Final Countdown - North Korea

[vector7]

China tells U.S. to keep out of South China Sea dispute

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Policemen arrive to maintain order at an anti-Japan protest near the Japanese embassy in Shanghai September 18, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Aly Song

By Ben Blanchard and Huang Yan
BEIJING | Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:03am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China told the United States not to interfere in a regional dispute over claims to the South China Sea, saying it would only complicate the matter.

Japan's NHK TV reported last week that the United States and southeast Asian countries may announce a joint statement on September 24 that obliquely presses China over its recent activities near disputed isles in the South China Sea.

China has been increasingly strident in asserting its territorial claims, especially maritime ones.

In the past week, it has suspended high-level exchanges with Japan and promised tough counter-measures after a court there extended the detention of the captain of a Chinese boat which collided with two Japanese coastguard ships near disputed islands.

"We express great concern about any possible South China Sea announcement made by the United States and the ASEAN countries," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing.

ASEAN is the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"We resolutely oppose any country which has no connection to the South China Sea getting involved in the dispute, and we oppose the internationalization, multilateralization or expansion of the issue. It cannot solve the problem, but make it more complicated," she said.

Washington has criticized Chinese claims to swathes of the South China Sea, where Taiwan and several ASEAN members including Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines also assert sovereignty.

China says it has sovereignty over the seas, home to valuable fishing grounds and largely unexploited oil and natural gas fields.

It reacted with anger in July when the United States brought up the issue at a regional meeting, further souring ties between Beijing and Washington already under strain from spats over the value of the Chinese currency, Tibet and Taiwan.

While there have been no military clashes in the seas for years, China and some of the other claimants have been building up their military presence in the region.

(Reporting by Huang Yan and Chris Buckley; Writing by Ben Blanchard, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

[vector7]

Joint drill planned in Yellow Sea called off

October 25, 2010

A joint exercise between the U.S. and South Korea, which was scheduled to take place late this month in the Yellow Sea, will be cancelled, according to South Korean government sources yesterday.

“The joint exercise planned for late this month will not be happening for some time,” said a high-ranking government source.

The source added that there will be no military drills involving U.S. aircraft carriers this year.

The decision follows criticism from the Chinese government, which has previously expressed its disapproval of the deployment of nuclear-powered supercarrier USS George Washington.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last month that the George Washington’s participation in the drill was “not an affront to the Chinese. It’s not meant to send a message to the Chinese.”

The joint exercise involving the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier had initially been planned as part of a series of drills to be held in response to the sinking of the South Korean warship, Cheonan.

South Korea blames North Korea for the sinking, while North Korea has denied the accusations.

South Korean government sources said that the decision to cancel the drill was made to avoid creating problems with China and North Korea ahead of next month’s G-20 Summit in Seoul.

Another military source added that there are “several limitations to holding another large-scale training drill after the joint antisubmarine drill held in the [Yellow Sea] from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.”

By Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]

[American Patriot]

North and South Korea exchange fire across border
By Lim Chang-Won (AFP) – 3 hours ago


SEOUL — North and South Korean troops exchanged fire Friday across their tense border, Seoul's military said, an incident which heightened tensions before next month's G20 summit of world leaders in Seoul.


The North fired two bullets at a frontline guard post at 5:26 pm (0826 GMT) and South Korean soldiers immediately fired three shots in return from a machine gun, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.


"There were no more shots afterwards. We are now closely watching their movements," a spokesman told AFP, adding it has strengthened defence readiness.


He said no South Koreans were hurt in the incident near the Demilitarised Zone dividing the peninsula.


Exchanges of fire break out occasionally near the heavily fortified and closely guarded frontier.


But Friday's shooting, in the Hwacheon area some 90 kilometres (56 miles) northeast of Seoul, came at a sensitive time as the South prepares to host the Group of 20 summit on November 11-12.


South Korea's military was put on top security alert this week to guard the meeting against any disruptions by North Korea or international terrorists.


Leaders attending include US President Barack Obama and the summit is being considered the nation's biggest appearance on the world stage since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.


The firing came hours after the North vowed to retaliate against the South for rejecting its proposal for fresh military talks.


Cross-border tensions have been high since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.


The military said the North's shots hit a guard post from 1,300 metres (4,300 feet) away. The South returned fire and broadcast two warnings that the shooting breached a truce accord in force since the 1950-53 war.


The JCS said its forces are prepared for quick mobilisation if necessary.
"It hasn't been confirmed whether the North Korean military took an aimed shot," an official said.


The JCS spokesman said the US-led United Nations Command monitoring the armistice would send investigators Saturday.


But the South said a reunion programme for families separated since the war would start Saturday as scheduled at the North's Mount Kumgang resort.
Earlier Friday the North said relations would face a "catastrophic impact" if South Korea persists in rejecting military dialogue aimed at easing tensions on the peninsula.


The first such military talks for two years made no progress in September after Seoul demanded an apology for the warship sinking.


Pyongyang refuses to accept the findings of a multinational investigation that blamed the tragedy on a North Korean night-time submarine attack. It says it is the victim of a smear campaign.


The communist state's military offered to hold a second round of talks on October 22. But the South rejected the offer, citing no change in the North's attitude.


The rejection of dialogue "precisely meant confrontation and war", the North's military said in a statement, adding it would "no longer feel any interest in dialogue and contact.


"The South Korean puppet military authorities will have to keenly realise what catastrophic impact their rejection of dialogue will have on the north-south relations," it added.


After months of tension over the warship, the North has made some apparent conciliatory gestures including a one-off resumption of the temporary reunions.


But the rhetoric from the North's military has remained tough.
On October 15, it threatened to attack sites in South Korea if Seoul carries out its threat to start cross-border propaganda broadcasts and leaflet drops.


The two sides reached a deal in 2004 to halt their official cross-border propaganda war. But the South says it will be resumed if there is any fresh cross-border provocation.

[American Patriot]

Koreas exchange gunfire at land border-South defence official

Related News

• Shots fired at Korean border: South's defense ministry5:49am EDT
• Shots fired at Korean border - South's defence ministry5:47am EDT
• Rare Korean reunions raise hopes for improved tiesWed, Oct 27 2010
• North Korea seeks big resumption of South aidWed, Oct 27 2010

SEOUL | Fri Oct 29, 2010 5:58am EDT



SEOUL Oct 29 (Reuters) - North and South Korea exchanged gunfire across their heavily armed border on Friday, the South's military said.


The North Korean frontline guard post fired two shots at around 5:26 p.m. towards a South Korean guardpost which returned fire, a joint chiefs of staff official said. It was not immediately clear why North Korea fired first, he said.



(jeremy.laurence@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging:



jeremy.laurence.reuters.com@reuters.net; +822 3704 5510) (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

[American Patriot]

By EVAN RAMSTAD and JAEYEON WOO

SEOUL—North Korean soldiers fired gunshots at South Korean soldiers in a guardpost along the inter-Korean border and the South Koreans fired three shots in return, the South's military said, in a new flare-up of hostility between the two countries.


No injuries were reported from the incident, which happened in a remote area northeast of Seoul in mountainous Gangwon province.


View Full Image





European Pressphoto Agency

A North Korean soldier looks through binoculars at the Military Demarcation Line in the Demilitarized Zone in the border village of Panmunjom, South Korea, on Oct. 20.






The shooting happened at 5:26 p.m., a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. South Korean government officials gave no immediate reaction.
The incident is certain raise concern in South Korea because it happened just two weeks before the country hosts a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 wealthiest nations.

In the run-up to the summit, South Korean police and military officials have discussed their readiness to prevent an attempt by North Korea to disrupt the event. Police tactical teams are already deployed in the Seoul neighborhood where the summit will be held.

South Korea's wariness of North Korea grew after the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in March killed 46 South Korean sailors. South Korea blamed the North for the sinking after finding remnants of a North Korean torpedo and other evidence. Pyongyang denies it sank the ship.

In the past two months, the two Koreas have taken small steps to move beyond the dispute over the ship sinking. Earlier this week, South Korea provided food aid to help the North cope with the aftermath of flooding in August and September. And this weekend, the two Koreas planned a reunion in the North for about 100 families separated since the Korean War of the 1950s.

In a reflection of the strained state of inter-Korean relations, the reunion event is smaller than last year, when two three-day reunions were held involving more than 1,000 people from the two countries.

The two Koreas started the reunions in 2000 hoping to foster a humanitarian program separate from inter-Korean politics. But they've instead become an annual tussle over whether the reunion will occur and, once that's settled, under what conditions.

With a registry of more than 90,000 people who would like to see relatives in the North, South Korea has pushed for years to make the reunions a regular occurrence—and did so again this week.

In meetings facilitated by the International Red Cross earlier this week, South Korea proposed staging reunions once a month. North Korea said it only wanted three or four a year and, before allowing them, wanted South Korea to provide 500,000 tons of rice, 300,000 tons of fertilizer and resume tourist activities for South Koreans in the North.

Seoul halted most tourist projects after a North Korean soldier in July 2008 shot and killed a South Korean woman at the same mountain resort where this weekend's reunions will be held. Earlier this year, North Korea took over the resort, which was built and run by a South Korean company, and forced the South Korean workers to go home.

The status of the resort after this weekend's reunion events is unclear, South Korean officials say.
Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com

[American Patriot]

US non-committal on North Korea power transfer
(AFP) – 21 hours ago


WASHINGTON — The United States Thursday said it would be "great" if North Korea's power transition sparked progress in a nuclear standoff, but said its policy was based on principles not personalities.


President Barack Obama's senior director for Asia policy Jeffrey Bader said the process of transferring power from leader Kim Jong-Il to his heir-apparent and son Kim Jong-Un was clearly in its early stages.


"Our objectives are not geared to personalities or towards particular leaders there. We have policies that we're looking for the North Korean regime, regardless of who's running it, to address."


Bader said he did not have a view on whether the transition of power would offer opportunities for diplomatic breakthroughs in future, but said that the administration was watching the process carefully.


"We are making proposals, we're looking to do things and if they do them before the transition occurs because the current leader is looking for a legacy, that would be great.


"But I don't think we can pin a policy on an assumption that that would be the case."
Bader addressed North Korean politics as he previewed Obama's trip to Asia beginning next week which will include talks in Seoul with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and the G20 economic summit in the city.


North Korea said this month that it was ready to resume six-party talks on its nuclear program, but gave no indication of whether it had dropped preconditions including a lifting of sanctions and separate talks with Washington.


Prospects for renewed negotiations have been clouded by South Korean and US accusations that the North torpedoed one of Seoul's warships in March, a charge it denies.


The United States says the North must mend relations with the South and show sincerity about nuclear disarmament before the six-party talks can resume.


Obama is set to arrive in South Korea, from Indonesia, on November 10, and the next day, Veterans Day in the United States, will address US troops who form part of the US garrison in South Korea.


In the year which marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, Obama will also note South Korea's "extraordinary progress," deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said.


He will then hold talks and a press conference with Lee and then meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seoul ahead of the G20 summit, Rhodes said.

[vector7]

Chinese Missiles Could Close U.S. Bases in Attack, Report Says

By Tony Capaccio - Nov 11, 2010 11:12 AM CT

The Chinese military’s non-nuclear missiles have “the capability to attack” and close down five of six major U.S. Air Force bases in South Korea and Japan, an unpublished government report says.

China’s improved inventory of short- and medium-range missiles provides a “dramatic increase” in its ability to “inhibit” U.S. military operations in the western Pacific, according to excerpts from the draft of the 2010 annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission scheduled for release on Nov. 17.

China’s current force “may be sufficient” to destroy runways, parked aircraft, fuel and maintenance facilities at Osan and Kunsan air bases in South Korea, and Kadena, Misawa and Yokota bases in Japan, the report says. The facilities are within 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) of China.

An upgraded missile arsenal, including a 30 percent increase in cruise missiles since last year, “poses a significant challenge to U.S. forces operating in the region,” the report says. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June called China’s improved missile arsenal “a real concern” that also threatens U.S. aircraft carriers.

Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The 12-member bipartisan commission was created by Congress in 2000 to monitor the U.S. national security implications of China’s economic and military rise and to report annually to lawmakers with recommendations for U.S. action.

Spending on Fortifications

The commission’s 2010 report says Congress should evaluate Pentagon spending to fortify bases from Chinese attack, including missile defenses, early warning systems, runway repairs and hardening buildings and hangars.

Increased military spending could benefit companies that make sea-based missile defense and electronic warfare systems, such as Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp., Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co., and Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

Also standing to gain are ship and submarine makers Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics Corp., based in Falls Church, Virginia, said James McAleese, a consultant to defense companies.

The report also said U.S. Pacific commanders, as part of their annual budget statements, should report on the “adequacy of the U.S. military’s capability to withstand Chinese air and missile assault on regional bases” as well as steps being taken to strengthen U.S. defenses.

More Explicit Warning

The commission’s conclusions are “certainly much stronger” and “much more explicit” than related findings in the Pentagon’s own annual report on Chinese military developments, said Mark Stokes, an analyst for the non-profit Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia, that studies Asia security issues.

The commission’s report says a decade of improvements in ballistic missiles and in advanced aircraft carrying precision- guided weapons “have greatly improved China’s ability to carry out” a strategy designed to hinder or prevent the U.S. from operating in the region or from aiding Taiwan in a conflict.

Separately, the commission warns that “the future deployment” of China’s new anti-ship ballistic missile “could seriously interfere” with U.S. regional access.

China “appears to be in the final stage of developing” the missile capable of targeting large ships at sea such as aircraft carriers,’’ the report says.

The missile, with a range of almost 900 miles, would be fired from mobile, land-based launchers and is “specifically designed to defeat U.S. carrier strike groups,” the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence has reported.

Higher Profile

The Pentagon places a “high priority” on responding to the increased threat to U.S. bases and vessels and it “is soon to gain a much higher profile as a critical public policy challenge,” said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a nonpartisan research group based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Some of that higher profile may come from Republican lawmakers, after their party takes control of the U.S. House in January, who may advocate a tougher approach toward China.

“We have to look at the totality” of China’s efforts, said Representative Randy Forbes of Virginia, the top Republican on the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee.

When lawmakers focus on emerging challenges in areas from cyber warfare to aircraft carriers to missiles, they’ll say, “we better be changing our readiness capability,” said Forbes, co-founder of the Congressional China Caucus.

[American Patriot]

Ummm

Interesting timing.

We're in discussion about redeployment of tactical nukes to the Korean Penn......

Anyone else hear this yet?

[American Patriot]

Nuclear North Korea: timing is everything

Analysis: Setting up a nuclear win-win for North Korea's "Boy General."










By Bradley K. Martin — Special to GlobalPost
Published: November 22, 2010 09:52 ET in Asia



Kim Jong Un and his father, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, Oct. 10, 2010. (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters)



BANGKOK, Thailand — There is never anything random about North Korean provocations, so the question that arises from the country’s decision to show off its long-hinted-at uranium-based nuclear technology is: Why now?


A large part of the answer has to be that the regime sees an urgent need to build a foundation of putative achievements for “Comrade Youth Captain” Kim Jong Un — recently promoted to full general — to justify plans for the youngster to succeed his ailing father, Kim Jong Il, as supreme leader.


Jong Un is way too young and inexperienced to have chalked up earth-shaking achievements, whether as statesman or as general. Even his official age is given as only 28 — and that would place his claimed Jan. 8, 1982, birth a biologically impossible three-and-a-half months after Sept. 25, 1981, when his elder brother Jong Chol was reportedly born of the same mother.


As in the case of his father, who contrary to his official age of 68 is actually 69, the successor-designate’s birth date has been adjusted so that the major anniversaries will come in the same years as those of his grandfather, the late founding leader Kim Il Sung, who was born in 1912. Jong Un seems to be only 26 or 27.


Never mind his youth, though. The regime has been building a personality cult in which he appears as a great man whose sweeping futuristic vision is transforming the country’s production processes with “CNC” — computer numerical control.






That sets him up to take credit for what Western visitors to the Yongbyon nuclear site the other day found to be a surprisingly advanced facility for producing nuclear energy with thousands of computer-controlled centrifuges, using uranium-enrichment technology.


Actually the country has alternately and coyly admitted to and denied its pursuit of uranium-enrichment — in contrast to its openly boasted-of plutonium-based nuclear program — since 2002, when Jong Un was only 18 or 19. The program certainly began years earlier than that.


But the regime clearly hopes its subjects won’t do the math. The succession process is troubled, and the boy general badly needs something that will help him earn the respect of the military, whose interests are given official priority behind only those of the leader himself.


The Seoul-based, defector-staffed news organization Daily NK last week quoted recent orders that reportedly came straight from Kim Jong Il and direct that “People’s Army soldiers must become a military of steel of which the whole world is scared.” In the process, military trainers must teach soldiers to “devote our youth according to the high will of the Comrade Youth Captain.”


Daily NK quoted its unnamed North Korean source for this information as saying that “in each meeting there was a lecture about how ‘Comrade Youth Captain watches us always.’” Soldiers, however, “just complain,” the source said. They “worry about how they will spend the winter, what they will eat.” North Korea is expecting a shortfall of 500,000 tons of food in the coming 12 months, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program jointly reported last week.


Assuming North Korea is playing its cards as usual, unveiling the uranium-enrichment program was intended to set up a win-win situation for Kim Junior in the context of the “Six Party Talks” in which the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have negotiated with North Korea on and (currently) off for a reversal of its nuclearization.


If there is no renewal of those talks followed by concessions big enough for Jong Un to boast of, the country’s propaganda apparatus can still argue that under his leadership North Korea has achieved an additional deterrent against attack by the United States and South Korea.


To intensify pressure for concessions and at the same time highlight its deterrence advances, North Korea may well escalate its recent string of provocations, which an international investigative panel said included torpedoing and sinking a South Korea warship on March 26.


The Japanese newspaper Sankei last week predicted a third North Korean nuclear test, citing satellite photos that it said showed tunneling in the area where the 2006 and 2009 tests were held.


Bradley K. Martin is the author of “Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Yeah, caught a quick blurb on FNC earlier and did a double take. They followed that up by saying, "Not a big deal." LMAO!

[American Patriot]

well... it appears it turned into a big deal a few hours ago now. I see the other thread going hot and heavy, thanks Ryan and Vector for having that information there to update us this morning.

Just a side note, I was listening to Bill Bennett this morning on the way in and they were talking about North Korea and leaving a lot of information out. I was completely unaware of any fighting until I got to work! I had switched to the news and heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about North and South Korea on the news this morning.

This site, my friends is now the number one news source for me because you guys are ON IT.

I can't BELIEVE I had to hear about it on a TALK show, and not ABC news (I wake up to the news, and not a fsingle word was said about).

[Toad]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AN5O820101124

Slim chance of nuclear cyber raid in closed North Korea



By William Maclean, Security Correspondent
LONDON | Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:48pm EST


(Reuters) - Assuming Stuxnet is aimed at Iran's nuclear program, could a similar cyber bug be used to wreck a uranium enrichment plant unveiled by ally North Korea?


The answer, in theory, is yes, say security specialists who monitor international efforts to check the military ambitions of the secretive nuclear-armed country.


Also in theory, the plant at the North's main atomic complex may already be infected by the customized malware, its key parts destined to turn gradually into worthless scrap metal.


But North Korea's isolation and tight state control mean that in practice the country would probably be an even tougher target than Iran for any attempt to use cyber warfare to cripple the production of fissile material for an atom bomb.


Any effort to insert a destructive bug into its enrichment systems might best be attempted before the North Koreans took delivery of the equipment -- in other words by intercepting the gear in transit.


"The supply chain is one of the best vectors to conduct cyber sabotage," said John Bumgarner, chief technology officer at security think-tank the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.


"The international community knows that North Korea is obtaining its uranium enrichment equipment from an outside source, possibly Iran or Pakistan, so if someone could temporarily intercept those shipments, they could easily seed the electronic components with cyber time bombs that would destroy the equipment once it became operational.


"This type of attack has been possible for decades, but only recently started to garner attention. "


The military aims of the North's unpredictable leadership have risen further up the global agenda since the disclosure this month of advances in uranium enrichment and an artillery clash with the South that stoked tension in east Asia.


North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday happened days after Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University reported that he had been shown hundreds of centrifuges during a tour of the Yongbyong nuclear complex in North Korea.


A uranium enrichment program would give Pyongyang a second way to obtain fissile material for making atomic bombs.


SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS


Interest in the ability of cyber attacks to check nuclear proliferation has grown since experts first reported the existence of Stuxnet in July and speculated it could be a state-backed raid, possibly by Israel or another enemy of Iran, aimed at sabotaging Iran's nuclear enrichment program.
Some analysts point to unexplained technical problems that have cut the number of working centrifuges in Iran's uranium enrichment program as evidence of possible sabotage.


Bumgarner said designing customized malware like Stuxnet depended on close knowledge of the targeted equipment in use at a site. Such information was highly unlikely to surface in what many say is the world's most secretive state.


Moreover, experts say North Koreans will be aware of speculation that Stuxnet was introduced into the components used in Iranian systems through a mobile flash drive, the tiny computer drives often used to transfer data between computers.


While Pyongyang can close off that threat by tightening security at its site, it has less control over the foreign supply chain, and that is where any vulnerability would lie.


Stuxnet's target remains unknown. But experts say that tell-tale signs in the way the virus changes the behavior of equipment known as frequency converter drives suggests it is intended to cripple this kind of equipment, which is used in several industrial processes including uranium enrichment.


Proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank in London does not rule out the possibility that North Korea's plant could be vulnerable to whatever affected Iran's enrichment efforts.


"If North Korea got its frequency converters from Iran, then it seems very likely to me that they would also already be infected by the computer malware, since Stuxnet seems to have been directed at such converters," he told Reuters.


He said much of the material displayed to Hecker was procured earlier in the decade, both directly from Pakistan before an illicit network run by Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan was dismantled in 2004, and then globally using a supplier list that Khan had passed to North Korea.


He said he strongly suspected Pyongyang had also obtained recent assistance from Iran, but it was impossible to know for sure if that had resulted in any cyber "infection."


(Reporting by William Maclean, editing by Tim Pearce)