http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/arti..._bomb___report/

January 27, 2005

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea appears to have bought a complete nuclear weapon from either Pakistan or a former Soviet Union state, a South Korean newspaper said on Thursday quoting a source in Washington.

Seoul Shinmun quoted the source as saying the United States was checking the intelligence.

The purchase was apparently intended to avoid nuclear weapons testing that could be detected from the outside, the source was quoted as saying.

North Korea is believed to have one or two nuclear weapons and possibly more than eight.

Poor Iraq, no WMD but got invaded... :armyroleyes:

iraq is different , north korea has the capability to defeat invading US forces plus there is the possibility that china might intervene again..bush is no idiot, why pick a fight with bigger guy holding a bigger weapon?

breaking news.......

N. Korea Announces It Has Nuclear Weapons

"We ... have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North)," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The claim could not be independently verified. North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002 and has never tested a nuclear bomb, although international officials have long suspected it has one or two nuclear bombs and enough fuel for several more.

.........now whats Bush gonna do??

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor.../nkorea_nuclear

NORTH KOREA, is a country of an alcoholic leader who is close to idiocy. He spends his country's meager wealth into developing nuclear arms while thousands of his people are dying everyday and three quarters of the population is suffering from near starvation.

By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter



U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld left, looks at his South Korean counterpart Yoon Kwang-ung during a news conference following their bilateral meeting at a regional defence conference in Singapore , Saturday. Reuters-Newsis
South Korea and the United States agreed Saturday to ``improve and develop’’ the concept of a U.S-proposed military contingency plan in the event of internal turmoil in North Korea, including the collapse of the communist regime, the Defense Ministry said.
But the allies decided not to put the concept plan into an operation, which has already been dubbed ``OPLAN 5029,’’ according to Shin Hyun-don, spokesman for the ministry.

The agreement was made at a one-on-one meeting between Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on the sidelines of the fourth Asia Security Conference in Singapore.

The two countries will launch working-level talks later this month to discuss ways of developing the concept plan, which is expected to include measures in preparation for ``various types of contingencies’’ on the peninsula, except for military operation schemes, Shin said.

The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) had been working on OPLAN 5029-5 since last year at Washington’s request. The plan laid out military responses to various levels of internal trouble in North Korea, such as regime collapse, mass influx of North Korean refugees and revolt.

But the presidential National Security Council demanded the CFC scrap the plan last January, saying it could infringe upon the country’s sovereignty and capability to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula, according to the ministry.

Under the draft plan, the U.S. military would take command in case of an emergency in North Korea, while South Korea has control of its military in peacetime.

While the government expressed concern the plan could trigger a full-scale war on its soil, the U.S. stressed it is necessary to prevent Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction from being smuggled out of the country while it is embroiled in an internal crisis.

The latest agreement on the contingency plan is seen as Seoul’s effort to patch up the military alliance between the two sides, which has soured in recent months, ahead of the South Korea-U.S. summit meeting slated on June 10 in Washington, experts said.

The Seoul-Washington relations have shown signs of friction affected by a string of events, including the ``strategic flexibility’’ of the U.S. troops redeployment plan and South Korea’s ``balancing role’’ in Northeast Asia.

The Seoul government has opposed the concept of ``strategic flexibility,’’ Washington’s plan to transform its overseas military into a rapid reaction force that can be rapidly deployed to other parts of the world.

The U.S., on the other hand, has cast doubt over Seoul’s ``balancer strategy,’’ under which South Korea plans to increase military exchanges with China and Russia.

In recent weeks, however, top officials in Seoul have begun smoothing matters in the run up to the summit. A high-ranking official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade stressed the importance of the U.S.’ role in the region, saying Washington is the ``ultimate balancer’’ in Northeast Asia.

The government is also moving to lift a ban on U.S. beef, another crux of the two countries’ relations. Veterinary experts will meet their U.S. counterparts to discuss safeguards for mad cow disease this week, officials said.

``It will be the most important summit in 10 years between the two allies,’’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon said last week.

The Roh-Bush summit will focus on ways to resolve the prolonged standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons program in a peaceful manner and strengthen the alliance between the two nations, Ban said.

The two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have met three times in Beijing to peacefully resolve the 32-month nuclear dispute. The six-party talks, however, have been stalled since the third round last June ended without progress.

Last February, North Korea announced that it had nuclear weapons, and claimed it has unloaded 8,000 spent fuel rods from its reactor that could be reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium.





gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

06-05-2005 17:39

A correspondent in Seoul
October 25, 2005

THE US is expanding what it calls "defensive measures" against North Korea, urging nations from China to the former Soviet states to deny airspace to aircraft the US says are carrying weapons technology, according to The New York Times.

The move comes after a previously undisclosed incident in June, in which US satellites tracked an Iranian cargo plane landing in North Korea.

The two countries have a history of missile trade -- Iran's Shahab missile is a derivative of a North Korean design -- and intelligence officials suspected the plane was picking up missile parts, the paper said.

In response, senior Bush administration officials began urging nations in the area to deny the plane the right to fly over their territory. China and at least one Central Asian nation co-operated, according to senior officials, the paper said.

Two Bush administration officials told the paper the US was also accelerating efforts to place radiation detectors at land crossings and at airports throughout Central Asia. The devices are intended to monitor the North Koreans and the risk that nuclear weapons material could be removed from facilities in the former Soviet states.

The US is intent on curbing North Korea's exports of missile parts, drugs and counterfeit currency, which are widely believed to be Pyongyang's main source of revenue and the way it finances its nuclear program.

The officials told the Times that the more aggressive tactics would enhance the effort by the US to continue negotiations over disarming North Korea, which have lasted for two years and resulted last month in a statement of broad principles to disarm, but no agreement about when or how.

But South Korea's Government, which is preparing for a visit by US President George W.Bush next month, has been privately warning against taking steps that would aggravate North Korea, the paper said. But arguing that the "status quo isn't working", one senior Bush administration official said that "we have to defend against illicit activity that harms America".

The US pressure came as Pyongyang announced one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's closest confidants had died, with analysts saying his death could signal changes in the Stalinist regime's internal power structure.

Yon Hyong-muk died yesterday at 73 of an "incurable disease", Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said.

Mr Yon, a Czech-educated technocrat, had served as vice-chairman of the nation's powerful National Defence Commission, led by Mr Kim since 2003.

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert and professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that although the death was likely to have little effect on the North's external policy, "it may bring a change to the North's internal power structure".

"As close aides to Kim Jong-il are dying of disease and age or in accidents, a generation change by young North Korean elites to the leadership could come earlier than expected," he said.

The North Koreans did not name the disease from which Mr Yon, a former prime minister, suffered. Seoul's Yonhap news service said he had surgery in Russia last year to treat pancreatic cancer.

Mr Yon had been regarded as one of Mr Kim's closest aides, accompanying the reclusive supremo to key public events, including the 2000 inter-Korean peace summit, according to North Korea watchers.

Mr Yon had long been involved in the North's defence industry as heavy industry minister, and in the development of Pyongyang's foreign policy as a Communist Party secretary.

Born in November 1931, he also served as chief negotiator to high-level talks with South Korea in 1992 to work out the South-North Basic Agreement, a major step forward to rapprochement on the divided peninsula.

Mr Yon's death was the latest high-profile change in the internationally-isolated regime.

Kim Yong-sun, North Korea's then ruling party secretary in charge of inter-Korean relations, died in a traffic accident in October 2003 at the age of 69.

Song Ho-kyong, then vice-chairman of North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, who brokered the 2000 inter-Korean summit, died of chronic disease in September last year, aged 63.

US, Japanese and Australian officials met in Tokyo yesterday to discuss regional security co-operation, including efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The talks were expected to focus on North Korea, the realignment of US troops stationed in Japan, co-operation in the Asia-Pacific on anti-terrorism measures and other security issues.

The talks are being held ahead of a planned visit by Mr Bush to Tokyo in November for meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

AFP

This is a serious threat for the US.

I believe the US needs to watch that region more closely.

Else, after Iraq, Iran may be their next headache.

I think this is unfair, The US allows Israel to develop high tech weaponry and is silent about the latter's nuclear weapons. So it is ok if Isreal have WMD, and it is not ok if Iran have WMD? :fire: :rifle:


Look for example at Syria, she was accused of conspiring in the assasination of Rafik Hariri by the UN. When the United States CIA is well known for toppling and killing foreign leaders. The United States can always get away with it, because that is the privilege of being the sole superpower. :headbang:

N.Korea army threatens pre-emptive attack
By Jon Herskovitz


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has the right to launch a pre-emptive attack against U.S.-backed South Korean forces because the two Koreas are technically still at war, the communist state's official media said on Tuesday.

The comments came as North Korea shows its displeasure with annual joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises, which Pyongyang has said are a preparation for an invasion of its territory.

A spokesman for the North's Korea People's Army (KPA) said distrust is high between the United States and North Korea, and Pyongyang "will never remain a passive onlooker to the U.S. pre-emptive attack on the DPRK," its official news agency reported.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The KPA side is of the view that a pre-emptive attack is not (the) monopoly of the U.S. and the DPRK, too, has the right to pre-empt an attack as the most effective and positive act for self-defense in the light of the hard reality that the DPRK and the U.S. sides are still technically at war," the spokesman was cited as saying.

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty meaning that the two Koreas are technically still at war. The United States led U.N. forces in defense of South Korea and signed the armistice agreement in that capacity.

U.S. and South Korean forces will stage annual field exercises from March 25 to March 31 designed to coordinate defenses of the southern half of the peninsula.

"The KPA will follow with a high degree of vigilance the grave situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the projected war maneuvers and keep itself fully ready to go into action to cope with any event on its own initiative," the spokesman said.

North Korea has said the joint drills are an impediment to progress in six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

The last round of the talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States was held in November 2005.

The talks have hit a snag over Washington's decision to crack down on firms it suspects of helping North Korea in illicit activity such as counterfeiting.

North Korea has said it is unthinkable for it to return to the talks while Washington is trying to topple its leaders through the financial measures.

Washington, Seoul and others have said the crackdown is a matter for law enforcement and not related to the six-party talks.

In previous years, North Korea has placed its civil defense system on high alert at the time of the joint drills that have been taking place for four decades.

There are about 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea in support of some 690,000 South Korean troops. The North has about 1.2 million troops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/washington/17korea.html

North Korea May Test Long-Range Missile

By HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: June 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 16 — North Korea appears to have stepped up preparations to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, perhaps as early as this weekend, American officials said Friday.

The move, if carried out, would put the North's military efforts back into the spotlight and could demonstrate that it has a missile with the range to reach the United States.

In a sign of how seriously the United States is treating the prospect of a test, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned her Chinese counterpart on Tuesday and asked Beijing to use its influence to stop the test, a senior Bush administration official said.

President Bush made a similar appeal two weeks ago in a telephone call to China's president, Hu Jintao, the official said.

"Together, our diplomacy and that of our allies has made clear to North Korea that a missile launch would be a provocative act that is not in their interests and will further isolate them from the world," Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Friday.

A test of the long-range missile by North Korea would be the first since 1998, when it fired a three-stage Taepodong 1 missile over Japan, demonstrating an ability that caught American intelligence officials by surprise. That led Congress to step up its push for deployment of antimissile defenses.

Threatening to test ICBMs is the North Korean way of demanding food and monetary aid from Japan, the US and South Korea.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/1...reut/index.html



-- In this satellite image released by GeoEye, the Taepodong missile launch complex in North Korea, called Musudan-ri, is shown in 2001. North Korea said Sunday, June 18, 2006, it is seeking to increase its military deterrent to cope with U.S. moves in a restatement of its typical anti-Washington propaganda, amid increasing signs that the country is preparing for a missile test. (AP Photo/GeoEye, HO)


North Korea fuels missile, readies launch, U.S. officials say
Sunday, June 18, 2006; Posted: 10:48 p.m. EDT (02:48 GMT)


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- North Korea is believed to have completed fueling a missile capable of reaching Alaska, raising the probability of an imminent test launch, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

The United States plans to join Japan in a sharp response if the test goes ahead.

Washington has warned Pyongyang against the launch in a message passed to North Korean diplomats at the United Nations but there was no response, American officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pyongyang could still decide to scrap the launch, but that was unlikely given the complexity of siphoning fuel back out of a missile prepared for launch.

The test is expected to involve a Taepodong-2 missile with an estimated range of 2,175 to 2,670 miles (3,500 to 4,300 kilometers). At that range, parts of Alaska in the United States would be within reach as well as Asia and Russia.

North Korea lacks an operational missile that can hit the continental United States, the California-based Center for Nonproliferation Studies said in a recent report.

Nonetheless it would be Pyongyang's first test of a long-range missile since it stunned the world in August 1998 by firing a Taepodong-1 over Japan that fell into the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. officials have watched with alarm as satellite photos showed launch preparations accelerating at the Musudan-ri missile facility in North Hamgyong province in North Korea's northeast.

The New York Times, quoting American officials, reported on its Web site that booster rockets were loaded onto a launch pad and fuel tanks fitted to a missile. This could not be confirmed, but U.S. and other officials have said satellite images show fuel tanks and key components of a missile positioned at the test site.

The South Korean daily Dong-A Ilbo quoted a Seoul government official as saying the launch could be imminent.

"We think North Korea has poured liquid fuel into the missile propellant built in the missile launching pad. It is at the finishing stage before launching" but the South Korean government did not know if fueling was completed, he said.

Experts say if the missile is not launched 48 hours after fueling, the fuel will start to break down and damage the missile.

The test preparations came as six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programs are stalemated.

If they test, the North Koreans "undoubtedly would bring upon themselves tougher sanctions from Japan and a cooling (in relations) from South Korea and China so it's not cost free for them, but it suggests they are not happy where they are in terms of the six-party process," said Michael Green, a former senior Asia adviser to President Bush.

Pyongyang now regrets a joint statement adopted by the six countries participating in the negotiations -- the United States, South and North Korea, Japan, Russia and China -- which requires it to give up its atomic ambitions, he said.

It is also unhappy with a U.S. crackdown on financial transactions involving cash earned by the North through illegal activities like currency counterfeiting, he said.

Daniel Pinkston of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies said the launch would be portrayed glowingly in official North Korean media and show the country as advancing its military and scientific prowess.

Some of North Korea's leaders may not be too worried about the response from Washington because "they see the U.S. as doing everything already it can to punish North Korea," Pinkston added.

American and Japanese "assets" -- including satellites and a U.S. guided missile ship -- have been moved into position to serve as long-range surveillance and tracking platforms.

Washington and its allies were caught off guard when Pyongyang last tested a missile eight years ago and they are determined to be ready this time to gather critical intelligence on the North's capabilities.

Its Kim Jong Il's way of reminding Washington that its North Korea who has the nuclear capability and not Iran.

Japan: N. Korea Launched Missile
(CBMedia Report Missile Fell Into Sea Of Japan
TOKYO, July 4, 2006

S/AP) North Korea test launched a missile early Wednesday morning that landed in the Sea of Japan, Japanese media reported.

North Korea launched the missile at 3 a.m. Japan time, and it crashed into the Sea of Japan several minutes later, public broadcaster NHK reported.

NHK said Japanese government officials were trying to determine whether the missile was a long-range ballistic missile that had been readied for launch recently, or whether it was a different missile.

North Korea had been believed to be preparing a test launch of its Taepodong 2 missile, which is believed able to reach parts of the United States.

Officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.

On Monday, North Korea stepped up its anti-U.S. rhetoric, accusing Washington of mounting military pressure on the regime and vowing to respond to any pre-emptive U.S. attack with an "annihilating" nuclear strike.

The threat of atomic retaliation was apparently linked to the heightened scrutiny of North Korea following reports by the United States and Japan that the reclusive state had taken steps to prepare for a test of a long-range missile.

The North's Korean Central News Agency, citing an unidentified "analyst" with the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, accused the United States of harassing Pyongyang with war exercises, a massive arms buildup and increased aerial espionage by basing new spy planes in South Korea.

"This is a grave military provocation and blackmail to the DPRK, being an indication that the U.S. is rapidly pushing ahead in various fields with the extremely dangerous war moves," the dispatch said.

"The army and people of the DPRK are now in full preparedness to answer a pre-emptive attack with a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war with a mighty nuclear deterrent," the report said.

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The report concluded by urging the U.S. to "get out of South Korea promptly." About 29,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the communist North.

The threat of a nuclear retaliation to a U.S. strike was an intensification of the North's customary anti-U.S. vitriol, which often accused Washington of plotting an attack on the country.

On Friday, Pyongyang accused the United States of driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of war," and said it is fully prepared to counter any U.S. aggression.

Washington and Japan have said in recent weeks that spy satellite images show North Korea has taken steps to prepare a long-range Taepodong-2 missile for a test-launch.

Last week, President Bush warned North Korea not to test-fire a long-range missile, saying Pyongyang must tell the world its intentions for any launch.

"Launching the missile is unacceptable," Mr. Bush said in an East Room news conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Mr. Bush said that he and the Japanese leader discussed concerns about what is loaded onto the missile and where North Korea intends to aim it. He asked for "a full briefing" from the North Koreans about their intentions.

"There have been no briefings as to what's on top of the missile. He hasn't told anybody where the missile's going," the president said in a reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. "He has an obligation, it seems like to me and to the prime minister, that there be a full briefing to those of us who are concerned about this issue as to what his intentions are."

Said Koizumi, through a translator: "Should they launch a missile, that will cause various — we would apply various pressures. ... I believe it is best that I do not discuss what specific pressures we were talking about."

Mr. Bush said the situation with Pyongyang presents an opportunity to increase global cooperation on missile defense systems.

Estimates for the range of the missile vary widely, but at least one U.S. study said it could be able to reach parts of the United States with a light payload.

Speculation that Pyongyang could fire the missile has waned in recent days, however, since the country's top ally and a major source of its energy supplies, China, publicly suggested North Korea should not to go ahead with the test.

The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have taken quick steps over the past week to strengthen their missile defenses. Washington and Tokyo are working on a joint missile-defense shield, and South Korea is considering the purchase of American SM-2 defensive missiles for its destroyers.

The U.S. and North Korea have been in a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program since 2002. The North claims to have produced nuclear weapons, but that claim has not been publicly verified by outside analysts.

While public information on North Korea's military capabilities is murky, experts doubt that the regime has managed to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on its long-range missiles.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told U.S. lawmakers last week that officials took the potential launch reports seriously and were looking at the full range of capabilities possessed by North Korea.



©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

South Korea: North fires 7th missile

TOKYO- North Korea launched a seventh missile Wednesday, an official at Japan's Defense Agency said, with local media reporting the latest test took place at 5:22 p.m. (4:22 p.m. in Manila). AFP

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=43524

I wonder if Google earth has been capturing those test?

we should be one of those considering strong actions against North Korea. the Philippines is well within the theoretical range of the Taepodong-2 missile. :armyeek:

what strong actions? send a task force of our best warships to the Sea of Japan?

the missile test failed to live up to the thread's title, all the LONG RANGE missiles failed to reach its intended range..

the Taepodong-2 may not have lived up to the description "long-range" but that does not mean that it will not be the last time the stubborn North Koreans would do such tests.

a strong response for the Philippines? hmmmmmmmmm... economic sanctions? cutting off diplomatic ties? join the UN-sponsored international force against Pyongyang once a military option is taken up? :armyredface:

oh... by the way, the Philippines is well within the range of the Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. with such reality, along with the rise of regional warlord China, shouldn't our leaders realize the need for the Philippines to be armed against external threats AND ballistic missiles? :dunno:



-- an illustration of the range of the Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. take note that the Philippines is well within the range of the missile.


the Taepodong-1 one has a maximum range of up to 2,000 kilometers. at that distance, the North Koreans could have Manila and the entire island of Luzon within the reach of the Taepodong-1.

as for the Taepodong-2, the 6,000 kilometer range will put the entire Philippines within striking distance of this ballistic missile.

North Korea will not give a rat's ass to us as long as we do not get involve in their affairs, if they invade south Korea, then so be it, we cannot afford to send troops this time anyway. Lets solve our own problems first before interfering and butting our noses into affairs that we do not have the capability to back up with.

Anyway I dont think Kim jong Il is really that foolish to instigate a missile war against America or even Japan.

He is just rattling his saber to as what Duminus said, to catch the attention of the powers who seem to be focusing more on Iran rather than on him.

North Korean missile activity spurs U.S.-led efforts to bolster defenses in East Asia
07/06 4:24:10 PM

TOKYO (AP) - When North Korea launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan's main island and crashed in the Pacific eight years ago, it sent a shockwave through the region, prompting Tokyo and Washington to pour billions of dollars into reinforcing their missile defenses.

That new shield got its first test this week when North Korea fired off seven missiles, including its advanced Taepodong-2, in a barrage of early-morning test launches from two separate military sites. Though questions remain over whether North Korean missiles could actually be shot out of the air, the shield provided a key intelligence edge, officials said.

Unlike the situation in 1998, when Japan was caught largely unawares until just before the long-range Taepodong-1 missile was launched, Japanese and U.S. military ships and reconaissance planes, along with spy satellites and the state-of-the-art X-Band radar, were in place to closely monitor the recent activity weeks in advance.

"We can react more calmly this time because we are better prepared and know what to expect," Japan's Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga _ who was also the defense chief in 1998 _ told The Associated Press in an interview just days before the launches early Wednesday.

Nukaga said the decision to work with Washington to improve missile defenses after the 1998 launch paid off by providing crucial intelligence.

But he acknowledged Japan still lacks the capability to actually intercept an incoming missile.

The possibility of the United States demonstrating that capability was nixed when the Taepodong-2 failed in midair less than a minute after launch and fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan. The six other missiles launched Wednesday were all short- or mid-range and also landed in the ocean several hundred kilometers (hundreds of miles) away from Japan.

Ballistic missile defense is one of U.S. President George W. Bush's highest priorities. It is also one of the costliest _ the U.S. has spent $43 billion on it over the past five years.

Asia is clearly the focus.

The U.S. military is currently installing missile tracking radar and interceptor missiles on 18 U.S. Pacific Fleet ships and equipping underground silos in Alaska and California with interceptor missiles. U.S. Navy vessels with the advanced AEGIS radar stystem have been in or near the waters off North Korea since 2004 monitoring activity there.

Last month, a U.S. Navy ship intercepted a medium-range missile warhead above the earth's atmosphere off Hawaii in the latest test of the nation's missile defense program, while a Japanese navy cruiser, the Kirishima, practiced tracking the target. The test marked the seventh time in eight attempts the military has successfully shot down a missile target with an interceptor fired from a ship.

Also last month, an X-Band radar unit was set up in northeast Japan. The X-Band radar is so powerful it can identify baseball-size objects from thousands of kilometers (miles) away and is designed to differentiate between decoys and real missile warheads.

But the BMD program has been riddled with failures _ in particular, intercepts by ground-based missiles continue to have a relatively low success rate.

Even so, North Korea's defiance has given South Korea and Japan _ which are both within Taepodong range _ a strong impetus to cooperate.

Because of the 1998 "Taepodong shock," Japan has been quickest to act:

_In 2002, Tokyo put its first spy satellites in orbit. The multi-billion dollar program has been dogged by glitches, however, and, although two satellites have been launched, it is well behind schedule.

_Last year, Japan and the U.S. signed an agreement allowing Japan to produce its own PAC-3 Patriot missiles for deployment at Japanese bases. Japan's Defense Agency also plans to buy 124 Patriot surface-to-air missiles by 2010. The PAC-3 are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or aircraft but some experts believe they may not be effective against MIRV missiles that have already launched their warheads.

_In early June, the Pentagon notified Congress that the U.S. could sell Japan nine upgraded SM-3 missiles and related equipment for use on their AEGIS destroyers. The price tag was put at up to $438 million (euro344.53 million). Japan already has four AEGIS destroyers operating with SM-2 missiles, and two more are under construction.

"(The 1998 launch) had a lasting impact on Japan's security policy planners," said Sheila Smith, a defense analyst at the East-West Center, a private thinktank in Honolulu. "Pyongyang's actions over the past day or so will only harden the positions of the countries around North Korea, especially in Tokyo."

South Korea's position, however, remains complex.

Stressing the need to engage the North in dialogue and cautiously trying to avoid any moves that might be seen as threatening to North Korea or China, Seoul has not joined in the U.S. ballistic missile defense program. Nevertheless, it has moved ahead with several crucial upgrades of its own missile defenses.

Seoul is considering the purchase from the U.S. of 48 SM-2 ship-borne missiles to defend its new KDX-III AEGIS destroyer. The cost is estimated at US$111 million (euro87.31 million).

Seoul has also announced plans to buy Patriot interceptor missiles from Germany, with the aim of replacing the country's outdated Nike-Hercules missiles by 2010. The Nike-Hercules missiles have served as South Korea's main anti-aircraft weapons for some 40 years, but the Patriot missiles are more advanced at intercepting and destroying incoming ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and enemy aircraft.

South Korea's military as yet has no Patriots, although some are already deployed on U.S. air bases in the country, where about 29,500 U.S. troops are stationed.

Kim Tae-woo, a missile expert at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the North's latest missile tests may touch off public calls for a stronger defense against North Korean missiles.

But he said the government isn't likely to join the BMD system.

"Considering South Korea's long-standing policy of engaging North Korea, it's unlikely for the government to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense because it could provoke the North," he said.

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS_FLAS...62006114_13.htm

Now, this is getting serious...

Japan considers strike against N. Korea

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago



TOKYO - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.


Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

Japan's constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself, allowing the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defense Forces.

A Defense Agency spokeswoman, however, said Japan has no attacking weapons such as ballistic missiles that could reach North Korea. Its forces only have ground-to-air missiles and ground-to-vessel missiles, she said on condition of anonymity due to official policy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060710/ap_on_...zkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

North Korea Has One More Taepodong-2 To Fire Says South Korea
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Mon, 10 Jul 2006, 01:18


North Korea has a second long-range Taepodong-2 missile to test but there are no signs that a launch is imminent, South Korea's defense minister said Friday.

North Korea on Wednesday for the first time test-fired a Taepodong-2, which is believed to be able to hit the fringes of the United States, but quickly crashed into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

"At the outset, two sets of Taepodong-2 were transported from a place near Pyongyang. One of them was already launched, and the other was not," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung told Yonhap news agency.

He later told reporters that the second Taepodong-2 appeared to have been sent to North Korea's remote missile base at Musudanri in northeastern Hwadae county where the first missile was launched Wednesday.

But another long-range missile launch is not imminent because the second Taepodong-2 has not been seen at the launching site, he said.

"If its first launch is a failure, North Korea will have to find out the reason," Yoon said.

South Korean opposition lawmaker Chung Hyung-Keun on Thursday quoted the intelligence agency as saying North Korea was repairing technical flaws that doomed the first Taepodong-2 before launching another.

US officials, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, discounted the possibility of an imminent second launch by the self-declared nuclear power.

"Just look at the process. You have to get it out there, you have to get it up, you have to match it, you've got to fuel it. We're looking at a minimum of days, if not weeks," said a US defense official.

"There's no indications of preparations of a second launch," he said.

North Korea on Thursday hailed its launches -- which also included six short- or medium-range missiles -- as a success and pledged to fire more, saying it was boosting its defenses in the face of US hostility.

US President George W. Bush described the communist regime in 2002 as part of an "axis of evil" with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the Islamic republic of Iran.




URL of this article:
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/article_006796.php

North Korea says nuclear test successful
Associated Press via Yahoo News!
1 minute ago


SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Monday it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test. U.S. and South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said information still needed to be analyzed to determine whether North Korea truly conducted the test.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully and there was no radioactive leakage from the site.

South Korean intelligence officials said a seismic wave of magnitude-3.58 had been detected in North Hamkyung province, according to Yonhap. It said the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (9:36 p.m. EDT Sunday) in Hwaderi near Kilju city on the northeast coast, citing defense officials.

North Korean scientists "successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions," the KCNA report said, adding this was "a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation."

The director of South Korea's monitoring center that is watching for a test with sound and seismic detectors declined to immediately comment on the reported test.

"We don't know whether it is a nuclear test or not," an official at the earthquake center at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources said on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the issue.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected no seismic activity in North Korea, although it was not clear whether a blast would be strong enough for its sensors.

The North said last week it would conduct a test, sparking regional concern and frantic diplomatic efforts aimed at dissuading Pyongyang from such a move. North Korea has long claimed to have nuclear weapons, but had never before performed a known test to prove its arsenal.

"The nuclear test is a historic event that brought happiness to our military and people," KCNA said. "The nuclear test will contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and surrounding region."

On Sunday night, U.S. government officials said a wide range of agencies were looking into the report of the nuclear test, which officials were taking seriously.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has convened a meeting of security advisers over the issue, Yonhap reported, and intelligence over the test has been exchanged between concerned countries.

Kyodo News agency reported that the Japanese government has set up a taskforce in response to reports of the test.

The North has refused for a year to attend international talks aimed at persuading it to disarm. The country pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 after U.S. officials accused it of a secret nuclear program, allegedly violating an earlier nuclear pact between Washington and Pyongyang.

Speculation over a possible North Korean test arose earlier this year after U.S. and Japanese reports cited suspicious activity at a suspected underground test site.

if it's true then i think it'll be the end of sanction for north korea....just like pakistan....

The best thing now is to wait and see....

Diplomacy is the key. Irreversible. And the man Kim is not going to back off. Nandiyan na yan. Start opening diplomatic talks with them. Provide some giveaways. We can even influence Kim to exhort the Sison to disband the NPA which I am sure that in the spirit of international peace he will give some consideration. Something to that effect.

pssst.. what do you guys think will happen next?

NK ultimately getting what they want?(e.g. extorting more)
or backfire ? (more embargo for them)

i cant see the future(hehe if i can i'd be a very rich man)
but im leaning towards backfire.
i bet more embargo for them. this would just push them on a wall with no one with them.(tsk poor NK population, they'll be hungry again)

kim is a smart man, smart enough to carve a profitable racket.
but why oh wny would he want to do this and push things some more!

He wouldn't play that kind of game. He's not the only one in command. The generals. If Kim plays that kind of game, the generals will be threatened with urban populace extinction, hence, will take over. China rules. Tewu rules North Korea. And with a little instigation from the level headed members of the Chinese Congress, Kim might face ouster. And not all North Koreans are suicidal. Watch the James Bond movie.

well, i guess we see it come to pass.
the west just basically closing all its relations to NK.
even China strangely joining in.
more embargo to NK and a strongly worded condemnation heh.

what would happen now.

North Korea's testing of nuclear weapon has attracted stern and virtually unanimous international condemnation. Even China, usually its most significant ally, described the act as "brazen". World leaders have noted the dangers of such a weapon in the hands of a country that numbers rogue states and terrorists among its few friends.

Other responses are likely unproductive . Economic sanctions serve little purpose against an already impoverished state. Indeed, it is not in the interest of China or South Korea for them to succeed. China in particular, doea not want to have to cope with an influx of refugees. It will ensure that North Korea receives sufficient food and fuel.

The detonation made fools of international leaders who were trying to make the Korean Peninsula a nuclear-free zone. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a statement calling on the North not to carry out the test. But a nightmare became a realitywhen the rogue state with a rogue leader steadfastly defied the call to call-off the test.

This country's rogue leader is really courting disaster for his country and people. Not only that sanction will be imposed, North Korea is on the edge of a more severe punitive action militarily.

China reluctant to back Korea sanctions
By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo! News
2 hours, 15 minutes ago


BEIJING - China appeared to shy away Thursday from backing U.S. efforts to impose a travel ban and financial sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test, saying any U.N. action should focus on bringing its communist neighbor back to talks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said North Korea should understand it had made a mistake but "punishment should not be the purpose" of any U.N. response.

U.N. action "should be conducive to the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula... and the resumption of the talks," he told reporters. "It's necessary to express clearly to North Korea that... the international community is opposed to this nuclear test."

The United States has circulated a new U.N. Security Council resolution that seeks to ban travel by people involved in North Korea's weapons program but softens some other measures to win Russian and Chinese support. North Korea warned it would consider increased U.S. pressure an act of war and take unspecified countermeasures.

China's response to the crisis has been closely watched because it is considered to have the most leverage with the unpredictable, reclusive North Korean regime. China, a veto-wielding Security Council member, is the North's top provider of desperately needed energy and economic aid.

Chinese officials have refused to say publicly what consequences they believe North Korea should face for its claimed nuclear test, although its U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, agreed earlier this week that the Security Council must impose "punitive actions."

Japan is imposing its own new sanctions against North Korea. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved several harsh measures Thursday, including limits on imports and a ban on all North Korean ships in Japanese waters.

The latest U.S. proposal, obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday night, dropped Japanese demands to prohibit North Koreans ships from entering any port, and North Korean aircraft from taking off or landing in any country. These sanctions would likely face strong Russian and Chinese opposition.

The resolution would still require countries to freeze all assets related to North Korea's weapons and missile programs. But a call to freeze assets from other illicit activities such as "counterfeiting, money-laundering or narcotics" was dropped. So was a call to prevent "any abuses of the international financial system" that could contribute to the transfer or development of banned weapons.

The North will consider increased U.S. pressure "a declaration of war," RI Kong Son, vice spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with AP Television News in Pyongyang. He said North Korea would take unspecified "physical countermeasures."

Song Il Ho, a North Korean envoy to Japan, gave a similar warning to Tokyo. "We will take strong countermeasures," he told Kyoto News Agency.

Since Pyongyang announced it exploded its first atomic bomb Monday, there have been daily South Korean and Japanese news reports that the North is preparing another test.

On Thursday, the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo quoted an unidentified source familiar with North Korean affairs as saying a second test would occur in two or three days.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service could not immediately be reached for comment.

South Korean scientists have been scrambling for signs of radioactivity that would confirm Monday's underground test. Han Seung-jae, an official at the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, said experts were still unsure the North had tested a nuclear device.

"So far, we have not detected any abnormal level of radioactivity" in South Korea, he said.

Japanese military planes have also been monitoring for radioactivity in the atmosphere but have reported no abnormal readings.

North Korea has been demanding direct talks with the United States, but President Bush refused to agree to such a meeting in a news conference Wednesday. He argued that Pyongyang would be more likely to listen to the protests of many nations.

Bush added that the U.S. was ready to defend its allies in the region, but that it would also try to use diplomacy to deal with North Korea.

"I believe the commander in chief must try all diplomatic measures before we commit our military," he said.

China is totally uneased when they felt the tremor of the testing along it's border with North Korea.

They are reluctant to support the sanction or any punitive action however, they have expressed their total disgust and maintain the reservation of anger against North Korea to be a neighbor possessing and posing nuclear threat just around their backyard.

China's alliance with North Korea is clearly superficial. Their dole outs for food and other basic supplies is only for the purpose of securing their backdoor against the influx of refugees, a scenario China does'nt even want to think of.

Official: No radioactive particles found
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Yahoo! News
17 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.

The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.

The U.S. government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion, although the air sampling tends to reinforce earlier doubts about whether the test blast was entirely successful, officials said. Data from seismic sensors indicated the explosion was smaller than expected.

The air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialized aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the sample over the Sea of Japan, between the Korean mainland and Japan.

In Beijing, a government official said Friday that Chinese monitoring also has found no evidence of airborne radiation from North Korea's claimed nuclear test. The official with the State Environmental Protection Administration said China has been monitoring air samples since the test-explosion Monday.

"We have conducted air monitoring and found no radiation in the air over Chinese territory so far," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly release the information. The official declined to explain how the Chinese monitoring was conducted.

The U.S. intelligence official said an initial result from testing of the U.S. air sample became available late this week. He said a final result would be available within days but the initial finding is considered conclusive.

It was not immediately clear whether the WC-135 took additional samples after the Tuesday effort.

Word of the test results came as the U.S. continued its diplomatic offensive at the United Nations and with Pyongyang's neighbors, aimed at forcing North Korea to drop its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Friday on the wording of a resolution that would clamp sanctions on the communist country. The draft would authorize non-military sanctions against the North, and it says that any further action the council might want to take would require another U.N. resolution.

It also eliminates a blanket arms embargo from a tougher, previous draft, instead targeting specific equipment for sanctions including missiles, tanks, warships and combat aircraft.

The U.S., which has sought tough steps that could leave the door open to a blockade or other military action, has had to give ground to gain support from China and Russia. Those countries, along with South Korea, have been reluctant to abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff

When President Bush announced Wednesday that he wanted the United Nations and North Korea's neighbors to take steps aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, Bush indicated that he saw little distinction between an actual nuclear test by North Korea and its announcement of one.

"The United States is working to confirm North Korea's claim, but this claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and stability," Bush said.

The North Korean saga bring our minds back to the invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein stubbornly refused and denied the inspectors to inspect his alleged production of WMD. The reason of his defiance is to bluff the whole world to believe that WMD was indeed in proliferation in Iraq. The Americans knew it to be bluff, and they played the game thus prompting the now "messy" invasion, and ultimately the downful of Saddam Hussein.

This rogue North Korean leader tossed his own version of saber-rattling by a "make-believe" nuclear testing. One day he should be sorry for his stupid stunt. The Americans will capitalize on this as a precursor to a punitive military attack.

U.S.: Test points to N. Korea nuke blast
By ROBERT BURNS and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers
Yahoo! News
1 hour, 8 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - An air sampling taken after North Korea's claimed nuclear test detected radioactive debris consistent with an atomic explosion, Bush administration and congressional officials said Friday night. They said no final determination had been made about the nature of last weekend's mystery-shrouded blast.

One U.S. government official said intelligence officials assigned an 80 percent probability that the North Korean explosion was a nuclear detonation, based on the air sample collected Wednesday. The official said it appeared highly unlikely that the sample of radioactive material was produced by any other source, including a nuclear power reactor.

The official also said additional sampling might be conducted, not necessarily by airborne means. He would not elaborate, citing security concerns.

A senior administration official suggested that the North Korean test was a dud. "The betting is that this was an attempt at a nuclear test that failed," the official said. "We don't think they were trying to fake a nuclear test, but it may have been a nuclear fizzle."

The officials who described the results spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

North Korea's claim of a successful nuclear test Monday sent shock waves throughout Asia and around the world. President Bush has called for stiff United Nations sanctions on North Korea, while refusing appeals by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others to take part in one-one-one talks with the reclusive communist regime.

Since North Korea's announcement, the United States and other nations have been conducting scientific tests to determine whether a nuclear explosion had occurred.

The administration briefed key members of Congress about the preliminary test results of an air sample an official said was collected above Qunggye, near the area of the claimed nuclear test.

Results from another test disclosed Friday an initial air sampling on Tuesday showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said.

The contradictory readings reinforced uncertainty about the size and success of Monday's underground explosion, which North Korea has trumpeted as a nuclear test. Data from seismic sensors have already indicated the explosion was smaller than expected.

The Chinese and Japanese governments have done their own air sampling and found no trace of radioactive material, officials from both countries said Friday. A Japanese government official said his country sampled air over the Sea of Japan, as well as rainfall and ground-level air on Japanese territory and found nothing.

A spokesman for National Intelligence Director John Negroponte declined to comment on any findings from U.S. spy agencies.

One Republican lawmaker, citing the release of "intelligence reports appearing to confirm the likelihood of a North Korean nuclear test," backed Bush's call for a return to international talks. But the lawmaker, Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., also parted company with the president, saying that if a "prominent American delegation preferably a bipartisan one get North Korea to walk back from the ledge, we should do so."

The State Department, meanwhile, announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to China, South Korea and Japan next week to discuss steps to pressure North Korea to drop its nuclear efforts and to assess the region's security situation.

Members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Friday on wording of a resolution that would clamp sanctions on the communist country. The draft, scheduled for a Saturday vote, would authorize nonmilitary sanctions against the North, and says that any further action the council might want to take would require another U.N. resolution.

It also eliminates a blanket arms embargo from a tougher, previous draft, instead targeting specific equipment for sanctions including missiles, tanks, warships and combat aircraft.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that on Rice's trip, "she's going to be talking about the passage of that resolution certainly, but really what comes after."

Rice's trip is meant to present a unified front to North Korea, which will be looking for any cracks in the diplomatic coalition behind the U.N. statement. Coming less than a month before midterm congressional elections, Rice's trip is also an opportunity for the Bush administration to highlight its work countering dangerous regimes and terror threats.

Beyond the threat to Asian neighbors and perhaps other nations posed by a nuclear North Korea, the administration is worried that Pyongyang could sell its nuclear know-how to terrorists or other potential U.S. enemies, including Iran.

"Now is the time really to be very firm to be calm, but firm and to make clear to the North Koreans that no one is going to accept them as a nuclear weapons state," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Friday at the National Press Club.

Analysts and government officials have said it may take weeks or longer to determine with confidence whether the North Korean explosion was nuclear.

The negative air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialized aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the sample over the Sea of Japan, between the Korean mainland and Japan.

In Beijing, a government official said Friday that Chinese monitoring also has found no evidence of airborne radiation from the test-explosion. The official with the State Environmental Protection Administration said China has been monitoring air samples since Monday.

The U.S., which has sought tough steps in the United Nations that could leave the door open to a blockade or other military action, has had to give ground to gain support from China and Russia. Those countries, along with South Korea, have been reluctant to abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff.

North Korea to shut nuke facilities in return for fuel aid

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 05:37pm (Mla time) 02/13/2007

BEIJING -- (2ND UPDATE) North Korea agreed to shut down key nuclear facilities within 60 days in return for vital fuel aid in a breakthrough deal announced Tuesday here aimed at halting its atomic weapons drive.

The United States for its part pledged to begin the process of de-listing the reclusive nation as a terrorist state, according to the deal hammered out during days of marathon six-nation talks.

Giving first details of the accord, China's envoy Wu Dawei said the North would receive the equivalent of one million tons of oil if it permanently closes the nuclear facilities.

In a first tranche, North Korea would begin receiving 50,000 tons of fuel oil for shutting down its main Yongbyon reactor and would allow the United Nations nuclear inspectors back into the country within 60 days.

Meanwhile, North Korea and the United States had agreed to begin direct talks aimed at establishing diplomatic ties, Wu said, adding that an "important consensus" had been reached after six days of hectic closed-door diplomacy.

A new round of talks, which groups the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States, and Russia, was set for March 19.

The deal came just four months after Pyongyang stunned the world with its first-ever nuclear weapons test, triggering global condemnation and breathing new urgency into the stuttering six-party forum that began in August 2003.

US chief envoy Christopher Hill had earlier described the draft of the accord as "excellent" and said US President George W. Bush's administration was firmly behind it.

He said it was based on a September 2005 agreement under which North Korea promised to give up its weapons program in return for security guarantees, energy benefits, and other aid.

That agreement fell apart two months later over North Korean objections to unrelated US sanctions for money laundering and counterfeiting.

North Korea, one of the world's most isolated and impoverished nations, is desperately short of energy to power factories, homes and basic amenities, a situation particularly acute in winter.

The state-directed economy began declining sharply in the early 1990s with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and a sharp fall-off in aid.

The Yongbyon reactor, which started operating in 1987, has long been at the heart of the dispute over the weapons program.

Sited about 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the capital Pyongyang, it has a capacity of five megawatts -- far too small to make a big difference to the nation's acute power shortage.

However, it has already produced plutonium for bombs, and experts believe that shutting down the reactor would still leave the North with enough stocks extracted from its fuel rods to make six to eight devices.

South Korean envoy Chun Yung-Woo said earlier Tuesday that the North Korean negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, had agreed to all the details before the draft was circulated for final approval.

Nevertheless, Chun, Hill and Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae all cautioned that there was no guarantee that the deal would stand the test of time.

"We are not done. This is essentially some initial action, so we have got a long way to go," Hill said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/to...rticle_id=49231

Good move. :thumb: A great relief for a lot of hungry and desperate North Koreans.

Kim Jong Il is saber-rattling again? :wow:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/2...sile/index.html

North Korea testing South with jet fighters: report
By Jon Herskovitz
Yahoo! News
2 hours, 25 minutes ago


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean jet fighters have sortied close South Korea's airspace at least 10 times since conservative president Lee Myung-bak took office last month, prompting Seoul to scramble its own planes in response, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday.

The flights add to a list of provocative gestures from the North since Lee's government warned Pyongyang that if it wants to keep receiving aid, it should improve human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more than 1,000 Southerners kidnapped or held since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea jets had approached skies near the Demilitarized Zone and the Northern Limit Line -- the de facto border in the Yellow Sea -- some 10 times since February 25, when the new conservative South Korean government took office, the paper said.

"The South Korean Defense Ministry is closely monitoring the moves, believing the North is intentionally creating tensions in the sea, skies and on the ground," it said, citing defense officials.

South Korea's Defence ministry declined to comment on the report.

The North stepped up tension on the peninsula last Friday by firing missiles, following that up at the weekend with a threat to launch a pre-emptive strike to "not merely plunge everything into flames, but reduce it (the South) to ashes."

It has also threatened to attack South Korean naval vessels patrolling in disputed waters, suspend inter-Korean dialogue and stop taking apart its nuclear weapons plant as called for in an international deal.

Lee has also offering huge investment to the hermit state on condition it mend its ways, a stand analysts say has infuriated, and unsettled, the largely isolated and impoverished North.

His left-of-centre predecessors in the presidential Blue House for the past 10 years have sent billions of dollars in aid to the North asking for little in return, seeing it as the price to pay for stability.

The threat to launch a pre-emptive strike came in response to comments made last week by the new chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff who said the South would hit North Korea's nuclear weapon base to disable it if the North attacks.

North Korea's army "will counter any slightest move for 'pre-emptive strikes' at their nuclear bases with more rapid and more powerful pre-emptive strikes," the North's KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed military official as saying.

Last week Pyongyang lashed out at the Lee government by expelling South Koreans working at a joint factory park in the North that had been hailed as a model of economic cooperation.

North Korea has one of the world's largest standing armies, most of it based near the heavily mined border, just 50 km (30 miles) north of the South Korean capital.

It has made similar statements for years threatening pre-emptive strikes, but those have almost always been in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills.

The North Korean moves come as conservatives are trying to win control of the South's parliament from left-of-centre forces in an April 9 election. If conservatives win a majority, it would significantly strengthen Lee's hand during his five-year term.

Interesting...so there was a link after all! :wow:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_...pe/nkorea_syria