kim Jong-il, is facing pressure to end its year-long boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks, where it can win aid to prop up its broken economy in exchange for reducing the security threat it poses to the region.

It withdrew from talks last year after widespread condemnation of a long-range missile launch.

[Riđđu]

Let´s wait and see. What kind of safety culture they have in ROK Navy?

[buglerbilly]

Bloody good one BUT shit happens in any Navy..............

[buglerbilly]

Warship blown in half

PARK CHAN-KYONG

March 28, 2010


Emergency ... South Korean marines in Incheon embark for the site of the sinking; (inset) President Lee Myung-bak, centre, in talks with his national security council. Photo: AP, Reuters

SHIPS and aircraft searched choppy and frigid seas yesterday for survivors of one of South Korea's worst naval disasters, but hopes faded for 46 seamen missing after an unexplained explosion tore a warship in half.

The tragedy happened near the tense disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea, scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.

Seoul officials said there was no sign so far that the North was to blame.

President Lee Myung-Bak called emergency security meetings and ordered a swift and thorough investigation into the sinking of the 1200-tonne corvette near Baengnyeong Island.

''The ship was torn apart and the stern sank immediately,'' Choi Won-Il, captain of the Cheonan, told relatives of those missing.

''While I was reviewing an operation plan in my cabin, there was the sound of an explosion and the ship keeled to the right.

''We lost power and telecommunications. I was trapped in the cabin for five minutes before my colleagues broke the window in and let me out. When I got out, the stern had disappeared.''

The Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said 58 sailors had been rescued but 46 were still missing last night. Thirteen of those saved were injured but in stable condition.

''Many of the missing people might have been trapped inside the sunken ship,'' JCS spokesman Lee Ki-Sik told a parliamentary committee.

Eighteen navy divers had to postpone an attempt to search the upturned craft until today because of high waves and darkness.

Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young said thermal images indicated the ship had been torn in half.

''But we have to pull her up to determine the exact cause,'' he said, adding a salvage ship would arrive today.

Reports said the 88-metre craft would have been carrying missiles, torpedoes and other weaponry and munitions.

However, survivors believe the impact came from outside, said defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae.

The military said there were no abnormal military movements at the time on the North Korean side of the maritime border.

[buglerbilly]

UK Times photothread on this matter.....................


The Seonginbong and its salvage unit members search for survivors of a warship sunk amid a string of islands in waters bitterly contested by North Korea
Park Ji-Ho/Yonhap/Reuters


Life rafts believed to have been used by sailors of the sunken ship. Security officials in Seoul, the South Korean capital, said there was no evidence that the North was to blame
Ahn Young-joon/AP


Temperatures have plunged in the area and it was shrouded by snow flurries as helicopters, ships and divers searched for survivors
Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA


A day after the explosion, a section of the hull could still be seen above water, raising hopes that the men could be alive inside an air pocket
Ongjin County office/AFP/Getty


Residents of a nearby island said that they heard an unusually intense burst of naval gunfire for 15 minutes around the time that the ship began to founder
Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty


Salvage unit members return from searching for survivors. The Cheonan had been on routine patrol near Baengnyeong island, a heavily garrisoned outpost that lies off the North Korean coast. The maritime boundary has been disputed since the ceasefire that ended fighting in the Korean war in 1953
Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters

[buglerbilly]

SKorea: Mine from NKorea may have sunk naval ship

(AP) – 11 hours ago

BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea — South Korea's defense minister says North Korea may have intentionally floated a mine to damage a naval ship that exploded and sank this week.

Forty-six crew members are missing and believed trapped within the wreckage of the ship, which went down Friday. Fifty-eight were rescued

While the cause of the explosion is unknown, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers in Seoul on Monday that rival North Korea may have floated a mine toward the ship. He also said the explosion could have been caused by a mine placed during the Korean War.

South Korean officials had earlier said they did not believe the North was behind the explosion.

The two nations remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — Divers finally reached the wreckage of a naval ship that sank nearly three days ago and rapped with hammers on the stern where 46 crew members are believed trapped, but got no response, military officials said Monday.

Military officials said time was running out for any navy crewmen who might still be alive and trapped inside watertight cabins aboard the Cheonan, which sank after an explosion late Friday split the 1,200-ton vessel apart. Fifty-eight others, including the captain, were rescued, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The ship has dozens of waterproof cabins, and authorities initially said that if crew members shut the doors quickly enough, some may have survived in the sunken vessel. However, the supply of oxygen in the cabins was estimated to last up to 69 hours — a deadline that passed Monday night.

The exact cause of the explosion — one of South Korea's worst naval disasters — remained unclear, and officials said it could take weeks to determine.

Rough waves and high winds over the weekend prevented military divers from gaining access the wreckage lying under water near Baengnyeong Island in the west.

With time running out, divers plunged back into the waters Monday, reaching the ship's front and rear segments. Most of the rescued crew members were in the front of the ship, while those missing were in the rear.

The divers knocked on the ship with hammers but there were no response, Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters. Cameras were also lowered to the site.

Divers were next preparing to make their way into the ship, Lee said.

The Cheonan was on a routine patrol Friday night when an explosion split the ship in a matter minutes, according to Capt. Choi Won-il.

There were initial concerns it was an attack from North Korea because the area has been the site of three bloody skirmishes in the past. The two Koreas remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953

However, North Korea did not appear to be involved, and the communist country's official news agency has made no mention of the ship. The North Korean military's first comments since the ship went down warned the U.S. and South Korea on Monday against engaging in "psychological warfare" by letting journalists into the Demilitarized Zone.

Still, the North Korean military was keeping a close watch on the search operation, the Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a defense committee report cited by the Yonhap news agency.

President Lee Myung-bak said rescuers "should not give up hope," according to a statement from the presidential Blue House after Lee met with a security ministers Monday.

No bodies have been retrieved from the ship, feeding families' hopes that their sons and husbands might still be alive, the navy said. However, sonar devices used to locate the ship have captured no sounds coming from within, naval officials said.

Four U.S. Navy ships and 16 divers joined the search Monday after getting a request from Seoul for assistance, said Lt. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, based just south of Tokyo.

Grief-stricken relatives boarded a boat Sunday to see the spot where the ship went down.

"My son said he would defend the nation, but instead he ended up like this," one cried out as she clutched a framed photo of her son.

Hyung-jin Kim reported from Seoul and Si-young Lee from Baengnyeong Island. Associated Press writers Sangwon Yoon in Seoul and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo also contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

04-05-2010 20:02

Lee Warns Against Speculation Over Cheonan

By Na Jeong-ju

Staff Reporter, Korea Times

President Lee Myung-bak made it clear Monday that it was risky to speculate over what caused the frigate Cheonan to sink on March 26 until the military secures hard evidence.

"I believe accuracy is more important than speed in determining the cause of this kind of disaster," Lee said in a biweekly address broadcast through KBS1 Radio and the global online video site YouTube.

"We should wait patiently, although it will be painful, as a joint investigation team from the government, military and civilians is already looking into the case."

His remarks were the latest in a series of calls for the nation not to jump to conclusions regarding the exact cause of the tragedy with a fact-finding mission already underway.

The U.S. has said it has no evidence showing North Korea's involvement, but some local media have raised speculation that a torpedo from a North Korean midget submarine or a mine laid by the communist state could have hit the patrol ship.

Some experts have also alleged that the ship, built in 1989 by a now-defunct South Korean shipbuilder, was too old and seriously damaged to conduct a mission and needed repairs. Some family members of the missing sailors said they had heard about water leakages in the ship many times before.

President Lee reiterated that the probe is not just a domestic issue, but a matter related to the country's international credibility.

"We have to find the cause in a way that satisfies not only our people but also the international community," said the President.

Of the Cheonan's 104 crew, 58 were rescued as it sank, including the captain. On Saturday, the body of a 35-year-old sailor was discovered in the stern of the sunken ship.

The other 45 crewmembers remain listed as missing, but search efforts were called off Saturday at the request of their families after a rescue diver died in the rescue mission and a fishing boat helping with the operation sank after colliding with a Cambodian-registered freighter.

Recalling his visit last week to the scene of the ship's sinking, about 1.8 km southwest of the country's northernmost island of Baengnyeong, Lee said the country should be grateful to those who have sacrificed themselves to defend the country.

"When I heard the desperate appeals from the families of the missing soldiers, I wished I could plunge into the water to save them myself," Lee said.

Despite the island being located within the range of North Korean artillery fire, Lee decided to visit to encourage soldiers and maritime officers participating in the operation. It was the first trip by a President to Baengnyeong Island.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr

[buglerbilly]

Evidence points to 'external explosion' in sinking of South Korean naval ship

By Blaine Harden

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, April 17, 2010

TOKYO -- An "external explosion" probably sank a South Korean naval ship three weeks ago near a disputed sea border with North Korea, a government investigator said Friday in Seoul.

The announcement increased suspicion that North Korea was involved in what has been described as the worst naval disaster in South Korea's history. At least 38 sailors were killed, with eight others missing. Rescuers found 58 survivors.

North Korea's possible link to the ship's sinking has halted U.S. efforts to persuade Kim Jong Il's government to rejoin six-party nuclear disarmament talks. It also raises difficult questions about what, if anything, South Korea and the United States might do to retaliate against an unpredictable dictatorship that maintains an artillery arsenal capable of killing many thousands of civilians in Seoul.

The wrecked stern of the 1,200-ton Cheonan was pulled from the Yellow Sea on Thursday, giving South Korean experts their first chance to examine what ripped the ship apart on March 26. The frigate sank during a routine patrol near the North-South maritime border, which has been the scene of three bloody naval skirmishes between the two Koreas.

Military officials in Seoul have speculated that the ship was struck by a torpedo or collided with a mine. But the U.S. and South Korean governments have taken pains not to accuse the North of involvement, saying they want specialists to conduct a thorough investigation. Experts from the United States and other countries are participating in the investigation.

That cautious tone continued Friday, with South Korean investigators saying they needed more time before drawing a final conclusion.

Still, there was a slightly harder edge to comments by Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, who said that once his government determines what caused the explosion, "we will respond in a very clear and firm manner."

Kim, who had previously suggested that the ship may have been sunk by a torpedo or a mine, said Friday that the incident had created a "grave national security situation."

North Korea has not commented publicly on the incident, but its diplomats have told Chinese officials that the North was not involved, according to reports in the South Korean news media.

During a briefing in Seoul, South Korea's investigative team said the sinking of the Cheonan did not appear to have been caused by an onboard accident or by running aground.

"There is a high possibility of an external explosion rather than an internal explosion," said Yoon Duk-yong, co-leader of the investigative team. "A strong force was applied to the left side of the ship, leaving the hull and iron sheets curved inward. This kind of destruction is caused by an external explosion."

He said evidence gathered from the wreckage showed a low probability that the ship had sunk because of an internal blast, metal fatigue or a collision with a reef. The ship's ammunition room, fuel tank and diesel engine room were not damaged, he said, noting that there was no indication of an internal fire.

Special correspondent June Lee in Seoul contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Report: N. Korean Torpedo Sank S. Korean Warship

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 21 Apr 2010 06:00

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean soldiers believe a South Korean warship which sunk last month was hit in a premeditated military operation approved by leader Kim Jong-Il, a South Korean activist said April 21.

"Despite Pyongyang's denial, many North Korean soldiers believe a torpedo sank the ship," Choi Sung-Yong, a campaigner for the return of South Koreans abducted by Pyongyang, told AFP.

He said his claim was based on a telephone conversation with an unnamed North Korean army officer.

South Korean officials refused to comment.

The sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan on the tense maritime border killed 46 sailors and suspicions are hanging over North Korea, although Seoul has not directly accused Pyongyang.

South Korean officials say an "external explosion" was the most likely cause, while Pyongyang has accused Seoul of seeking to shift the blame in order to justify its hard-line policy toward its communist neighbor.

"I heard the ship was sunk in a premeditated operation approved by Kim Jong-Il," Choi said. The officer said Kim gave an order to exact revenge for a sea skirmish last November, Choi added.

Choi said 13 commandos using a small submarine appeared to have launched a torpedo attack.

South Kprea's defense minister has raised the possibility that a mine or torpedo may have sank the ship March 26 near the disputed sea border, the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, and the November firefight.

The November incident left a North Korean patrol boat in flames, and local media reports said one North Korean sailor was killed and three wounded.

North Korea has vowed to take "merciless" military action to protect its own version of the Yellow Sea border.

[buglerbilly]

South Korea raises sunken warship

South Korea raised the front half of a warship that exploded and sank a month ago near a contested sea border with North Korea, finding clues that support growing suspicions Pyongyang attacked the vessel.

Published: 10:40AM BST 24 Apr 2010


The front half of a sunken South Korean naval ship is lifted from waters near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea at Baengnyeong Island, South Korea Photo: EPA

The 1,200-tonne corvette warship, the Cheonan, sank in what military officials said was likely a torpedo attack.

Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in what could be one of the deadliest strikes by Pyongyang on its rival since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North has denied involvement.

South Korea's president on Friday gave the clearest signal yet Seoul had no plan to launch a revenge attack, calming investors worried that armed conflict would damage the South's rapidly recovering economy.

"The probably catastrophic costs of a war on the peninsula will greatly constrain the US and South Korean options for a military response, which thus remains an unlikely trigger for major military conflict," the global strategy group Control Risks said.

The front end of the ship was raised by a giant sea crane and drained before being placed on a barge.

One body has been found so far in the just-raised wreckage and six sailors were still missing, Yonhap news agency reported.

The bodies of most of the 46 missing were found in the stern section raised earlier this month. Another 58 were rescued alive.

"The way a hatch (near where the ship split in two) had been thrown off its hinge indicates there had been a very strong external impact," Yonhap quoted an unidentified military official as saying – adding weight to the torpedo theory.

A survey team that includes experts from South Korea, the United States and Australia said after the rear of the ship was raised the Cheonan had been destroyed by an external explosion.

That stoked suspicions of the torpedo attack in waters where the rival Koreas have had two deadly naval fights in the past decade.

Seoul has said it would issue its final verdict on what caused the ship to sink after it had retrieved the front section but has not given a date for releasing its findings.

The sinking of the ship is fraught with risks for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who seeks to calm investors, shake off criticism his government tried to deflect suspicions of links to Pyongyang and faces an angry public seeking vengeance.

The two Koreas, technically still at war, have more than a million troops near their border.

The United States has about 28,000 troops in the South to support its military.

[buglerbilly]

S.Korea minister vows retaliation over sunk warship

May 2, 2010 - 4:59PM

Seoul's defence minister on Sunday vowed retaliation over the sinking of a South Korean warship which killed 46 sailors near the disputed sea border with North Korea last month.

"Those responsible for killing our soldiers must pay the price," Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told a KBS television programme aired nationwide Sunday.

"Retaliation -- in whatever form it is -- must be done."

It echoed South Korean Navy chief Admiral Kim Sung-Chan's reprisal pledge during Thursday's mass funeral for the sailors, attended by President Lee Myung-Bak.

Lee will preside over a scheduled meeting of key military commanders on Tuesday to discuss the sinking of the Cheonan, becoming the first South Korea president to chair such a meeting, his office said Sunday.

"President Lee will check what tasks the Cheonan incident handed to our military and people, and state his position as the supreme commander of the armed forces," presidential spokesman Park Sun-Kyoo said.

South Korea has not openly blamed its communist neighbour for the blast which tore apart the 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan in the Yellow Sea on March 26.

But tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul have been simmering since the sinking, with suspicions growing that the North might have been behind the incident.

The North denies involvement.

Defence Minister Kim told the KBS show on Sunday that tiny "slivers of aluminium" collected from where the ship went down were being examined to see if they came from weapons used to sink the ship.

Kim has said a heavy torpedo was among the likeliest causes of the sinking. But he cautioned that the aluminium pieces, three millimetres (0.12 inches) in size, were not yet treated as "decisive" evidence, adding the probe should clarify if they belong to the vessel or something else.

Searchers are scouring the seabed for any other clues that could confirm whether the Cheonan was attacked.

Defence ministry officials said Sunday investigators were also trying to recover video images from surveillance cameras aboard the sunken ship to help determine what downed the vessel.

"The investigation team is trying to recover the images of five to six closed circuit televisions installed at key passages and ammunition rooms on the vessel in a bid to get a clue to finding out situations at the time of the explosion," a ministry official said.

The Yellow Sea area was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, and of a firefight last November which set a North Korean patrol boat ablaze.

The sinking of the warship has effectively put a brake on diplomatic efforts aimed at reviving six-nation nuclear disarmament talks on North Korea.

The North has also seized some assets owned by Seoul at the North's Mount Kumgang tourist resort and announced it would let a new partner take over the tour business there from South Korea's Hyundai Asan.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Traces of Explosive Found on Sunken S. Korean Ship

By CHOE SANG-HUN, The New York Times

Published: May 10, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea — Forensic experts investigating the wreckage of a South Korean warship that sank near the sea border with North Korea have found traces of an explosive component commonly used in torpedoes and mines, South Korea’s defense minister said Monday.

The 1,200-ton corvette, the Cheonan, sank on March 26 after a mysterious blast split the ship in half. The South Korean government has said a torpedo attack was the likely cause of the blast, and many South Koreans say they believe the North was responsible.

North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking.

“It is true that traces of RDX, a chemical substance used in making torpedoes, have been found,” Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Monday, referring to a component common to many military explosives. He said that there was “a high possibility” that a torpedo was the cause of the explosion, but that it was also too soon to conclude definitively that it was the cause.

The material was found on the ship’s smokestack and in samples of sand from the site of the sinking, said Rear Adm. Moon Byung-ok, a spokesman for the investigation team. He noted that RDX is also used in making mines.

During the briefing on Monday, neither Mr. Kim nor Admiral Moon mentioned North Korea. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed or remain missing in the explosion.

[buglerbilly]

Lee Plans Defense Posture Overhaul

(Source: Republic of Korea Ministry of National Defense; dated May 6, issued May12, 2010)

Strongly insinuating that North Korea was behind the sinking of a Navy warship, President Lee Myung-bak announced major changes in the way South Korea’s military will defend the country.

“It has now become clear that the Cheonan did not sink from a simple accident,” Lee said in an opening address at an unprecedented meeting of military commanders on May 4. “As soon as the incident happened, I realized that it was a grave international issue, that included inter-Korean relations, and made an order to the defense minister to lay bare the cause through international cooperation.”

Lee hosted the meeting of 150 commanders at the Defense Ministry, and the opening speech was broadcast live nationwide. He also announced a plan to create a presidential team to review the national security posture.

“After the cause [of the Cheonan sinking] is revealed, I will take a resolute and stern countermeasure,” Lee said. “But even before the probe outcome comes, we have an immediate task. It is a complete review of our national security posture.”

“Taking into account the peculiar situation of the world’s only divided nation amid hostilities, we must reshape our military’s capabilities,” Lee said. “We must especially check on our readiness against asymmetric capabilities, including special warfare.”

Asymmetric warfare is a strategy used by weaker adversaries against stronger ones that emphasizes small, mobile, elusive and inventive fighting methods. Nuclear weapons, missiles, chemical weapons, special operation units, cyber warfare and submarine offensives are components of asymmetric warfare, in contrast to conventional capabilities such as tanks and artillery.

The North has reinforced its asymmetric armed forces to boost its capability to launch surprise attacks and create mass destruction. The South has been working to deter such an evolution of the North’s capabilities.

Lee also said that South Korea has a strong military, but the people’s readiness and awareness of the country’s dangerous security situation have relaxed through the years.

“There were some external factors that have clouded the aim of our security awareness, and the military probably had some internal confusion,” Lee said. “The people also have forgotten the fact that long-range artillery of the most hostile forces is aimed at us from only about 50 kilometers [31 miles] away. The Cheonan’s sinking has reminded us of the reality.”

Lee’s remarks quickly fueled speculation that the country may revive the concept of “the main enemy,” and a senior Blue House official said there is a high possibility, although no final decision has been made yet.

After North Korea threatened in 1994 to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire,” the South named the North its “main enemy” in a defense white-paper in 1995. The practice, however, was halted in 2004 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

Urging the military to improve its contingency readiness, reporting and command systems, intelligence capabilities and discipline, Lee also said his administration will create a presidential team to check on the national security posture, crisis management system and military reforms.

According to a senior Blue House official for security affairs, the team is tentatively named the Commission for National Security Review. While some of its duties will overlap with those of the National Security Council, the main focus will be an overhaul of the military and improvement of the government’s security posture, he said.

“About 10 will be on the commission, and the members will include military experts and retired generals,” the source said.

While the commission will not be a permanent organ, Lee will appoint a special adviser for national security and reshape the crisis-monitoring center to upgrade the Blue House’s oversight of national security issues. The source said a former military official will likely become the adviser.

At the meeting, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young reported to Lee that March 26 will be remembered as a day of disgrace for the South Korean military, and the armed forces will shift their focus following the Cheonan’s sinking. “We admit that the military has been relatively vulnerable to infiltration and limited provocations, and we must redirect the focus of our capabilities,” Kim reported to Lee.

According to the ministry, monitoring and deterrence against North Korea’s submarine operation and special warfare units will be the military’s top priority, a change from the strategy of preparing for an all-out war against the North. Operations strategies in the Yellow Sea near the inter-Korean border, where the Cheonan sank, will also be improved, the ministry said.

North Korea is known to have about 100 submarines and 180,000 special warfare forces. Investments in improving sonar, radar and attack helicopters are expected to be made to counter the asymmetrical warfare of the North, the ministry said.

The ruling and opposition parties were split over the commanders’ meeting and Lee’s plan.

While the Grand Nationals said the president made the right decision to revamp the national security posture, the Democratic Party called it a political show.

“We are worried about the Lee administration’s overt attempt to politically abuse the military and exploit national security issues,” said DP spokesman Woo Sang-ho. “The commanders were made to take responsibility for the recent incident, and we are infuriated.”

Woo said 46 sailors died but no one has taken responsibility, demanding the defense minister and others under the chain of command to be reprimanded immediately.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

How to Deal with the Threat of N.Korea's Special Forces?


Baek Seung-joo

The threat of North Korea's special forces has recently become much more real to many people. And while that is good, a considerable portion of what has recently made headlines was published in the 2008 defense white paper. The white paper said North Korea boosted the number of special forces troops from 120,000 to 180,000 and deployed them in the frontline divisions, and reinforced special warfare capabilities by conducting night-time, mountain and street-fighting exercises.

But at the time the news was overshadowed by the North's nuclear weapons, or the seriousness of the threat these special forces could pose was overlooked.

At the time, I asked a former senior North Korean military officer who is now involved with a security agency here what the sharp increase in the number of North Korean special forces means. Most of all, I wanted to know why the troops were deployed at the front, whereas their usual mission is to infiltrate into the rear.

His answer was simple. The North's special forces have three missions -- first, to damage our forces' war capability by infiltrating into the rear and carrying out subversive activities; second, to explore a route for maneuver along with combat engineers; and last, to occupy key tactical and strategic points. But those missions are confined to wartime.

They also have shooting brigades and reconnaissance units that work with the Army, Navy and Air Force, and they have been engaged in provocations against the South during peacetime as well. For instance they dug tunnels to infiltrate the South on the ground and operate a large number of AN-2 transport planes and 70-odd submarines and mini-subs fit for infiltration by sea.

Pyongyang makes great efforts to study and train in ways of infiltrating the South. A Korean Peninsula military specialist at the RAND Corporation in the U.S. warned over a decade ago that a combination of portable weapons of mass destruction and over 100,000-strong special forces constitutes the biggest North Korean threat to Seoul's security. It would be a great calamity if North Korean special forces infiltrated downtown Seoul equipped with small biological and chemical weapons. The troops that would be mobilized if Pyongyang decided to launch a local provocation like occupying the five South Korean islets off the west coast would also be special forces.

These men are told to ready themselves for suicide missions. If they attack determined to blow themselves up, they could threaten even the top-notch weapons system of the South Korean and U.S. forces. How to deal with that threat? It is all the more worrying since there are plans to reduce the strength of the U.S. Forces Korea's Apache helicopter unit, which is tasked with keeping the North's special forces in check.

Seoul must first clearly understand the missions of the North Korean special forces and work out measures to respond to each of them. We have to reinforce our intelligence gathering about the scale, moves and training of these troops. And operational plans must be developed that would neutralize them before they can move.

The surest way of blocking any so-called "asymmetrical" provocation, be it by special forces or other means, is to extinguish the will to provocation itself. There is no other way but to demonstrate that we are ready and willing to inflict enormous damage on whoever provokes us. We need to change the way we build up our own military strength to prepare for this. But a more important principle is to consolidate our superiority in terms of the military, government and society and stifle the North's desire to provoke from the outset. The build-up of North Korea's special forces is an urgent challenge to our security and defense capabilities.

By Baek Seung-joo, a senior analysts at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses

englishnews@chosun.com / May 12, 2010 13:22 KST

[buglerbilly]

Probe 'shows N Korean torpedo' sank ship

JUN KWANWOO

May 18, 2010 - 6:54PM

AFP

With strong support from its US ally, South Korea has completed a painstaking investigation into a naval disaster widely suspected to be the work of North Korea.

A media report said the South has found "decisive evidence" that a North Korean torpedo broke the 1200-tonne warship the Cheonan in two near their disputed border on March 26, with the loss of 46 lives.

Top officials in the South have dropped widespread hints they believe the North was to blame, although Seoul has not yet formally accused its neighbour.

US President Barack Obama and South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak called on the North to end "belligerent behaviour towards its neighbours" but stopped short of blaming it for the sinking.

In a telephone conversation on Monday US time, the White House said, they "emphasised the importance of obtaining a full accounting of the event and committed to follow the facts of the investigation wherever they lead".

Obama and Lee also called on the North, which abandoned disarmament talks 13 months ago, to "live up to its commitment to eliminate its nuclear weapons program".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Seoul next week in a further demonstration of support.

Lee mounted a multinational probe into the sinking to try to ensure its findings cannot be disputed. The opposition has accused him of seeking political advantage before local elections on June 2.

The warship's separate sections were salvaged last month from the Yellow Sea - the scene of previous bloody naval clashes - and the murky waters were scoured for any fragments of a weapon.

"The analysis of metal pieces and traces of explosive recovered from the Cheonan and the seabed led us to secure decisive evidence that there was a North Korean torpedo attack," Yonhap news agency quoted a military source as saying.

The explosive traces have a similar chemical make-up to substances found in a stray North Korean torpedo secured by the South seven years ago, the source was quoted as saying.

The defence ministry refused comment before the official announcement of the investigation's findings on Thursday.

Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said a fragment presumed to be part of the torpedo's propeller had been found, and investigators had concluded it was from a torpedo made in either China or Russia.

The North announced on Tuesday it had called a meeting of its parliament for June 7, just two months after the last session. It will be the first time since 2003 that the rubber-stamp assembly has met more than once in a year.

Analysts said the meeting may discuss the aftermath of the sinking, which has further fuelled tensions on the peninsula.

Seoul officials have said they will likely ask the United Nations Security Council to punish the North if it is found to have sunk the warship. It was unclear whether China, a veto-wielding member, would agree to this without firm proof of its ally's involvement.

Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young was to present the investigation report to security ministers and presidential aides on Tuesday afternoon.

Yonhap said the foreign ministry would on Wednesday brief the Chinese, Russian and Japanese ambassadors on its contents.

South Korea has already frozen funding for government-level exchanges with the North. Media reports said it is also considering cutting trade links and may resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border.

The unification ministry said it urged South Korean businessmen at Kaesong, a jointly-run industrial estate just north of the border, to take extra care for their safety "given the grave cross-border situation".

The North last Friday expelled a Seoul worker from the estate for keeping an unauthorised booklet on the training of northern workers, a spokeswoman said.

© 2010 AFP

[Deks]

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 16 May 2010 15:16
SEOUL, - South Korea's navy fired warning shots to drive away North Korean patrol boats from the disputed inter-Korean sea border, amid tension over the sinking of a Seoul warship, officials said May 16.

The warning shots were fired late May 15 when two North Korean patrol boats violated the Northern Limit Line (NLL) border and strayed into South Korean waters, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff office said.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP the North's patrol boats retreated without responding to the fire. No casualties occurred.

It is the first time that shots have been fired at the tense sea border since the mystery sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26.

Suspicions have since been growing that a North Korean torpedo downed the warship, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

The sinking incident was discussed at the weekend talks between foreign ministers from South Korea, Japan, and China in the southern city of Gyeongju.

Minister Yang Jiechi of China, the North's sole major ally and economic lifeline, joined his South Korean and Japanese counterparts to express sympathy over the heavy loss of life, according to a joint statement.

"We expressed our condolences for the loss of many lives due to the sinking of the (South Korean) navy ship Cheonan on March 26," the statement said.

A multinational investigation is to report by May 20, and Seoul is weighing its diplomatic and economic options if the North - which denies involvement - is found to have sunk the corvette.

China is the North's sole major ally and its economic lifeline. As a veto-wielding member its backing would be crucial if the South takes the matter to the United Nations Security Council.

Baek Seung-Joo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, told AFP the North's latest breach of the sea border aimed to cement its territorial claims ahead of the annual season to fish crabs.

"The North is saying that tension caused by the Cheonan incident does not affect its policy of seeking to nullify the NLL in the Yellow Sea," Baek said.

"Especially when the June crab-catching season is just around the corner."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff office said one North Korean patrol boat crossed into South Korean waters near Yeonpyeong island at 10:13 pm May 15 and retreated after a radio warning from the South.

A second North Korean patrol boat violated the border in the same area 47 minutes later, ignored a radio warning from the South and sailed north only after warning shots were fired from the South, it said.

The area was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, and of a firefight last November which set a North Korean patrol boat ablaze.

The North has never recognised the NLL border drawn by the US-led United Nations Command after the 1950-1953 Korean war ended in an armistice. But the South has maintained it as a de facto inter-Korean border.

The South's 655,000-strong military, backed up by 28,500 U.S. troops, still faces off against the North's 1.2 million-member military.

Seoul's Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young last week confirmed that investigators had found traces of RDX explosive, which is widely used in torpedoes, on the wreckage and the seabed.

The North Sunday threatened to block South Koreans from crossing the land border if Seoul does not prevent South Korean activists from launching leaflets into the communist state, the North's official news agency was quoted saying.

[buglerbilly]

S. Korea Wraps Up Warship Probe Amid U.S. Backing

By JUN KWANWOO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 18 May 2010 09:50 l

SEOUL - With a strong show of support from its U.S. ally, South Korea on May 18 wrapped up a painstaking investigation into a naval disaster widely suspected to be the work of North Korea.

A media report said the South has found "decisive evidence" that a North Korean torpedo broke the 1,200-ton warship the Cheonan in two near their disputed border on March 26, with the loss of 46 lives.

Top officials in the South have dropped widespread hints they think the North was to blame, although Seoul has not yet formally accused its neighbor.

U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak called on the North to end "belligerent behavior towards its neighbors" but stopped short of blaming it for the sinking.

In a telephone conversation on May 17, the White House said, they "emphasized the importance of obtaining a full accounting of the event and committed to follow the facts of the investigation wherever they lead."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Seoul next week to further demonstrate support.

Lee mounted a multinational probe into the sinking to try to ensure its findings cannot be disputed. The opposition has accused him of seeking political advantage before local elections on June 2.

The warship's separate sections were salvaged last month from the Yellow Sea - the scene of previous bloody naval clashes - and the murky waters were scoured for any fragments of a weapon.

"The analysis of metal pieces and traces of explosive recovered from the Cheonan and the seabed led us to secure decisive evidence that there was a North Korean torpedo attack," Yonhap news agency quoted a military source as saying.

The explosive traces have a similar chemical make-up to substances found in a stray North Korean torpedo secured by the South seven years ago, the source was quoted as saying.

The defense ministry declined to comment before the official announcement of the investigation's findings on May 20.

Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said a fragment presumed to be part of the torpedo's propeller had been found, and investigators had concluded it was from a torpedo made in either China or Russia.

The North announced May 18 it had called a meeting of its parliament for June 7, just two months after the last session. It will be the first time since 2003 that the rubber-stamp assembly has met more than once in a year.

Analysts said the meeting may discuss the aftermath of the sinking, which has further fuelled tensions on the peninsula.

Seoul officials have said they will ask the U.N. Security Council to punish the North if it is found to have sunk the warship. It was not clear if China, a veto-wielding member, would agree to this without firm proof of its ally's involvement.

The foreign ministry will brief diplomats from more than 30 countries May 19 and "present them with scientific and objective evidence" that a North Korean torpedo sank the warship, Yonhap quoted an unidentified government official as saying.

A ministry spokeswoman declined to comment.

South Korea has already frozen funding for government-level exchanges with the North. Media reports said it is also considering cutting trade links and may resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border.

The unification ministry said it urged South Korean businessmen at Kaesong, a jointly run industrial estate just north of the border, to take extra care for their safety "given the grave cross-border situation."

The North on May 14 expelled a Seoul worker from the estate for keeping an unauthorized booklet on the training of northern workers, a spokeswoman said.

[buglerbilly]

S. Korea Minister Blames North For Warship Sinking

By PARK CHAN-KYONG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 19 May 2010 11:40

SEOUL - Seoul's foreign minister said May 19 it was "obvious" North Korea had fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship, leaving 46 sailors dead in one of the country's worst naval tragedies.

The comments by Yu Myung-Hwan came a day before a multinational investigation team announces its findings on the March 26 explosion, which blew a 1,200-ton corvette in two near the disputed sea border.

Top South Korean officials had previously hinted strongly that the North was involved. Yu was the first publicly to implicate the hard-line communist state, which denies involvement.

Asked by reporters whether the North had sunk the Cheonan, Yu replied: "I think it's obvious." Seoul has "enough evidence" to bring the issue to the United Nations Security Council, he added.

South Korea has been seeking firm proof its neighbor sank the warship, in what would be the bloodiest provocation since the North's agents downed a South Korean airliner in 1987 with the loss of 115 lives.

President Lee Myung-Bak told Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Seoul has indisputable evidence of who was responsible.

Lee, according to his spokesman, told Hatoyama in a phone conversation "clear and definitive material evidence will be presented that no country in the world and no one can refute."

Media reports say explosive traces found on the Cheonan and on the seabed have a similar chemical make-up to substances found in a stray North Korean torpedo secured by the South seven years ago.

Yu said in a speech earlier May 19 that investigators, including experts from Britain, Sweden, the United States and Australia have confirmed the corvette was hit by a torpedo.

Seoul would take "firm and prudent" measures to deter "any future provocations which will undermine peace and stability in Northeast Asia," he told the European Union Chamber of Commerce, appealing for international support.

In search of that backing the foreign ministry May 19 briefed diplomats from some 30 countries about the findings of the investigation. Envoys from China, Japan and Russia had been briefed a day earlier.

South Korea is likely to ask the Security Council to slap new sanctions on the North, in addition to those imposed to curb its missile and nuclear programs.

But China, a veto-wielding council member and the North's ally, is unlikely to support new measures unless the South produces a "smoking gun" linking its neighbor to the attack.

North and South Korea have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended only in an armistice. The land border is closely guarded.

The North refuses to accept the borderline drawn in the Yellow Sea, where the Cheonan went down. The area was the scene of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight last November which left a North Korean patrol boat in flames.

Some analysts suggest the attack on the Cheonan was revenge for the November clash.

Vice Unification Minister Um Jong-Sik said the sinking "shows the cruel reality of the division and the reality of security on the Korean peninsula.

"Improvement in inter-Korean relations cannot be expected while national security is threatened," he said.

The United States, which has 28,500 troops in the South, has given its ally strong backing.

U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak, in a telephone conversation Monday, said the North should end "belligerent behavior towards its neighbors."

They stopped short of blaming it for the sinking but said they are committed "to follow the facts of the investigation wherever they lead."

[buglerbilly]

Kim's 'all-out war' threat if punished over sinking

May 20, 2010 - 2:59PM

A North Korean submarine torpedoed one of South Korea's warships near the disputed maritime border in March, investigators said on Thursday, prompting heated denials and threats of war from the North.

The South's President Lee Myung-Bak promised "resolute countermeasures" and the United States, Britain, the United Nations, Japan and Australia strongly condemned the attack which claimed 46 lives.

The communist North said the report, by a multinational investigation team, was based on "sheer fabrication".

It threatened "all-out war" in response to any attempt to punish it.

"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine," the team said, releasing its report on the March 26 sinking at a nationally televised press conference.

"There is no other plausible explanation."

Seoul's closest ally the United States called the attack "one more instance of North Korea's unacceptable behaviour and defiance of international law.

"This attack constitutes a challenge to international peace and security and is a violation of the armistice agreement" which ended the 1950-53 war, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the North had shown "a total indifference to human life".

British experts joined the probe, along with specialists from the United States, Australia and Sweden.

eoul has apparently ruled out a military counter-strike for fear of igniting all-out war. It is likely to ask the United Nations Security Council to slap new sanctions on the North.

This would need agreement from China, a veto-wielding council member and the North's ally, which has indicated it first wants to see strong evidence.

"Resolute countermeasures will be taken against North Korea," Lee told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a phone conversation, according to Lee's office.

South Korea, through strong international cooperation, "should make North Korea admit its wrongdoing and return as a responsible member of the international community", added Lee, whose National Security Council will meet Friday to weigh its reaction.

Rudd called for an "appropriate" international response.

The sinking near the Yellow Sea frontier flashpoint was the worst apparent cross-border provocation since the downing of a South Korean airliner in 1987 with the loss of 115 lives.

The investigators laid out apparently damning evidence against Pyongyang, which is thought by some analysts to have acted in revenge for a naval firefight last November in the area.

The 1200-tonne corvette was split apart by a shockwave and bubble effect produced by the underwater explosion of a 250kg homing North Korean torpedo, the report said.

It said parts salvaged from the Yellow Sea "perfectly match" a type of torpedo that the North has offered for export.

A marking in Korea's Hangeul script was found on one recovered section, and matches markings on a stray North Korean torpedo recovered by the South seven years ago, investigators said.

The report said the attack was likely carried out by a small submarine.

The North's top decision-making body the National Defence Commission said it would send its own investigators to the South to check the purported evidence.

Seoul rebuffed the proposal, saying a commission overseeing the armistice would carry out its own probe.

"Our army and people will promptly react to any 'punishment' and 'retaliation' and to any 'sanctions' infringing upon our state interests with various forms of tough measures including an all-out war," the North's statement said.

It threatened in future to respond to any small border incident with a "merciless strong physical blow".

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the report was "deeply troubling".

"The Secretary-General has learned of the results of the investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan naval ship of the Republic of Korea with a heavy heart and serious concern," a statement from his office said.

"The facts laid out in the report are deeply troubling," it added. Ban would continue to closely follow developments, said the statement.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said the sinking of a South Korean navy ship was "unforgivable".

AFP

[buglerbilly]

US-South Korea joint naval exercise to increase pressure on North

Seoul seeks apology for sinking of warship as Hilary Clinton asks China to back security council resolution

Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk,

Monday 24 May 2010 20.27 BST


A giant floating crane lifts the stern of the South Korean warship Cheonan. Photograph: Hong Jin-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images

The US will conduct joint naval exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, the Pentagon announced tonight as the two countries revealed measures to increase pressure on North Korea over a torpedo attack which sank a Southern warship.

The announcement of the exercises, which will test the two countries' ability to detect enemy submarines and prevent shipments of nuclear materials, is the first concrete US response to the crisis triggered by the sinking of the Cheonan in March, with the loss of 46 lives. An international panel of experts concluded last week that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship .

Barack Obama ordered US forces to co-ordinate with their South Korea counterparts "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression" by North Korea, a spokesman said.

Earlier, the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, said that Seoul will take Pyongyang to the UN security council, ban the North's ships from its waters and suspend what limited trade exists between the two countries.

South Korea will also resume broadcasts along the border, a relic of the cold war that was abandoned six years ago, as well as radio propaganda broadcasts and leaflets dropped by balloon.

In a televised address, Lee said: "We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula. But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts."

The North Korean regime said it would order artillery fire at any loudspeakers or broadcast stations.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the evidence of North Korean involvement was "overwhelming and deeply troubling".

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, said: "I am confident that the council … will take measures appropriate to the gravity of the situation."

Lee called for North Korea to apologise, something that is highly unlikely.

In spite of the rhetoric on all sides, the South is keen to avoid war and there were no conditions attached to the call for an apology. The options available to the South and the US are limited, in part because North Korea is a relatively closed society and partly because many sanctions are already in place.The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said: "We endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologise and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behaviour. US support for South Korea's defence is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to co-ordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression."

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is in China at the head of a 200-strong US delegation, is pressing China to back UN action against North Korea. China, one of the few big powers not to have condemned North Korea over the sinking, is reluctant to act against Pyongyang. "We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation," Clinton said. "This is a highly precarious situation that the North Koreans have caused in the region."

The South Korean government is to discuss with the Chinese government and with Clinton in Seoul on Wednesday how far Beijing is prepared to go in supporting any UN action. The options are a resolution or, the weaker alternative, a security council statement.

Daniel Pinkston, north-east Asia deputy project director for the International Crisis Group, said: "South Korea would like a [security council] resolution, but I think they are realistic and their expectations are low. They are going to take whatever they can get there and look for whatever they can get from their friends and allies in a kind of coalition of the willing [in a] multidimensional approach."

[buglerbilly]

North Korea kills to scare and keep the money coming

May 25, 2010

North Korea denounces the South Korean President after his nationally televised speech announced steps to increase pressure on the north.

North Korea has presented the world with a serious strategic dilemma that is quickly becoming a first-class crisis. With the unprovoked torpedoing of a South Korean navy corvette, the Cheonan, and the deaths of 46 crew, the North has committed an act of war.

Pyongyang denies responsibility, as it has denied every one of its many acts of terrorism and sabotage of the past half-century. But the international investigation, by 25 South Koreans and an international team of 24 Australian, British, American and Swedish naval experts, found remains of a North Korean torpedo at the site and last week delivered a finding of ''guilty''.

It is the deadliest attack by North Korea since two of its spies put a bomb on board KAL 858 in 1987, killing the 115 civilians aboard.

The international community is now moving to respond. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for ''consequences'' for the North. This week she is in China pressing its leadership to support action by the UN Security Council. The acquiescence of Beijing is central - not only is it North Korea's chief ally and protector, it's also one of the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

But what to do? North Korea is threatening war: ''We will take strong measures including full-scale war if sanctions against North Korea are imposed,'' it declared last week.

To judge a response, we need to know North Korea's motive. To a rational outsider, any one of North Korea's outrages seems senseless. But its ''puzzling behaviour'' can be rationally explained: ''In each case, Pyongyang sought to disrupt a status quo deemed highly unfavourable with the purpose of renegotiating a new status quo to its advantage,'' a US expert, Victor Cha, wrote in Nuclear North Korea.

And guess what? Kim Jong-il's regime said last week it was trying to implement what it calls the "grand bargain" - a mooted deal in which the international community gives North Korea some $US40 billion in aid on the condition it dismantles its nuclear weapons.

We know from Kim's own mouth that this is the way he sees his regime's military capability. In 2000 a visiting South Korean newspaper publisher, Choe Hak-rae, asked Kim why his government was spending its scarce resources on ballistic missiles instead of education or other social programs for its citizens.

''The missiles cannot reach the US,'' Choe later recounted Kim replying. ''And if I launch them, the US would fire back thousands of missiles and we would not survive . . . But I have to let them know I have missiles. I am making them because only then will the United States talk to me.''

So Kim thinks of his military capability as an attention-getting device and he has a history of using provocation as a tool of negotiation.

But some senior Western officials believe there is another layer. They suspect this might be a rerun of a made-in-Pyongyang movie we saw once before, the attack on KAL 858.

Then, Kim Jong-il was positioning to take the leadership from his father, Kim Il-sung. The succession, the first dynastic transfer of power in any communist regime, was not assured and he had competitors.

When the two North Korean agents who planted the bomb were later arrested in Bahrain, both tried to take cyanide pills. One succeeded and the other was kept alive. She later recounted the order to bomb the civilian flight was personally signed by Kim Jong-il.

There appear to be two motives for that decision. First, it was designed to detract from an approaching moment of South Korean glory, the Seoul Olympics, an honour an envious and spiteful North Korean communist regime can never aspire to.

Second, Kim Jong-il used the bombing to demonstrate his toughness and ability to lead. It was his job application for the presidency, it seems.

Today Kim, who last year suffered some serious illness, appears to be grooming one of his sons, his youngest, Kim Jong-un, 28, to succeed him as leader. As with most North Korean affairs, we can't be certain, but South Korean outlets reported his birthday this year was celebrated as an informal national holiday, a tell-tale sign he is the anointed. There is once again a succession under way, apparently.

And, once again, there is an approaching moment of South Korean glory, when Seoul hosts a summit of the Group of 20 in November, another international honour Pyongyang's regime can never hope to equal.

This thesis may be wrong, but the parallels do seem to be more than coincidence. In which case, North Korea is not serious with its threat of war. But there is a big difference: North Korea now has a nuclear bomb. It may think itself untouchable, and may be more inclined to bellicosity.

Yet the international community's reaction is likely to be exactly as it was in 1987 - the US designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, only revoked by the Bush administration in 2008 to keep nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang alive.

This allows the international banking flows of foreign exchange, that keep Kim and his entourage in comfort, to be cut. But the uncertainties mean the world's response will be very cautious. North Korea will retain the ability to attack at will. And a member of the Kim dynasty will likely remain on North Korea's throne.

Peter Hartcher is the international editor.

[buglerbilly]

N. Korea Makes New Threats As Border Tensions Rise

By PARK CHAN-KYONG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 26 May 2010 10:32

SEOUL - North Korea threatened May 26 to shut a border crossing and open fire on loudspeakers if South Korea makes good on its vow to blare out propaganda across the frontier in revenge for the sinking of a warship.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Seoul to show Washington's "rock-solid" support for its ally amid the rising tensions, and said the world had a duty to respond to the North's torpedo attack.

After a weeks-long multinational probe into the sinking of a South Korean corvette on March 26, investigators said they found overwhelming evidence that a North Korean submarine was to blame.

The findings into the attack that killed 46 young sailors sparked strong international condemnation of the hard-line communist state.

The South on May 24 announced a package of reprisals, including a halt to most trade and a resumption of the loudspeaker broadcasts suspended six years ago.

It is also mounting a diplomatic drive to punish the North through the U.N. Security Council, although veto-wielding member China, the North's sole major ally, is reluctant to sign up.

The North says the South faked evidence of its involvement in the sinking in an attempt to fuel confrontation for domestic political reasons. It threatens "all-out war" against any punitive moves.

The regime announced late May 25 it was breaking all links in protest at Seoul's "smear campaign" and would ban South Korean ships and planes from its territorial waters and airspace.

It said relations would remain severed while conservative President Lee Myung-Bak remains in power in Seoul.

The South's decision to wage "psychological warfare" appears to have sparked particular fury.

It has begun installing loudspeakers along the frontier, and has also resumed FM radio broadcasts to the North. In addition, it plans to scatter propaganda leaflets across the border.

The campaign aims to "push the daily aggravating inter-Korean relations to the brink of war," the North's military said May 26, repeating an earlier threat to open fire.

"If the south side sets up even loudspeakers in the frontline area to resume the broadcasting...the KPA (North Korean army) will take military steps to blow up one by one the moment they appear by firing sighting shots."

The North also threatened to ban South Korean personnel and vehicles from a railway and road leading to the Kaesong jointly-run industrial estate just north of the border - a move that would effectively shut it down.

It ordered eight Seoul government officials on May 26 to leave the estate and switched off two cross-border communications line, Seoul's unification ministry said.

Clinton warned the North to halt its "provocations and policy of threats and belligerence" against neighbors and backed Seoul's moves to take the attack to the Security Council.

"This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond," she told a news conference.

The chief U.S. diplomat said Washington, which stations 28,500 troops in the South, would consider enhancing its defense posture to deter future attacks.

The Pentagon is already planning joint anti-submarine and other naval exercises with South Korea.

"The United States is also reviewing additional options and authorities to hold North Korea and its leaders accountable," Clinton said without elaborating.

The U.S. is considering its own sanctions that would hit the North's finances and money flow, a South Korean official told Yonhap news agency on the condition of anonymity.

Clinton arrived in Seoul from two days of talks in Beijing, where she pressed China to take a tougher line with the North. So far it has merely urged restraint on all parties.

Clinton gave no indication China was ready to accept Security Council action, but said she expected it to listen to U.S. and South Korean concerns.

"We expect to be working with China as we move forward in fashioning a response to this provocation by North Korea."

[Deks]

Would an en-mass deployment of something like Iron Dome help to tilt the odds in the south koreans favor in the event of a conflict?

[ARH v.3.1]

There's something in the region of 4,500 artillery pieces to deal with. The volume of fire would overwhelm any attempt to shoot shells out of the sky.

The better way to even the odds would to do a JDAM run along the border. With modern radars being able to do what they do now, finding the artillery emplacements wouldn't be that hard compared to not that long ago either.

[Gubler, A.]

The arty threat to Seoul is overblown. The city proper is out of range of the DPRK arty positions (>50km). Even Seoul’s northern satellite towns like Gimpo and Goyang are within range of a portion of the DPRK “Seoul” arty concentration and at the extreme limit of range. So any fires will have high dispersion and effectively be random bombardment.

The RoK's defence concept of the DMZ DPRK arty is based on counter battery. While the DPRK has built lots of fortified arty positions and tunnels. But it is hard to sustain a bombardment while moving from position to position to avoid CB fires.

[buglerbilly]

SKorea accused of faking warship sinking

SANGWON YOON

May 29, 2010 - 10:39AM

North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission has accused South Korea of faking the sinking of a warship for which Pyongyang has been blamed and warned that the Korean peninsula was heading to "the brink of war".

The comments were similar to other recent pronouncements but were made on Friday at a news conference, an extremely rare occurrence for the commission, the most powerful organ in the North and chaired by leader Kim Jong Il.

It came as international pressure mounted on Pyongyang, and South Korea said the premier of the North's closest ally, China, said his country would "defend no one" once it decides who was responsible for the sinking.

A multinational investigation concluded last week a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that tore apart and sank the Cheonan in late March, killing 46 sailors in the worst attack on the South Korean military since the Korean War. North Korea has denied responsibility and warned that retaliation or punishment would mean war.

"The South Korean puppet regime's faked sinking of the Cheonan has created a very serious situation on the Korean peninsula, pushing it towards the brink of war," Major General Pak Rim Su, director of the department of policy at the National Defense Commission, told a news conference in Pyongyang, according to broadcaster APTN.

Tensions have soared since South Korea laid out a series of punitive measures and pledged to haul Pyongyang before the UN Security Council. The steps include slashing trade, resuming anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts across the border and launching large-scale naval exercises off the western coast. US-South Korean military drills are to follow in the coming months.

"These anti-North Korean confrontations are an open declaration of war against us and an extraordinarily criminal act that pushes inter-Korean relations into a state of war," Pak said.

He also said Seoul's resumption of psychological operations near the border was "sharpening possibilities for one-on-one confrontation at an unprecedented speed."

A number of people attended the news conference, including some foreigners who might have been Pyongyang-based diplomats. A uniformed foreign military officer could be seen watching the proceedings, which were aired in full on state television.

In Seoul, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak his country "will defend no one", once it determines who was responsible for the sinking, the South Korean government said.

While South Korea, the US and Japan have condemned North Korea, China has taken a cautious position.

China's backing would be key to any bid to condemn or sanction North Korea. Beijing, a veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council member, so far has refrained from committing to council action against Pyongyang, its neighbour and traditional ally.

China will decide its stance after considering international probes and the reactions of all countries, Wen told Lee, according to a briefing by presidential adviser Lee Dong-kwan.

Chinese leaders were pressed hard on the issue during talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials in Beijing earlier this week, and Seoul has already expressed its displeasure over Beijing's hosting the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il on a visit just weeks after the sinking.

Wen's pledge not to defend the perpetrators, as reported by South Korea, might also be a sign that Beijing won't exercise its veto at the Security Council. That would likely be conditional on any measures taken against the North being symbolic and unlikely to further destabilise the regime.

Wen and Lee met at the Blue House a day before a three-way summit that will also include Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Lee met Wen for 100 minutes, 60 longer than planned, according to Lee, the presidential adviser. The president explained the results of the investigation and gave Wen a Chinese language summary.

© 2010 AP

[geof]

I guess one day something has to happen with North Korea, it carn't go on like this forever, and i'm not talking necessarily a military solution. You would think the Chinese would tell them to pull there heads in and get with the plot as they decided to do many years ago and are now reaping the benefits.
But on the other hand there has been many attempt to help them into the real world through dialogue, but as always they seem to shut the door to that time and time again. It's almost like they want to go out with a bang...

[buglerbilly]

China toughens stance toward North Korea, but doesn't back sanctions

By Blaine Harden

Saturday, May 29, 2010

SEOUL -- China toughened its position toward North Korea Friday but fell short of the support for a U.N. Security Council rebuke that South Korean leaders had hoped for during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's high-profile visit.

Wen told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that China has not concluded whether North Korea is responsible for the March 26 sinking of a South Korean naval ship that killed 46 sailors. The incident has triggered one of the worst security crises on this divided peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War.

That stance, in stark contrast to an international investigation blaming Pyongyang for the torpedo attack, reflects China's traditional kid-gloves approach to the isolated, impoverished and heavily armed dictatorship on its far eastern border.

Still, Wen signaled a shift in position by not simply supporting North Korea and by telling Lee that China would not defend anyone responsible for the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan.

"It is a modest shift, but a pretty disappointing one," said Michael J. Green, a top adviser on North Korea in President George W. Bush's administration.

Green said that among China's leaders, Wen is one of the most sympathetic to South Korea's position and that his remarks indicate that China ultimately would support a U.N. resolution -- but "will do everything to water it down" and press for a return to negotiations. He noted that "Beijing never before has been under such pressure to choose between North and South," which is a major trading partner.

"We certainly hope that, you know, through this visit, China will recognize and support the conclusions of the investigation," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We think that the evidence is compelling. And we think that it's time for the international community to come together in a united and demonstrated way and send a clear message to North Korea."

North Korea adamantly denies sinking the ship and has threatened war if there is any move to punish it. Pyongyang also said this week that it is severing relations with the South, a move that followed Seoul's imposition of trade, diplomatic and military measures to punish North Korea.

The North: Sinking 'faked'

On Friday, a senior North Korean general said the sinking was a hoax perpetrated by Seoul, and he warned of war. At a rare news conference for a member of the powerful National Defense Commission, Maj. Gen. Pak Rim Su reportedly said South Korea had "faked" the sinking.

Wen said China is examining the international investigation that blamed North Korea, whose state-run economy depends almost exclusively on China for fuel, food aid and trade. The investigation, conducted by South Korea and experts from the United States and three other countries, found evidence that a North Korean-made torpedo fired by a North Korean mini-submarine sank the ship.

China "always opposes and condemns any acts detrimental to peace and stability on the peninsula," Wen said, according to the official New China News Agency. He added that Beijing "takes serious note of the results of a joint investigation by South Korea and other countries, as well as the reactions of all parties."

Wen is in South Korea for a three-day visit that presents a difficult diplomatic challenge. China has to balance its historically protective stance toward North Korea against the surging importance of its economic ties to South Korea and Japan. This weekend, Wen meets again with Lee and with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

The South Korean government is working with the United States to secure Security Council condemnation of North Korea. In their meeting in Seoul, Lee pressed Wen "to play an active role in making North Korea admit its wrongdoing," the president's spokesman said.

Wen did not go nearly that far, according to accounts of their meeting. Yet his careful comments appeared to recalibrate the rules in Beijing's treatment of North Korea, which would almost certainly collapse without China's concessionary aid. Before Friday, China had confined its comments on the ship's sinking to expressions of sympathy for the loss of life while cautioning all governments to remain calm.

More consultations

China appears to be standing alone among veto-wielding members of the Security Council in questioning the findings of the investigation into the ship's sinking.

Russia announced this week that it will send a team of experts to examine evidence gathered by investigators. South Korean officials said they think that Russia is likely to accept their findings.

China has made no similar commitment to send its scientists to look at the evidence. But South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in an interview Friday that it is his "expectation" that such a commitment will be made after officials "consult with the Chinese a bit more."

Yu said South Korea needs to move carefully in dealing with China on the ship incident, nudging Beijing to accept the "facts" of the investigation without derailing "very good relations" between the two countries.

"I don't want to push them," Yu said.

China is South Korea's most important trading partner, the primary focus of its foreign investment and its leading tourist destination. About 5 million people travel between the two countries every year.

Yu said his government understands that the warship's sinking has pushed Beijing into an awkward corner.

"China has a very special linkage and interest" in North Korea, Yu said. "So I presume that it is not that easy to ignore the North Koreans' appeal to support their position."

"If China will do anything, it will be done in a very quiet manner," Yu said. "China will never say in public what they are going to do."

Amid all the fiery rhetoric this week, an important door was left open: Both countries have not shut down the Kaesong industrial complex, a factory park just inside the North Korean border. More than 40,000 North Koreans work there for South Korean companies. Over the past six years, the complex has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the North's struggling economy.

"We don't want to spoil a good kind of showcase for North-South economic cooperation," Yu said.

As it moved this week to punish the North, South Korea said it would install propaganda loudspeakers along the border. In response, North Korea threatened to blow up the speakers and close down Kaesong.

But Yu said South Korea is open to delaying its psychological warfare operations if the North sends the right signals.

The North Korean government of Kim Jong Il also has been "very careful" not to use rhetoric that would force Kaesong to close, said a high-ranking South Korean official who briefed foreign reporters Friday.

"It is a kind of verbal chicken game," the official said. But he said North Korean authorities understand that the factory park supports the livelihoods of 200,000 people in the Kaesong area and that shutting it down could lead to unrest that might spread to other cities.

[buglerbilly]

China Must Choose on North Korea



By Dean Cheng Friday, May 28th, 2010 4:40 pm

We face what appears to be one of the most volatile security threats of the last decade as the two Koreas threaten each other, and us, with talk of war growing graver by the day. We asked Dean Cheng, a China expert at the Heritage Foundation, to tell us just how had things really are and what the PRC’s role should be. Cheng’s conclusion:

This is a defining moment for Beijing. After North Korea’s blatantly unambiguous, and indefensible act of sinking the South Korean Navy’s ship, the Cheonan, Beijing is either going to side with the angels or the demons. South Korea, the US, and even Japan should mobilize global pressure on China to join in the international response to North Korean aggression.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and North Korea are both Communist countries, and North Korea depends on China for access to oil and other sundry resources. The implication has often been that North Korea dances to Beijing’s tune; if only Beijing were to press, then North Korea would come to terms on issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to reducing terrorist actions.

But this presumes that North Korea-PRC relations really are as close “as lips and teeth,” as was often claimed in the 1960s. In reality, however, there is real reason to question whether North Korea is especially close to China. North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung was nobody’s puppet; instead, he was very good at playing the USSR and the PRC off against each other, while remaining outside the firm orbit of either. Indeed, North Korea has gone to great lengths to rewrite history, minimizing China’s substantial contributions to the Korean War, despite Chinese casualties that number in the hundreds of thousands.

Moreover, both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have rejected following the Chinese path of “Reform and Opening,” in which China has pursued a more capitalist approach to its economy while maintaining political control in the hands of the Communist Party. This has only further increased the gap between Beijing and Pyongyang, since the dependence of the moribund North Korean economy on Chinese largesse has not resulted in North Korean compliance with Chinese interests.

It is also useful to recall that North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 after China had reassured the world that North Korea would not do so. This was sufficiently embarrassing to Beijing to merit a straight-forward rebuke that the test was a “flagrant and brazen” violation. It also resulted in the Chinese joining in the passage of a UN Resolution (1718) condemning the North Korean action.

So, why hasn’t Beijing sought to constrain North Korea? In the first place, North Korea has the ability to threaten the PRC. Not with nuclear weapons (although there is an implicit potential there), but with the threat of refugees. North Korea’s population is under sufficiently tight control that, even in the midst of the 1990s famine, in which an estimated three to five percent of the population starved to death, there was no significant outflow of people. This suggests that the government has the ability to control the flow of people—or to push them out, if need be.

Worse, from Beijing’s perspective, that level of control may be eroding, as North Korea steadily deteriorates. The recent North Korean currency fiasco suggests the government’s control may be declining, in which case more people might seek to flee. Beijing appears unprepared to push the North Koreans over the brink.

Moreover, while the downsides seem clear, the gains for Beijing from a crackdown on their neighbor are not. Eliminating the North Korean nuclear capability (which does not threaten China in any real sense) benefits the ROK, Japan, and the United States, but does not garner anything for the PRC. Pushing the North over the brink, resulting in regime change or even reunification, is even less clearly in Beijing’s interest. The Chinese Communist Party is not known for pursuing altruism as a matter of national policy.

This has now all come to a head in the wake of the Cheonan incident. Past North Korean provocations, ranging from the 1968 assault on the Blue House (South Korea’s presidential residence) aimed at killing then-President Park Chung Hee to the 1976 killing of two American soldiers at the DMZ to the 1983 Rangoon bombing that killed most of the ROK cabinet to the 1987 bombing of a KAL airliner, have all been met with demarches and denunciations—but no direct response. Have we acclimatized North Korea to believing that it can do almost anything and there will be no consequences?

It would seem that this might be the case. In response to ROK President Lee Myung-bak’s calls for restricting trade and North Korean ship transits, North Korea appears to have upped the ante by not only threatening war, but also ending the one link Lee kept open (a joint venture at Kaesong) and suspending all interactions across the 38th Parallel.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/05/28/china-must-choose-on-north-korea/#ixzz0pNU0VhxQ

[buglerbilly]

Chinese premier calls for calm in Korean row

Wen Jiabao speaks of need to defuse tensions over sinking of warship, after talks with Japanese and South Korean leaders

Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 May 2010 16.15 BST


The bow section of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan is salvaged off Baengnyeong island, South Korea. Photograph: Choi Jae-Ku/AP

The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, today warned of an urgent need to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula, but appeared to brush off calls to take a tougher line towards North Korea.

Wen made the comments at a trilateral regional summit meeting with Japanese and South Korean leaders that was meant to focus on economic issues. Inevitably, the controversy over the sinking of the South's warship last month took centre stage at the talks.

Seoul blames Pyongyang for destroying its warship, the Cheonan, with a torpedo but the North has denied any involvement.

South Korea has said it intends to take the issue to the United Nations security council. It is pushing Beijing for support because, as North Korea's main ally and a permanent member of the council, China could use its veto to block a resolution or a statement.

China says it is still assessing the evidence on the March sinking, in which 46 sailors died.

Addressing a closing news conference at the summit in Seogwipo, South Korea, Wen said: "The urgent task for the moment is to properly handle the serious impact caused by the Cheonan incident, gradually defuse tensions over it and avoid possible conflicts."

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said he doubted whether the security council would take up the issue. "Wen Jiabao's speech today gave no practical measures in dealing with the Cheonan incident," he said.

The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, said the three leaders would continue discussing the issue. According to an aide, Lee told his guests: "We are not afraid of war, but nor do we want one. We have no intention of fighting a war."

At a separate briefing, Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, said: "China was cautious because it does not want North Korea to lash out."

Wen has flown to Tokyo for a three-day visit, where officials are expected to press him again to support action over the Cheonan.

Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, north-east Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, said that even if China backed security council action, it might not prove effective. "We have seen plenty of cases in which external pressure has not worked on North Korea," she said.

Tens of thousands of people packed Pyongyang's main square today for a rally condemning Seoul and Washington. They clapped and pumped their fists in the air. Associated Press reported that they carried a huge portrait of the country's leader and shouted anti-South Korean slogans.

"Because of the South Korean war-loving, mad puppets and American invaders, the North and South relationship is being driven to a catastrophe," Choi Yong Rim, secretary of the North Korean Workers party in Pyongyang, told the rally.

The North has organised such rallies during previous international disputes.

Relations are at a 12-year low on the peninsula, with the South suspending trade and taking other tough measures towards the North after an investigation blamed it for the sinking, and the North retaliating by announcing it would sever all ties.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the military had put off plans to drop propaganda leaflets in the North. It cited an unnamed official and said plans for loudspeaker broadcasts across the border would probably be put on hold too.

The South had announced it would resume psychological warfare after a six-year break. It has already begun radio broadcasts and plans to install loudspeakers in the heavily fortified border area, although Pyongyang had warned that it would fire at any such equipment.

"Leaflet distribution had been put off due to weather conditions but we have now decided to put it on hold for the time being, considering the political situation," the official said.

[buglerbilly]

This is an earlier report on the well-known NK habit of exprting missile technology............all part of their bizarre scheme of things............:violent

North Korea 'is exporting nuclear technology

'Leaked UN report says Pyongyang is using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma

Justin McCurry and agencies in Seoul guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 May 2010 11.09 BST

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak (left) and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. The revelations came just hours before Wen arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit. Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters

International efforts to avert a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula were given greater urgency today after a leaked UN report claimed that North Korea is defying UN sanctions and using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma.

The report, by a panel that monitors sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, said the regime was using shell companies and overseas criminal networks to export the technology.

The revelations came just hours before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit certain to be dominated by mounting tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

At a meeting today, Wen told the South Korean president Lee Myung-bak that China would not "harbour" anyone over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, in which 46 soldiers died.

But he added that China has not yet concluded that North Korea was responsible. Pyongyang has denied involvement

According to a South Korean official, Wen said: "China objects to and condemns any act that destroys the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula."

China, the North's closest ally and main benefactor, has so far refused to condemn the Pyongyang regime after a multinational investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan.

Analysts say Beijing is unlikely to support any UN security council moves against North Korea, but might be persuaded to abstain on a resolution rather than wield its veto.

Wen and Lee will continue talks tomorrow, at a three-way summit that will also include the Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. A spokesman for Lee said South Korea was "fully concentrating on diplomatic efforts to hold North Korea responsible".

However, experts said China's options were limited, given its desire to defuse tensions and avoid sparking a political and humanitarian crisis in its own backyard.

"China has its own strategic stake in the Korean peninsula, and if North Korea is further isolated or sanctioned, that would escalate tensions and risk serious instability," said Prof Wei Zhijiang of Zhongshan University in southern China.

The sanctions report, leaked to journalists in New York, said UN bans on nuclear and ballistic missile technology, and on all arms exports and most imports, were having an effect. But it conceded the North had found ways to circumvent sanctions using companies and individuals who are not subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

The 47-page report contains a long list of sanctions violations reported by UN member states, including four cases of arms exports.

Pyongyang, the panel said, had used "a number of masking techniques," including falsely labelling the contents of shipping containers and giving inaccurate information about their origin and destination.

North Korea was using "multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies and financial institutions" to get around sanctions, it added.

An unnamed western diplomat based at the UN said: "The details in the report are not entirely surprising. Basically it suggests that North Korea has exported nuclear and missile technology with the aid of front companies, middlemen and other ruses."

The report said the regime had tried to conceal arms exports by sending items in kit form to be built at their destination, and called on recipient countries of North Korean cargo to act with "extra vigilance".

Pyongyang is also suspected of using overseas criminal groups to transport and distribute "illicit and smuggled cargoes", possibly including parts for weapons of mass destruction.

In response to the sinking, South Korea froze trade with the North, resumed propaganda broadcasts across the border and announced joint naval exercises with the US.

The North retaliated by severing ties with its neighbour, expelling South Korean officials from a joint industrial venture and banning the country's aircraft from its airspace. It also ditched an agreement designed to prevent naval clashes and threatened to attack any South Korean vessel entering its waters.

[buglerbilly]

Kim Jong-il: Malign narcissist or shrewd leader?

The North Korean dictator is cranking up hostilities with his neighbour, but the myths about him mean it's hard to know whether he's bluffing, writes Peter Beaumont

Peter Beaumont The Observer, Sunday 30 May 2010

Donald Rumsfeld, proposing a taxonomy of ignorance in 2002, described "known knowns" and the "known unknowns... things that we now know we don't know." The US secretary for defence then added the "unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don't know". In North Korea, the known unknowns and unknown unknowns are manifold, not least relating to the country's leader Kim Jong-il.

Following the sinking in the Yellow Sea of the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, in an alleged attack by a North Korean submarine, the miasma of unknowns that has largely obscured the functioning of the northern state from view has become suddenly replete with new threatening meaning.

Conventional depictions of Kim – son of Kim il-Sung, the North Korean communist leader who led the north from its founding in 1948 – have focused on his reported eccentricities to the point of caricature: his vanity and hypochondria; the obsessive interest in films of which he has thousands; his womanising and taste for fine cognacs, caviar and lobster.

They note his paranoia and his diminutive stature, his built-up heels and bouffant hair. None of which assists us much in understanding the present crisis into which the Korean peninsular has been plunged. Mentioned inevitably, too, is Kim's kidnapping of South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his wife, Choi Eun-hee, who, between spells in prison and "re-education", lived in Kim's summerhouse while making films for him.

If there is a problem, it is that what is "known" about North Korea's leader has been gleaned either from defectors singing for their supper, South Korean intelligence (which has its own interest in generating ridicule about the North's leader) or from a regime whose deliberate mythologising of Kim's life story has created its own aura of untruth.

One example of this reinvention concerns the details of Kim Jong-il's birth, an event that occurred on the 16 February 1941 in Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union where his father was then leading a battalion of Chinese and Korean exiles. The "official" account, however, places his birth elsewhere: in a hidden camp on North Korea's sacred Mount Paektu, changing the date of his arrival by a year to provide a more auspicious 30-year age difference with his father.

It is on these official accounts, by and large, that one is forced to rely in describing Kim's progression from his imaginary birthplace to the first dynastic succession in a communist state. It began in earnest in 1964 when, at the age of 23 (in real years), it is recorded, he was appointed to the central committee of the Workers' party of Korea.

His first official posting was as a "guidance officer" in the party's cultural and propaganda departments, which, it is reported, suited his "playful nature". An indication of his ruthlessness is also early revealed. Forming his own clique within the party, the son was soon involved in purging some of his father's former guerrilla colleagues from the wartime struggle, allegedly to prove his loyalty.

What followed was a slow and deliberate effort to position the son as his father's successor over a period of nine years through the auspices of the Korean Workers' party which saw him oust his uncle from the position of party organisation secretary in 1973. And it is around this time that Kim junior appears to have been marked out as Kim il-Sung's successor.

References begin appearing, without a name attached, to a person called the Party Centre who it emerges is Kim Jong-il. Around this time, too, Kim is described as the "successor to juche" – his father's ideology of self-reliance and self-determination free of external influence – the first indication that what began as a political idea is being transformed into something more personal, a family franchise that has continued as the younger Kim has designated one of his sons to carry the banner.

And while some who have prepared psychological profiles of Kim have concluded he is a "malignant narcissist", others believe that the skilful propagandist who elevated his father from political leader to a kind of deity and secured his family's grip on the state is far shrewder than he's given credit for, at least within the context of the looking-glass world of North Korea.

All of which poses the question: if he's so smart, then what was Kim Jong-il thinking of when he ordered the sinking of the Cheonan? On that, long-time watchers of North Korea are divided, not least over whether Kim Jong-il was personally responsible for ordering the attack.

"The weak but obvious answer about North Korea and Kim Jong-il," says one who lived in the tiny community of a few hundred foreigners in the capital Pyongyang, "is that we don't know much of what is going on. But what we can say is that Kim and his regime simply do not know how the world works. He sees the world through an entirely different prism."

Among the known unknowns is how directly Kim commands his isolated state and in competition with what other interests.

On the Cheonan sinking, Hazel Smith, an academic at Cranfield University, who also lived in Pyongyang as an aid worker for several years, retains some scepticism, believing it is possible that a degraded military might just have overstepped their authority in firing the torpedo.

"North Korea was extremely centrally directed until the virtual collapse of the state 15 years ago when the army effectively took over. Since then, Kim has lived in a symbiotic relationship with the military, their interests overlapping." Smith believes that legislation enacted in North Korea makes it possible to infer – from its toing and froing over issues like the opening of the country's internal market to access to mobile phones – that Kim feels compelled to trim the country's direction to satisfy different factions, including hardliners who oppose any movement towards liberalising the state in any way.

She also dismisses the common characterisation of Kim Jong-il as mad, pointing out that many of the international statesmen who have met him describe him as "astute". Conceding that he is a "nasty, authoritarian" at the head of a military dictatorship, she adds: "Within the specific framework of North Korea, he is a rational and intelligent actor. His actions are easily explicable – territorial defence and regime survival."

Other close observers who believe that Kim did, indeed, order the sinking of the Cheonan, agree with Smith on this point, that far from being deranged, his acts follow a clearly defined logic, not least within the continuing hostility between the two Koreas who fought a brutal war from 1950-53 and remain technically at war. Having been able to behave for years with impunity, they argue, the north has been wrong footed by the increasingly hardline stance of the south's President Lee Myung-bak, including the halting of food aid, who has rolled back the "Sunshine Policy" of north-south detente initiated by President Kim Dae-Jung.

While his personal life has been much commented on, fuelled by memoirs like that of his Japanese ex-sushi chef who described Kim's luxurious lifestyle involving fine food, equestrianism and riding jet skis, Smith recalls that North Korea's elite were careful not to flaunt such luxuries in public. "There is a manuscript in circulation, written by one of his nieces who lived with him which includes photographs of his home. When I looked at them I didn't think it looked so special."

What the niece's unpublished memoir does confirm was how his relatives lived in fear of his temper. "He would threaten to send them to the gulag or the countryside," recalls Smith. "And that amounts to the same thing."

And while North Korea has responded to the accusations over the sinking of the Cheonan with typical bombast, threatening all-out war on the south, it is not completely beyond apologising if it believes it is in its own interest. In 2002, when the Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Kim in Pyongyang, Kim admitted that his country had been behind the kidnapping of 14 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s and promised, in exchange for Japanese investment in the impoverished country, that it would not occur again.

A similar act of contrition seems unlikely in this case.

THE KIM FILE
Born According to his official biography, Kim was born on 16 February 1942, near Mount Paektu in North Korea.

His birth, or so the propaganda goes, was foretold by a swallow and as soon as little Kim emerged into the world, a double rainbow appeared over the mountain and a new star formed in the skies.

Soviet records show, however, that he was born a year earlier in the Siberian village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk. The rainbow isn't mentioned.

Best of times: His elevation to the position of general secretary of the Korean Workers' party in 1997, the final step before being named ruler of North Korea a year later, four years after the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

Worst of times: The film-obsessive was ridiculed in 2004's Team America: World Police satire, a caricature that refuses to go away. North Korea's old friends in China and Russia were angered by Kim test-launching seven missiles, including an ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

What he says: "Glory to the heroic soldiers of the people's army!" Kim's only recorded public utterance.

What others say: "An illustrious commander, endowed with outstanding commandership art and matchless courage and pluck." From the official paper of the Korean Workers' party.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. to Aid South Korea With Naval Defense Plan


Kyodo News, via Associated Press
Thousands packed a square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday for a rally condemning South Korea and the United States.

By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER

Published: May 30, 2010

WASHINGTON — Surprised by how easily a South Korean warship was sunk by what an international investigation concluded was a North Korean torpedo fired from a midget submarine, senior American officials say they are planning a long-term program to plug major gaps in the South’s naval defenses.

They said the sinking revealed that years of spending and training had still left the country vulnerable to surprise attacks.

The discovery of the weaknesses in South Korea caught officials in both countries off guard. As South Korea has rocketed into the ranks of the world’s top economies, it has invested billions of dollars to bolster its defenses and to help refine one of the oldest war plans in the Pentagon’s library: a joint strategy with the United States to repel and defeat a North Korean invasion.

But the shallow waters where the attack occurred are patrolled only by South Korea’s navy, and South Korean officials confirmed in interviews that the sinking of the warship, the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, revealed a gap that the American military must help address.

The United States — pledged to defend its ally but stretched thin by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — would be drawn into any conflict. But it has been able to reduce its forces on the Korean Peninsula by relying on South Korea’s increased military spending. Senior Pentagon officials stress that firepower sent to the region by warplanes and warships would more than compensate for the drop in American troop levels there in the event of war.

But the attack was evidence, the officials say, of how North Korea has compensated for the fact that it is so bankrupt that it can no longer train its troops or buy the technology needed to fight a conventional war. So it has instead invested heavily in stealthy, hard-to-detect technologies that can inflict significant damage, even if it could not win a sustained conflict.

Building a small arsenal of nuclear weapons is another big element of the Northern strategy — a double-faceted deterrent allowing it to threaten a nuclear attack or to sell the technology or weapons in order to head off retaliation even for an act of war like sinking South Korean ships.

In an interview last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the joint training exercise with South Korea planned just off the country’s coast in the next few weeks represented only the “near-term piece” of a larger strategy to prevent a recurrence of the kind of shock the South experienced as it watched one of its ships sunk without warning. But the longer-range effort will be finding ways to detect, track and counter the miniature submarines, which he called “a very difficult technical, tactical problem.”

“Longer term, it is a skill set that we are going to continue to press on,” Admiral Mullen said. “Clearly, we don’t want that to happen again. We don’t want to give that option to North Korea in the future. Period. We want to take it away.”

American and South Korean officials declined to describe details of the coming joint exercises, except to say that they would focus on practicing antisubmarine warfare techniques and the interdiction of cargo vessels carrying prohibited nuclear materials and banned weapons.

To counter the unexpected ability of midget submarines to take on full warships, the long-term fix will mean greatly expanding South Korea’s antisubmarine network to cover vast stretches of water previously thought to be too shallow to warrant monitoring closely — with sonar and air patrols, for instance. That would include costly investment in new technologies, as well as significant time spent determining new techniques for the South Korean military.

North Korea presents an adversary with a complicated mix of strengths and weaknesses, said senior American officers.

According to a recent strategic assessment by the American military based on the Korean Peninsula, the North has spent its dwindling treasury to build an arsenal able to start armed provocations “with little or no warning.” These attacks would be specifically designed for “affecting economic and political stability in the region” — exactly what happened in the attack on the Cheonan, which the South Korean military and experts from five other countries determined was carried out by a North Korean midget submarine firing a powerful torpedo.

Admiral Mullen and other officials said they believed the Cheonan episode might be just the first of several to come. “North Korea is predictable in one sense: that it is unpredictable in what it is going to do,” he said. “North Korea goes through these cycles. I worry a great deal that this isn’t the last thing we are going to see.”

High-ranking South Korean officials acknowledge that the sinking was a shock.

“As the Americans didn’t anticipate 9/11, we were not prepared for this attack,” one South Korean military official said. “While we were preoccupied with arming our military with high-tech weapons, we have not prepared ourselves against asymmetrical-weapons attack by the North.”

The South Korean military was well aware that the North had submarines — around 70, according to current estimates. But the focus had been on North Korea’s using larger conventional submarines to infiltrate agents or commandos into the South, as it had in the past, not on midget submarines sophisticated enough to sink a major surface warship.

“We believe that this is the beginning of North Korea’s asymmetrical military provocations employing conventional weapons,” said the South Korean official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the military’s internal analysis. “They will use such provocations to ratchet up pressure on the U.S. and South Korea. The Cheonan sinking is an underwater terrorist attack, and this is the beginning of such attacks.”

Though it is considered unlikely, the threat of a conventional war with North Korea is still an issue, too, officials said.

The American military’s most recent “strategic digest” assessing both the strengths of the United States-South Korea alliance and the continuing threat from the North notes that North Korea’s military is “outfitted with aging and unsophisticated equipment.”

Even so, 70 percent of North Korea’s ground forces — part of the fourth-largest armed force in the world — remain staged within about 60 miles of the demilitarized zone with the South. In that arsenal are 250 long-range artillery systems able to strike the Seoul metropolitan area.

“While qualitatively inferior, resource-constrained and incapable of sustained maneuver, North Korea’s military forces retain the capability to inflict lethal, catastrophic destruction,” said the assessment, approved by Gen. Walter L. Sharp, commander of American and United Nations forces in South Korea.

There are about 28,500 American forces in South Korea today, significantly fewer than before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The South Korean military has maintained its armed forces at a consistent number between 600,000 and 700,000, and has steadily modernized based on its economic dynamism.

The North has an active-duty military estimated at 1.2 million, with between five million and seven million in the reserves.

But many are poorly trained, or put to work building housing or seeking out opponents of Kim Jong-il’s government. The best trained, best equipped and best paid of them are North Korea’s special operations forces, numbering about 80,000 and described by the American military as “tough, well-trained and profoundly loyal.” Their mission is to infiltrate the South for intelligence gathering and for “asymmetric attacks against a range of critical civilian infrastructure and military targets.”

[buglerbilly]

Fidel Castro says US sank S Korean ship

June 5, 2010 - 7:39AM

AFP

Castro's been at the wacky bakky again.............:jerkit

US navy commandos sank a South Korean warship in March in order to blame North Korea, raise tensions and convince Japan to keep US forces in Okinawa, Cuban former president Fidel Castro says.

Castro, who based his information on press reports, blasted Washington's "cynicism" and "lack of scruples" in the incident in an editorial on Friday.

According to Castro, US Navy SEALS torpedoed South Korea's Cheonan corvette in a bid by Washington to sway Japan to allow a US military base to remain on Okinawa island.

Castro, 83 and convalescing away from government since 2006, writes regular columns for Cuban media commenting on world events.

A multinational investigation last month concluded that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the South Korean warship on March 26, killing 46 people on board.

Yukio Hatoyama resigned as Japan's prime minister this week amid a row over an unpopular US Marine Corps airbase on Okinawa, having failed to fulfil a campaign promise to close the military facility.

Castro said rising tensions on the Korean peninsula were among the causes for Hatoyama's resignation.

"Political leaders and world opinion have proof of the cynicism and lack of scruples that characterises US imperial policy," Castro wrote.

"Thus, in a surprisingly easy manner, the United States managed to solve an important problem: to liquidate the national unity government of Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan," he added.

Castro noted that Washington's alleged hand in the Cheonan ship came at a high price, having "deeply offended its South Korea allies".

The former Cuban leader also hailed fellow communist Kim Jong Il, who has rejected any responsibility in the incident, and highlighted China's muted response to the conflict.

The Asian giant has resisted pressure to condemn North Korea and has called for efforts to ease regional tensions.

© 2010 AFP

[buglerbilly]

South Korean voters opt for 'reason over confrontation' with the North

By Blaine Harden

Saturday, June 5, 2010

SEOUL -- The pre-election narrative seemed certain to win hearts, minds and votes. An explosion at sea ripped apart a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors and outraging a nation. An international investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo had sunk the ship.

With elections looming, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told his countrymen he would no longer tolerate such brutality. He severed trade links with the government of Kim Jong Il and vowed: "North Korea will pay a price."

But the fervor petered out as quickly as it arose. Voters did not rally round their president in Wednesday's local and regional elections. There was no Korean version of the "9/11 effect" that many had predicted. Instead, Lee's ruling Grand National Party was clobbered, stunned party bosses quit in shame and North Korea pronounced itself pleased.

The election results suggest that many South Koreans, even those who are angry at North Korea for the Cheonan's sinking and the deaths of their countrymen, are more concerned about maintaining peace than with teaching Kim a lesson.

In a nation obsessed with education, consumption and the accumulation of wealth, voters have too much to lose. In interviews over the past two weeks, many said their desperately poor and heavily armed northern neighbor is too dangerous and too bizarrely governed to challenge overtly.

"There is no winner if war breaks out, hot or cold," said Lim Seung-youl, 27, a clothing distributor here who voted for the main opposition Democratic Party. "Our nation is richer and smarter than North Korea. We have to use reason over confrontation."

Most South Koreans, election returns show, do not see North Korea with the same moral clarity as their pro-American president, whose announcement of "stern measures" against the North was praised by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as "entirely appropriate."

Young voters were especially disenchanted with Lee's tough talk, exit polls show. They voted in unexpectedly high numbers, goading each other with tweets and text messages to get to the polls and casting most of their ballots for the Democratic Party, which questioned North Korea's involvement in sinking the warship and accused Lee's government of rigging the investigation that blamed the North.

The Obama administration praised the probe for being professional, thorough and convincing.

Most political analysts interpreted the vote as a rebuke of Lee for raising tensions too high after the Cheonan sank near a disputed sea border between the two Koreas.

In the streets of Seoul, even the president's supporters said he and his party went too far.

"It was obvious that the government was trying to use the Cheonan politically," said Kim Mee-kyung, 46, a housewife who voted for the ruling party. "At first all Koreans supported Lee, but then he was too strong. In dealing with North Korea, moderation is best."

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, South Koreans have had decades to refine what moderation means in response to provocations from a next-door dictatorship that has thousands of artillery pieces aimed at metropolitan Seoul.

Bloody surprise attacks have a way of recurring here every 10 to 15 years, from the 1968 raid by a hit squad sent to try to assassinate a South Korean president, to the bombing of a Korean Air passenger jet in 1987, to a submarine infiltration by special forces commandos in 1996, to the Cheonan sinking in late March.

The attacks have killed large numbers of people, but they have yet to provoke Seoul into launching a major counterattack against North Korea. Nor have they stopped the average South Korean from getting richer, better educated and better housed in what has become the fourth-largest economy in Asia.

"Experience teaches South Koreans not to overreact," said Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies here. "I think people here interpreted Lee's response to the Cheonan to be like a new Cold War. But now it is the 21st century, and that kind of thinking is seen as old-fashioned, as well as harmful to the economy and people's standard of living."

Rather than seeking clarity, justice or vengeance in response to North Korea's periodic outrages, South Koreans seem to be willing to muddle through in ever-more-prosperous shades of gray. The election results suggest they want Lee's government to calm down and do likewise.

Officials in the president's office told local newspapers that the election was a "serious setback" for Lee's agenda. The Democratic Party demanded that the president apologize to the nation for turning the Cheonan's sinking into a national security crisis.

That seemed unlikely. But Lee appeared surprised and chastened by the vote. His spokesman quoted the president as saying, "The election outcome should be received as an opportunity for self-examination."

[buglerbilly]

'Sub Attack Came Near Drill'

June 05, 2010

Associated Press

The night a torpedo-armed North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean patrol ship, the U.S. and South Korea were engaged in joint anti-submarine warfare exercises just 75 miles away, military officials told The Associated Press.

The blast that sank the Cheonan, the worst South Korean military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War, showed how impoverished nations such as North Korea can still inflict heavy casualties on far better equipped and trained forces, even those backed by the might of the U.S. military.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that plans for more joint U.S.-South Korea anti-submarine exercises, announced after the sinking of the Cheonan, are on hold awaiting United Nations action on the incident.

In part, Gates said, there is concern about instigating another rash act by the North Koreans.

Two months after the sinking, U.S. officials for the first time disclosed details of the joint naval exercise held the same day as the attack on the Cheonan. Forty-six South Korean sailors died on the warship, which was not involved in the exercise but on routine patrol near disputed waters.

Military officials said the drill could not have detected Pyongyang's sub. Officials and defense experts said that a minisub would have been difficult for even a nearby ship to track in shallow coastal waters.

"A small submarine in shallow waters is very hard to detect," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.com, a military think tank.

What surprised experts was that a 130-ton minisub could without warning take down a warship nine or 10 times its size, a power mismatch called asymmetric warfare.

"To us, stealth denotes the latest technology - billions of dollars in research and development in armaments," said John Park, a Korea expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "The North Korean version of stealth is old-school diesel-battery operated subs that evade modern detection methods."

An South Korean-led investigation into the sinking concluded last month that the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to the North, but Pyongyang has steadfastly denied any involvement.

South Korea and its allies, meanwhile, have called the attack a shocking provocation, even for the regime of North Korea's eccentric Communist dictator Kim Jong Il.

Western experts say there are still questions about exactly what happened that night off Baengnyeong island.

One U.S. official privately said the sinking may not have been an intentional attack at all, but the act of a rogue commander, an accident or an exercise gone wrong. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

That would be for North Korea to explain, said the official, but so far Pyongyang's only response has been denial and indignation. A statement run by state media threatened war in response to any attempt to punish the North.

"Because of the South Korean war-loving, mad puppets and American invaders, the North and South relationship is being driven to a catastrophe," Choi Yong Rim, a high-ranking North Korean Party official, told a Pyongyang rally last week.

U.S. and South Korean forces can easily monitor the movements of North Korean submarines when they operate on the surface.

Underwater, tracking submarines relies on active or passive sonar. Passive sonar uses microphones to listen for the sounds of sub operations. Active sonar emits sounds and listens for the echoes as they bounce off of submerged objects.

The Cheonan was operating its active sonar at the time, South Korea's Navy officer Kim Young-kyu, a spokesman for the U.N. Command in Korea, told The Associated Press. It wasn't clear why the ship didn't detect the sub.

After the blast, a South Korean commander dispatched a patrol boat to look for subs.

But officials said the vessel couldn't locate any, perhaps because of the weather, currents and rough conditions that chilly March night. Those factors, as well as the rocks and ledges in shallow water, can all affect the reliability of sonar, experts say.

Sonar technology has traditionally been designed to operate in deep waters and used for convoy protection rather than coastal defense.

"There's a lot of equipment that works pretty well against big submarines out in the deep ocean, but doesn't work so well against small submarines in shallow water," analyst Pike said. "We've got the same concern with Iran and the Persian Gulf."

North Korea is believed to have a fleet of 70 submarines, including some 50 that are small but still capable of carrying a torpedo.

The night before the Cheonan sank, two U.S. destroyers and other ships maneuvered and practiced tracking while a South Korean navy submarine played the role of target.

The U.S.-South Korean anti-sub exercise began at 10 p.m. March 25 and ended at 9 p.m. the next day, Army Col. Jane Crichton, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Korea, told The Associated Press. The exercise was terminated because of the blast aboard the Cheonan.

The submarine drill was part of annual U.S.-Korea war games called Key Resolve/Foal Eagle, which are intended to keep forces ready in the event another major war erupts on the Korean Peninsula.

Key Resolve was an 11-day computer simulation started early in the month. Foal Eagle followed at midmonth and included live firing by U.S. Marines, aerial attack drills, urban combat and other training as well as the anti-submarine warfare drill.

As the exercises got under way, Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, said it was practice for "all the threats that North Korea can throw at us."

North Korea claimed the exercises amounted to attack preparations and demanded they be canceled.

The North's military said that it would bolster its nuclear capability and break off dialogue with the U.S. in response to the drills. But Pyongyang rails at Key Resolve/Foal Eagle every year, one U.S. official said.

Seoul has taken the sinking of the Cheonan as a wake-up call, and vowed to review and strengthen its defenses. The U.S. is planning two major naval exercises with South Korea in the coming weeks on top of the more than dozen of various types that it holds each year.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Deks]

Do the South Koreans have something similar to SOSUS ? If not, that might be a worthwhile investment considering the threat. No doubt hard to do in their environment though.

[buglerbilly]

Chinese Delegates At Shangri-La Express Frustration With N. Korea

By WENDELL MINNICK

Published: 6 Jun 2010 15:45

SINGAPORE - Members of a Chinese delegation attending the 9th Asia Security Summit earlier this month indicated Beijing officials are flustered by North Korean hijinks.

Also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue the summit, held annually in Singapore, is run by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

North Korean issues shared the spotlight at Shangri-La with difficulties over China's refusal to continue military exchanges with the U.S.

A Chinese government official at Shangri-La said he "was puzzled by his government's support for North Korea" in light of the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, by a North Korean torpedo on March 26.

"There is no open debate on the North Korean issue in China," he said. Unlike academic, media and government debates on Taiwan and relations with the U.S., there is no debate on North Korean issues due to fears of being harassed by North Korean embassy officials.

If a Chinese academic or media outlet writes something suggesting a change on Beijing's policy on Pyongyang the North Korean embassy sends someone to "your office to complain," he said.

"The North Koreans are very effective at silencing debate in China on North Korean issues." It is a form of intimidation and a successful way of controlling debate that could lead to positive changes, he said.

Other members of China's delegation to the Shangri-La expressed equal frustration over Pyongyang. China really had no time to prepare an adequate response to the crisis because North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing shortly after the sinking.

This has lead to suspicions in Beijing that North Korea planned the attack knowing Kim would be going to China to meet with officials, a Chinese delegate said.

The Beijing trip had been planned months before the incident and there was conjecture amongst some Chinese delegation members that Kim deliberately orchestrated the attack to project an image of a loyal and supportive Beijing.

There was literally no time to formulate a response to the crisis before Kim's visit, said a delegate. "Beijing lacks confidence in crisis management," he said.

The sinking occurred on March 26. South Korea launched a massive salvage operation and assembled an international investigative team consisting of civilian and military experts from Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States.

The investigation ran from March 31 through May 20 when South Korea announced that a North Korean torpedo sank the ship.

Kim met with Chinese government officials in Beijing from May 5 and 6.

Prior to Seoul's announcement there was speculation an accident aboard the ship was responsible and Beijing held back criticism of North Korea hoping the investigation would prove Pyongyang's innocence, said a Chinese delegate.

The investigation determined that torpedo fragments found at the scene were that of a North Korean CHT-02D torpedo, according to an IISS report issued May 20 in response to the announcement of findings in Seoul.

The IISS report, "Investigation Report on the Sinking of the ROK Ship Cheonan," said the "evidence matched in size and shape with the CHT-02D specifications on the drawing presented in introductory materials provided to foreign countries by North Korea for export purposes."

The torpedo parts include the "5x5 bladed contra-rotating propellers, propulsion motor and a steering section, perfectly match[ing] the schematics of the CHT-02D torpedo," the IISS report said.

Every country in Asia, including Myanmar, has sent representatives to the Shangri-La Dialogue except North Korea, an IISS official said. "They have been invited, but have never accepted," said John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive, IISS.

The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue has become the premier Asia defense and security forum in Asia, with numerous defense ministers and secretaries in attendance.

This year speeches were given by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, China's Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ma Xiaotian, Japan's Minister of Defense Toshimi Kitazawa, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and South Korea's Minister of Defense Kim Tae Young.

Ma made no mention of North Korea in his June 5 speech entitled "New Dimensions of Security."

North Korean provocations

■ 1968: A platoon of North Korean soldiers is stopped short of reaching the Blue House, the South Korean presidential residence, and after an intense fire fight only one North Korean soldier survives.

■ 1968: North Korea captures the U.S. Navy reconnaissance ship Pueblo.

■ 1972: A North Korean bomb detonates prematurely at South Korea's National Cemetery before the scheduled arrival of the South Korean president.

■ 1976: North Koreans wielding ax handles kill a U.S. soldier in Panmunjom.

■ 1983: A North Korean bomb kills several members of the South Korean presidential Cabinet in Rangoon.

■ 1987: A North Korean bomb detonates on KAL flight 858 killing 115 people.

■ 1996: A North Korean minisubmarine is captured along the east coast of South Korea.

[buglerbilly]

Report: S. Korea General Arrested For Spying

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 9 Jun 2010 10:55

SEOUL - A two-star South Korean army general was arrested June 9, accused of leaking the country's war plan and other secrets to North Korea, a news report said.

The Defence Security Command had asked military prosecutors to arrest the major-general identified only as Kim for leaking classified information, Yonhap news agency said.

A defense ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report.

The leaked secrets include a military operation to be carried out in case of all-out war with North Korea, Yonhap said.

The arrest of the general followed the June 3 detention of two people accused of handing over military secrets to North Korea, Yonhap said.

It said one of them was a former spy for South Korea who acquired military secrets through the general and handed them to a North Korean agent in China in return for an unspecified payment.

The South periodically detains people accused of spying for its communist neighbor.

A female North Korean spy arrested last month used sex to secure sensitive information on Seoul's subway system, prosecutors have said.

In another case, a female North Korean spy was arrested and jailed for five years in 2008. She had admitted having sex with a South Korean army officer to secure secret information.

[buglerbilly]

25 SKoreans Face Punishment in Sinking

June 10, 2010

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's audit agency told the defense minister to punish 25 top military officials for failing to ensure combat readiness ahead of the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea, an official said Thursday.

A team of international investigators concluded last month that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank the vessel near the two Koreas' disputed sea border on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors. It was one of South Korea's worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Board of Audit and Inspection said Thursday it told Defense Minister Kim Tae-young a day earlier to "take appropriate steps, including disciplinary action" against the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 22 other senior officers and two civilian ministry officials for negligence.

Park Soo-won, a senior BAI official, said that the military had expected that a North Korean submarine or submersible vessel could secretly attack a South Korean ship near the sea border following a naval skirmish in November that left one North Korean soldier dead and three others wounded.

However, the navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not take appropriate countermeasures and neglected combat readiness, Park said.

The audit agency also blamed the military for delaying its first report on the incident to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, its chairman and the defense minister. The military also did not correctly relay information to its higher commands, the agency said.

The announcement, part of an interim report, came days after North Korea sent the U.N. Security Council a letter warning the world body not to open debate on the Cheonan's sinking.

South Korea last week officially asked the Security Council to punish North Korea. North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking and says any punishment would trigger war.

Sin Son Ho -- North Korea's permanent representative at the U.N. -- sent Security Council president Claude Heller a letter Tuesday saying the council must not open a debate on the "the unilaterally forged" investigation results because that would infringe upon the North's sovereignty, the official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

Sin said the Security Council instead should take steps to get South Korea and the U.S. accept North Korean inspectors to verify the investigation results, it said.

Separately, about 300 activists and defectors opposed to North Korea's government gathered in the city of Paju near the inter-Korean border Thursday to denounce leader Kim Jong Il and launch leaflets and DVDs via huge balloons across the border.

The leaflets and the DVDs contained information on the sinking of the South Korean ship, said Choi Sung-yong, one of the protest organizers.

The activists said the balloons carried 150,000 leaflets, 300 DVDs, 200 portable radios as well as $2,000 in cash to support North Koreans.

Park Sang-hak, who heads a group of North Korean defectors, said the activists wanted to "let North Koreans know the truth" about the ship sinking.

"What a weak, opportunistic government we have in South Korea," Park said. "The government should be sending these fliers."

South Korea late last month announced a series of steps to punish the North, including curtailing trade and resuming propaganda operations. The government resumed radio broadcasts into the North, but has so far stopped short of sending leaflets or starting broadcasts via loudspeaker across the border.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

N. Korea Says It Will React Militarily To Any U.N. Condemnation

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 15 Jun 2010 12:53

In a world full of fuckwhits this lot have to be the most whitless of all.................. :stfu U:poundit

UNITED NATIONS - North Korea's U.N. ambassador warned Tuesday that his country would respond militarily to any U.N. Security Council condemnation over the sinking of a South Korean warship which Seoul blamed on Pyongyang.

"We don't want the Security Council to take measures provoking us," Sin Son Ho told reporters.

He warned that if the 15-member council took action against Pyongyang, "follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces."

[Milne Bay]

N. Korea Says It Will React Militarily To Any U.N. Condemnation


"We don't want the Security Council to take measures provoking us," Sin Son Ho told reporters.

He warned that if the 15-member council took action against Pyongyang, "follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces."

I realise that this is out of context, but ............ doesn't this imply that the North did in fact attack the South Korean ship - in spite of their constant denials.
Hmm

[buglerbilly]

U.S., S. Korea Defer Command Transfer To 2015

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 27 Jun 2010 16:04

TORONTO - The United States and South Korea have agreed to postpone until 2015 Washington's transfer of wartime command of allied South Korean forces to Seoul, President Obama said June 26.

Currently, if war were to break out on the Korean peninsula the United States would assume operational command of South Korean forces. Under a 2007 agreement with Seoul, that plan was due to come to an end in April 2012.

"One of the topics that we discussed is that we have arrived at an agreement that the transition of operational control for alliance activities in the Korean peninsula will take place in 2015," Obama said.

"This gives us appropriate time - within the existing security context - to do this right," Obama said. "We want to make sure that we execute what's called the OPCON transition in an effective way."

The decision was made at a meeting between Obama and his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-Bak on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Toronto.

"We made a formal request to President Obama and to the U.S. administration for the adjustment of the transfer of the timing of the wartime operational control," Lee told reporters at a joint appearance with Obama.

"And I would like to thank President Obama for accepting this proposal, and we agreed to transfer this in the latter half of 2015 - by late 2015."

The White House's chief adviser on Asia, Jeff Bader, told reporters on a conference call that South Korea wanted to push back the date to underline the U.S. commitment to security in the region at a time of tension.

The always tense relations between Seoul and its unpredictable neighbor North Korea have become even more poisonous since a South Korean warship was sunk in March in a suspected northern attack.

Obama, Lee and G8 leaders all condemned the attack, which saw 46 South Korean personnel killed, and officials confirmed they were preparing a strong statement on the matter to present to the UN Security Council.

[buglerbilly]

U.N. Falls Short of Blaming N. Korea For Destruction of Warship

Agence France-Presse

Published: 10 Jul 2010 17:14

North Korea said Saturday it was willing in principle to return to nuclear disarmament talks after the United Nations failed directly to blame it for a deadly attack on a South Korean warship.

The North, which denies U.S. and South Korean claims that it torpedoed the ship with the loss of 46 lives, indicated it felt vindicated by the U.N. statement which was watered down under pressure from China, Pyongyang's ally.

All parties in the months-long dispute, which has sharply raised regional tensions, professed satisfaction with the presidential statement adopted Friday, which condemns the March attack without specifying the culprit.

The North said the statement exposes the "foolish calculation" of the United States and South Korea in bringing the issue to the U.N. It warned of "strong physical retaliation" if they press on with countermeasures over the sinking.

If hostile forces persist in "demonstration of forces and sanctions", they would not escape "strong physical retaliation" or evade responsibility for escalating the conflict, a foreign ministry spokesman told official media.

The South Korean and U.S. navies are planning a joint exercise to deter North Korean "provocation". Seoul has announced reprisals including a partial trade cut-off.

Repeating its earlier stance, the North said it would make "consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing".

The talks have been stalled since North Korea quit them in April 2009.

The North has previously expressed willingness in principle to return. But first it wants the US to agree to hold talks on a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 war and an end to sanctions.

Professor Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University said Pyongyang believed it had put up a good defense at the United Nations since the statement stopped short of blaming the North.

"North Korea is now taking a peace offensive, calling for dialogue," he said.

South Korea, its ally the United States and several other countries had urged the U.N. to censure the North for the sinking, but China resisted such a move.

The statement condemns the attack as a threat to regional peace and calls for "appropriate and peaceful measures" against those responsible.

It expresses deep concern at the findings of a multinational investigation team which concluded the North was to blame, but "takes note" of the North's denial of responsibility.

The statement welcomes Seoul's restraint and calls for direct talks to settle disputes on the peninsula peacefully.

The North's ambassador to the U.N., Sin Son-ho, hailed the statement as "our great diplomatic victory". The foreign ministry spokesman was less triumphal but noted the call for dialogue.

The spokesman complained that the U.N. "hastily tabled and handled the case before the truth of the case has been probed" and described the allegations against Pyongyang as a "conspiratorial farce".

South Korea welcomed the U.N.'s stance, saying it "emphasized the importance of preventing further provocations". But it called on the North to accept responsibility for the attack and apologize, in addition to showing a commitment to denuclearization.

"North Korea, above all, must clearly show its will toward denuclearization," said foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-Sun.

The South's defense ministry meanwhile said there was no change to its plan to carry out a joint naval exercise with the United States in the Yellow Sea, despite objections from China.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will visit South Korea this month, said the U.N. had sent a warning to North Korea "that such irresponsible and provocative behavior is a threat to peace and security in the region and will not be tolerated".

Japan described the U.N. text as "a clear message of the international community about a North Korean attack" while China merely said it was time to move on.

"We hope the involved parties continue to maintain calm and restraint, and take this opportunity to flip over the page of the Cheonan incident as soon as possible," a foreign ministry spokesman said in Beijing.

[ARH v.3.1]

Well that was a farce! Yet another big win for collective security.

[buglerbilly]

Most things with involvement of the UN are a farce in one way or another...............unfortunately!

[buglerbilly]

Online Spies Spot North Korea’s Underground Airfields

By Noah Shachtman July 12, 2010 | 3:39 pm



North Korea’s runways aren’t like our runways. Kim Jong-il keeps many of his most advanced planes hidden deep beneath the surface. There may be as many as 20 underground airfields scattered across the country, as the always-fascinating IMINT & Analysis blog documents today.

It’s another reminder that a nice-sized chunk of the intelligence that the West has on the sealed, deeply-secretive regime comes from amateur analysts, scouring publicly-available satellite images and sharing what they know over Google Earth. Earlier catches include everything from mass graves to military bases to a bigwig’s water slide.

At Sunchon Air Base — arguably the North Korean Air Force’s “most important installation,” according to IMINT & Analysis — at least half of the fleet of MiG-29s and Su-25s there may be stored underground. The MiG-29s are Kim’s only advanced fighter aircraft; the Su-25s, his only modern planes for ground attack. Keeping them below the surface could shield them from the elements and from prying eyes. In addition, Sunchon appears to have a “1350 meter taxiway extend[ing] from the UGF [underground facility] to a point beyond the main parking aprons. This taxiway may in fact be an auxiliary runway, allowing aircraft to be prepared for flight while concealed within the UGF and then launched with little or no warning for a strike” against South Korea.

Other underground airfields might hold more than jets. Onchon amd Kang Da Ri bases both have massive and hardened below-surface facilities. “Air activity at either location has never been publicly disclosed or identified in imagery,” blog author Sean O’Connor notes. Maybe, he speculates, surface-to-surface missiles are hidden there.

The facilities resemble airfields in their layout, but a concrete SSM launch pad is little different from a runway surface. [The North Koreans] could stockpile SSMs in these facilities, using the “runways” as mass launching areas. In this scenario, transporting SSMs to the facilities would be far easier to mask than the deployment of combat aircraft. The facilities could represent logical storage and mating points for nuclear or chemical warheads, allowing them to remain protected prior to use.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/online-spies-spot-north-koreas-underground-airfields/#more-27420#ixzz0tW7IVEE2

[buglerbilly]

N.Korea delays talks with UN Command on warship

PARK CHAN-KYONG

July 13, 2010 - 1:29PM

North Korea has delayed military talks scheduled for Tuesday with the US-led United Nations Command about the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, the Command said.

The meeting would have been the first of its kind since the warship went down in March near the disputed inter-Korean sea border, an incident that sharply raised regional tensions.

South Korea, the United States and other nations accuse the North of torpedoing the corvette with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang vehemently denies the charge and threatens war in response to any punishment.

The announcement of the delay came less than an hour before the talks were to begin at the border village of Panmunjom.

The Command, which oversees the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war, said in a statement the North's army representatives requested a delay "for administrative reasons".

A new time for the talks was not immediately proposed. The planned colonel-level meeting was due to discuss arrangements for future talks at general-level.

The North previously refused to hold discussions with the US military over the sinking, calling for talks only with South Korea, but it shifted its stance on Friday.

Hours after that development, the UN Security Council issued a statement which condemned the attack but did not apportion blame -- a result hailed by the North as a "great diplomatic victory".

Following the UN statement, which was watered down under pressure from Pyongyang's ally China, the North reiterated its conditional willingness to return to stalled international nuclear disarmament negotiations.

But it threatened "strong physical retaliation" if South Korea and the United States persist in "demonstration of forces and sanctions".

The two allies plan a naval exercise as a show of strength following the attack on the 1,200-tonne corvette.

But they are still deciding where to hold the drill, originally planned for the Yellow Sea, following strong protests from China.

Professor Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University said he believes the North postponed Tuesday's talks because details of the exercise are not known.

"The military talks will take place sooner or later as China is heaping pressure on the North to have dialogue," Kim told AFP. "The talks may produce little result, but the fact that such a meeting has taken place for the first time since the sinking will help ease tension."

The United States voiced scepticism Monday about the North's conditional willingness to resume nuclear dialogue.

"If North Korea wants to engage seriously in the six-party process, there are very specific actions that North Korea has to take first before we would consider a resumption of the six-party process," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

Crowley urged North Korea to cease "provocative behaviour" as seen in the sinking of the warship.

"If they're not prepared to show through affirmative actions a willingness to fulfil existing commitments under the six-party process -- that it's prepared to give up its nuclear programme -- then you have to ask the fundamental question: What are we going to talk about?" Crowley said.

The six-nation talks -- which involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States -- agreed in 2005 and 2007 to offer badly needed aid and security guarantees for Pyongyang in return for nuclear disarmament.

The North stormed out of the talks in April last year after being censured by the UN for a long-range missile launch. It staged a second nuclear weapons test a month later.

The North has previously expressed a willingness in principle to return. But first it wants the US to agree to hold talks on a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 war and an end to sanctions.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

NKorea, UN Command Meet Over Sinking

July 15, 2010

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea -- Military officers from North Korea and the American-led U.N. Command met Thursday for talks on the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship that has been blamed on Pyongyang.

Colonel-level officers gathered at the Korean border village of Panmunjom for about 90 minutes, U.N. Command spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said. He gave no further details about the discussions -- the first between the sides since the March 26 sinking dramatically raised tension on the Korean peninsula.

An international investigation in May concluded a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the 1,200-ton Cheonan near the tense Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang flatly denies it was responsible and has warned any punishment would trigger war.

The talks originally were set for Tuesday, but the North canceled just before they were to start, requesting a delay for unspecified "administrative reasons." It later proposed they be held Thursday and the U.N. Command accepted.

It was unclear what was talked about at the meeting. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the sides were believed to have discussed preparations for talks among higher-level military officers. The report didn't cite a source.

Yonhap earlier Thursday said the North was expected to reiterate its contention that South Korea and the U.S. fabricated the investigation results. The U.N. Command would likely argue the Cheonan was attacked by a North Korean torpedo and it was a violation of the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953, Yonhap said.

The U.N. Command, which oversees the truce, separately investigated whether the sinking violated the truce, though the findings have not been disclosed.

Late last month, the command proposed military talks with North Korea to review its findings and initiate dialogue.

The North first rejected the offer, criticizing the U.S. for allegedly trying to meddle in inter-Korean affairs under the name of the U.N. But it reversed its position last week and proposed working-level talks at Panmunjom to prepare for higher-level talks by general officers on the sinking.

North Korea and the U.N. Command launched general-level talks in 1998 as a measure to lessen tension between the sides. If a new round is realized, they would be the 17th of their kind, according to the U.N.

The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War, which ended in an armistice that has never been replaced with a permanent peace treaty.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved a statement that condemned the sinking but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea.

The U.S. and South Korea will likely carry out military maneuvers in response to North Korea's alleged attack on the warship, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. China has warned the exercises could inflame tension on the Korean peninsula.

The air and naval drills, planned after the sinking but then delayed, may be given approval to go forward at a meeting next week in Seoul between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and their South Korean counterparts, Morrell said.

Pyongyang often accuses the U.S. and South Korea of staging military drills as a rehearsal for an attack on North Korea. Washington and Seoul say the exercises are purely defensive and they have no intention of invading the North.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

China Protests U.S.-South Korean Exercises; Pentagon Says, Whatever



The U.S. will carry out a series of naval and air exercises with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, located on the east side of the Korean peninsula, and the Yellow Sea, on the west side of the peninsula, near China. The exercises are meant to send a clear message of “deterrence” to North Korea, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell yesterday, who wouldn’t give a specific date for the exercises, only that they would take place in the “near future.”

Beijing has already voiced their opposition to any joint U.S.-South Korean exercises near their territorial waters. Morrell’s response (prompted by a reporter’s question about Chinese complaints) was basically: Look, once you’re beyond the 12-mile territorial waters you’re in the high seas and “we or anybody else” can do whatever we want.

The aircraft carrier George Washington carried out exercises in the Yellow Sea in October, Morrell said, and, as part of a strengthening of U.S.-South Korean security relations, he fully expects more such exercises, on a regular basis.

“I’m sure the George Washington will operate again in the Yellow Sea. But we’re not in a position yet to announce which assets are going where and when. Suffice it to say we are going to operate in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea as a part of these exercises.”

Below is a Google translation of a Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao) story from Beijing on July 8. The original story can be found here.

China is opposed to foreign military vessels and planes to China’s coastal waters

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 8 — ( Hou Lijun , Zhu Shuang ) Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference said that China is resolutely opposed to foreign military vessels and planes to the Yellow Sea and other coastal waters of China affect China’s security interests in the activities of.

Qin Gang answered journalists questions about the Korea-US joint military exercise , said the Chinese side has expressed serious concern to the parties concerned.

“We firmly oppose the foreign military vessels and planes to the Yellow Sea and other coastal waters of China affect China’s security interests in the activities, I hope the parties concerned to keep calm, exercise restraint, do not do things that aggravate regional tensions.” Qin Gang said.

South Korean military Joint Staff official Li Peng rain on the 6th at a regular press conference that South Korea and the United States in the Council on the ” Tian “was decided after the incident warning ships to conduct joint military exercises.

– Greg Grant

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2010/07/15/china-protests-u-s-south-korean-exercises-pentagon-says-whatever/#more-8233#ixzz0tliRfg25
Defense.org

[buglerbilly]

S. Korea Developing Longer-Range Missiles: Report

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 17 Jul 2010 11:04

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea has developed a longer-range cruise missile capable of hitting nuclear or military sites in North Korea, a report said July 17.

The state-run Agency for Defense Development has begun manufacturing the ground-to-ground Hyunmu-3C with a range of up to 937 miles (1,500 kilometers), Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified defense official as saying.

The Hyunmu-3C missile would also be able to reach parts of China, Japan and Russia. The previous version of the Hyunmu had a range of only 1,000 kilometers.

The report could not immediately be confirmed.

Under an agreement with the United States, which stations 28,500 troops in the country and guarantees a nuclear "umbrella" in case of war, Seoul limits its ballistic missiles to a maximum range of 300 kilometers.

But it is allowed to extend the range of its terrain-hugging cruise missiles as long as their payload stays under 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).

South Korea has pushed for longer-range weaponry to counter a threat from hundreds of North Korean ballistic missiles.

The North has about 600 Scud missiles capable of hitting targets in South Korea, and possibly also of reaching Japanese territory in some cases. There are another 200 Rodong-1 missiles which could reach Tokyo. In addition the North has three times test-launched intercontinental Taepodong missiles.

Tensions have risen since the South and the United States, citing the findings of a multinational investigation, accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship near the tense sea border in March.

The North angrily denies involvement and says a U.N. Security Council statement on July 9 - which condemned the attack without specifying the culprit - proves its point.

After the U.N. statement it reiterated conditional willingness to return to stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

Seoul's unification ministry, which handles cross-border ties, said the North appears to be preparing a diplomatic offensive to lessen tensions.

In a weekly newsletter the ministry said the North seems willing to "turn the critical mood around through active dialogue" following the U.N. statement, which Pyongyang claimed as a diplomatic victory.

The South says its neighbor must first apologize for the attack on the ship which cost 46 lives and punish those responsible.

[buglerbilly]

ASEAN Ministers Don't Blame N. Korea for Cheonan

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 19 Jul 2010 16:15

HANOI, Vietnam - Southeast Asian foreign ministers are expected to express "deep concern" July 20 over the sinking of a South Korean warship which has sharply raised tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Hanoi ahead of the region's main security forum July 23, which also gathers major powers including China, the United States and the European Union.

A draft statement prepared ahead of the July 20 talks said the 10 ASEAN member states supported a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and urged a resumption of six-party disarmament talks "as soon as possible".

"We expressed deep concern over the sinking of [the] ship Cheonan and the rising tension on the Korean peninsula," it said, referring to an explosion that ripped apart a South Korean corvette in March, killing 46 sailors.

"We urge all parties concerned to exercise utmost restraint, enhance confidence and trust, settle disputes by peaceful means through dialogue, and promote long-lasting peace and security in the region."

It said the six-party talks involving North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia were still the "main platform to achieve long-lasting peace and stability".

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) security dialogue in Hanoi on July 23 alongside the other six-party partners, including the foreign ministers of the Koreas.

Clinton will arrive in Vietnam after visits this week to Pakistan and South Korea, where she is due to attend a memorial for the dead sailors.

Pyongyang has angrily rejected the findings of an international investigation that blamed a North Korean torpedo for the sinking of Cheonan, and it has threatened strong retaliation against any form of punishment.

But it has also said it is willing to return to the multilateral disarmament talks, which it abandoned last year, after the U.N. Security Council condemned the sinking but did not assign blame.

The United States and South Korea have responded by announcing plans to hold war games this month, details of which will be announced July 21 when Clinton visits Seoul alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington and three destroyers will visit South Korea this week ahead of the naval exercise.

Diplomats have said the ARF is likely to follow ASEAN's lead by expressing concern about the situation on the Korean peninsula without explicitly condemning North Korea for the Cheonan incident.

[buglerbilly]

Cabinet secretaries Clinton, Gates visit DMZ in show of support for South Korea


South Korean honor guard soldiers hold American and South Korean national flags during a rehearsal for the welcoming ceremony of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Gates, who arrived on Monday, will be joined by Clinton on Wednesday for high-profile security talks with their South Korean colleagues, a meeting meant to underscore Washington's firm alliance with Seoul as the two nations plan military exercises in a message of deterrence to North Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (Lee Jin-man - AP)

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

PANMUNJOM, KOREA -- In a show of support for South Korea, four months after one of its warships sank in a mysterious attack, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited on Wednesday the infamous no-man's land that has divided the Korean Peninsula for more than a half-century.

Although high-ranking U.S. officials have often toured the Demilitarized Zone -- a 2.5-mile-wide buffer and the most heavily guarded border in the world -- it was believed to be the first time that two high-ranking Cabinet secretaries have done so simultaneously.

"It struck me that, although it may be a thin line, these two places are worlds apart," Clinton said, standing in front of a small United Nations building that straddles the border. It was her first trip to the DMZ.

Gates was making his third trip; he said his last visit was 20 years ago, when he was director of the CIA.

"It is stunning how little has changed up there and yet how much South Korea continues to grow and prosper," he said, flanking Clinton in the rain. "The North, by contrast, stagnates in isolation and deprivation."

Clinton and Gates were also scheduled to meet their Korean counterparts for wide-ranging talks later Wednesday and to participate in a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Along with a visit to Seoul by Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, the meetings and events were intended to bolster U.S.-South Korean relations at a time of heightened tensions in the region.

That volatility has worsened since March, when the Cheonan, a South Korean frigate, sank in what an international team of investigators later determined was a torpedo attack. South Korea has blamed North Korea for the incident, which killed 46 sailors; the North has denied responsibility.

The United States and South Korea announced Tuesday that they would respond to the attack by holding "large-scale" military exercises, in an attempt to deter further hostile acts by the isolationist government of North Korea.

About 8,000 U.S. and South Korean forces will participate in the war games, starting Sunday in the Sea of Japan. The first stage of the exercises will last four days and include about 200 aircraft and 18 ships, including the USS George Washington, a 97,000-ton aircraft carrier.

"We fully expect this will send a strong signal to Pyongyang and Kim Jong Il," said Adm. Robert Willard, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, referring to the mercurial North Korean leader.

Washington and Seoul have been mulling over the exercises for months. But officials in both capitals said they decided to wait for the outcome of an international probe into the cause of the Cheonan's sinking, as well as a review by the United Nations Security Council. After weeks of diplomatic maneuvering, the Security Council unanimously condemned the attack on July 9, but did not directly blame North Korea because of opposition from China, Pyongyang's primary benefactor.

U.S. officials said subsequent exercises would take place over several months and that at least some would be held in international waters in the Yellow Sea, closer to China. They did not give details. China has vehemently opposed the exercises, calling them "provocative."

In Washington, President Obama's nominee for director of national intelligence warned of "a dangerous new period" in U.S.-North Korea relations, raising the possibility of an attack on South Korea. At his confirmation hearing, retired Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. told senators that the North may "once again attempt to advance its internal and external political goals through direct attacks" on the South.

The fighting in the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953; technically, both countries remain at war. U.S. troops have been stationed on the peninsula since, including 28,500 today. Those troop levels are expected to remain consistent for years to come.

Seoul and Washington have agreed that, in the event of a new war, U.S. commanders will retain operational control of their joint military forces in South Korea until at least December 2015. Previously, the U.S. military was scheduled to hand over operational command in 2012.

Officials from both countries said they had been considering the delay before the Cheonan sinking, but that recent concerns about North Korea cinched the decision.

[buglerbilly]

Clinton Announces New Sanctions on NKorea

July 21, 2010

Associated Press



SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday that Washington will impose new sanctions on communist North Korea in a bid to stem the regime's illicit atomic ambitions.

Clinton, speaking at a joint news conference in Seoul after holding unprecedented security talks with U.S. and South Korean defense and military officials, said the sanctions are part of measures designed to rein in the regime's nuclear activities by stamping out illegal moneymaking ventures used to fund the program.

She said the sanctions would be aimed at the sale or procurement of arms and related goods as well as the procurement of luxury items.

The U.S. will freeze assets as well as prevent some businesses and individuals from traveling abroad, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions. The sanctions also will seek to stop the abuse of diplomatic privileges in order to carry out illegal activities, Clinton said.

"These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government," she said. "They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government."

The U.N. Security Council has imposed stiff sanctions on North Korea in recent years to punish the regime for defying the world body by testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and illegally selling arms and weapons.

With few allies and diminishing sources of aid, impoverished North Korea is believed to be turning to illicit ventures to raise much-needed cash. Pyongyang also walked away last year from a disarmament-for-aid pact with five other nations that had provided the country with fuel oil and other concessions.

Clinton, making a high-profile trip to South Korea with Defense Secretary Robert Gates just four months after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, urged North Korea to turn away from its path toward continued isolation.

"From the beginning of the Obama administration, we have made clear that there is a path open to the DPRK to achieve the security and international respect it seeks," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"North Korea can cease its provocative behavior, halt its threats and belligerence towards its neighbors, take irreversible steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law," Clinton said.

The U.S. and South Korea blame the North for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors in what would be the worst military attack on South Korea since the Korean War of the 1950s.

An international team of investigators pinned the explosion of the Cheonan on a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine.

North Korea, however, denies any involvement, and has threatened war if punished over the incident.

The U.N. Security Council earlier this month approved a statement condemning the incident, but did not directly blame Pyongyang. Still, the U.S. and South Korea are adamant that North Korea apologize for the incident or face punishment, and warned against further provocations.

North Korea faces "grave consequences" if it engages in additional hostile acts, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at the joint press conference.

Earlier, Clinton and Gates paid a rare visit on a rainy day to the heavily fortified border dividing the two Koreas -- a symbolic trip 60 years after war broke out on the Korean peninsula.

"Although it may be a thin line, these two places are worlds apart," Clinton said in a drizzling rain outside the Military Armistice Commission building, where officials from North Korea and the U.N. Command meet for talks.

Clinton praised longtime ally South Korea for making "extraordinary progress" in the years since the Korean War, economically and politically. "By contrast, the North has not only stagnated in isolation, but the people of the North have suffered for so many years."

She thanked the troops -- U.S., South Korean and from other U.N. nations -- that guard the buffer zone that stretches from east to west and lies just 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the South Korean capital.

"We continue to send a message to the North: There is another way. There is a way that can benefit the people of the North," she said. "But until they change direction, the United States stands firmly on behalf of the people and government of the Republic of Korea, where we provide a stalwart defense along with our allies and partners."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Stealth Jets, Carrier Tell Norks: Back The Hell Up

By Spencer Ackerman July 21, 2010 | 9:27 am



About 8,000 U.S. and South Korean sailors and airmen are preparing for a big joint military exercise this weekend to tell a wilding-out North Korea to rethink its recent aggression. Get ready for Invincible Spirit.

According to Admiral Robert Willard, the commander of American forces in the Pacific, the carrier U.S.S. George Washington and a bunch of destroyers from the Navy’s Seventh Fleet will head to the Sea of Japan, along with surveillance aircraft and “destroyers, frigates, and some patrol craft” from the South Korean Navy, including the South Korean transport ship Dodko. Over 100 aircraft from the Air Force’s Seventh Air Wing and the South Korean Air Force are going to fly above. And since a torpedo from a North Korean submarine sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, there’ll be anti-submarine exercises as well. It’s going to unfold over several days. And if you happen to find yourself in the southeastern South Korean city of Busan, you’ll be able to catch the action as it happens.

Special Air components for the exercise include four F-22 Raptors — the Air Force’s beloved jet that Defense Secretary Robert Gates put on ice last year. (Awkward.) The ground forces are taking a knee on Invincible Spirit, contrasting the exercise with last year’s mock attack on North Korea. But they’ll be involved in follow-on exercises over the coming months, Willard said, just as Naval and Air Forces will also drill later this year in the West Sea, where the Cheonan was attacked. (According to the South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo, China wasn’t too keen on the exercise kicking off in the West Sea, and judging from Admiral Mike Mullen’s comments in South Korea warning of a lack of Chinese “transparency” about its military intentions, the exercise implicitly sends a message of U.S. potency to the Chinese as well.)

All this comes four months after the North Koreans sank the Cheonan, killing 46 Korean sailors and once again heightening fears of renewed warfare on the peninsula. That makes Invincible Sprit “the first show-of-force exercise post-provocation that’s been conducted by [South Korea] and U.S. for many years,” Willard told the Pentagon press. “We fully expect that this will send a strong signal to Pyongyang and to Kim Jong-il regarding the provocation that Cheonan represented.” When asked what behavior the U.S. wants to see the Norks end, an anonymous Defense official dryly replied, “not blowing up and attacking [South Korean] naval vessels would be a good start.”

That was part of the message Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton previewed in a joint trip to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas early Wednesday. “Our military alliance has never been stronger and it should deter any potential aggressor,” Gates said, with Clinton adding that the North should know “there is another way” for the world to deal with it — if Pyongyang finally stops its incessant, violent freakouts.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/u-s-stealth-jets-carrier-send-a-signal-to-norks-back-the-hell-up/#more-28094#ixzz0uKJSOB9P

[buglerbilly]

N.Korea holds talks with UN Command on sunken ship

July 23, 2010 - 1:14PM

North Korea's military held a second round of talks Friday with the US-led United Nations Command about the sinking of a South Korean warship, a Command spokesman said.

The meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom began days after Washington announced plans for new sanctions against Pyongyang and for a major military exercise.

South Korea and the United States, citing the findings of a multinational investigation, accuse the North of torpedoing the warship in March near the disputed inter-Korean border with the loss of 46 lives.

The North denies involvement.

The colonel-level talks were first held last week.

The UN Command, which enforces the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war, said they resumed at 10 am (0100 GMT) Friday.

At the previous meeting, the North demanded the right to send a high-level team to the South to inspect evidence dredged from the seabed, including what Seoul and other investigators say is part of a North Korean torpedo.

The South has rejected the demand, saying the UN Command should handle the case as a serious breach of the armistice.

The talks are intended to prepare for discussions between generals from the two sides.

But the North last week said US forces should press Seoul to accept its investigation team before any higher-level talks are held.

The general-level talks have been used as a way of easing cross-border tensions since they were first held in 1998.

The UN Command is headed by the commander of the 28,500 US troops stationed in the South to deter the North.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

NKorea: ‘Physical Response’ to US Drills

July 23, 2010

Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam -- North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.

In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a North Korean official traded barbs over the ship incident, the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions against the North.

The spokesman for the North Korean delegation to the talks, Ri Tong Il, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking of the ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and said the upcoming military drills were a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy."

The exercises will be "another expression of hostile policy against" North Korea. "There will be physical response against the threat imposed by the United States militarily," Ri told reporters in Hanoi.

Shortly before he spoke, Clinton had lashed out against belligerent acts by the North, warning that it must reverse a "campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior" if it wants improved relations with its neighbors and the United States.

She said stability in the region, particularly on the Korean peninsula, depends in large part on convincing an "isolated and belligerent" North Korea to alter course and return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Peaceful resolution of the issues on the Korean peninsula will be possible only if North Korea fundamentally changes its behavior, Clinton told the gathering of top officials from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and countries with major interests in the area like the U.S., China, Japan, North and South Korea and Russia.

There was no sign that members of the U.S. and North Korean delegations would meet or even cross paths at the annual security forum, which has in the past been a venue for rare talks between the two sides.

On Wednesday, Clinton announced in the South Korean capital that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the sinking of the South Korean ship. The penalties will target the country's elite by taking aim at illicit activities, such as counterfeiting cigarettes and cash and money laundering.

Clinton was in Seoul to show support for South Korea along with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In addition to North Korea's behavior and its nuclear program, Clinton raised concerns about potential atomic collaboration between the North and Myanmar, also known as Burma, which is restricted by U.N. agreements.

Numerous reports in past months have suggested that Myanmar's military rulers are attempting to develop nuclear weapons with North Korean help.

Clinton said "recent events" had called into question Myanmar's pledges to abide by its international commitments, including U.N. sanctions, the requirements of its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. She did not elaborate but on Thursday mentioned in passing that a North Korean ship carrying military equipment had recently docked in Myanmar.

"It is critical that Burma hear from you, its neighbors, about the need to comply with" those obligation, Clinton told the forum.

She also hit out on Myanmar's human rights record, saying the U.S. is "deeply concerned about the oppression taking place" there against the regime's political opponents and minority groups. Myanmar has said it will hold elections at an as yet unannounced date later this year but U.S. officials say they don't believe the vote will be free or fair.

"We urge Burma to put in place the necessary conditions for credible elections, including releasing all political prisoners, respecting basic human rights and ceasing attacks against ethnic minorities," Clinton said. The U.S. has repeatedly called for Myanmar to release detained Nobel Peace laureate and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party's landslide victory in 1990 elections was annulled by the military.

Clinton's comments on Myanmar echoed those of previous U.S. administrations but they come as President Barack Obama has made a push for expanded engagement with Southeast Asia. Clinton is to sign the Association of Southeast Asian Nation's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, something the Bush administration had refused to do.

In an indication of that increased involvement in the region, Clinton said "the United States has a national interest" in resolving conflicting claims over the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Sea, particularly between China and Vietnam.

She said the disputes interfere with maritime commerce, hamper access to international waters in the area and undermine the U.N. law of the sea.

Her comments are likely to anger China, which asserts sovereignty over the whole South China Sea, but Clinton said the U.S. did not support any country's sovereignty over the islands. She said the U.S. is willing to work with the all the parties, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, to help negotiate an end to the disputes.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved

[buglerbilly]

N.Korea threatens 'powerful nuclear deterrence'

PARK CHAN-KYONG

July 24, 2010 - 1:24PM

North Korea on Saturday threatened a "powerful nuclear deterrence" in response to joint US-South Korean naval exercises as tensions escalate over the sinking of one of Seoul's warships in March.

North Korea was prepared for a "retaliatory sacred war", the powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il said in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The United States and South Korea have announced joint naval exercises, beginning on Sunday, in what they have described as a bid to deter North Korea's "aggressive" behaviour.

"All these war manoeuvres are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) by force of arms to all intents and purposes," the NDC said.

"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the US and the South Korean puppet forces."

The comments came after North Korea on Friday threatened a "physical response" to the drills while the United States accused Pyongyang of waging a campaign of provocation.

The war of words dominated an Asia-Pacific security forum summit in Hanoi attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun on Friday.

Tensions are high on the Korean peninsula over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which claimed 46 lives.

South Korea and the United States accuse the North of torpedoing the warship near the disputed Yellow Sea border.

In a show of force, the two allies announced a major joint naval exercise starting Sunday involving 200 aircraft and 20 ships including an aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The South's defence ministry said it would be the first in a series of about 10 joint naval drills in coming months.

Pyongyang denies sinking the warship and has warned of war if it is punished, citing a UN Security Council statement on July 9 that condemned the incident but did not identify a culprit.

China, North Korea's most important ally, has repeatedly warned against the exercises and called on all sides to show restraint. But Japan is sending four military observers in an apparent show of support for the drills.

The United States also announced further sanctions aimed at stopping the cash-strapped North from selling nuclear weapons or related material as well as blocking money laundering and other illicit activities.

US special advisor for nonproliferation arms control, Bob Einhorn, will be travelling in early August in order to enhance international cooperation to tighten sanctions against the North, the US State Department said Wednesday.

But the NDC on Saturday warned that the North, which carried out its first atomic test in 2006, would build up its own nuclear deterrence.

"The more desperately the US imperialists brandish their nukes and the more zealously their lackeys follow them, the more rapidly the DPRK's nuclear deterrence will be bolstered up ... and the more remote the prospect for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula will be become," it said.

North Korea last year stormed out of six-nation talks in which it had agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for security guarantees and aid.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Japan Must Prepare for 'Contingencies': Panel

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 26 Jul 2010 21:24

TOKYO - A government panel will recommend that Japan relax longstanding defense guidelines to prepare for "contingencies" in the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Strait, reports said July 27.

The recommendation, to be submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan in early August, will be made by experts tasked with updating the national defense guidelines to be formulated in December, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun reported, without disclosing sources.

The draft recommendation, obtained by the newspapers, proposes to scrap the even deployment of the Self-Defence Forces throughout the country, instead shifting the forces to southwestern islets where the Chinese naval warships often travel, the reports said.

The draft recommendation says existing defense guidelines, made in the Cold War era, are now seen as "unsuitable," and that it is necessary to respond proactively to limited, small-scale invasions and contingencies on the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait, the reports said.

It also proposes lifting outright bans on development and possession of nuclear weapons and their transportation to Japan, which could stir controversy in the officially pacifist nation, the Asahi said.

It also proposes relaxation of restrictions on arms exports to allow joint development and production of weapons with the United States and other allies, the Yomiuri said.

Japan, officially pacifist since the end of World War II, has relied on the United States for defense and nuclear deterrence, with its own troops focusing on a "shield" role.

But its experience during the last war - it is the only country that was attacked by nuclear bombs, first in Hiroshima and second in Nagasaki, both in August 1945 - has made any move allowing entry of nuclear weapons into Japan highly controversial.

Any sign of Japan taking a higher military profile would unnerve its Asian neighbors, who fell victim to Japan's aggression before and during World War II.

[buglerbilly]

Envoy Pushes for NK Sanction Enforcement

August 02, 2010

Associated Press



SEOUL, South Korea -- New sanctions against North Korea will target narcotics trafficking, money counterfeiting and other "illicit and deceptive" activities that provide the regime with hard currency used to build nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. envoy said Monday.

Robert Einhorn, the State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, made Seoul a first stop on his Asian tour to encourage allies to act aggressively to enforce sanctions against North Korea and Iran, nations he said constitute "two of the greatest threats" to nuclear nonproliferation.

He met Monday with South Korean officials to discuss the sanctions that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced during her own trip to Seoul two weeks ago.

Specific new measures to be adopted soon by the U.S. target entities that buy or sell arms in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, engage in illegal activities to bring in hard cash, or conduct trade to bring in luxury goods, he said.

"We know that these activities bring hundreds of millions of dollars in hard currency annually into North Korea, which can be used to support DPRK nuclear or military programs or fund luxury goods purchases," Einhorn said at a Seoul news conference.

DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

He said Washington is concerned about a global network of trading firms involved in proliferation-related activities and said the U.S. would urge other nations to pressure banks in their nations to freeze those companies' accounts.

"These measures are not directed at the North Korea people," Einhorn said. "Instead, our objective is to put an end to the DPRK's destabilizing proliferation activities, to halt illicit activities that help fund its nuclear and missile programs and to discourage further provocative actions."

North Korea is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen nuclear bombs and last year revealed it has a uranium enrichment program that would give the regime a second way to make atomic weapons.

Einhorn said the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran threaten global peace and security.

"One means of addressing these challenges is to increase the pressures felt by these two governments so that they recognize that it is in the best interests of their countries to meet their international obligations and forsake nuclear weapons," he said.

Five nations -- China, Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan -- have been trying for years to negotiate with North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions. Pyongyang abandoned those talks last year.

Washington and Seoul also accuse the North of sinking a South Korean warship in March. Forty-six sailors died in an explosion that an international team of investigators pinned on a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine.

Pyongyang denies attacking the ship.

Einhorn was accompanied by Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes; they did not provide details about how or when the sanctions would be carried out.

They head to Tokyo on Tuesday for talks with senior Japanese officials and will head to China later in the month. Other U.S. officials will travel to the Middle East and South America in coming weeks for similar meetings.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

North Korea seizes South Korean fishing boat with 7 on board

By Chico Harlan, Washington Post

Monday, August 9, 2010

SEOUL -- North Korea on Sunday seized a South Korean fishing boat that apparently had sailed into an East Sea zone that the North views as its own, a move that could agitate already tense relations on the peninsula.

The boat, carrying seven people, is now being held by North Korean authorities, the South's coast guard said in a statement.

The incident comes at a time of fierce dispute between the North and South, reflected most recently as the South conducted military drills in the Yellow Sea, to the west. North Korea had threatened to counter the drills with "strong physical retaliation." The South's five-day drills were to end Monday.

The fishing boat, known as the Daeseung, was carrying four South Koreans and three Chinese. China is North Korea's chief ally.

"We have found out that our fishing vessel is being investigated by North Korean officials in the presumed North Korea exclusive economic waters in northern East Sea," the South Korean coast guard said in a statement. "The South Korean government, according to international law, wants the swift resolution to the matter and the safe return of its vessel and its fishermen."

According to one report in the South Korean media, the boat was operating in a maritime area shared by North Korea and Russia, about 160 miles off the North Korean coast.

Territorial fishing disputes have been common between the North and South throughout the decades. The so-called Northern Limit Line, which separates waters to the east and west, was fixed in 1989.

The current tensions between the North and South began in March with the sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. A subsequent investigation blamed the North for the sinking, but Pyongyang has denied any involvement.

[buglerbilly]

S.Korea, US launch massive joint war games

Jung Ha-Won

August 16, 2010 - 3:29PM

South Korea and the United States launched a new round of war games Monday involving tens of thousands of troops in a huge show of force against North Korea, which has threatened fiery retaliation.

The 10-day computerised exercise is the latest in a series being staged by the South -- either alone or with the United States -- after the sinking of one of its warships in March which sharply raised tensions on the peninsula.

President Lee Myung-Bak, who unveiled a roadmap for the reunification of the peninsula at the weekend, described the drill as an "exercise for peace and war deterrence".

The exercise, codenamed "Ulchi Freedom Guardian" after a renowned ancient Korean general, is aimed at intercepting mock North Korean attacks using nuclear weapons, missiles and submarines, military officials said.

The North's military threatened Sunday to "deal a merciless counter-blow" to the United States and South Korea and denounced the exercise as a rehearsal for a full-scale "military invasion".

Pyongyang is "ready to sweep away all enemies with its arsenal," Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party newspaper, said in an angry commentary Monday. "Those enjoying the fire are bound to be burned to death."

The exercise involves 56,000 South Korean and 30,000 US troops as well as an unspecified number of American soldiers based in the United States who will link up by computer, a spokesman for the South's Joint Chief of Staff told AFP.

"As a divided country, we need to work on the drill thoroughly, so that it will be more than just a routine exercise," President Lee was quoted by his spokesman as saying at a cabinet meeting held in an underground war room.

"Although this is a regular annual exercise, people may feel nervous about the drill, which takes place at a time when inter-Korean tension is high."

Lee said in a speech Sunday to celebrate Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 that South Korea would not tolerate any further military provocations by its reclusive communist neighbour.

The Koreas "need to overcome the current state of division and proceed with the goal of peaceful reunification," he said.

Tensions have been running high since the March sinking of the Cheonan with the loss of 46 lives, with a multinational inquiry determining that it was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

Pyongyang has vehemently denied it was involved and fired of a barrage of threats and warnings to Seoul and its allies.

In a message posted on a US military website, General Walter Sharp, who heads the 28,500 US troops based in the South, described the exercise as "one of the largest joint staff directed theatre exercises in the world."

Many troops will be involved in command post training, while others will take part in field drills, the South Korean defence ministry spokesman said.

South Korean government officials, police and security authorities also will stage separate anti-guerrilla and anti-terrorism drills, he said.

In July, South Korea and the United States held a massive joint naval and air drill in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and last week Seoul staged its largest-ever anti-submarine drill near the disputed Yellow Sea border.

Tensions further escalated last week after North Korea seized a South Korean squid fishing boat operating off the east coast and fired an artillery barrage into the Yellow Sea when South Korea was wrapping up the anti-submarine drill.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

N.Korea flew drone over sensitive border: S.Korea

(AFP) – 1 day ago


North Korea's west coast on the Yellow Sea dotted with artillery bunkers and a propoganda sign

SEOUL — North Korea flew an unmanned plane for surveillance or as a decoy after it fired a volley of shells near the disputed sea border with South Korea last week, an official said Tuesday.

The impoverished but nuclear-armed communist state has also aired rare footage of its new main battle tank, which was being closely analysed by South Korean authorities, a news agency report said.

"The North flew a drone, possibly for surveillance, after it fired artillery shells Monday last week into waters in the Yellow Sea," the military official was quoted as saying by a Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman.

The North fired some 100 rounds from its coastline batteries into the sea shortly after the South ended a five-day naval exercise in the Yellow Sea.

"This seven-metre (23-foot)-wide drone hovered over the North's waters, keeping a very low altitude, some 20 kilometres (13 miles) north of Yeonpyeong islands," the official said.

"It might be a surveillance drone or a decoy" aimed at disturbing the South's radars and surveillance aircraft, he said.

It was the first time a North Korean drone had been spotted over the sensitive waters, the scene of deadly naval battles in the past decade.

Most recently, 46 sailors were killed in March when a South Korean warship was sunk near the disputed sea border.

Seoul accused the North of torpedoing the corvette and announced a series of military drills, alone and jointly with the Unites States, as a show of force. Pyongyang denied responsibility and vowed to retaliate.

Yonhap news agency, meanwhile, said North Korea's Chungang TV recently aired video footage of the country's new main battle tank, called "Pokpung (Tiger Storm)."

Known as M2002, the new indigenous tank is thought to be based on the Soviet T-62 but equipped with a laser rangefinder, anti-aircraft machine guns and a modern fire control system.

On top of its fledgling nuclear arsenal, North Korea maintains huge conventional armed forces but South Korea's military, backed by some 28,500 US troops, enjoys superiority in quality.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

NKorea Admits Seizing Fishing Boat, Crew

August 19, 2010

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea confirmed Thursday it seized a South Korean fishing boat more than a week ago and claimed the seven crewmen admitted to fishing in its waters.

South Korea had been pushing for the release of the four South Korean and three Chinese fishermen it had said were seized along with the boat on Aug. 8, but Pyongyang had not responded or acknowledged that it had the fishermen.

The North confirmed the seizure Thursday, saying that its navy caught the boat illegally fishing in the communist country's eastern exclusive economic zone. The fishermen admitted their wrongdoing during a preliminary investigation, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The fishermen were still under investigation, it said.

In Seoul, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said he was aware of the KCNA dispatch but noted Pyongyang had not sent a separate message on the seizure to South Korea.

The taking of the fishing boat comes as relations between the Koreas are filled with contention over the deadly sinking of South Korean warship in March that has been blamed on North Korea. Pyongyang has denied responsibility.

Tensions spiked again this week as South Korea and the U.S. began annual join military drills that North Korea has called a rehearsal for invasion and pledged to retaliate.

The computerized drills -- which involve about 56,000 South Korean soldiers and 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea and abroad -- followed massive joint naval drills the allies conducted off the peninsula's east coast last month in response to the warship sinking.

South Korea and the U.S. plan to conduct another major joint naval drill next month, this time off the peninsula's west coast where the warship Cheonan sank.

The Korean peninsula technically remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect its key ally.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

North and South Korea on the brink of war, Russian diplomat warns

North and South Korea are on the brink of war, a top Russian diplomat has warned, calling for both countries to exercise restraint and sit down for talks.

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow for the UK Daily Telegraph

Published: 12:04AM BST 24 Sep 2010


South Korean K-21 armoured vehicles crossing a river as part of a military drill in Yeoju, southeast of Seoul Photo: AFP

In Moscow's bleakest assessment of the situation on the Korean peninsula yet, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexei Borodavkin said tensions between the two countries were running at their highest and most dangerous level in a decade.

"Tensions on the Korean Peninsula could not be any higher. The only next step is a conflict," he told foreign policy experts at a round table on the subject in Moscow.

His prediction came two months after North Korea vowed to wage "a sacred war" against South Korea and its biggest backer, the United States.

Tensions bubbled over in March after Washington and Seoul concluded that a North Korean submarine had sunk a South Korean naval vessel in the Yellow Sea. Mr Borodavkin called for the investigation into exactly who was responsible for the sinking of the vessel, the Cheonan, to be urgently closed in order to remove an obvious source of tension.

Describing the standoff between the two Koreas as a "hangover from the Cold War," Mr Borodavkin said Russia, which is one of the six countries involved in talks with North Korea over its nuclear programme, was doing all it could to try to prevent an outbreak of hostilities.

But he said responsibility for keeping peace in the volatile region was shared equally between North and South Korea. He condemned North Korea's nuclear testing programme but also criticised the way the United States and South Korea had increased their military manoeuvres in the wake of the sinking of the Cheonan.