North Korea Missle Tests

[Martin]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060705/D8ILQ4E00.html

World Condemns North Korean Missile Tests



SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea test-fired a seventh missile Wednesday, intensifying the furor that began when the reclusive regime defied international protests by launching a long-range missile and at least five shorter-range rockets earlier in the day.
An official at the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that North Korea had tested a seventh missile that was either short- or medium-range. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing agency rules, had no additional details.

Japan's Kyodo News agency reported that the missile landed six minutes after launch, but did not say where. The chief of Russia's general staff said that Russian tracking systems showed that Pyongyang may have launched up to 10 missiles during the day, the Interfax news agency reported.

The missiles, all of which apparently fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan, provoked international condemnation, the convening of an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and calls in Tokyo for economic sanctions against the impoverished communist regime.
North Korea remained defiant, with one official arguing that the country had the right to such launches. The tests and the impenitent North Korean attitude raised fears that further firings could follow.
U.S. officials said North Korea fired a long-range Taepodong-2 early in the day, but that it failed shortly after takeoff, calling into question the technological capability of North Korea's feared ballistic missile program. Pyongyang last fired a long-range missile in 1998.

The bold firings came under close international scrutiny of the North's missile launch facilities. The North American Aerospace Defense Command monitored the launches as they progressed but soon determined they were not a threat to the United States, a spokesman said.
Some feared more firings. Pyongyang could test additional missiles soon despite the international outcry over Wednesday's launches, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said after making a protest via telephone to North Korea's ambassador to Canberra, Chon Jae Hong.
"We think they probably do intend to launch more missiles in the next day or two," Downer told reporters, without explaining if the possibility of more tests came up in his talk with Chon.

South Korea, separated from the North by the world's most heavily armed border, said the test launches would further deepen its neighbor's international isolation, sour public opinion in the South toward Pyongyang and hurt efforts to control weapons of mass destruction.
The tests, which came as the United States celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle Discovery, appeared timed to draw the most attention from Washington. Some speculated that Pyongyang wanted some of the spotlight focused on Iran's nuclear program.
"North Korea wants to get the U.S. to direct bilateral negotiations by using the missile card," said Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea expert at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute. "Timing the launch date on July 4 is an attempt to apply maximum pressure on the U.S. government."
North Korea remained undaunted. A North Korea Foreign Ministry official told Japanese journalists in Pyongyang that the regime there has an undeniable right to test missiles.

"The missile launch is an issue that is entirely within our sovereignty. No one has the right to dispute it," Ri Pyong Dok, a researcher on Japanese affairs at the North's Foreign Ministry, said on footage aired by Japanese television network TBS. "On the missile launch, we are not bound by any agreement."

Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported that an unidentified Foreign Ministry official in Pyongyang acknowledged the firing of the missiles, but Ri told reporters that diplomats such as himself are unaware of what the military is doing.

In Russia, Interfax quoted the army chief of staff, Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky as saying the number of missiles fired by North Korea could be higher than the six cited by the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
"According to various data, 10 missiles were launched. Some say that these were missiles of various classes; however, some claim that all missiles were intercontinental," Baluyevsky was quoted as saying at a news conference in the Russian Far East city of Chita.

In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned of a "very high possibility" the U.N. would level economic sanctions against North Korea. Japan also protested the launches officially through the Chinese capital, and banned a North Korean ferry from Japanese ports for six months.
The tests followed weeks of mounting speculation that North Korea would launch a Taepodong-2. U.S. intelligence reports indicated Pyongyang was taking steps to prepare for a launch, but the timing was unknown. North Korea refused to confirm the preparations, but insisted it had the right to such a test.

The test was likely to cast a pall over efforts to lure North Korea back to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has boycotted the negotiations to protest a U.S. crackdown on alleged North Korean counterfeiting and other financial crimes. A North Korean official said Wednesday his country would stand by that stance.
Diplomatic moves over North Korea gathered pace. U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill was to leave Washington for the region later on Wednesday, and the launches coincided with a trip by South Korea's security chief to Washington for consultations. China's vice-premier was also scheduled to go to Pyongyang next week.
China, North Korea's neighbor and most important ally, urged all parties to remain calm.

"We are seriously concerned with the situation which has already happened," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a brief statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

"We hope that all the relevant sides ... do more things which are conducive to peace and stability ... and not take any actions to escalate and complicate the situation," the statement said.
Two U.S. State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the long-range missile was the Taepodong-2, North Korea's most advanced missile with a range of up to 9,320 miles. Some experts believe it could reach the United States with a light payload.
The missiles all landed hundreds of miles away from Japan and there were no reports the missiles caused damage within Japanese territory, said Japanese spokesman Shinzo Abe.

North Korea's missile program is based on Scud technology provided by the former Soviet Union or Egypt, according to American and South Korean officials. North Korea started its Rodong-1 missile project in the late 1980s and test-fired the missile for the first time in 1993.
North Korea had observed a moratorium on long-range missile launches since 1999.
--- AP reporters Larry Margasak in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Eric Talmadge in Tokyo, Judith Ingram in Moscow and Kwang-tae Kim and Jae-soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.

[waltky]

Guess they didn't like Israel hitting their nuke plant in Syria...

North Korean nuclear talks hit snag
Friday 28th September, 2007 Negotiators from six nations struggled to agree on a 'road map' for ending North Korea's nuclear programme Friday as differences surfaced over how North Korea should disable its facilities before finally dismantling them.

South Korean officials said the six teams met for just 10 minutes Friday after delays to allow for more bilateral consultations, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. 'I don't have any good news,' the agency quoted Chun Yung Woo, the chief South Korean negotiator, as saying after Friday's talks. 'For now, I think we still have a lot of consultations to do rather than to be optimistic,' Chun said.

Chun said earlier that differences remained over how North Korea would disable its nuclear facilities. Yonhap quoted US negotiator Christopher Hill as saying Thursday that the US wanted a level of disablement that would make it hard for North Korea to re-enable its nuclear facilities within 12 months. Hill said North Korea was able to restart its previously frozen nuclear plants in just two months in 2003.

He said agreement was reached on 'most of the disablement measures' between the officials from North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The six parties were also considering a 'special management plan' for the disablement and handling of radioactive components from the disabled nuclear facilities, Yonhap said.

More North Korean nuclear talks hit snag

[waltky]

Caught in the act...

Smoking Gun Images Of Syria Nuke Reactor?
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2008 - Video Made By U.S. Intelligence Claims N. Korea Secretly Helped Syria Build A Reactor, Which Was Nearly Operational

The White House said Thursday that North Korea's secret work on a nuclear reactor with Syria was "a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the world," raising doubts about Pyongyang's intention to carry through with a promised disclosure of its nuclear activities. Seven months after Israel bombed the reactor, the White House broke its silence and said North Korea assisted Syria's secret nuclear program and that the destroyed facility was not intended for "peaceful purposes."

The disclosure could undermine six-party negotiations to try to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea. The White House issued a two-page statement after lawmakers were given details about the reactor in a series of briefings on Capitol Hill. The White House said the International Atomic Energy Agency also was being briefed on the intelligence. While calling North Korea's nuclear assistance to Syria a "dangerous manifestation" of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and its proliferation activities, the U.S. said it remained committed to the talks.

The administration said that after the reactor was damaged beyond repair, Syria tried to bury evidence of its existence. "This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities."

More Smoking Gun Images Of Syria Nuke Reactor?, Video Made By U.S. Intelligence Claims N. Korea Secretly Helped Syria Build A Reactor, Which Was Nearly Operational - CBS News

See also:

North Korea's Nuclear Aid to Syria in the Spotlight
April 24, 2008 - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday will hear intelligence reports indicating that North Korea provided Syria with nuclear know-how, a development that could break, or further complicate, deadlocked efforts to shut down Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.

How Kim Jong-il reacts to the U.S. move remains to be seen, but the reclusive North Korean leader has a history of sensitivity to even mild criticism, particularly from Washington. An agreement to denuclearize North Korea in exchange for diplomatic and economic concessions has stalled over its failure to provide a full accounting of its nuclear activities, including proliferation. An Israeli airstrike on a facility in Syria last September prompted speculation that the target was a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project.

After months of delays, the Bush administration has agreed that intelligence officers will brief lawmakers on Thursday on North Korea-Syria proliferation. Unnamed officials have told major U.S. media organizations that key congressional committees will hear that Israel hit a nuclear facility inside Syria that was being constructed with North Korean help. Lawmakers reportedly will be shown satellite photos of a now-destroyed facility in Syria resembling North Korea's own plutonium-based nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of Pyongyang.

The House and Senate select intelligence committees both have closed meetings scheduled for Thursday, and the Senate Armed Services Committee also plans to hold a closed meeting "to receive a briefing on a sensitive intelligence matter."

MORE

[waltky]

The mouse that roared...

US working on food aid plan for North Korea
Tue May 13, 2008 WASHINGTON - The U.S. government said on Tuesday it is preparing a new package of food aid for North Korea and expects to unveil details soon to help avoid what aid groups have warned is a looming famine in the reclusive state.

After talks last week in communist North Korea, U.S. officials came up with a better mechanism for monitoring the distribution of aid -- the "hang-up" that stopped the flow previously, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We're working on now, a proposal for food aid, to address the humanitarian need in North Korea," McCormack told reporters. "We had some good discussions. We'll probably have some announcements for you in the coming days."

Aid groups say soaring global food prices and reluctance by donors have helped push North Korea close to famine. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday the United States had agreed to give North Korea 500,000 tonnes of food aid under a deal that would allow monitors unprecedented access to oversee distribution. The report said Washington will supply 400,000 tonnes via the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), while U.S. nongovernmental organizations will distribute 100,000 tonnes.

U.S. President George W. Bush would approve the arrangement within days, the newspaper said. The United States suspended food aid to North Korea in 2005 after Pyongyang asked a number of people with the WFP, through which much of the aid had been channeled, to leave. From 1995 until the suspension, the United States had provided about 2 million tonnes of food aid to North Korea through the WFP. But Washington's concern was that, without the experts in the country, it would not be clear whether the aid was reaching those who needed it.

More US working on food aid plan for North Korea | International | Reuters

[waltky]

Ol' Kim gettin' sassy again...

Report: N. Korea Fires Missiles Off Coast
May 30, 2008 - North Korea Reportedly Fires 3 Short-Range Missiles As Part Of A Test; 2 Misfire

North Korea has fired three short-range missiles into waters off its western coast in an apparent routine test, Yonhap news agency reported Saturday. North Korea fired three ship-to-ship missiles into the West Sea on Friday, Yonhap said, citing South Korean government officials it did not identify.

The report said that two of the missiles appeared to have misfired. The projectiles appeared to be of a variety made in the former Soviet Union with a range of about 28 miles, Yonhap said. The agency quoted an unidentified South Korean Defense Ministry official as saying the missile tests did not appear to be meant to provoke the South, since they were fired well away from contested waters off the western coast.

North and South Korea have clashed in the past over the delineation of their sea border in the West Sea. The area is a rich fishing ground. Relations between the two countries have been tense in recent months since the new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a vow to take a tougher line on the communist North.

Report: N. Korea Fires Missiles Off Coast, North Korea Reportedly Fires 3 Short-Range Missiles As Part Of A Test; 2 Misfire - CBS News

[waltky]

Guess this is how No. Korea got their hands on nuke technology...

Fears over nuclear weapon plans
Sunday, 15 June 2008 : An international smuggling ring managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, a former UN arms inspector is to say in a new report.

David Albright, who investigated the ring led by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan, found the drawings in 2006. His report, due to be published later this week but seen in advance by the Washington Post, suggests the plans may have been sold to rogue regimes. The blueprints included key details for building a compact nuclear device.

Such a device, unlike less advanced ones, could be fitted to the kind of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries. In 2004, Dr Khan admitted having passed on nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea before his network was dismantled. However, in a BBC interview last month, Dr Khan said that the allegations were false and claimed he had been pressured into confessing "in the national interest".

'Treacherous regimes'

In his report, Mr Albright states that he found the drawings on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, the Washington Post newspaper says. The computer contents have since been destroyed by the Swiss authorities under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. But UN officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before they were found, Mr Albright says.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," the Post quotes him saying in his report. The computers on which the drawings were found belonged to Swiss businessmen Friedrich Tinner and his sons Marco and Urs. They are awaiting trial in Switzerland on charges connected to their alleged involvement in the smuggling ring.

Speaking in May, after the destruction of the computer files was disclosed, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin said the action had been taken to prevent the information falling "into the hands of a terrorist organisation" or a rogue state. He told reporters: "There were detailed construction plans for nuclear weapons, for gas ultracentrifuges to enrich weapons-grade uranium, as well as for guided missile delivery systems." The files were among information seized in the course of a government investigation into the Tinners that began in 2004. Mr Albright's report is the first to allege that the documents included plans for a more advanced nuclear weapon.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Fears over nuclear weapon plans

[waltky]

The mouse that roared gets its food...

UN: US aid arrives in NKorea; food shortages loom
Mon Jun 30, `08 - Thousands of tons of food from the U.S. has started flowing into North Korea, the U.N. food agency said Monday, as aid groups warned that the impoverished nation faces food shortages not seen since 2001.

A freighter carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived Sunday night after North Korea agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid. The shipment was the first installment of 500,000 tons in assistance promised by Washington, the World Food Program said. The aid, however, was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they do not use food for diplomatic coercion.

The shipment arrived just days after the North delivered an atomic declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site, in a sign of its commitment not to make more plutonium for bombs. In exchange, the U.S. lifted some economic sanctions and said it would remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was "zero linkage" between progress on nuclear talks and the food delivery's timing. He said the U.S. has spent months working with the WFP to make sure food delivery could be properly monitored. "We do not link food assistance, whether that's to North Korea or Zimbabwe or any other country, to political considerations. We do that based on humanitarian concerns," Casey said.

More UN: US aid arrives in NKorea; food shortages loom - Yahoo! News

[waltky]

No. Koreans starve while Kim wastes money on nukes...

North Korea food crisis worst in a decade - U.N.
Wed Jul 30, 2008 - Parts of North Korea are experiencing their worst levels of hunger in nearly a decade, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Wednesday as it called on donors to provide urgent assistance over the next few months.

Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the World Food Programme's (WFP) country director for North Korea, said a food security assessment conducted last month showed that parts of the country could fall into a humanitarian emergency ahead of the autumn harvest. Millions of people are facing the worst hunger seen since the late 1990s, when famine killed an estimated 1 million people, de Margerie said. The crisis is especially severe in the northeast. "What is critical for us right now is to be able to address the immediate needs, the needs of average Koreans between now and the end of the lean season," de Margerie told reporters in Beijing. "This is the period when people are hurting."

Flooding last year, higher oil and commodity prices and a decline in shipments of aid from countries including South Korea are all adding to the shortfalls, de Margerie said. He called on international donors to contribute to the $20 million needed to enable the WFP to expand its food distribution to reach 6.4 million of the country's roughly 23 million people ahead of the autumn harvest, up from the current 1.2 million. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in late March it expects North Korea to have a shortfall of about 1.66 million tonnes in cereals for the year ending in October 2008, the largest deficit in about seven years.

De Margerie said the recent assessment, conducted by the WFP and the FAO, found that more than half of North Korean households had cut the number of meals they eat each day from three to two and close to three-fourths had reduced their food intake. The price of rice has risen nearly three times over the last year while that of maize has tripled or even quadrupled, he said, adding that the standard government ration in cities had been cut drastically. Many people are resorting to scavenging for wild fruits and vegetables, including seaweed, grass and roots, contributing to an apparent rise in malnutrition, de Margerie said. "They're simply running out of options," he said.

More North Korea food crisis worst in a decade - U.N. | International | Reuters