Final Countdown - North Korea

[American Patriot]

U.S. Forms Team to Help Coordinate Enforcement of North Korea Sanctions
Monday, June 29, 2009


The Obama administration said Friday it plans to establish a group of officials from various agencies to work with other nations to enforce recent U.N. sanctions against North Korea, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, June 26).

"There is a broad consensus about the need to have a focused and engaged effort to see that these sanctions are implemented ... and that we're sharing information with each other," said one U.S. official.

The team would include officials from the White House, State Department, National Security Agency, and Treasury Department, among others. Philip Goldberg, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, has been tapped to preside over the group.

"We wanted somebody who woke up every morning and thought about nothing but sanctions implementation," said another official.

The United States already has a special envoy to North Korea -- Stephen Bosworth -- but he only works part-time (Michael Shear, Washington Post, June 27).

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations yesterday said she is confident the new sanctions will have an "impact," Agence France-Presse reported. The U.N. Security Council resolution bans all arms exports and imports by North Korea, and urges member states to seek inspections of ships suspected of carrying banned items.

Despite grumblings in Congress about the hurdles to inspecting North Korea shipments for contraband cargo, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice emphasized that intercepting ships is "but one piece of a very tough, very comprehensive sanctions regime that we are going to pursue fully and implement and enforce fully and effectively."

"When this resolution is fully enforced -- not only in terms of potential vessels that might be violating the sanctions but the financial sanctions, the arms embargo, the asset freezes -- this will be a very, very tough package that will have an impact on North Korea," Rice told CBS News.

As for the North Korean ship believed to be en route to Myanmar, "We're pursuing and following the progress of that ship very closely," Rice said. The Kang Nam 1 has been involved in Pyongyang's weapons trade and is suspected of currently carrying small arms or other weapons material.

Rice did not indicate whether the United States is planning on intercepting the ship. (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo! News, June 29).

Another high-level U.S. official on Friday reiterated that the United States would not forcibly board the North Norean ship, the Associated Press reported.

"The U.N. resolution lays out a regime that has a very clear set of steps," Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy told the Yonhap News Agency. "This is not a resolution that sponsors, that authorizes use of force for interdiction."

While the United States is not licensed to enforce the sanctions with military force, Flournoy said, Washington still has "incentives and disincentives that will get North Korea to change course" (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press I/Washington Times, June 27).

Flournoy acknowledged that North Korea has acted no less belligerently since the United Nations stepped up pressure against its nuclear-weapon and missile activities, Yonhap reported.

"Their actions have been very provocative," she said. "Their rhetoric has been very provocative. We have not yet seen any definitive signs of change."

However, she suggested that as long as the United Nations stays committed to staunching the North's efforts to develop its nuclear arsenal, change is on its way.

"The more the international community remains unified and firm in calling for North Korea to denuclearize and change its course," the more likely it becomes that North Korea would relent, Flournoy said.

Still, the United States and China -- which has frustrated Washington with its reluctance to support tough sanctions against its Stalinist neighbor -- are still struggling to find common ground from which to launch a bilateral plan for applying pressure to Pyongyang, said Flournoy, who met with officials in Beijing last week.

"We had a good exchange of views on how best to deal with that threat, but those conversations have yet to yield a common strategy," she said. "So we have to keep working on that" (Sam Kim, Yonhap News Agency, June 27).

North Korea, meanwhile, yesterday repeated its promise to augment its atomic arsenal despite the sanctions, AFP reported.

"We will strengthen our nuclear deterrence further for our self-defense to cope with outright U.S. nuclear threats and nuclear war attempts," the government said through its state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun (Agence France Presse II/Spacewar.com, June 28).

The North claimed earlier this month to be developing not only plutonium-based nuclear weapons, but uranium-based ones as well, AP reported yesterday.

Shortly after the United Nations passed its new round of sanctions, Pyongyang announced that it had been developing uranium-enrichment technology, despite vehemently denying such activity for the better part of a decade.

During that time, Washington and its allies have been focusing primarily on blocking the Stalinist state's production of plutonium at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

The North claims to have as much as 26 million tons of natural uranium in its territory, including 4 million that could be easily mined. Building a bomb powered by highly enriched uranium is less difficult than building one that uses reprocessed plutonium, said Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Federation of American Scientists.

Still, enriching the uranium to weapon-grade levels requires operation of 1,000 and 3,000 centrifuges for one year, according Seoul-based nuclear expert Lee Choon-geun.

The advancement level of the North's uranium-enrichment program is not known, but Oelrich guessed it is probably "in its infancy." However, Seoul-based analyst Daniel Pinkston speculated that the North might be able to make quick progress toward a uranium bomb with help from Iran.

"I don't believe they have a commercial-scale plant up and running, and it will take them some time," said Pinkston. "However, they could cooperate with Iran and reduce the time required to build and operate a large-scale facility since Iran has made significant progress and is already operating a large facility" (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press II/Breitbart.com, June 28).

[American Patriot]

Air Force test fires missile, North Korea criticizes

By Matthew Moran.

Satellite Photo Vandenburg Air Force Base is part of the U.S. Space Command.

Early Monday morning the U.S. Air Force test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. This weekend, North Korea criticized the U.S. for missile defense program.
According to California TV reports, the U.S. Air Force test fired a Minutemen 3 ICBM around 3 a.m. Monday.

The missile was fired into the Pacific Ocean and hit its target, according to Lt. Geoffrey Raymond at the Vandenburg Air Force Base.

The test was designed to test the Air Force's weapons system, which hypothetical could be used in response to threats from North Korea.

North Korea criticized the U.S. for bolstering its missile defense systems. The Communist state said it would "bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation."

According to media reports in South Korea, the North is ratcheting up its threats against the U.S. North Korea accused the U.S. of preparing for "pre-emptive nuclear war."

Tensions on the North Korean peninsula, where 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed, have been on the rise. North Korea recently tested another nuclear weapon and test fired new long-range missiles.

In response to a threat from Kim Jong-il, the North's dictator, the United States positioned missile defense systems in Hawaii.

[American Patriot]

Officials: Hawaii anti-missile move a safeguard

This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows the heavy lift vessel MV Blue Marlin entering Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with the Sea Based X-Band Radar (SBX) aboard Jan. 9 2006. SBX is a combination of the world’s largest phased array X-band radar carried aboard a mobile, ocean-going semi-submersible oil platform. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday June 18, 2009 that the military has set up additional defenses around Hawaii, consisting of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby. Together they could shoot an incoming missile in mid air. (AP Photo/US Navy - Ryan C. McGinley)



By Anne Gearan and Pamela Hess Associated Press Writers / June 19, 2009


WASHINGTON—A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials said Friday.





The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.



The North's Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.



Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.



Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.



A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.



Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan's Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea's west coast on May 30.



U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.



A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not currently seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.



"I don't see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.



It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.



If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.



However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of American islands.



The North Korea missile launched in April traveled just under 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.

------

Associated Press reporter Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.

[American Patriot]

JPost.com » Features » Article

Jun 29, 2009 20:50 | Updated Jun 29, 2009 21:09 In Pyongyang's crosshairs

By EDWIN BLACK

In a frantic race with high winds, bone-chilling ice storms and rattled political nerves, the American defense establishment has been rushing to meet the threat now faced by Hawaii, Guam, Alaska and possibly the West Coast of the US mainland - a North Korean advanced Taepodong-2 missile. The now-contested regime of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been a full partner in the development.

Bellicose and prone to tantrums, North Korea's bizarre strongman Kim Jong-Il has ordered a test of the Taepodong-2, apparently in the direction of US territory. Hawaii, Guam and Alaska are in the crosshairs. The defense establishment is convinced the decisive moment will once again come provocatively on America's national holiday, July 4. This moment has been coming for more than a decade, and the Pentagon, North Korea and Iran have been preparing for it.

Alarm first sounded in 1999 when American defense officials realized that the Taepodong-1 missile, which doubled as an Iranian Shabab, was just the first phase of a decade-plus program by North Korea and Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Named for Taepodong, the village where it is developed, the long-range Taepodong-1 was capable of 2,000 km., enough to threaten its neighbors. But the new Taepodong-2 could achieve double that range, more than 4,000 km. - most of the way to Hawaii - and was, therefore, approaching the status of ICBM. With the right wind conditions, this newer missile when further developed could reach the outer territories of the United States. If armed with a reduced-weight payload, and given favorable weather conditions, a properly guided TD-2 could reach the US, perhaps far inland, American defense planners feared.

What changed that made defense planners nervous in 1999? In the spring of that year, US satellites detected that the North Koreans had completed a years-long upgrade to its Taepodong-1 launch site. The expanded facilities could host the longer-range and taller-standing Taepodong-2. Specifically, the pad gantry umbilical tower (rising some 22 meters) was extended by about 10 meters to 33 meters tall to accommodate the taller missile. By late 1999, the firing installation had been almost fully retrofitted; but the new, more powerful missile had not been ferried to the launch pad for a test. That process takes two days of tedious testing and a small squadron of liquid fuel tanker trucks. Just mobilizing the tankers and the fuel supplies requires weeks of logistics. However, the entire program came to a standstill when North Korea was bribed with incentives as part of the international reaction to its troublesome nuclear and rocketry projects.

WHILE THE North Korean dictator was enjoying the wages of his blackmail, the Pentagon embarked on the crash construction of an anti-missile defense system to be located on the near-barren Aleutian island known as Shemya. The flat, desolate 15 sq.km. rock at the tip of the Aleutian chain off the Alaskan coast is some 3,000 miles from Seattle, 4,800 km. from Anchorage and 160 km. from the nearest Eskimo village. But it is even further west than the most westerly point of Hawaii.

For decades, Shemya had been a mid-Pacific refueling point. It sported a 3,000-meter runway left over from previous wars. In World War II, special hangers were built to house B-29 bombers for devastating raids over Japan. During the Cold War, Shemya hosted pivotal spy flights over the Soviet Union. At one point, Northwest Airlines leased the long airstrip to refuel its trans-Pacific routes. Today, the several dozen employees on "The Rock," as it is affectionately called, make up Eareckson Air Station.

Here, on this nearly-empty protrusion in the Pacific, just 30 meters above sea level, the Pentagon began the new century by rushing to build a forward X-Band radar facility designed as the world's most powerful missile detector. The X-Band would work in tandem with the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor missile), seaborne Standard missiles and lower-level Patriot-3s. X-Band, in conjunction with satellites and certain ground radars and early-warning aircraft, would detect a launch the very moment it happened, and track the offensive rocket for a number of seconds, just long enough to determine its trajectory and target. Midcourse corrections would be constant. The stream of data would allow multiple interceptors at high and low altitude to destroy the intruder, using their own on-board lock-on mechanisms as the final guidance to a kinetic kill. That is the theory.

The race for the Pentagon in 2000 was to complete the forward X-Band site on Shemya before North Korea could undertake enough testing to launch a Taepodong-2 should its unpredictable ruler decide to abandon multilateral talks. North Korean missile testing was hamstrung by harsh winters in the area that only allowed the remote facility to undertake launches during certain months. But the Shemya construction project faced similar weather challenges.

Shemya is one of the most inhospitable rocks on the planet. Winds of 65 to 130 kmh regularly sweep the flat, featureless terrain. But constructing new structures demanded wind conditions of less than 48 kmh for four-hour sessions. Moreover, the heavy cranes needed to hoist the radar dome components into place could not operate in winds exceeding 16 kmh. Subdued winds on Shemya, less than 16 to 48 kmh, only occur during June and July. More restrictive, the calmer 16 kmh winds needed for cranes only apply during July.

In the summer of 2000, president Bill Clinton rushed approval for the Shemya project. Acting with comparatively tornadic speed for Washington, the government authorized $500 million for the project. Any delay in that summer of 2000 would have meant the installation could not be completed by 2003. Unless the X-Band was in place by then, and unless more than 3,500 km. of fiber optic cable was simultaneously embedded a meter under the sea floor to connect the Shemya installation to the Alaskan mainland, the interceptors could not be operational by 2005. The anticipated early date for vulnerability to a North Korean missile launch was 2005.

[American Patriot]

Suspect North Korean Ship Changes Course Under US Scrutiny
By Kurt Achin Seoul 01 July 2009

In this Oct. 24, 2006 file photo, North Korean ship, Kang Nam I, is anchored in Hong Kong waters

A North Korean cargo ship being closely tailed by the United States Navy appears to be changing course, and may be returning to North Korea. The ship has come to be seen as an initial test of new United Nations restrictions on Pyongyang.

U.S. officials say the Kang Nam, a North Korean cargo ship, is apparently abandoning the course it has been on for a week toward Southeast Asia, and may now be headed back home.

The ship, which intelligence officials describe as having a history of transporting North Korean weapons for sale, was believed to have been headed toward Burma. A U.S. Navy destroyer group began tracking the ship about a week ago under suspicion it may be carrying items banned under a recently passed United Nations Security Council Resolution.

The ship was expected to refuel in Singapore, where the government had promised what it called "appropriate action" under the U.N. resolution. Park Seung-jae, an analyst with the Asia Strategy Institute in Seoul, says that may have helped change Pyongyang's mind about the voyage.

"When they (North Korea) go through Singapore, they cannot ignore inspection from Singapore. Also, on the other hand, it may be very difficult for them to throw out weapons or nuclear equipment on the sea," said Park.

Park says if the ship does return to the North, it will bolster the impression that international sanctions against Pyongyang are effective. He says the United States and its partners will need to maintain close scrutiny of the North's shipping.

"North Korean ships in Myanmar and Iran will be the first priority to watch," he said.

Weapons sales are an important source of hard currency for North Korea, one of the most economically isolated and impoverished nations in the world. Washington also fears Pyongyang may attempt to cash in on its nuclear programs by selling equipment, technology, or even fissile material to nations or groups hostile to the United States.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, passed in response to North Korea's nuclear test in May, authorizes member states to inspect the North's ships in their ports or territory.

North Korea has said on several recent occasions it would view any attempt to stop and inspect its ships by the United States or South Korea as an act of war, and retaliate accordingly. Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper extended that threat to Japan Wednesday, saying "responsibility for all consequences" of military action would rest will Tokyo if it attempted an inspection.

[American Patriot]

North Korea issues new warning to Japan

July 1, 2009 - 11:09PM
North Korea issued a fresh warning on Wednesday to Japan to stay clear of some of the communist country's coastal areas when Pyongyang conducts military exercises this month, the Japan Coast Guard said.


The emailed message was seen as signalling more possible short-range missile tests at a time when North Korea is also thought to be preparing a long-range missile launch into Pacific waters short of Hawaii.


Pyongyang issued navigation bans for 10 ocean areas in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and the Yellow Sea, citing "military gunfire and bombardment training", said Japanese Coast Guard spokesman Go Nagai.


The alert covers the hours 8am to 8pm from Wednesday until July 11, extending by one day the period in a previous warning.

[American Patriot]

North Korean food need 'critical'

North Korea faces regular food shortages

North Korea is facing a "critical" food shortage, especially for children, the UN's food agency has said.

The World Food Programme's director for North Korea said the agency was unable to reach millions of North Koreans due to a shortfall in funding.


The director, Torben Due, said the WFP had received no new donations for North Korea since Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test in May.


He also said Pyongyang had barred the WFP from using Korean-speaking staff.


North Korea had given no reason for that decision, he added.


Mr Due told reporters in Beijing that the WFP had received only 15% of an international appeal for $504m (£306m) and had to cut back plans to provide food aid to 6.2 million North Koreans to 2.27 million.


Vicious cycle

North Korea has relied on food aid from China, South Korea and aid agencies to feed millions of its people since a famine in the 1990s resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.


Recent flooding and the suspension of South Korean fertiliser aid shipments have hindered food production.

Being a humanitarian organisation you should look at the needs of the people Torben Due, WFP Is North Korea facing famine?

"We are now in the middle of the lean season in North Korea, where food supplies are low and it's a very difficult situation for many people in the country," Mr Due said.


Children were particularly at risk, he said.


"For children it is critical, and it means they do not have the nutrition required for growth," Mr Due said.
"We see an increase in the number of children being admitted to hospitals with severe malnutrition," he said.


He described a vicious cycle in which malnourished children were growing up stunted with weakened immune systems and then giving birth to children with poor health.


The WFP's North Korea appeal had received no contributions since Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test on 25 May, he said.


"I understand to a certain extent why donors are questioning," he said.


"But my angle is as a humanitarian. Being a humanitarian organisation you should look at the needs of the people."


Mr Due said the WFP was now only allowed to operate in 57 counties within North Korea, instead of the previous 131.

[American Patriot]

Rusty North Korean ship, Kang Nam 1, turns back as US vows to freeze assets of firms tied to regime


June 30, 3:02 PM



The country, known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is under the totalitarian rule of Kim Jong-Il, son of Kim Il-Sung, who ruled for nearly 50 years and is largely blamed for the personality cult that exists in the reclusive country, whose innerworkings are still largely unknown to outsiders. This news comes following an announcement from Japan and South Korea, revealing a new agreement between the two nations to unilateraly combat both the current economic crisis as well as North Korea's continued defiance. Despite this development, it has been reported that China's trade with North Korea is setting records, up 41% from this time last year, a statistic which represents a shield of sorts to many individuals familiar with the situation.


Given the current volume of articles on North Korea circulating the media, a re-introduction of an Emmy-winning documentary--one of only very few made about the mysterious nation--seems appropriate. Released in 2001 by Dutch filmmaker Peter Tetteroo and his associate Raymond Fedemma, Welcome to North Korea provides a candid and sobering window into what is without question the most talked about Asian nation, but likewise the least understood. Filmed over the course of a week in North Korea's capital Pyongyang and the surrounding region, including rare footage capturing one of the notorious Labor Camps, like the ones in which American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been sentenced to serve for 12 years, the film paints a bleak picture of life in country with no economy to speak of, extreme food and commodity shortages and a complete lack of free thought and personal freedom. Providing a concise narrative of the personality cult that developed in the country during the reign of former leader Kim Il-Sung, a dictator endowed by the regime's propaganda machine with Godlike qualities and superhuman achievements, the documentary uses the words and actions of the "chosen" ones allowed to speak to Westerners to illustrate a seemingly imaginary world plagued by myopia, nightmares from barbarian terrorism committed by Americans during the Korean War and, most disturbingly, a "lost generation" of homeless children who struggle like wild animals for survival in the wilderness, often subsisting on tree bark and clay.


Not surprisingly, tourism by Westerners is next to impossible, both due to seething public resentment of Americans as well as the long and complicated visa process, which places each applicant under excessive scrutiny. The New York Philharmonic was granted permission to perform in Pyongyang in February 2008, a privilege that many believe was a hollow attempt by North Korea to warm its relations with the United States. The event actually incited outrage from some journalists, including the Times of India's Ian Brumer, who asked if North Korea was "the right venue for a Western orchestra [to entertain a leader like] Stalin or Hitler?"


Recently, there has been speculation as to what might ensue should Kim Jong-Il, now 67 and rumored to have suffered a severe stroke last August, die or be otherwise removed from office. Scenarios range from smooth, even transitions, to complete economic collapse and a costly (to the tune of $1 trillion) reunification with the South to the more grim prospect of a military coup and institution of martial law. Regardless of what might happen, North Korea today largely remains an enigma, though the few images and sounds we have in our possession shed a scant amount of light on a nation that is destitute, stagnant and perhaps even veering toward genocide. Wounds from the war, the subsequent submission of an entire people to the ego of one man and decades of malnourishment and imprisonment are still very much open, begging to be bandaged but stifled by fear. It is my personal goal to travel to every country in the world in my lifetime and it is my hope that my journey to North Korea will not be for the purpose of making a documentary to convince others that the time for change is now.


Stay tuned to the Austin International Travel Examiner for breaking news on the Yemenia 626 crash, AF447 investigation, as well as destination profiles, time-saving travel tips and more.

[American Patriot]

Envoy to Coordinate North Korea Sanctions

By MARK LANDLER
Published: June 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — Hoping to give more teeth to international sanctions against North Korea, the Obama administration has named a senior diplomat to lead a task force coordinating Washington’s political, military and financial measures against its government.

The diplomat, Philip S. Goldberg, will travel soon to China and other countries to drum up support for the sanctions, which are aimed at strangling North Korea’s access to the international financial system and its shipments of missile and nuclear parts, administration officials said Friday.

“Now we have some very powerful tools, and the challenge is to make effective use of them,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration had not detailed its plans. But he acknowledged, “It’s going to take time to actually have a bite.”

The United States has yet to test the more sweeping sanctions passed by the United Nations Security Council against North Korea two weeks ago. However, a Navy destroyer currently tracking a North Korean freighter in the South China Sea, near Hong Kong, could provide the first test. Officials say the ship is suspected of carrying cargo banned by the United Nations.

But American officials have been tight-lipped about whether they plan to intercept the ship, and there is a widespread belief among experts that it is easier, and less risky, to punish the North by going after its money rather than its ships. North Korea has said it will consider interdiction an act of war.

The administration is focusing much of its efforts on freezing assets and cutting off financial flows that support North Korea’s trade in weapons, missiles and nuclear technology. These efforts are being led by Stuart A. Levey, an under secretary of the Treasury, who was one of the few senior members of the Bush administration to be held over by President Obama.

The appointment of Mr. Goldberg is intended partly to head off the kind of turf battles that have grown out of Mr. Levey’s actions. For example, in 2005, the Treasury Department moved against an obscure bank based in Macao that handled transactions for the North Korean government, a campaign widely regarded as one of the most successful efforts to squeeze the North.

But later, when the State Department was trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear program, the Treasury sanctions against the bank proved to be an irritant, and difficult to unwind.

Mr. Goldberg’s primary task, another administration official said, would be “to make sure there is broader interagency coordination,” not just between the State Department and the Treasury, but also the Pentagon, the Commerce Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Goldberg recently served as ambassador to Bolivia. He was expelled last fall by President Evo Morales, who accused him of supporting rebellious groups. In the 1990s, he was an adviser to Richard C. Holbrooke on the Dayton peace negotiations to end the war in Bosnia.

“We wanted somebody who woke up every morning and thought about nothing but sanctions implementation,” the official said.

Among his biggest challenges, officials said, will be persuading China to be rigorous in enforcing the sanctions. North Korea experts say there is little evidence, based on export statistics, that the Chinese went forward with the last set of economic measures.

China has also shown little appetite for boarding North Korean ships. Even the United States is not eager to be the first to demand to inspect the freighter, the Kang Nam 1, some officials said.

The freighter is believed to be headed to Myanmar, a route that would take it past Singapore, which has pledged to inspect North Korean ships and may provide the first test of the sanctions.

“Countries have greater latitude to board ships, but there are plenty of loopholes,” said Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He added that China could pose equal problems for North Korea by restricting the North’s planes from its airspace.

“In some ways,” Mr. Noland said, “it goes back to China and how enthusiastically they are going to implement the sanctions.”

[American Patriot]

July 01, 2009 15:11 PM

North Korean Rocket Capable Of Hitting Half The U.S: Scientists

SEOUL, July 1 (Bernama) -- The long-range North Korean rocket, which was launched in April, could be converted into a ballistic missile, that can theoretically hit half the United States with a payload of 1 tonne or more, two U.S. physicists have concluded from their joint study.

Quoting MIT professor Theodore Postol and a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) David Wright, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the rocket could fly even further as of over 10,000 kilometres, if the rocket is turned into a missile.

"The Unha launcher represents a significant advance over North Korea's previous launchers and would have the capability to reach the continental United States with a payload of 1 tonne or more if North Korea modified it for use as a ballistic missile," they said.

"We estimate that it could have a range of 10,000-10,500 kilometers, allowing it to reach Alaska, Hawaii, and roughly half of the lower 48 states," they said in an article posted this week on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, reports Yonhap.

On April 5, North Korea launched what it claims was a rocket designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The U.S. and its allies say nothing entered orbit, calling the "Unha-2" rocket a disguised form of a ballistic missile capable of flying over 6,700 kilometers.

Noting that a "first-generation plutonium warhead could have a mass of 1,000 kilograms or more," Postol and Wright said the rocket could carry a 1-tonne payload as far as 7,000-7,500 kilometers even if it had only two of its three stages.

"This would allow it to reach Alaska and parts of Hawaii, but not the lower 48 states," they said, writing on the assumption that the rocket was designed to carry a lightweight satellite.

"The mass of the satellite plus the deployment mechanism and the structure that attached the satellite to the third stage may have been about 300 kilograms," they said.

Both the scientists based their analysis partly on the video footage of the rocket launch North Korea released in April, adding computer modeling and past analysis also contributed to their study.

"By measuring the distance the launcher moves as a function of time in these videos, we determined the thrust-to-weight ratio of the Unha vehicle at launch.

"Using estimates of the mass of the Unha launcher, we then estimated the thrust at liftoff generated by the engines," they said.

Drawing similarities between the North Korean rocket and the components previously developed by China, Russia and Iran, the physicists concluded that "it's extremely unlikely that these technologies were indigenously produced by North Korea."

"The third stage appears to be very similar, if not identical, to the upper stage of the Iranian Safir-2 launch vehicle, which placed a small satellite in orbit in February," they said.

Therefore, the Unha-2 appears to use a third stage with liquid rather than solid fuel, unlike the Taeopdong-1 launcher, they wrote.

Postol, whose expertise lies in ballistic missile technologies, teaches science, technology and national security policy at MIT. Wright co-directs the Global Security Program at the UCS.

-- BERNAMA

[American Patriot]

U.S. Fortifies Hawaii’s Defenses Against North Korean Arms

By THOM SHANKER
Published: June 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Thursday that he had ordered the military to deploy missile interceptors and radar to protect Hawaii from a North Korean long-range rocket.

The defense secretary’s disclosure came as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the military’s commitment to “vigorously enforce” the latest United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea’s nuclear program. But he declined to confirm reports provided by other Pentagon officials that the military was tracking a North Korean freighter suspected of carrying banned materials.

Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Mr. Gates said he had directed the military to deploy mobile, ground-based interceptors to Hawaii. Mr. Gates also ordered seaborne radar into the waters off Hawaii to provide detailed information to track and attack any North Korean missile.

“We’re obviously watching the situation in the North with respect to missile launches very closely,” Mr. Gates said, adding that the military had some concerns about North Korea’s ability to launch a missile “in the direction of Hawaii.”

Admiral Mullen declined at the news conference to confirm reports that the military was tracking a North Korean flagged cargo ship that might be hauling weapons, missile parts or even fissile material prohibited under international law.

But he did say that the military intended to fully enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, passed last week after North Korea’s recent nuclear test and missile launchings. North Korea answered the United Nations action with threats to launch more missiles and to continue with its nuclear program.

The resolution calls on international navies to request inspection of suspect cargo vessels, but not to board them by force on the high seas. However, if the ship enters a foreign port, the local authorities have greater rights of inspection.

“The country of that port is required to inspect the vessel and to also keep the United Nations informed, obviously, if a vessel like this would refuse to comply,” he said.

[American Patriot]

U.S. to Confront, Not Board, North Korean Ships

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by force, senior administration officials said Monday.

The new effort to intercept North Korean ships, and track them to their next port, where Washington will press for the inspections they refused at sea, is part of what the officials described as “vigorous enforcement” of the United Nations Security Council resolution approved Friday.

The planned American action stops just short of the forced inspections that North Korea has said that it would regard as an act of war. Still, the administration’s plans, if fully executed, would amount to the most confrontational approach taken by the United States in dealing with North Korea in years, and carries a risk of escalating tensions at a time when North Korea has been carrying out missile and nuclear tests.

In discussing President Obama’s strategy on Monday, administration officials said that the United States would report any ship that refused inspection to the Security Council. While the Navy and American intelligence agencies continued to track the ship, the administration would mount a vigorous diplomatic effort to insist that the inspections be carried out by any country that allowed the vessel into port.

The officials said that they believed that China, once a close cold war ally, would also enforce the new sanctions, which also require countries to refuse to refuel or resupply ships suspected of carrying out arms and nuclear technology.

“China will implement the resolution earnestly,” said Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said.

One official in Washington said the administration was told by their Chinese counterparts that China “would not have signed on to this resolution unless they intended to enforce it.”

The strategy of ordering ships to stop but not provoking military action by boarding them was negotiated among Washington, Beijing and Moscow. It is unclear to what degree South Korea or Japan, at various times bitter adversaries of North Korea, would order their naval forces to join in the effort to intercept suspected shipments at sea, largely because of fears about what would happen if North Korean ships opened fire.

A senior administration official said Monday evening that the United States believed that it already had sufficient intelligence and naval assets in the Sea of Japan to track North Korean ships and flights. The country’s cargo fleet is relatively small, and the North is wary, officials say, of entrusting shipments banned by the United Nations to Panamanian-flagged freighters or those from other countries.

Until now, American interceptions of North Korean ships have been rare. Early in the Bush administration, a shipment of missiles to Yemen was discovered, but the United States permitted the shipment to go through after the Yemenis said they had paid for the missiles and expected delivery. Under the new United Nations resolution, American officials said they now had the authority to seize such shipments.

The senior administration officials outlined Mr. Obama’s approach a day before the president was to meet for the first time on Tuesday with South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who has been far more confrontational in his dealings with North Korea than most of his predecessors.

The resolution authorizes nations to seek to stop suspect North Korean shipments on the high seas, but they do not authorize forcible boarding or inspections. “The captains will be confronted,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing a security operation that America’s key allies had only been partially briefed on.

Even if they refused to allow inspections, the official said, “These guys aren’t going to get very far.”

While the captain of a ship may refuse inspection, as the North Koreans almost certainly would, the Obama administration officials noted that most North Korean vessels have limited range and would have to seek out ports in search of fuel and supplies.

American officials believe that previous North Korean shipments of nuclear technology and missiles have gone undetected. The North Koreans were deeply involved in the construction of a reactor in Syria until September 2007, when the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air raid. But no ships or aircraft carrying parts for that reactor were ever found.

Mr. Obama’s decisions about North Korea stem from a fundamentally different assessment of the North’s intentions than that of previous administrations. Nearly 16 years of on-and-off negotiations — punctuated by major crises in 1994 and 2003 — were based on an assumption that ultimately, the North was willing to give up its nuclear capability.

A review, carried out by the Obama administration during its first month in office, concluded that North Korea had no intention of trading away what it calls its “nuclear deterrent” in return for food, fuel and security guarantees.

Mr. Obama’s aides have said that while the new president is willing to re-engage in either the talks with North Korea and its neighbors, or in direct bilateral discussions, he will not agree to an incremental dismantlement of the North’s nuclear facilities.

“There are ways to do this that are truly irreversible,” said one of Mr. Obama’s aides, declining to be specific.

North Korea is already working to reverse the dismantlement of some of its facilities negotiated in Mr. Bush’s last days in office.

In the weeks ahead of and after its second nuclear test, conducted May 25, North Korea has disavowed its past commitments to give up those weapons, and said it would never bow to the demands of the United States, its allies, or the United Nations. On Saturday the North said that it would reprocess its remaining stockpile of spent nuclear fuel into plutonium, adding to an existing stockpile believed sufficient to make six or eight weapons.

Such announcements have heightened fears that North Korea’s next step could be to sell more of its nuclear or missile technology, one of the few profitable exports of a broken, starving country. The result is that Mr. Obama, in his first year in office, is putting into effect many of the harshest steps against North Korea that were advocated by conservatives in the Bush White House, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

The new approach, officials said, will also exploit elements of the Security Council resolution to try to close down the subsidiaries of North Korean missile makers in China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, where the North has its biggest customers.

Xiyun Yang contributed reporting from Beijing.

[American Patriot]

June 25, 2009 7:40 AM
Richardson: The Good And Bad On N. Korea

Posted by Sean Alfano

The bad news: Their tough talk on nuclear weapons and missile tests has been amplified to the point they are threatening a "fire shower" on South Korea should the U.S. launch any sort of attack.

The good news: That kind of rhetoric is "muted" when it comes to the fate of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, currently held in a North Korean prison after being convicted of entering the country illegally. The absence of heated words, "gives me hope," Richardson said.

Lee and Ling spoke with their husbands this week, with Ling calling their situation "bearable."

Richardson, who is the governor of New Mexico, however, called rumors that he might be sent to North Korea to win the journalists' release "premature," saying until the communist nation expresses a willingness to talk, there can be no negotiations.

The governor has visited North Korea several times as an official envoy.

"I'm ready to help any way I can," Richardson said.

[American Patriot]

Burma denies link to N Korea ship
By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Bangkok

Archive image of the Kang Nam 1
The US believes the Kang Nam 1 could be heading to Burma

Burma has denied any link with a North Korean ship in the South China Sea.

US officials have said they believe the Kang Nam 1 could be heading to Burma, carrying weapons in defiance of a United Nations embargo.

Burma and North Korea ended diplomatic relations in 1983 after a bungled assassination attempt by North Korean agents killed 20 people in Burma.

But in recent years they are believed to be co-operating in a number of areas, including weapons supplies.

Singapore's dilemma

For the past week the Kang Nam 1 has made steady progress down the coast of China, closely shadowed by a US Navy destroyer.

Now the Burmese government has issued a statement denying that the Kang Nam 1 is heading there, although it also said it was expecting another North Korean ship to arrive with a cargo of rice this weekend.

Burma is believed to have bought significant quantities of conventional weapons from North Korea in the past few years.

Burma is also to believed be getting help in building a sophisticated complex of tunnels and bunkers for its military rulers.

A new UN resolution passed in the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear test empowers member states to inspect any North Korean ships - but the US Navy has so far not attempted to intercept the Kang Nam 1 on the high seas.

However the ship may be forced to refuel in Singapore - in which case the Singaporean authorities would face a dilemma over whether to try to inspect its cargo - a move North Korea has warned it would view as an act of war.

[American Patriot]

N Korea fires series of missiles
Top_news
By Agencies

North Korea has test-fired a fourth short-range missile, following three similar launches, the South Korean Yonhap news agency has reported.

News of the latest tests came just hours after Pyongyang launched two missiles from the country's east coast, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Yonhap, quoting an unnamed military official, reported that three of the missiles flew about 100km and were KN-01 missiles with a range of up to 160km.

Leonid Petrov, a North Korean specialist from the Australian National University, said: "We had been expecting the test fire of a medium-range missile in early July.

"These were short-range missiles, which are a defensive measure, and may have been done ... to impress [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il who was visiting."

Growing tensions

North Korea had earlier issued a no-sail zone in waters off its east coast through July 10.

The move comes a week after the US extended economic sanctions against North Korea for another year as tensions grew over the communist state's nuclear activities.

Barack Obama, the US president, moved to prolong restrictions on property dealings with the North that were due to expire on June 26.

Obama said he acted "because the existence and risk of the proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean peninsula continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States".

Despite the Obama administration saying that it would welcome fresh talks with the North, relations between the two continue to deteriorate amid international condemnation and sanctions in response to its recent nuclear test, and defiant rhetoric from Pyongyang.

[American Patriot]

Missile launch raises tension

July 02 2009 at 06:15PM

By Jack Kim and Miyoung Kim

Seoul - North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles on Thursday, further stoking tension in the region that was already high due to Pyongyang's nuclear test and threats to boost its nuclear arsenal in response to UN sanctions.

North Korea fired two surface-to-ship missiles off its east coast that flew about 100 km and splashed into the sea, a South Korean defence official said.

A South Korean daily said that the secretive North may also test fire mid-range missiles in a matter of days.

Washington said this week it had tightened its crackdown on firms linked to the North's lucrative proliferation of missiles, a major source of cash for the destitute state, and has sent the US point man for sanctions to Asia for discussions.

North Korea was hit with UN sanctions following its May 25 nuclear test.

Analysts said enforcement of the sanctions, aimed at halting its trade in arms, would depend heavily on China, the North's biggest benefactor and trade partner.

China said on Thursday it was sending its envoy to six-country talks aimed at ending the North's atomic ambitions to South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

North Korea, the final party in the talks, is not on the itinerary.

"China has consistently advocated dialogue and consultation, and achieving denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula through the six-party talks process," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing.

The JoongAng Ilbo daily on Thursday quoted an intelligence source as saying the North was likely to fire medium or short range missiles from its east coast in early July that could include Scuds with a range of about 340 km or Rodong missiles with a range of up to 1 000 km.

North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles following its recent nuclear test, which experts said put the state closer to having a working nuclear bomb.

It launched a rocket in April in what was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test that violated UN resolutions banning it from ballistic missile launches.

On Tuesday, the United States said it was cracking down on companies involved in North Korea's suspected missile proliferation and in the purchase of equipment that could be used in a nuclear weapons programme.

Philip Goldberg, the US envoy who co-ordinates sanctions against the North, went to China to enlist Beijing's help in getting tough with North Korea.

He will be in Malaysia on Sunday before heading back to Washington on Monday. It was not immediately clear why he was visiting Malaysia.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said he was seeking a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six countries including the North on the sidelines of a regional security forum on July 23 in Thailand.

Officials said the North's military grandstanding is likely related to moves by its leadership to begin readying leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son as a future heir by consolidating the 67-year-old leader's power base.

Meanwhile, the two Koreas held talks about fees paid at a joint factory project in the North that is a major source of legitimate foreign currency for the cash-short communist state and the last major project between the rival states.

North Korea repeated its demand for a sharp increase in wages and lease fees at Kaesong park, where South Korean companies use cheap North Korean labour and land to make goods, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman said.

About 100 South Korean companies pay $70 a month per person to employ about 40 000 North Koreans.

Analysts said North Korea was trying to squeeze more money out of the South Korean companies in Kaesong as UN sanctions imposed for its missile and nuclear tests begin to grip the state that produces few goods other than arms it can export.

The North said in May it was cancelling all wage, rent and tax agreements for the park, once hailed as a model of future economic cooperation between the rival states technically still at war who share one of the world's most militarised borders.

The North refused to discuss the release of a South Korean worker held there for more than three months supposedly for insulting the North's political system. - Reuters

[American Patriot]

Hmmm Fox News Channel reporting "North Korea Just fired off four more missiles".

Not sure whether this includes the other two earlier or four MORE on top of those two.

[American Patriot]

Seven missiles have been launched. Most of them appear to be short range missiles. Some thing longer range has been spied and being prepared.

Stay tuned for more

[American Patriot]

AP Top News at 2:29 p.m. EDT
5 minutes ago
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles Saturday into waters off its east coast in a show of military firepower that defied U.N. resolutions and drew global expressions of condemnation and concern. The salvo, confirmed by the South Korean government, also appeared to be a slap at the United States as Washington moves to enforce U.N. as well as its own sanctions against the isolated regime for its May 25 nuclear test.

[American Patriot]

The United States urged North Korea on Saturday not to aggravate tensions, after it test-fired a series of missiles.
A spokesman for the US state department described the launches as "not helpful" and said North Korea should refrain from actions that aggravate tensions and focus on denuclearization talks.
South Korea's Defence Ministry said North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday.
North Korea has fired several non-ballistic, short-range missiles since it carried out a nuclear test on 25 May.
The country is barred by UN resolutions from firing ballistic missile such as the Scud.
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