Posts Tagged Communist Regime

NKorea criticizes US nuclear protection of South

Jun 21

North Korea has accused the United States of plotting atomic war against the communist regime, saying President Barack Obama’s recent reaffirmation of nuclear protection of South Korea only exposed his government’s intention to attack.

In what would be the first test for the new U.N. sanctions against the North, South Korean media also reported Sunday that a North Korean ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the U.S. military over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port Wednesday.

South Korean television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the U.S. suspected the 2,000-ton-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons toward Myanmar — which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

The report said the U.S. has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test.

Obama reaffirmed Washington’s security commitment to South Korea, including through U.S. nuclear protection, after a meeting Tuesday in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Obama also said the U.N. sanctions will be aggressively enforced.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea’s government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama’s comments only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

“It’s not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion,” said the commentary published Saturday.

The weekly also said the North will also “surely judge” the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to “stifle” the North.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.

On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North’s threats.

The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.

North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called “six-party talks” in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.

Tags: Arms Embargo, Atomic Bomb, Atomic War, Barack Obama, Class Ship, Communist Regime, Illicit Weapons, Intelligence Source, Korean Media, Korean Peninsula, Korean Ship, National Intelligence Service, Navy Destroyer, Nuclear Protection, President Lee, Security Commitment, Ship Sailing, South Korean President, Summit North, Unification Ministry

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NKorea criticizes US nuclear protection of South

Jun 21

Posted by sophie in Uncategorized

U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port Wednesday.

The report said the U.S. has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea’s government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama’s comments only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

The weekly also said the North will also “surely judge” the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to “stifle” the North.

On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North’s threats.

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NKorea warns US of ‘thousand-fold’ military action

Jun 17

Posted by sophie in Uncategorized

North Korea warned Wednesday of a “thousand-fold” military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked, the latest threat in a drumbeat of rhetoric in defense of its rogue nuclear program.

Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea is preparing an additional site for test-firing a long-range missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States. Russia’s deputy defense minister reportedly said it would shoot down any missile headed its way.

The warning of a military strike, carried by the North’s state media, came hours after President Barack Obama declared North Korea a “grave threat” to the world and pledged that recent U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington Tuesday for a landmark summit in which the two leaders agreed to build a regional and global “strategic alliance” to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang claims its nuclear bombs are a deterrent against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with Seoul to topple its secretive regime — led by the unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il who is reportedly preparing to hand over power to his 26-year-old youngest son.

“If the U.S. and its followers infringe upon our republic’s sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a one hundred- or one thousand-fold retaliation with merciless military strike,” the government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary.

The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, also called Obama “a hypocrite” for advocating a nuclear-free world while making “frantic efforts” to develop new nuclear weapons at home.

“The nuclear program is not the monopoly of the U.S.,” it said.

The report did not mention the Obama-Lee summit.

Attention has been focused on North Korea since it conducted a nuclear test, its second, on May 25 in defiance of the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council responded by toughening an arms embargo, authorizing ship searches for nuclear and ballistic missile cargo and depriving the regime of the financing used to build its nuclear program.

South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday that the North has begun withdrawing money from its bank accounts in the Chinese territory of Macau and elsewhere, for fear they would be frozen under the U.N. sanctions.

But Lim Eul-chul, a research professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University and an expert on North Korea, cast doubt on the report. He said the North likely had decreased its exposure to banks in Macau sharply after its funds were previously frozen there under U.S. sanctions.

“They know how to keep and secure their money,” Lim said, adding that North Korea can effectively hide funds in accounts in mainland China opened in the name of third parties such as local Chinese companies and ethnic Korean Chinese citizens.

Separately, Japan’s Sankei newspaper said Wednesday that the North has been showing signs of preparing two sites — the Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast and the Musudan-ni site on the northeastern coast — from where a long-range missile could be launched.

It was earlier thought that any launch would come only from the northwest.

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper also carried a similar report Wednesday, quoting an unidentified government official as saying that a special train that carried a long-range missile to the northwestern site has recently moved to the northeastern site.

But South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has been running an empty cargo train from a weapons factory to the two sites.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying the movement is aimed at “confusing” foreign intelligence agencies.

Still, Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul, said the possibility of the North conducting a long-range missile test is high unless tension with the U.S. “is dramatically reduced.”

In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Popovkin as saying that if a North Korean missile comes toward Russia “we will see it and shoot it down.”

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the reports on money withdrawals or on the missiles, which ostensibly can carry a nuclear warhead. It remains unclear whether they have developed a nuclear device small enough to be carried on a missile.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. It revealed last week that it is also producing enriched uranium. The two materials are key ingredients for making atomic bombs.

Some analysts believe that the North’s rhetoric is aimed at showing people at home that their government can defy the powerful U.S., and eventually to give credit for it to Kim’s reported heir apparent, Kim Jong Un. The analysts say this would make Jong Un’s ascent to the top acceptable to the North Koreans.

Tags: Barack Obama, Central News Agency, Communist Regime, Deputy Defense, Frantic Efforts, Global Strategic Alliance, Grave Threat, Kim Jong Il, Korean Central News, Korean Central News Agency, Landmark Summit, Lee Summit, Military Strike, Nuclear Bombs, Nuclear Free World, Nuclear Weapons, President Lee, Range Missile, South Korean News, South Korean President

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NKorea warns of nuclear war amid rising tensions

Jun 14

Posted by sophie in Uncategorized

North Korea’s communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions.

The North’s defiance presents a growing diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart on the North’s missile and nuclear programs.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told security-related ministers during an unscheduled meeting Sunday to “resolutely and squarely” cope with the North’s latest threat, his office said. Lee is to leave for the U.S. on Monday morning.

A commentary Sunday in the North’s main state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, claimed the U.S. has 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea. Another commentary published Saturday in the state-run Tongil Sinbo weekly claimed the U.S. has been deploying a vast amount of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan.

North Korea “is completely within the range of U.S. nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of a nuclear war are the highest in the world,” the Tongil Sinbo commentary said.

Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman at the U.S. military command in Seoul, called the latest accusation “baseless,” saying Washington has no nuclear bombs in South Korea. U.S. tactical nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea in 1991 as part of arms reductions following the Cold War.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry issued a statement Sunday demanding the North stop stoking tension, abandon its nuclear weapons and return to dialogue with the South.

On Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council on Friday as punishment for the North’s latest nuclear test.

It is not clear if the statements are simply rhetorical. Still, they are a huge setback for international attempts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions following its second nuclear test on May 25. It first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

In Saturday’s statement, North Korea said it has been enriching uranium to provide fuel for its light-water reactor. It was the first public acknowledgment the North is running a uranium enrichment program in addition to its known plutonium-based program. The two radioactive materials are key ingredients in making atomic bombs.

On Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported South Korea and the U.S. have mobilized spy satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and human intelligence networks to obtain evidence that the North has been running a uranium enrichment program.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — was not available for comment.

North Korea said more than one-third of 8,000 spent fuel rods in its possession has been reprocessed and all the plutonium extracted would be used to make atomic bombs. The country could harvest 13-18 pounds (6-8 kilograms) of plutonium — enough to make at least one nuclear bomb — if all the rods are reprocessed.

In addition, North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention.

The new U.N. sanctions are aimed at depriving the North of the financing used to build its rogue nuclear program. The resolution also authorized searches of North Korean ships suspected of transporting illicit ballistic missile and nuclear materials.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the new U.N. penalties provide the necessary tools to help check North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The sanctions show that “North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver those weapons through missiles is not going to be accepted by the neighbors as well as the greater international community,” Clinton said Saturday at a news conference in Canada.

Tags: Atomic Bomb, Barack Obama, Central News Agency, Communist Regime, Kim Yong, Korean Central News, Korean Central News Agency, Korean Counterpart, Korean Peninsula, Military Command, Nuclear Attack, Nuclear Bombs, Nuclear Programs, Nuclear Test, Nuclear War, President Lee, South Korea, South Korean President, Tactical Nuclear Weapons, Unification Ministry

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NKorean leader’s son is ‘Brilliant Comrade’

Jun 12

Posted by sophie in Uncategorized

The youngest son of North Korea’s authoritarian leader has been given the title of “Brilliant Comrade,” a newspaper reported Friday, a sign the communist regime is preparing to name him as successor to the ailing Kim Jong Il.

U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities disclosed during a meeting this week that 26-year-old Kim Jong Un is now being referred to in the secretive regime as “Yongmyong-han Dongji,” which translates roughly as “Brilliant Comrade,” South Korea’s mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.

An unidentified intelligence official quoted by the newspaper said the title means the North will engineer a cult of personality for the younger Kim — much like it was done for his father and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the only two leaders North Korea has seen.

The eldest Kim founded North Korea in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II when the peninsula was divided between the Soviet Union-controlled north and the U.S.-backed south.

Kim, who was referred to as the “Great Leader,” died in 1994, paving the way for the first hereditary transfer of power in a communist nation. His son, Kim Jong Il, became the “Dear Leader.”

The ailing 67-year-old Kim, who reportedly suffered a stroke last year, is said to be grooming “Brilliant Comrade” Jong Un, the youngest of his three sons, to succeed him. Jong Un reportedly studied at the International School in Berne, Switzerland, in the 1990s, and is said to be proficient in English.

Grandiose titles are part of a tradition to stimulate public support in a nation where the media is tightly controlled and little information about the inner workings of the government is available. The leader is given credit for most national projects. The state media carry endless flattering reports about Kim, repeatedly referring to him with his various titles of which “Dear Leader” is the most prominent.

Earlier this week, North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in an editorial that an important issue concerning the nation’s fate and its revolution had been resolved.

Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul said this was an apparent reference to a power transfer.

“It indicates that North Korea has resolved the succession issue,” he said.

The developments come as a U.S. official said Thursday that North Korea may be preparing for a third nuclear test in defiance of the United Nations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the unreleased information, would not provide details regarding the assessment.

Analysts speculate credit for any such test would be given to Jong Un to establish his credentials before he takes over.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council is expected to approve sanctions on the regime for conducting the previous nuclear tests on May 25. The sanctions seek to curb the North’s weapons exports and financial dealings. They would also allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

North Korea describes its nuclear program — which became public after its first test in 2006 — as a deterrent against possible U.S. attacks. Washington says it has no intention of attacking and has expressed fear that North Korea is trying to sell its nuclear technology to other nations.

“North Korea needs at least two more tests to perfect its nuclear weapons system,” Baek Seung-joo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told The Associated Press.

“It appears the North has concluded that possessing nuclear weapons is the way for it to survive. I think a third nuclear test is fairly possible.”

Tags: Aftermath Of World War Ii, Authoritarian Leader, Berne Switzerland, Communist Nation, Communist Regime, Comrade, Cult Of Personality, Dongji, Inner Workings, Intelligence Official, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Mass Circulation, National Projects, North Korea, Paving The Way, South Kim, South Korea, World War Ii, Youngest Son