North Korea Prepping for Underground Nuke Test

[Jag]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

Dec. 21, 2006 11:51


A South Korean lawmaker said Thursday that North Korea may be preparing to conduct a second nuclear weapon test, citing "brisk activity" at a suspected test site.

The activity is part of a sizable engineering project, which Western intelligence authorities believe may be linked to preparations for another atomic test, Rep. Chung Hyung-keun of the main opposition Grand National Party said during a party meeting.

Chung said the North could go ahead with an additional test if the six-nation talks on its nuclear program, now under way in Beijing, fail to produce progress, and international pressure mounts on the communist regime.
The intelligence official-turned lawmaker made a similar claim last month. Chung didn't say where he obtained the information.

Jag

[Jag]

Sunday, Dec. 24, 2006

Failure of North talks ups tension, may invite tests

BEIJING (AP) When North Korea does not get what it wants, it prods the world into paying attention the only way it knows how: raising the stakes -- doing everything from launching missiles to its recent nuclear test.

The fresh failure of the latest arms talks with the communist nation opens the door for the North to increase tensions once again, possibly by setting off another atomic explosion deep beneath the mountains that dominate its rugged landscape.

On Friday, the main U.S. envoy warned the North against such a move, and criticized the country for not sending negotiators to the nuclear talks with the authority to seek a compromise.

"To explode a nuclear weapon is obviously going to do rather severe damage to the diplomatic process, and I would argue it would bring severe damage to (North Korea) as well," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.

The five days of negotiations in Beijing that ended Friday appeared doomed from the start, with other delegates saying the North Koreans refused even to talk about nuclear weapons or a September 2005 pledge it made to disarm.

Instead, the Pyongyang regime fixated on Washington's blacklisting of a Macau bank; the U.S. alleges the bank helped the North pass fake $ 100 bills and launder money for its weapons programs.

The United States insists the nuclear and financial issues will be resolved separately, although it says they are both part of a dangerous North Korean pattern of bad behavior.

The U.S. says it is committed to diplomacy in the six-party talks that also include China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. Hill has insisted the meetings -- which he says will resume in "weeks, not months" -- could even lay the groundwork for a new security cooperation regime in the region.

If that is true, it is off to an inauspicious start.
During the three years since the talks began, the North Koreans have twice staged boycotts of more than a year, first because of an alleged U.S. "hostile" attitude and this time because of the financial restrictions.
The latest session showed again that the North Koreans are masters of diversion.

In the three years since the talks began, the North has not taken a single step to disarm or to stop churning out weapons-grade plutonium from its main nuclear reactor. Experts say the North likely has enough radioactive material for a half-dozen bombs, but probably cannot place a nuclear warhead on a missile.

Part of the problem in controlling the North's activities has been a difference of opinion about how harshly to treat North Korea. Countries like China and South Korea have refused to sign on to tough measures called for by the U.S. and Japan.

Earlier this week, a South Korean lawmaker repeated his claim that movements seen in North Korea indicated it might be preparing for another nuclear test. The North's first nuclear test on Oct. 9 made the world unite in a chorus of condemnation.

Still, all that indignation failed to help bring any progress, raising questions about what can be achieved at the talks and whether the Washington-led approach will ever yield results.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0061224a2.html

Jag

[Jag]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2771492&page=1

North Korea Prepping Nuclear Weapons Test
Defense Officials Tell ABC News 'They've Put Everything in Place'

By JONATHAN KARL


WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2007 — North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.


"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News.


The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive as to whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test but said the preparations are similar to the steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test last Oct. 9.


Two other senior defense officials confirmed that recent intelligence suggested that the North Koreans appear to be ready to test a nuclear weapon again, but the intelligence community divides over whether another test is likely.


"That would surprise me," a senior intelligence official said when asked if North Korea is likely to soon conduct another test.

Another official had a different view, predicting North Korea would conduct a test sometime over the next two or three months.


In the weeks before the Oct. 9 test, U.S. spy satellites witnessed the unloading of large cables at a suspected test site in P'onggye, in northeastern North Korea. The more recent activity has been observed in the same area as the Oct. 9 test.

In October, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution that imposed harsh sanctions against North Korea just six days after Kim Jong Il's regime declared that it conducted an underground nuclear test. The sanctions were designed to coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear program.

Resolution 1718 specifically called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons completely and irreversibly, as well as to put an end to its biological and chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and ballistic missile programs.

The United States and Japan had pushed for stronger sanctions but eventually watered down the resolution to appease China and Russia, which feared that tougher sanctions might only make the situation worse.


The U.N. sanctions further mandated an embargo on major military hardware such as tanks, warships, combat aircraft and missiles to North Korea. To appease the Russian and Chinese delegations, however, the United States dropped its opposition to an all-out ban on conventional weapons.



The resolution also ruled out the possibility of military intervention — a point critical to Russia and China, whose opposition to the initial drafts delayed the vote.


China, in particular, objected to a provision that would have allowed for the search of all cargo ships headed out of North Korea. The Chinese delegation maintained that intrusive searches could provoke further conflict in the region.



In response to these sanctions, North Korean Premier Yon Hyong Muk told the Security Council that the country needed nuclear weapons to protect itself from the danger of war with the United States, and that the Bush administration has responded to North Korea's "patient and sincere" efforts with sanctions and blockades. He said North Korea saw continued pressure from the United States as a declaration of war.



North Korean Gen. Ri Chan Bok told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer that "the U.S. wants us to kneel down before them. We cannot agree with them. If this tension continues war cannot be avoided."



In response, White House press secretary Tony Snow made it clear that it is not uncommon for the North Koreans to use strong rhetoric.





"On the other hand, let me make clear to the people of North Korea and the entire world, not only do we not want North Korea to 'kneel down,' what we're trying to do is offer them a better deal — better economy, more security, better relations with their neighbors, integration into the global community as opposed to isolation," Snow said.

Jag

[Sean Osborne]

As advertised...

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2771492&page=1

[Sean Osborne]

Jag,

Would you mind if we merged this into the existing DPRK nuke test thread?

[Jag]

Not at all Sean, merge away.

Jag

[Jag]

US Stealth fighters arrive in South Korea

SEOUL, Jan 11 (AFP) Jan 11, 2007

US Stealth fighters arrived in South Korea on Thursday, the American military said, amid continuing speculation over a second North Korean nuclear test.


A squadron of radar-evading F-117 Nighthawk Stealth fighters and 300 airmen arrived at Gunsan, 270 kilometers (167 miles) southwest of Seoul, for a "routine" training deployment, said a US Air Force statement released here.

It did not disclose the exact number of aircraft, all from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, but US officials say one squadron usually has 15 to 24 fighters.

The deployment was partly to "demonstrate the continued US commitment toward fulfilling security responsibility in Korea and throughout the Western Pacific," it added.

Training deployments usually last four months.
General B.B. Bell, the commander of US forces in South Korea, on Tuesday warned of North Korea's second nuclear test some time in the future, following its first test on October 9.

Some 29,000 US troops support South Korea's 680,000-strong armed forces against any attack from the North's 1.1 million military.

A South Korean foreign ministry official said last week that activity had been detected at Punggye in northeast North Korea, near the site of the first test, but there was no sign of preparations for a second detonation.

The latest round of six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear program ended in Beijing in December without a breakthrough.

http://www.spacewar.com/2006/070111085334.cncp3mwd.html

Looks like "something" just might be up to no good in NK......
Jag

[American Patriot]

I'd say... something GOOD happening in SOUTH Korea.

[American Patriot]

The Deployment of 'F-117 Stealth Fighters' in S. Korea Completed(the start of an interesting year?)
KBS (S. Korea) ^ | 01/11/07


01/11/2007 8:21:20 PM MST by TigerLikesRooster

/begin my translation


The Deployment of 'F-117 Stealth Fighters' in S. Korea Completed

U.S. Air Force in S. Korea announced that a squadron of F-117 Stealth Fighters and 300 personnel from 49th Fighter Wing have arrived in Kunsan airbase today(Jan. 11)


The squadron, which came to S. Korea according to rotated deployment schedule of U.S. Air Force, will conduct exercises jointly with F-16's of U.S. Air Force under various weather conditions for next four months, U.S. Air Force in S. Korea explained.

/end my translation