POTUS ONLY: A major concern contained in the briefing the president receives on January 20

According to Glenn Thrush of Politico, two major issues will face the next POTUS - N Korea and recession.

Recession is something you cannot mandate away, nor can you influence deeply.  Perhaps if American companies hired more Americans and stopped moving their companies.  Perhaps if we had more money to spend.  Perhaps if companies spent more to build and develop their assets ...

*******

 The other issue I would like to suggest worth looking into.


North Korea having nuclear weapons capable of reaching California.

Recently, James Clapper the Director of U.S. National Intelligence said that it was probably a "lost cause" and the best that could be hoped for is a cap on the country's nuclear capability.  

I would urge anyone who seeks and desires truth, to look into the years 1989-1996.  Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton, and North Korea.

We armed him, indirectly.  We made it all possible.

Go back, look at the news from 1989-1992, then with those conditions in mind, look at what the US did from 1992-1996.

Good luck.

Now, some people may say we don't need to point fingers we need to find a solution.  Looking for blame is not part of the solution.  I believe it is.  First we need to know the origins and parameters of the issue, then how it came to be.  Then we can fix it.

Obama Foreign Policy in Tatters say the British

Obama engagement policy 'in tatters' after North Korean rocket defiance

US officials expect Pyongyang to carry out third nuclear test in near future, respresenting significant policy failure for president

Chris McGreal in Washington The GuardianFriday 13 April 2012 12.56 EDT

Barack Obama's policy of engagement with North Korea lies "in tatters" after it was effectively shot down by Pynongyang's defiant but failed attempt to launch a long-range rocket.

Former US officials closely involved with North Korea policy said Washington's attempt to win agreement from Pyongyang to abandon its development of nuclear weapons and rockets in exchange for desperately-needed food aid has failed. They now expect North Korea to try and overcome the embarrassment caused at the rocket breaking into pieces over the Yellow Sea by carrying out a third nuclear test in the near future.

If that goes ahead, it will represent a significant foreign policy failure for Obama and prove a severe political embarrassment in an election year.

In February, the Washington and Pyongyang reached an agreement under which the communist regime would halt its missile testing and uranium enrichment, and agree to the resumption of international monitoring of its nuclear sites, in return for Washington providing 240,000 tonnes of food to the North Korea which has faced widespread shortages and famine.

The US says it warned North Korea that the rocket launch – which Pyongyang said was intended to carry a satellite but which the Obama administration claimed was a ballistic missile test – would violate the agreement.

Charles Pritchard, a special envoy for negotiations with North Korea in the Bush administration and a special assistant to Bill Clinton on national security, said Obama's policy of engagement has now failed.

"It is essentially in tatters. They made a calculation. They reached out to North Korea and it fell apart," he said. "I think the US will be essentially regrouping on an international basis. They're not going to go back to a bilateral engagement with the North Koreans any time soon."

Pritchard said that the regime's young new leader, Kim Jong-un, is likely to attempt to restore Pyongang's credibility – and possibly also his own with North Korea's military – by pressing ahead with development of a nuclear weapon.

"The failure of the rocket makes it much more likely that there will be a third nuclear test. This has been a huge public and domestic embarrassment for North Korea. A brand new, untested, inexperienced regime that has gone out on a limb to really have a spectacular successful celebration, and now it'll be a dark shadow over all of their celebrations. They need some new achievement."

That view was backed by Christian Whiton, a US state department deputy special envoy to North Korea in the Bush administration.

"It looks pretty likely. The way this usually comes out is that South Korean intelligence starts leaking information to the South Korean press. That has happened and it looks like preparations are underway," he said. "If you step back and look at this it looks like a failure by North Korea with its rocket but actually what you're seeing is more of a power move by the regime."

One of Obama's deputy national security advisers, Ben Rhodes, denied that the administration's dealings with North Korea have been a failure. He argued that the president has taken a tougher stand with Pyongyang than the Bush administration because Washington will not now deliver the promised food aid.

"What this administration has done is broken the cycle of rewarding provocative actions by the North Koreans that we've seen in the past. Under the previous administration, for instance, there was a substantial amount of assistance provided to North Korea. North Korea was removed from the terrorism list, even as they continued to engage in provocative actions. Under our administration we have not provided any assistance to North Korea," he said. "The message that we've been delivering is that North Korea is wasting its money on these weapons as many of their people starve and as their economy is one of the most backward in the world."

Asked if it is proper to leave ordinary North Koreans to go hungry or even starve because the actions of their government, Rhodes said that it is the regime in Pyongyang "that is holding its own people hostage".

He said he would not be surprised if Pyongyang now attempts a nuclear test.
"The North Koreans have tended to pursue patterns of provocative actions to include missile launches, nuclear tests as they undertook in 2006, 2009. And so we're certainly concerned about the pattern of provocative behaviour that the North Koreans engage in. What we want to make clear to them is that each step that they take in terms of provocations will only lead to a deeper isolation, increase consequences. And frankly, that's not just a message they're hearing from us, they're hearing it from the Chinese and the Russians as well," he said.

The US was expected to lead the condemnation at a UN security council meeting on the crisis on Friday. The White House warned of new sanctions.
Obama's domestic critics swiftly accused him of creating the crisis through weakness. Some have contrasted the president's stand against Iran with his more cautious approach on North Korea.

Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential candidate, said Obama was incompetent and naive in handling North Korea.

"Instead of approaching Pyongyang from a position of strength, President Obama sought to appease the regime with a food-aid deal that proved to be as naive as it was short-lived," said Romney. "This incompetence from the Obama administration has emboldened the North Korean regime and undermined the security of the United States and our allies."

Jon Kyl, the Republican whip in the US Senate, called on the White House to "abandon its naive negotiations with North Korea".

Pritchard said the crisis now threatens to become an election issue.

"In a presidential election year, the president can't afford a spectacular loss on the foreign policy side over North Korea where he's been very cautious over the last three years. It will essentially erase all the good things he can point to in other areas of his foreign policy," he said. "So I think Obama steps back. You're not going to see any bilateral engagement on the part of the United States for the remainder of this term."

The former officials now expect the White House to abandon bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang and to attempt to build on collective international pressure.

Pritchard said that will be made difficult by China's dual role of attempting to pressure North Korea while also shielding it. That, he said, will give Pyongyang a relatively free hand.

"This regime (in North Korea) cannot afford to negotiate away, to be seen to be knuckling under to pressure from others to stop what they are doing. They have nothing else going on for them. They are going to march forward and there's very little the international community can do," he said.

Whiton said he regards that as very dangerous.

"There's a cost to doing nothing with North Korea because North Korea proliferates nearly every weapons system it has. In 2007, one of the reasons the last round of talks fell apart was because we caught the North Koreans helping the Syrians build a carbon copy of the North Korean nuclear reactor.

"They were building it in Syria. There were North Koreans on the site. Thankfully the Israelis blew it up," he said.

obama

North Korea threatens Nuclear War

US, S. Korea Begin Drills Despite Threats


No sign of North Korean retaliation

Feb 28, 2011 3:12 AM CST


Bookmark & Share Digg Fark LinkedIn StumbleUpon Delicious Google Buzz Reddit Yahoo Buzz (AP) – South Korean and American troops began annual military drills Monday that North Korea warned could trigger a nuclear war on the divided peninsula. Despite the North Korean threats to retaliate, South Korea and the United States went ahead with their first major combined military exercises since the North shelled a front-line South Korean island in November, killing four people. Some 12,800 US. troops and 200,000 South Korean soldiers and reservists are taking part in the drills.

The main part of the drills, which will involve computer war games and live-firing exercises, will last 11 days, while some field training will continue until late April, according to the South Korea-US joint forces command in Seoul. South Korea's Defense Ministry says there have been no suspicious activities by the North's military, but the country's military is ready to repel any new North Korean attacks.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
North korea

US Troops: South Koreans Seek Justice. No Justice, No Peace.

Any American soldier who takes the life of any person, within the borders of a foreign country (not US) should be investigated by the local officials and by US military investigators.  If a US soldier is accused of rape or murder, the accusation should be fully investigated.  If US investigators find reasonable cause - the soldier should be turned over to the foreign government.  US military personnel must understand they are not given a license to behave badly simply because they are American.  It is bad for the country and bad for our military. 

However, if our military investigates and does not find reasonable cause - the military would remove the individuals from that location and send them back to the US.  They will not be turned over to a mob that will hang the soldiers after 'due process' simply because they hate Americans and or their cousins friends sister was run over ten years earlier by an American truck.  This would be unfair and unjust.





(The links for this are taken down, but the source is listed)

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Saturday
December 7, 2002



S. Koreans Protest Outside U.S. Embassy


By SANG-HUN CHOE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER



SEOUL, South Korea -- About 15,000 people carrying candles protested across the street from the American Embassy on Saturday, in the largest show of anti-U.S. sentiment in years.

The protesters, upset with what they say is preferential treatment to American soldiers in Korea, booed and chanted "President Bush apologize!" and "Let's drive out the murderous American GIs!"

About 9,000 police armed with helmets, batons and plastic shields spread out in districts around the embassy. Police buses surrounded the embassy compound.

The protest underscores how sensitive ties between Washington and Seoul have become. The allies' bond, forged during the Korean War, is being tested by widespread anger that followed acquittals of two American soldiers whose armored vehicle struck and killed two 13-year-old South Korean girls in June.

The two soldiers left the country after they were acquitted last month.

"The trial may be over, but the judgment continues," said Yoon Kyong-hee, a student leader.

After a two-hour rally, the protesters broke through a police barricade and spilled into the 12- lane boulevard in front of the embassy. Police rushed to occupy five lanes to keep back the protesters, who hurled dozens of eggs at the building. No serious injuries were reported.

In the past, anti-American protests had usually attracted small numbers of activists. Most of Saturday's protesters were ordinary citizens who ignored South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's warning that anti-Americanism and demands for the withdrawal of U.S. troops hurt South Korea's national interest.


Because of the protest, a delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., canceled a trip to Seoul on Saturday. Hyde "did not want the delegation to become the focal point of demonstrations here," the embassy said in a brief statement.

Hyde's delegation had planned to fly to Seoul on Saturday from Japan.

The embassy said Hyde will visit "at a less sensitive time," but President Kim's spokeswoman Park Sun-sook said Hyde canceled his trip.

Protesters distributed leaflets urging citizens not to buy American goods including Coca-Cola, Marlboro cigarettes and McDonald's hamburgers.

News reports said there were also smaller protests in 40 provincial towns across the country, and between 50,000 and 100,000 Koreans turned out in all. Police could not confirm the figures.

A six-person vocal group sang a song during the rally in Seoul that was rife with American slogans and a refrain of "Yankee go home!"

Kim maintained that U.S.-Korean ties remain strong.

"The United States is an ally that cooperates with us in keeping the stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula," his spokeswoman said.

U.S. troops fought on the South's side during the 1950-53 Korean War, and 37,000 U.S.soldiers are stationed in South Korea.

The soldiers' acquittals ignited outrage among South Koreans who believe the agreement that oversees the U.S. deployment gives special treatment to the Americans. Protesters said the two men should have been tried in a South Korean court.

Polls show that view is shared by a majority of Koreans who say they will vote in the Dec. 19 presidential election. All candidates have said the accord, which has been revised twice, must be changed again.


We have reduced our troop strength in South Korea by about 4,000.  Given the war drums heard from North Korea, I wonder if perhaps we should leave altogether.  When the North drives down to Inchon, and runs over several thousand people (all South Koreans), we should ensure the South Koreans (who remain) call for justice.  They won't get it, but we should ensure they call for it.  The two US soldiers did not run over the two girls intentionally - regardless of whatever else they did or were guilty of - the Noth Koreans would.










 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
korea

The Dow Falls, North Korea on the Brink, Iran with a Nuke, and Al Qaida still Planning

... and we have a community organizer in charge.

We are in trouble.

Dear American People:
I realize that only 42% of you support Obama, according to very recent polling, but dear lord, when you elect a president do NOT, please, DO NOT think domestic.  The domestic issues will resolve themselves and sort out, eventually - THINK globally, think international crisis after crisis after crisis.  Please.  And a community organizer is wholly unqualified to handle these concerns.  Worse, the lack of experience makes the world a much more dangerous position given the fact that most of the world holds us in such contempt.




Stocks drop after euro slumps, Dow falls below 10K



Tuesday May 25, 2010, 1:39 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrials plunged below 10,000 Tuesday after traders dumped stocks on expectations that the world economy will weaken in the coming months.

The Dow fell about 190 points in afternoon trading. It has fallen about 1,330 points, or nearly 12 percent, from its recent high of 11,205, reached April 26. The Dow and broader stock indexes all fell more than 1 percent.

Investors also exited the euro and commodities including oil and again sought safety in Treasurys. That drove interest rates lower. The benchmark 10-year note's yield fell to its lowest level since April 2009.

Investors were anxious about problems beyond the financial crisis in Europe. Tensions between North and South Korea reminded traders that political issues can be a threat to economic growth. And analysts said that even the still unresolved oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to investors' foul mood.

Still, uncertainty over the impact that Europe's debt problems could have on the rest of the world in the coming months remains the biggest driver of investor pessimism, said Jonathan Corpina, president of Meridian Equity Partners. The largest concern is that painful austerity measures that European governments are being forced to take could lead to a prolonged economic slump in the region and cause another global recession. And investors fear that even those measures won't contain the crisis, Corpina said.

"It seems like the Europeans are playing 'tag, you're it ' -- first it was Greece and now it's maybe Spain or Portugal," said Corpina, a New York Stock Exchange floor trader. "We know someone else is next. The problem is that it seems like every plan in place isn't going to satisfy the needs."

A warning of hard times came from Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who opened the new session of Parliament with a speech delivered on behalf of Britain's new coalition government. The queen, said there would be budget cuts because "the first priority is to reduce the deficit and restore economic growth."

Other European countries are imposing budget cuts as well, trying to control their debts. Investors are concerned that these steps will stifle economic growth, and that other countries including the U.S. will inevitably see their own growth stunted.

European Union leaders warned Tuesday that the continent's economy would stagnate unless governments make major reforms to promote growth. The problem is, though, that large debts in some countries make it difficult to implement stimulus measures to rally economies.

Traders have been selling the euro heavily in recent weeks because of uneasiness over whether steep budget cuts in countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal will drag down an economic recovery on the continent. Italy was set to become the latest European nation to announce spending cuts to reduce its deficit.

The euro approached a four-year low, which it set last week. The euro dropped to $1.2285, close to the low of $1.2146 it touched last week.

Investors are not focusing on current signs of growth, but are instead trying to gauge where the global economy will be later this year. Pessimism, particularly about Europe, has replaced a hopeful tone among traders early in the year.

"Market participants feel like they're walking on eggshells," said Oliver Pursche, executive vice president at Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, N.Y. "Every small piece of potentially bad news is being exaggerated and mentally being fast-forwarded to the worst-case scenario."

Markets were also hurt by reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered his military to combat alert because of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea also said it would cease communication and relations with Seoul. South Korea has said North Korea was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago. Major indexes in Japan and Hong Kong fell more than 3 percent.

Meanwhile, the monthlong effort to cap the Gulf oil well that has spewed millions of gallons of oil is also rattling investors, Corpina said. Oil is now starting to come ashore across a 150-mile swath of the Gulf Coast, endangering wildlife and livelihoods in commercial fishing and tourism.

"The worry is that the situation is getting worse and there's no real fix," he said. "First we were just talking about the oil industry being affected. Now it's the environment and fishing industries. Next we'll be talking about the hotel and leisure industries."

A disappointing report on U.S. home prices added to the downcast mood. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index fell 0.5 percent in March from February, a sign that the housing market remains weak even as mortgage rates are still near historic lows.

A better-than-expected report on consumer confidence didn't stop the selling. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose for the third straight month, climbing to 63.3 in May from 57.7 last month.

The Dow fell 190.07, or 1.9 percent, to 9,876.50 by early afternoon. Only one of the 30 Dow stocks, Home Depot Inc., rose, and that was just by pennies.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 20.13, or 1.9 percent, to 1,053.52. The index hit its lowest level of the year in early trading, dropping to 1,040.78.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 42.75, or 1.9 percent, to 2,170.80.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.14 percent from 3.20 percent late Monday. It fell as low as 3.07 percent, its lowest level since April 2009.

The yield on the 30-year bond briefly fell below 4 percent for the first time since October, before rising slightly. It is down to 4.04 percent from 4.08 percent late Monday.

Crude oil fell $2.16 to $68.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in part a reflection of expectations that weak economic growth will curtail demand for fuel.

Overseas markets were also down sharply. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 2.5 percent, Germany's DAX index lost 2.3 percent, and France's CAC-40 plummeted 2.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 3.1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 3.3 percent.













obama

North Korea: On the Verge

Get Ready for War.  The world is a dangerous place and we have a man who was a community organizer trying to organize the world, who, despite his best efforts, hold him in contempt (at best), or loathe him for his petulant attitude.  They neither like, respect, nor fear him or the US - and the world becomes and even more dangerous place.

And we have Obama.





U.S. military told to get ready in Korea standoff


Obama orders commanders to prepare 'to deter future aggression'


msnbc.com
May 24, 2010

WASHINGTON - The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama "fully supports" the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that sank a South Korean naval ship.

In a statement, the White House said Seoul can continue to count on the full backing of the United States and said U.S. military commanders had been told to work with their South Korean counterparts "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression."

The administration said it endorsed President Lee Myung-bak's demand that "North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior."

Late last week, a team of international investigators accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors in one of the deadliest clashes between the two since the 1950-53 Korean War.


The United States still has about 28,000 troops in South Korea to provide military support. The two Koreas, still technically at war, have more than 1 million troops near their border.

"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the President has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," the statement said.

"We will build on an already strong foundation of excellent cooperation between our militaries and explore further enhancements to our joint posture on the Peninsula as part of our ongoing dialogue," it said.

"The U.S. will continue to work with the Republic of Korea and other allies and partners to reduce the threat that North Korea poses to regional stability," the statement added.


Lee said Monday that South Korea would no longer tolerate the North's "brutality" and said the repressive communist regime would pay for the surprise March 26 torpedo attack.

He also vowed to cut off all trade with the North and take Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council for punishment over the sinking of the warship Cheonan.

Speaking earlier in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the North must be held accountable and she is pushing to get the support of China, North Korea's top ally, for diplomatic action.


Clinton warned of a "highly precarious" security situation in the region, and said North Korea's neighbors, including Pyongyang ally China, understood the seriousness of the matter.

Clinton would not say whether such action would include new international sanctions against the North, and said she was engaged in intense consultations with China and other nations about the next step.

"We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation," Clinton said.

So far, China has refrained from criticizing the North, which it supplied with troops during the Korean War

Obama and Lee have agreed to meet at the G20 summit in Canada next month, the statement said.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Korea

North Korea: We will annihilate you.

It is ok, we just listen and ignore, when other countries talk of annihilating the United States. It's all ok, because other countries just blow a lot of hot air, especially ones with nuclear weapons.

And Obama ... what is he doing about this. Watching.





NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer
Jun 24, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.

Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.

The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.

"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.
Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.

Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.

North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.

A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.

Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.

In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.











North Korea

North Korea: Missile Launch on Hawaii?

Japan warns that North Korea may fire missile at U.S. on Independence Day

18th June 2009
Daily Mail

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii's main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

Details of the launch came from the Japan's best-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun.

Both Japanese intelligence and U.S. reconnaissance satellites have collated information pointing to the launch, according to the report.

It is understood the communist state is likely to fire the missile between July 4 and 8. A launch on July 4 would coincide with Independence Day in the States.It would also be the 15th anniversary of North Korean president Kim Il-Sung's death.

The Japanese newspaper also noted that North Korea had fired its first Taepodong-2 missile on July 4, 2006.

Officials had initially believed that North Korea might attempt to launch a similar device towards either Japan's Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii.

But the ministry concluded launches toward Okinawa or Guam were 'extremely unlikely' because the first-stage booster could drop into waters off China, agitating Beijing, or hit western Japanese territory.

If the missile were fired in the direction of Hawaii, the booster could drop in the Sea of Japan.
News of the launch would put 'enormous military pressure on the United States,' the Yomiuri said, citing the ministry report.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report.
South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service - the country's main spy agency - said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen markedly since the North, led by Kim Jong-il, conducted two nuclear tests this year in defiance of repeated international warnings.

The first rocket, fired in April, was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test. A second launch came on May 25.

U.S. satellite intelligence has shown that a missile launch pad had been erected at Dongchang-ri on North Korea's north-west coast.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

The UN Security Council last week authorised member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions against arms export.

On Saturday, in response to this declaration Pyongyang said it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war.

Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.

The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North's army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.

'If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,' said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG's representative in Seoul.

The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South Korea's 49 million people and via missiles that could hit all of the country.




And just so we are all clear - in the weeks leading up to the fall of Saddam's regime, North Korea was in the process of shipping these same missiles to Saddam when we 'interrupted' the regime.

Now imagine what could have been ... if you are a ultra-right conservative, try not to strain any blood vessels. If you are a liberal - I'll help: Saddam would have used the missiles to launch into Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, and for that matter, into Europe. Attach some of his enriched uranium and ta da ... a dirty weapon capable of more damage than you (the liberal) could contemplate (and I am not refering to it being a nuclear bomb - rather, the combination would be dangerous for many reasons - the least of which is liberals would have had to reconsider where they live.

North Korea

Obama, Israel, Iran and North Korea

A very good evaluation I believe.





President Obama favored losing candidate in Iran's election
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
June 13, 2009


Friday night, June 12, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was already on his way to victory in Iran's turbulent presidential election although only the first votes had been counted. By Saturday morning, it was clear he had won a landslide for a second term, widening the gap with his closest rival opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. According to final results, the incumbent won 62.6 percent of the vote, Mousavi 33.75 percent.

This contradicted Western predictions that the record-breaking turnout of 85 percent of Iran's 46 million eligible voters favored the challenger.

Yet strangely enough, even then, Washington and the US media were still doggedly insisting that that the reformist Mousavi could still make it in a run-off, although that door had been finally slammed shut by the president's broad majority.

Indeed a high-ranking White House official, quoted by a British TV correspondent, even stated that a second round was inevitable and Mir Hossein Mousavi was bound to win. Even before that, President Barack Obama said optimistically: "Whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact there has been a robust debate hopefully will advance our ability to engage them in new ways."

Their insistence on hoping against hope for a change of presidents in Tehran remains a big puzzle, now that it is obvious that the Islamic Republic's exercise in democracy was carefully stage-managed for a predetermined outcome. This became apparent in the next developments.

By Saturday afternoon, riot police and Revolutionary Guards thugs were clashing with thousands of protesters who surged onto the streets of Tehran after their defeated hero, Mousavi, said he strongly protests "the many obvious violations that could lead to tyranny in Iran."

Police blocked him when he tried to hold a press conference and blacked his efforts to send text messages to his supporters. Iran's ultimate authority, supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered "all Iranians to support the elected president."

So how come the Obama administration, with so much at stake, continued to back the loser well after his defeat could no longer be denied?

DEBKAfile's Washington sources have two explanations:

1. The White House was given erroneous intelligence evaluations about the way Iran's presidential election was managed. The administration's Iranian experts missed the point that in Middle East politics (except for Israel) it is not the people who determine an election, the shape of government and its policies but the unelected head of the tribe - in this case supreme ruler Khamenei.

This was the second time in a week that an American intelligence prediction missed out on a Middle East election result. Having widely anticipated a massive Hizballah win in Lebanon's parliamentary elections of Sunday, June 7, Washington was stunned by the victory of the pro-Western camp.

2. Mousavi's portrayal as a "reformist" by the Western media was false. As prime minister in the 1980s under the Islamic revolution's founding father, Ayatollah Khomeini, he laid the foundations for Iran's nuclear program and international terror network ("exporting revolution"). He was therefore hardly the figure to step out of the Islamic regime's value system and make good on his campaign platform of change.

But the White House decided to seize on Mousavi's build-up as a candidate capable of beating the hard-line Ahmadinjed and leading Iran to change in order to vindicate Obama's hopes of a successful dialogue with Tehran.

By falling through, this scheme placed a big question mark over the US president's essential strategy of diplomatically engaging rogue states to de-emphasize conflict.

The way the North Korean crisis was handled illustrates this point. Closely in step with Iran on their nuclear and missile development, Pyongyang has brought its relations with the United States to the brink of a military confrontation whose conclusion no one can predict.

Finally removing the gloves, Washington persuade UN Security Council members to unite Friday, June 12, behind a resolution imposing harsh sanctions for the North Korean nuclear test last month. US warships were authorized to search North Korean vessels for suspected nuclear materials, financial measures were tightened.

The Obama administration will now have to follow through on the Security Council's directives - even in the face of North Korea's threat to treat a US embargo as "an act of war" and respond with military, including nuclear, action. Failure to do so would make America a paper tiger which no US president can afford especially under the eye of the re-elected Ahmadinejad.

Newly empowered for a second four-year term in office, Ahmadinejad need not be expected to let Obama off the hook for supporting his leading challenger. The tough Iranian president will drive a harder bargain than ever when they sit down to talk.

And in other parts of the Middle East, despite the US envoy George Mitchell's unquestioned diplomatic skills, the tour he began in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, moving on to Cairo, Amman, Beirut and finally Damascus on Saturday, has produced no breakthroughs. Iran's election results, hailed enthusiastically by the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami, are a shot in the arm for the most radical forces in the region, such as Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah.

DEBKAfile's political sources advise Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to take Ahmadinejad's victory into account when he finalizes the text of the major policy speech he is scheduled to deliver at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv Sunday, June 14.

Israel is stuck for another four years with the same aggressive champion of a nuclear-armed Iran and radical Islamic terror, hater of Israel and Holocaust denier, as before. He will now maintain that his positions are endorsed by the Iranian people.

Originally billed as the Israeli response to Obama's Cairo speech of June 4 and his policies on the issues in dispute between them, Netanyahu has the choice of echoing Washington's wishful thinking on the Middle East or looking at the real problems of the region squarely through the prism of Israel's interests.

If he wavers between the two courses, he will end up with a wishy-washy product that satisfies no one.









Iran and Israel

WAR ?

North Korea claims US could provoke nuclear war

North Korea has accused the United States of targeting it with nuclear missiles and warned that nuclear war could break out on the Korean peninsula.


By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
The Telegraph
14 Jun 2009


A commentary in the North's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper claimed the US had 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea ready to strike.

[Obama believes in peace and kisses, not war. This sounds like something the world would say about Bush. Interesting! On the other hand, the US has had nuclear weapons pointed at North Korea for over 50 years - nothing new.]

Meanwhile, the Tongbil Sinbo newspaper said that North Korea is "completely within the range of US nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of nuclear war are the highest in the world."

Over the weekend, North Korea angrily responded to fresh United Nations sanctions by threatening to build as many nuclear weapons as possible.

Until now, it said, it had only reprocessed one-third of its spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium. Analysts believe the rogue state could end up with enough plutonium to make eight to nine bombs.

The rogue state also claimed to have a uranium-enrichment programme, the first time it has admitted to one. The claim is alarming, said Professor Yang Moo-Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"The North has abundant natural uranium of good quality, which, if combined with technology and facilities, would result in a great nuclear arsenal," he said.

The new UN sanctions include the mandatory inspection of any ship suspected of carrying drugs, weapons or counterfeit money, the main sources of income for the impoverished country.

The resolution, which does not authorise the use of force against North Korea, also contains targeted financial curbs and demands that the state halt any further missile or nuclear tests.

Recent US, Russian and South Korean intelligence has picked up signs of activity at the Musudan launch pad in the north of the country and it is believed that North Korea could launch another long-range ballistic missile in the coming days.

However, North Korea responded with threats that any attempt to search one of its ships would be considered "an act of war" and would be "met with a decisive military response".

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-il has paid a morale-boosting visit to the troops, according to the North Korean state news agency.

Kim told soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division that he was greatly satisfied that the army "had been prepared to perform its combat duty in any circumstance".

According to the North Korean state media, Kim "highly praised" the soldiers for their "militant training spirit" and told them that "Training is also a battle!".

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of State, said the declaration of defiance by North Korea was "deeply regrettable". The North Koreans, she said, "have now been denounced by everyone.

They have become further isolated. And it is not in the interests of the people of North Korea for that isolation to continue."

Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for the US army in Seoul, said the US has no nuclear bombs in South Korea and called the accusation "baseless".

Lee Myung-bak, the South Korean president, is due in Washington on Tuesday for talks with Barack Obama.





North Korea

North Korea: We are in charge

NKorea sentences 2 US journalists to 12 years jail


By VIJAY JOSHI

The Associated Press

Monday, June 8, 2009



SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.


The North's Central Court tried TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee during proceedings running from last Thursday to Monday and found them guilty of a "grave crime" against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency said.


It said the court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor." The KCNA report gave no other details.


Ling and Lee - who were working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV - cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.


Many analysts believe there is a good chance the two woman will be freed. They say the reporters are being used by Pyongyang as bargaining chips in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish the North for its latest nuclear test and a barrage of missile tests.


By sentencing them to prison, North Korea has "paved the way for a political pardon and a diplomatic solution," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.


He noted that a pardon can only be issued after a conviction and that the regime's courts were not about to find the reporters innocent, which would imply they were wrongly arrested.


Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the sentence - the maximum possible allowed by the North's laws - could have been a reaction to strong statements from the U.S., including threats of sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.


"I think this is the North's response to recent hard-line moves by the U.S.," Kim said. "But the sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end."





It doesn't mean much? This is all bluff and bravado?

Nuclear tests, mobilization of its army, threats against anyone who attempts to stop any of its ships, threats of nuclear war ... talking certainly has helped with Kim. And Obama allowed the journalists to be tried and convicted and has done nothing. Does he hope this goes away?

North Korea

North Korea: Weaponize Uranium is our right.

Talking has accomplished a lot - under Clinton, Bush, and now Obama. They have created a very powerful enemy who will not simply go away. unfortunately we have a president who is incapable of handling issues of this seriousness and and the vice-president simply makes up history to cover his inadequacies. The world is in greater danger today than it was a year ago - and worse - because Obama makes the decisions. (Note: Iran is paying close attention to Obama and his response. If he is as feckless as he has shown, Iran will follow suit.)



NKorea says it will 'weaponize' its plutonium


Jun 13, 2009
By KWANG-TAE KIM


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea vowed Saturday to step up its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war if its ships are stopped as part of new U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing the nation for its latest nuclear test.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry also acknowledged for the first time that the country has a uranium enrichment program, and insisted it will never abandon its nuclear ambitions. Uranium and plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs.

The threats, in a statement issued through the official Korean Central News Agency, came a day after the Security Council approved new sanctions 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.

The sanctions are "yet another vile product of the U.S.-led offensive of international pressure aimed at undermining ... disarming DPRK and suffocating its economy," the North Korean statement said.

Pyongyang blamed Washington for the nuclear tensions, saying it was "compelled to go nuclear in the face of the U.S. hostile policy and its nuclear threats."

Washington says it has no intention of attacking the North and said its concern is that North Korea is trying to sell its nuclear technology to other nations.

Saturday's threats made clear North Korea's refusal to back down from international calls to give up its nuclear ambitions in the wake of its April rocket launch and underground nuclear test last month.

The statement also raised concerns of a military skirmish.

"An attempted blockade of any kind by the U.S. and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response," the North said.

As a precaution, South Korea has dispatched hundreds more marines to two islands near a western maritime border with North Korea that was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, officials said Friday.

North Korea's acknowledgment that it has a uranium-enrichment program appears to confirm that it has a second source of bomb-making materials in addition to plutonium.

North Korea is believed to have about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of plutonium, enough for half a dozen bombs, Yoon Deok-min, a professor at South Korea's state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, said Saturday.

Reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods stored at North Korea's Yongbyon complex could yield additional 18 to 22 pounds (8-10 kilograms) of plutonium - enough to make at least one more atomic bomb, he said.

More than a third of the spent fuel rods have been reprocessed and the rest of its plutonium will be weaponized, North Korea said Saturday.

Those moves would mark a significant step away from a disarmament pact between North Korea and five other nations in wake of its first nuclear test in 2006.

Under the deal, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon north of Pyongyang in return for 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions. In June 2008, North Korea blew up the cooling tower there in a dramatic show of its commitment to denuclearization.
But disablement came to halt a month later as Pyongyang wrangled with Washington over how to verify its past atomic activities. The latest round of talks, in December, failed to push the process forward. The negotiations involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

North Korea walked away from the talks in April after the Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch, seen by the U.S., Japan and others as a cover for a long-range missile test.

North Korea has said it will test another long-range missile and is suspected of preparing for a third nuclear test, but there is no evidence that either plan is imminent.

Washington had anticipated a strong North Korean response to the U.N. sanctions. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, cautioned Friday that North Korea could react to the resolution with "further provocation."

"There's reason to believe they may respond in an irresponsible fashion to this," she told reporters.

Analyst Kim Yong-hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University said North Korea was sending a stern message to Washington before President Barack Obama sits down with South Korea's Lee Myung-bak for summit talks at the White House on Tuesday.

He said North Korea is engaging in a game of "chicken" with the U.S. that he predicted would eventually end in talks.












Obama Kim

China, North Korea and the Useless Nations.

China Warns Against Force in Carrying Out North Korea Sanctions


By Peter S. Green and Bill Varner


June 13 (Bloomberg) -- China warned about the dangers involved in inspecting North Korean cargo under United Nations Security Council sanctions approved yesterday, saying countries intercepting vessels should avoid armed action.


“Under no circumstance should there be the use of force or the threat of use of force” in implementing the sanctions in Resolution 1874, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said in New York. Inspecting vessels carrying North Korean cargo is “complicated” and “sensitive,” he said.

[So - the UN Security Council cannot, according to China, use force to enforce resolutions. According to the UN and Security Council Charter - THEY CAN use ANY MEANS necessary - even if China doesn't like it.]

The Security Council voted 15 to O to punish North Korea for its May nuclear-bomb test and missile launches. The resolution authorizes stepped-up inspection of air or sea cargoes suspected of being destined for the development of nuclear arms or ballistic missiles. The measure also calls for new restrictions on loans and money transfers to North Korea.

China’s support for the penalties may be significant given its close political and trade ties with the reclusive North Korean regime of Kim Jong Il. The U.S. is especially concerned about preventing North Korea from selling its nuclear technology to other countries.


U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said at a White House briefing that the sanctions have “teeth that will bite.” She pointed out that the resolution doesn’t authorize the use of military force.


The U.S. is prepared to “confront” a vessel suspected of carrying an illegal shipment and attempt to board it “consensually,” Rice told reporters. If the crew refuses a boarding or to go to a nearby port for an inspection, the U.S. would make clear “whose vessel it is” and the likely cargo, “to shine a spotlight on it, to make it very difficult for that contraband to continue to be carried forward,” Rice added.


China, Russia Support


The UN vote followed almost three weeks of negotiations on tighter sanctions that began when North Korea detonated a suspected nuclear device on May 25, voided the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War and tested several missiles. Accord on the text by China and Russia, which have resisted sanctions, led to the Security Council consensus.


“The additional measures are substantive and targeted in nature and clearly tied to ending the DPRK program to create nuclear missiles,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after the vote. “The attempt by the DPRK to create nuclear missiles not only doesn’t strengthen security but on the contrary ratchets up tension on the Korean peninsula.”


Churkin said his country was satisfied by the unanimous adoption of the resolution against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK. He said the Russians made sure that the provisions for checking ships on the high seas wouldn’t set a precedent, and that he hoped the resolution would steer North Korea back to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.


Resolution’s ‘Bite’


“It is significant that China and Russia are willing to increase the language on interdiction and financial sanctions, but the resolution will not have that much bite if there is no implementation,” Nicholas Szechenyi of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said.


Szechenyi said that while enforcement by China is critical to the resolution’s effectiveness, the government in Beijing likely will be reluctant to further provoke North Korea in the midst of a tenuous political situation involving the possible succession to Kim’s dictatorship.


“Though North Korea’s recent behavior has angered the Chinese, causing them to lose face, you might suspect they would opt against enforcing the strongest measures,” Szechenyi said. “I would not expect them to take the lead and, without that, this is something that North Korea could well ignore.”


‘Acutely Concerned’


Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the American special envoy on North Korea, said this week that China is “acutely concerned about what North Korea is doing,” and that the U.S. is satisfied that China is working to rein in North Korea’s behavior.


The measure “cuts off a significant source of funding for the North Korean nuclear and missile programs,” said Philip Parham, U.K. deputy envoy to the UN. “This is not directed against trade and should have no effect on the already hard- pressed people of North Korea.”


The UN’s previously adopted embargo on tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons would be expanded, and the measure asks for vigilance in the sale of light arms to the regime.


On the money front, member nations are urged “not to enter into new commitments for grants, financial assistance, or concessional loans,” or to “provide public financial support for trade” with North Korea.


If North Korea reacts to the strengthened sanctions by testing a third nuclear device or launching another long-range missile, “we’d take it badly,” Parham said.
Nonproliferation Treaty


The resolution “condemns” the May 25 detonation, and demands that North Korea halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The government in Pyongyang also should remain a part to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and rejoin talks with China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the U.S.


Bosworth said this week that the U.S. is considering targeting North Korean financial deposits held in other countries as part of the effort to compel the regime to change its behavior.




So, in the end, what use is the Useless Nations of the World if, according to China, they cannot and must not use force? How do you get a rogue nation to behave? Hugs and kisses?

China will, no doubt, have the US arguing its case, given Obama's sucking up to China.












China

North Korea: We have OFFENSIVE WEAPONS and we'll use them.

It is unlikely that Mr. Obama will learn anything from this, but if he does, just a very quick lesson - everyone wants nuclear power, and when you agree they have that 'right' they change the discourse to their 'right' to a nuclear deterrent. Once achieved, they have offensive weapons.

And all your talk, all your dialogue accomplishes nothing.

The Obamessiah fans retort is obvious - no one in their right mind would risk nuclear annihilation by the US if their fired a weapon on the US.

Yes, except it isn't as clear as that simplistic position pretends.

It is doubtful if the US would nuke a country if they sent ONE missile. Obama / Carter and their following, would consider absorbing the attack and then taking the moral high road, leading the world in an effort to get rid of nuclear weapons.

And millions would be dead - millions that need not have died had the president stood up to a tyrant instead of singing kumbaya.






June 9, 2009

North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive"

The Independent
By Associated Press

North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.

The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.

The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.

Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.

"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means...as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it.

[Everyone wants a nuclear deterrent, and when they get it - suddenly they have offensive weapons. Interesting how that works.]


The tough talk came as South Korea and the US lead an effort at the UN Security Council to have the North punished for its nuclear test with tough sanctions.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported today that South Korea had doubled the number of naval ships around the disputed sea border with the North amid concern the communist neighbor could provoke an armed clash there — the scene of skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to confirm the report, but said the North has not shown any unusual military moves.

Relations between the two Koreas have significantly worsened since a pro-US, conservative government took office in Seoul last year, advocating a tougher policy on the North. Since then, reconciliation talks have been cut off and all key joint projects except the factory park in Kaesong have been suspended.

Some 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the zone, making everything from electronics and watches to shoes and utensils, providing a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped North. The park combines South Korean technology and management expertise with cheap North Korean labor.

A total of 106 South Korean companies operate in the park. That number will go down by the end of the month when Skinnet, the fur-maker, completes its pullout.

A Skinnet company official said the decision was primarily over "security concerns" for its employees, and also because of a decline in orders from clients concerned over possible disruptions to operations amid the soaring tensions.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

The industrial park's fate has been in doubt since last month when North Korea threatened to scrap all contracts on running the joint complex and said it would write new rules of its own and the South must accept them or pull out of the zone.

The companies have also been concerned by the detention of a South Korean man working at the complex by North Korean authorities since late March for allegedly denouncing the regime's political system.

The two sides are to hold talks on the fate of the park Thursday.
Intensifying its confrontation with the US, North Korea handed down 12-year prison terms to two detained American journalists on Monday.

Obama isn't half the man Carter was (and that doesn't say much)

Jimmy Carter ordered a US bomber armed with a nuclear weapon, ready - to fly into Iran and drop a nuclear warhead on the city of Qom, if any of the 50 Americans held hostage in Iran were put on trial.

Carter lost the White House.

Obama is playing leader in the Middle East, while another potentially more serious issue is about to boil over ...



North Korea puts two U.S. journalists on trial

Thu Jun 4, 2009 2:18am EDT

* Case could increase tensions between U.S. and North Korea
* Russia may approve sanctions on North Korea
* Analysts see guilty verdict as inevitable

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL, June 4 (Reuters) - North Korea put two U.S. journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of illegally entering the state with "hostile intent", in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the U.S. media outlet Current TV, were taken into custody in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.North Korea's KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that the trial would begin at 0600 GMT (3 p.m. local time) at one of the country's highest courts.

Experts say the pair could face a sentence of 10 years or more of hard labour in the reclusive state. They add a guilty verdict is almost certain in a North Korean justice system that protects the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il.Analysts said the two had become bargaining chips in high-stakes negotiations with the United States, which has long sought to end the North's nuclear ambitions.

"The country is being very careful in dealing with the two U.S. citizens and is aware of international attention and the implications of the case," said Park Jeong-woo, a law professor at Kookmin University and an expert in the North's legal system.Russia, which wields veto power at the U.N. Security Council action, has suggested it may back economic sanctions to push Pyongyang into scrapping its nuclear arms programme.Diplomats in New York have been in closed-door negotiations for more than a week on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would broaden sanctions imposed on North Korea after its only prior nuclear test in October 2006.

North Korea also looks to increase tension through tests of a long-range missile that could reach U.S. territory and of a mid-range missile that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan. The North was punished by the United Nations for an April rocket launch, seen as a disguised missile test.

TEARS AND WORRIES

Little has been heard of the two journalists since their arrest but they were seen last month by Sweden's ambassador to Pyongyang on behalf of Washington, which has no diplomatic ties with North Korea."When I first got here, I cried so much. Now, I cry less," Ling was quoted as saying in a letter sent to her sister in May.

Human rights groups have said jails in impoverished North Korea are brutal, with torture common and prisoners often killed through malnutrition and abuse.

Prior to the trial, the families of the two women called for North Korea to quickly release Lee, who has a four-year-old daughter, and Ling, who was being treated for an ulcer before her departure.

"We aren't certain of the details of what happened on March 17, but we can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left U.S. soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory," they said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the charges "baseless" and urged their immediate release.

North Korea has also held a South Korean worker in custody for about three months at a joint factory park located just inside the heavily fortified border dividing the peninsula on suspicion of insulting Pyongyang's leaders.

The last high profile case of a U.S. citizen arrested for crossing into the North came in 1996. Evan Hunziker was held for three months on charges of spying.

Bill Richardson, a former official in the Bill Clinton administration and now governor of New Mexico, went to the North to secure his release and help settle a $5,000 "hotel bill" imposed by the North to cover the cost of Hunziker's detention.


(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun and Jack Kim, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Dean Yates)



If he was half the man Jimmy Carter was, he would do the same. He isn't, so he won't. he will want to talk more, perhaps bribe the North Koreans with more oil or perhaps another two nuclear reactors (a la Bill Clinton). Is there anyone who believes this man is helping anything. He was elected and that is unfortunately one problem with our form of government over the English Parliamentary system - they can topple a leader and call elections and be done with the incompetents quickly, before they infect everything. We cannot. We are stuck with the elected leader for the full four years. You can bet around year 3.8, Obama will start sounding very Conservative.









North Korea

North Korea: Another Nuclear Test Obama Failed

Mr. Obama, This is a good test for your 'negotiate' theory. Perhaps if you talk to North Korea for another six months they will only be able to test one more nuclear weapon - and some say that talking would achieve nothing.

You have been so eager trying to get Israel to concede you forgot about a real enemy with nuclear weapons.

Japan has already begun preliminary discussions about changing its constitution to amend the military limitations imposed. Japan has also raised the possibility of requesting or building its own nuclear arsenal. South Korea will be even more concerned than it was last week and may ask for nuclear weapons.

See Mr. Obama, talking has done a lot already.






NKorea says it has conducted a second nuclear test

May 25
By JEAN H. LEE
Associated Press Writer


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea announced Monday that it successfully carried out a second underground nuclear test, less than two months after launching a rocket widely believed to be a test of its long-range missile technology.

North Korea, incensed by U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, had warned last month that it would restart it rogue nuclear program, conduct a second atomic test as a follow-up to its first one in 2006, and carry out long-range missile tests.

On Monday, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said the regime "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense."

The regime boasted that the test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control."

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session. His spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan, confirmed that a North Korean nuclear test was possible.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Andy Laine said: "At this point, we've seen the reports and we're trying to get more information, but we're not able to confirm at this time."

Seismologists from the U.S., South Korea and Japan reported activity shortly after 9:50 a.m. in a northeastern area where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the seismic activity at magnitude-5.3. Quake expert Gen Aoki noted that its depth was "very shallow."

"The area is not active seismically so it is highly possible that it could be an artificial quake," Aoki said in Tokyo.

In Seoul, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources reported seismic activity in Kilju in North Hamgyong Province—the same area where North Korea carried out a nuclear test in October 2006.

Seismological measurements back North Korea's claim that the test was far stronger than in 2006.

At the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles (200 kilometers) northwest from the test site, an emergency siren sounded shortly before 9 a.m. when officials thought an earthquake occurred. A receptionist at Yanji's International Hotel said she and several hotel guests felt the ground tremble.

An official at Yanji's government seismological bureau, who declined to give his name, said his agency confirmed that some type of explosion occurred, "but it is hard to say what kind of blast it was."

North Korea's 2006 test measured magnitude-3.6, an official at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Monday's test raises the stakes in North Korea's standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006, drawing widespread international condemnation and drawing stiff sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.

The Security Council demanded that North Korea eliminate its nuclear weapons and ordered countries to prevent Pyongyang from importing or exporting any material for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles.

The surprise nuclear test prompted five nations to pressure the North to agree to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and other concessions—a pact Pyongyang signed in February 2007. North Korea began disablement in November 2007.

That process came to a halt in July 2008.

South Korean troops were on a high alert but there was no sign North Korean troops were amassed along the heavily fortified border dividing the two Koreas, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

North Korea is believed to have at least a half-dozen atomic bombs. However, experts say North Korean scientists have not yet mastered the miniaturization technology for mounting a nuclear device onto a long-range missile.


*******************************************************

A lot of good talking has done until now!



Britain calls NKorea nuclear test 'breach' of UN resolutions

May 25 12:08 AM US/Eastern

British junior foreign minister Bill Rammell Monday called North Korea's announced nuclear test a "clear breach" of UN Security Council resolutions and urged it to return to disarmament talks.












North Korea

North Korea: Void of Opportunity

N. Korean Defectors Staggered By South
Arrivals Find Physical, Psychic, Social Hurdles


By Blaine Harden

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, April 12, 2009; Page A01


ANSEONG, South Korea -- To flee North Korea and arrive in the rich, wired, consuming culture of South Korea is to feel clueless, fearful and guilty.

Teenagers are particularly bewildered. As part of the newest wave in a decade-old flow of defectors from the North, they arrive stunted from malnutrition and struggling to read. At the movies for the first time, they panic when the lights go down, afraid someone might kidnap them. They find it incredible that money is stored in plastic credit cards. Pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers -- staples of South Korean teen cuisine -- give them indigestion. One gargled with liquid fabric softener, mistaking it for mouthwash.


In time, they wise up and their stomachs calm down. Their guilt, though, tends to fester.

"When I eat something that is really delicious, I can't help but feel guilty about my family back in North Korea," said Lee J.Y., who asked that her full name not be used because she is afraid that North Korean authorities will punish her family for her freedom. Now 20, Lee escaped five years ago from North Hamgyong province, where her little brother died of hunger and where she survived on cake made of pine-tree bark.


Defectors in the late 1990s were mostly young men without families. They could swim or sneak across the border into China. In recent years, though, about 80 percent of defectors have been middle-aged women, many with children in tow. Most of these women were traders -- and in many cases, cross-border smugglers -- for the private markets that have spread across North Korea. Often, they bribed their way across the border.

They filter into South Korea at the rate of about 35 a week, usually after months or years in China and an arduous detour through Vietnam, Burma or Thailand. About 15,000 defectors have settled in the South, with 4,000 arriving in the past two years.

Seoul does not encourage North Koreans to defect. But once they arrive, the South Korean government quietly grants them citizenship, gives them an apartment and tries to teach them how not to sink in an education-obsessed capitalist culture.




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Korea