Final Countdown - North Korea

[American Patriot]

Russian forces are on alert...

[American Patriot]

http://www.upi.com/news/issueoftheda...8061243436131/
Obama faces North Korean war threat
By MARTIN SIEFF
Published: May 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM

WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) -- North Korea has threatened war against South Korea and handed U.S. President Barack Obama his first major international security crisis.

The South Korean government of President Lee Myung-bak responded Tuesday to North Korea's second nuclear test by joining the United States in the Proliferation Security Initiative to share intelligence and attempt to search ships carrying nuclear technology to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.

But the response from North Korea was swift: Pyongyang came close to issuing its own declaration of war against South Korea and, by extension, even the United States.

The North Korean government stated that if South Korea joined the United States in an effort to search ships for nuclear weapons, it is declaring war. The North would attack the South if any of its ships were searched. It also said it was no longer tied to the 1953 truce that served as a shaky end to the three-year Korean War.

The North also test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Tuesday and told other nations to avoid the area Wednesday as well, indicating they might fire more.

On Monday North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test. The nuclear blast was estimated to have the power of the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- relatively small but still potentially devastating. North Korea blamed U.S. aggression and the threat of invasion as the reason for the flurry of tests.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that several South Korean government sources said those launches may not just have been for the sake of posturing or bluster, but to deter U.S. and South Korean aircraft from making surveillance flights in the region to confirm and gather additional data about the nuclear explosion.

The U.N. Security Council met and roundly criticized the tests. Obama said he "strongly condemned" the North Korean officials' "reckless action."

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, the five permanent members of the Security Council, held talks with representatives from South Korea and Japan Tuesday to coordinate their response to the North Korean tests and statements. She said they held "very serious, concrete talks" about approving a U.N. resolution to create new economic sanctions against North Korea.

However, the international community appears to have no effective sanctions short of war that could convince North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. Pyongyang has shrugged off all previous attempts at imposing economic sanctions, and while Russia and China both publicly condemned this week's nuclear test, neither country looks likely to allow the United States to push through tougher sanctions. Moscow and Beijing both have the veto powers of permanent members of the Security Council with which they can block such measures.

The North appears increasingly confident that it can defy Obama and his new administration. South Korean media reports claim that the North has reactivated its nuclear reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. In 2007 the North cut a deal with the group of six nations' disarmament process in Beijing to shut down Yongbyon. But in April the North Korean government announced it would reactivate the reprocessing complex after the U.N. Security Council condemned it for testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper in Seoul reported that U.S. surveillance satellites had monitored steam emerging from a reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. The North Koreans have amassed 8,000 used nuclear fuel rods at Yongbyon that could be reprocessed into between 13 pounds and 18 pounds of plutonium. That would be enough to make at least one nuclear weapon.

[American Patriot]

That was weird...

Palkot - I think his name was, in London, announced something about "Russian forces in the region going on high military alert".

I don't know any thing more and can't find any other evidence at this point.

[American Patriot]

Russia to step up military surveillance in Korean region - Summary

(Source? Unsure...)

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...--summary.html

Moscow - Moscow said Wednesday it is going to step up its military surveillance activities around North Korea, amid the rising tensions over that state's nuclear and missile tests. A Defence Ministry spokesman, cited by the Interfax agency, said that "due to the worsening of the situation" Russia would step up its early-warning surveillance.

The spokesman said that Russia felt obligated to take the measures in the border area "due to the possible use of nuclear weapons." But Moscow was not currently planning to move heavier military equipment into the area.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has held a telephone briefing with his opposite number, South Korea's Lee Myung Bak, about the situation.

Both leaders warned against any escalation of aggression, Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natlia Timakowa, said.

Separately, the foreign ministers of the US and Russia, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sergei Lavrov, have also held a telephone conversation about the situation.

Lavrov said that the international community needed to show a hardness of purpose, whilst remaining open to negotiation.

Lavrov called for a tough United Nations resolution against North Korea, and argued that "it should not be a mere political statement which would have no bearing in practice."

Russia shares a tiny, roughly 50-kilometre, stretch of border with the extreme north-eastern part of North Korea. The border is about 100 kilometres south-west of Russia's Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.

The defence ministry statement is the latest indication of a toughening of Moscow's position towards North Korea in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests of the past few days.

Earlier, the UN Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said his country - which hold the rotating presidency of the Security Council - was examining various proposals, but "it was still too early to discuss them."

And a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry warned against "hysteria."

"The situation cannot be allowed to get out of control," he added.

According to Konstantin Kossatchov, chair of the foreign affairs committee of the Duma, the situation was rapidly becoming a "worst- case scenario."

However, according to the President of the Moscow Academy for Geo- Political Research, "China will not allow the destabilisation of the region."

"It's a war of nerves, but it will probably remain one the political level," General Leonid Iswachov added.

[American Patriot]

Backup news story... different source, no real details on "measures":

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...54Q1CQ20090527

Russia takes security measures after N.Korea test: report

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is taking preventative measures, including military ones, after North Korea tested an atomic bomb, Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified official in Russia's security services as saying on Wednesday.

The official said the measures -- which did not include troop movements -- were needed in case a nuclear war broke out on the Korean peninsula, Interfax reported.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Jon Hemming)

[American Patriot]

North Korea laughs at U.S.


By Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board columnist
North Korean political and military leaders have to be high-fiving each other and laughing outrageously.


They have restarted the communist country's weapons-grade nuclear power plant, fired short-range missiles, exploded a nuclear weapon in an underground test, threatened war if any North Korean ships are intercepted by the West and thumbed their noses at any possible sanctions from the international community.


The North Korean political and military officials are the bad boys on the planet right now with a bad temper and even worse weaponry. But like it or not, the Obama administration, China and Japan have to contend appropriately with the threat to lower the us vs. them fervor that Pyongyang has stirred up.


Sanctions obviously have no effect. A military response is out of the question.


The international community will have to come up with new tools to restore calm to the world.

[American Patriot]

North Korea fires three more test missiles

A day after it launched its second nuclear test, the North fired three more short-range missiles on the opposite side of Japan

Tiffany Ayuda


The New York Times is reporting that, a day after North Korea announced that it had successfully conducted its second nuclear test, it test fired three short-range missiles, in actions that further infuriated the rest of the international community.


Moreover, a South Korean newspaper reports that American spy satellites detected steam and signs of nuclear activity from a North Korean plant that reprocesses nuclear fuel to make weapons-grade plutonium.



Chosun Ilbo, the South Korean newspaper whose information was cited by the Times, reported in April that North Korea had started to reprocess nuclear fuel at Yongbyon, its biggest nuclear plant.


The three short-range missile tests were launched mere hours after South Korea announced that it would join the U.S. objective to stop the global trafficking of unconventional weapons, a move that North Korea says is worthy for a declaration of war.


The recent actions of the North have intensified the tension between North Korea and the rest of the international community, especially with the U.S., which has invested time in diplomatic talks with the country’s top leaders, according to the Times.
As a result of the missile tests, the United Nations Security Council has already started to draft a new resolution that will impose stricter sanctions against the North.
Tuesday’s missiles were both surface-to-ship and surface-to-air projectiles, according to a South Korea official who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity. “>Times on the condition of anonymity.


The missiles, three of which were launched from a base on the eastern coast on the opposite side of Japan, had a range of 80 miles, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.


North Korean nor South Korean officials of the Defense Ministry have commented on the missile tests yet.



Intelligence officials in South Korea were quoted by the Times as saying that the move to test fire three short-range missiles was a way for the North to “get its back up” if the U.S. military decided to deploy an aircraft that would fly by the North’s borders and collect radiation data from the nuclear blasts.


Meanwhile, officials in the Pentagon said to the press that the military deployed a specially designed surveillance plane to fly around North Korea and collect particles from the missile tests.


The aircraft has “sniffers,” technology which collects radioactive materials that may have floated into the air after the blasts.


The radioactive particles that are collected from the surveillance plane are then taken to the laboratories in the U.S., and a second flight is scheduled to fly over the few days for a second collection.


The five members of the Security Council, including Japan and South Korea, met at the United Nations for 90 minutes to discuss new sanctions for North Korea
So far, North Korea remains unabashed by the harsh criticism--including those from former allies from China and Russia.


Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main Communist Party newspaper, said that the North was “fully ready for battle” against the U.S. and has accused President Obama of following the Bush administration’s policy, which it feels has weakened ties with the North.

[American Patriot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/wo...orea.html?_r=1

North Korea Is Said to Test-Fire 3 More Missiles

Korean Central News Agency, via Reuters
North Korea celebrated its arms tests with a rally on Tuesday in Pyongyang, amid signs praising its founder and the military.

By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: May 26, 2009


SEOUL, South Korea — One day after its nuclear test drew angry and widespread condemnation, North Korea further antagonized the international community on Tuesday by test-firing three short-range missiles.
Multimedia The North Korean Challenge



Related

Diplomatic Memo: Leadership Mystery Amid N. Korea’s Nuclear Work (May 27, 2009)

Times Topics: North Korea's Nuclear Program




In addition, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday that American spy satellites had detected plumes of steam and other signs of activity at a North Korean plant that reprocesses spent nuclear fuel to make weapons-grade plutonium. The report from the newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, appeared to support a claim by North Korea in late April that it had restarted its reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the capital.


The missile firings came just hours after South Korea said it would join an American-led initiative to stop the global trafficking in unconventional weapons. The North responded Wednesday by reiterating its position that it would consider it a declaration of war if South Korea actually stopped and searched any North Korean ships as part of that program.


The developments sharpened the confrontation between North Korea and much of the world — especially the United States — as the United Nations Security Council vowed to fashion a resolution that could impose further sanctions on the increasingly belligerent North.


The missiles launched Tuesday were surface-to-ship and surface-to-air projectiles, a South Korean official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The South Korean news agency Yonhap said the missiles had a range of 80 miles. They were apparently launched from a base on the eastern coast into the sea opposite Japan, further rattling nerves in the region.
There was no official comment on the missile firings by either the North Korean authorities or the South Korean Defense Ministry.


After its nuclear test on Monday, its second in less than three years, the North test-fired three short-range missiles, also off its east coast. An intelligence official in Seoul said that move indicated that North Korea was “getting its back up” about the possibility that United States military aircraft would fly near North Korea in an effort to collect radiation data from the nuclear blast.


At the Pentagon, officials said the military on Tuesday sent a specially designed surveillance plane into international airspace around North Korea to collect particles from the test. The airplane has high-technology “sniffers” on board to collect radioactive materials that might have seeped up from the underground test.
The particles from the first surveillance flight were to be sent to laboratories in the United States, and a second flight was planned over the next day or two, officials said.


South Korea’s long-delayed participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a program to curb trafficking in unconventional weapons, followed a statement on Monday by the Security Council that unanimously condemned the nuclear test and called it a “clear violation” of a previous resolution.


At the United Nations, the five permanent Security Council members and Japan and South Korea met for 90 minutes Tuesday to discuss possible new sanctions as well as ways to strengthen provisions in a 2006 resolution that have never been put into effect, like halting and inspecting North Korean vessels at sea.


Ambassadors were tight-lipped about potential new sanctions, and diplomats said no written proposals had begun to circulate. All seven nations were said to have agreed on the need to send a strong message to North Korea. “We are in agreement on the goals,” said Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador. But the Chinese ambassador, Zhang Yesui, deflected questions about how strong a resolution his country would support.


In Japan, the lower house of Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday condemning the North’s nuclear test, and it threatened to step up sanctions against the North.


“Japan, as the world’s only nation to ever suffer a nuclear attack, cannot condone” North Korea’s repeated nuclear tests, the resolution said. North Korea’s recent belligerence has also prompted Japan’s governing party to debate whether Tokyo should consider pre-emptive strikes against states considered hostile — actions that would probably require changes to Japan’s pacifist Constitution.


North Korea appeared unfazed by the world’s condemnation, which included strong rebukes from allies like China and Russia. On Tuesday in Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main Communist Party newspaper, North Korea declared that it was “fully ready for battle” against the United States, accusing President Obama of “following in the footsteps of the previous Bush administration’s reckless policy of militarily stifling North Korea.”


North Korean officials have said that South Korea’s full membership in the initiative would be seen as a “declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war.” The international effort was begun in 2003 by the Bush administration in order to interdict shipments — especially at sea — that were suspected of containing unconventional weapons, their related materials and delivery systems.


Russia, Britain, France and Israel are among the 95 signers of the initiative, which India, Pakistan and China did not sign.


South Korea had wavered on joining the initiative for fear of provoking the North. But on Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak, who came to power with a promise to take a tougher approach toward the North, spoke with Mr. Obama about the North Korean threat and the South’s decision to join the effort.


On the phone, Mr. Lee emphasized to Mr. Obama that the United States and its allies “should not repeat the pattern” of “rewarding” North Korea’s provocations with dialogue and economic aid, as they did after the North’s first nuclear test in October 2006.


Reporting was contributed by Mark McDonald from Hong Kong, Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo, Thom Shanker from Washington, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.

[American Patriot]

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," May 26, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Here's former senior adviser to President Bush, Karl Rove.

(LAUGHTER)

I scare you, don't I?

KARL ROVE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRES. BUSH: The hot thing — the several million degrees centigrade got me going.

BECK: Yes, well — I mean, look — Karl, what does the world need? Look, we know that Kim Jong-Il, come on, who didn't see that — oh, what a surprise, he's not a man of his word; same thing with Ahmadinejad.

We play the same game over and over again and we act all surprised and then back ourselves into a corner where we have to rely on China.

ROVE: Yes. Well, now — look, you want China involved in this because China's given them all their energy, most of their food, their consumer goods, you want them to be part of the solution. And that's why it's good to have all six move together...

BECK: Right.

ROVE: All six countries together trying to pressure North Korea.

But now is the time. I mean, we got a resolution in 2006 from the United Nations that gave additional power. The Chinese are clearly embarrassed. Their statement after this was stronger than they had before.

The Russians are getting worried. They're awakening to the fact that a nuclear-armed North Korea is going to be real problems for their far- eastern region. Now is the time for us to take the authority from 2006 and ratchet it up.

BECK: Karl, you know what I feel like? I feel like we're on a rudderless ship right now. Who's the leader?

ROVE: Well, we sort of semi are. We sort of semi are because — look, you need a full-time guy working this problem. They got a part-time guy, who's a good guy apparently, but he's the head of a major foreign policy school. He's not a hard-nosed diplomat who's working this problem every day of the week, and appears from his early comments to be relatively naive about this.

But there are two — there are two things that we ought to be — there are three things we ought to be thinking about doing. Two that we can impact deeply and one that we need to find a way to finesse the Chinese into. We need to get the Chinese to do something about oil. That is the real linchpin. You get them to ratchet down the oil now, and it has real pressure on the North Koreans.

We've got two things we can do. We can further stomp on their foreign currency — their foreign financial transactions. If we say we don't want to do business with anybody in the financial world who's doing business with North Korea, people don't want to do business with North Korea.

BECK: Why aren't we doing that right now?

ROVE: Well, let's give the administration a couple of days and maybe they're working the diplomatic angles here and maybe they'll start to do it.

The final thing is...

BECK: They didn't do anything with the missiles?

ROVE: Well, let's make sure they're trying to get everybody keyed up. I know how this is cumbersome and complicated. Give them a couple of days to see if that's...

BECK: Now, hang just a second. You want to answer this question. But do you really actually believe that or are you just being...

ROVE: No, no, I do. I do.

(CROSSTALK)

ROVE: If they're smart, they're delivering messages and saying — I think a smart message to deliver to the Chinese is: Your little allies once again embarrassed you on the international stage. You told them not to test the nuclear weapons; you told them not to test the missiles. He's now done it. He's embarrassed you. Loss of face for you. So sorry that you're suffering this loss of face because you can't control them.

Incidentally, speaking of control, we don't think we could stop — if this keeps going, Japan is going to want to do something. And we can't control a resurgent Japan. If Japans wants to sort of step up its military defenses against North Korea, geez, we're not going to be able to do anything to restrain them, because, after all, you know, they are going concerned about defending their home territory...

BECK: With...

ROVE: Which China is scared to death of.

BECK: With China — with North Korea, I mean, the North Koreans, you know, they've got nukes. We have the Syrians. They had a nuclear power plant. We had evidence that it was coming from North Korea.

Iran is developing. Now we're talking, Saudi Arabia says, "Yes, you know, we might have, we want to have some nukes." Egypt is saying, "Yes, we might want..."

All the nutjobs in the neighborhood are all starting to have nuclear... and in the meantime, our president is saying, "You know what, we should get out of the nuclear business."

ROVE: Well, and not only that, but his attitude is, I'm doing this because the Russians have it as a top priority. Why are doing it because it's a top priority for the Russians? We should do things only when they are in our interest, and when by doing so, we gain something from our interest.

We gain nothing by pursuing the Putin's desire to engage in strategic nuclear weapons reductions conversations except elevate Putin.

BECK: I feel — and maybe it is just me, I don't know if America feels this way — I feel as I watch this administration, and I watch this Congress make decision after decision after decision — whether they agreed with the Bush administration or not, I think there is a growing sense of worry in this country that we're putting ourselves into a position to where we — we're being almost reckless.

ROVE: Right. Well, we were told last year that all it would take was a new world leader who would engage in the world and engage with diplomatic conversation and the problems would go away. We're seeing that that's not true.

And the question will be in the next couple of weeks: Does this administration find itself in a place where it either takes action in combination with allies or our partners, or does it take action on its own if need be?

We have the authority, for example, to interject vessels coming out of North Korea that we suspect to have technology on them.

BECK: You know, you remember when Joe Biden, during the campaign said: "Is this on? Let me tell you some secrets. He's going to be tested. He's going to be tested like crazy."

Is this the test?

ROVE: Look, we have had a series of them. You don't think that — you don't think Chavez was testing him when he did what he did at the Summit of the Americas? Do you not think the G20 were testing him?

BECK: Has he passed any of the tests?

ROVE: Not so far.

I mean, you know, look at him. G20 — he goes to G20 and his object is to get everybody to do what we're doing here and spend a lot more on stimulus. They said, "Thank you, no."

He goes to NATO. His object there is to get more combat capability in Afghanistan from our NATO allies. They said, "No. Thank you very much."

He goes to the Summit of Americas where to sort of present a turn a page to present a new face for America, instead he looks like he's palling around with Chavez and elevates our adversaries in the region.

And now, we have this.

I'm not willing to mark the paper just yet. Let's give him a few more days to see what happens. But so far, not good.

I mean — look, you can argue whether Christopher Hill was the right guy or wrong guy, but at least he was on the job full-time. Now, they got a part-time guy whose initial statements are naive. I mean, a couple of weeks ago he said, "Oh, I thinking everything is going the right way." This as we had to know that they were getting ready to do what they've done over the last few days.

Remember, isn't it interesting? They shot off the missiles last year on the fourth of July. They do the test this year on Memorial Day. They have an American holiday calendar and they do this to sort of send a message to us.

BECK: Is there a turning point? I feel like a clock is ticking on our country. That there is — that there is — there's only so much we can do to it.

I mean, look how resilient it has been since September 11th. Is there a point where you say, if we pass this, we're in deep trouble?

ROVE: Well, as long as you count and say deep trouble, yes, there are points.

BECK: I would never count America...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: ...and the American ingenuity and the American spirit out.

ROVE: Right. That's right.

One is if we get a so-called public plan in health care reform. That is to say if we have a government-run plan that so called competes with private industry that puts a strain on the path to becoming European-style social democracy.

There maybe a point in which when our — you know, the rating agencies are now saying U.S. trades lose their AAA rating and by 2022, get an A rating — which is what Greece has got. By 2030, we have junk bond status.

We lose the AAA rating and that is a very dangerous moment.

If the deficit, the other point to watch is July. In July, if the so- called mid-session review on the budget deficit comes out and the budget deficit goes significantly above the current anticipated level of $1.7 trillion this year...

BECK: Geez.

ROVE: Then, we're in trouble. And my gut tells me, given how rosy the optimists and optimistic the projections are that we could easily see a deficit number in July that is close to $1.9 trillion or maybe even $2 trillion.

BECK: Wow.

Thanks, Karl. I mean, I come back to work and — I mean, I had a great weekend. I was all happy, I was all rah-rah.

ROVE: Yes. But you're ready now to face it. You're ready now to face it.

BECK: Thank you, sir.

ROVE: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: Appreciate it.

Content and Programming Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC, which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and CQ Transcriptions, LLC's copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.

[American Patriot]

Word has it... the Koreans just launched another ballistic missile.... somewhere.

[American Patriot]

North Korea tears up 1953 ceasefire
Wednesday 27 May 2009


North Korea has announced it will no longer uphold the ceasefire agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean war.

Responding to South Korea's decision to participate in the controversial US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on Wednesday, Pyongyang accused Seoul of "dragging the Korean peninsula into a state of war."

On Tuesday South Korea became the 95th country to sign up to the PSI, which ostensibly aims to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.

Under the US principle of "pre-emptive interdiction," signatories have agreed to detain ships suspected of carrying illicit material as soon as they enter their territorial waters.

Pyongyang has described the PSI as amounting to a "brigandish naval blockade" akin to "terrorism in the sea."

China has called the legality of the initiative into question, saying given that the purpose of non-proliferation is to "enhance the international and regional peace, security and stability, any non-proliferation measures should not contradict such purpose."

In a three-point statement that was published by the official DPRK news agency on Wednesday, Pyongyang reiterated that it interpreted Seoul's participation as a "declaration of war."

It warned that, if North Korean ships were intercepted by PSI members, it would take immediate military action.

The statement emphasised that North Korea would not guarantee the safety of US and South Korean warships sailing in the region.

In New York the UN security council is discussing a resolution that could include new sanctions on North Korea for conducting its second nuclear test on Monday.

On Tuesday Pyongyang residents, senior military and Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials joined a mass rally to celebrate the "grand undertaking."

WPK central committee secretary Choe Thae Bok said the nuclear test served to "protect the interests of North Korea and defend the dignity and sovereignty of the country and nation" in the face of "the US imperialists' threat to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack and sanctions."

An official newspaper, Minju Joson, said in an editorial published on Wednesday that Pyongyang does not fear repercussions.

"It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions," it said.

"We've been living under US sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward."

[American Patriot]

Quote of the Day


We should not look to punish for the sake of punishment only.

--Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on possible sanctions against North Korea following its latest nuclear test.

[American Patriot]

Here's a map....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...a-nuclear-test

[vector7]

North Korea: A state of war


At least one-third of North Korea's GDP is reportedly spent on the military [EPA]

For more than 50 years, North Korea has been ready to go to war at a moment's notice.

Cut off from the outside world behind barricades of barbed wire, landmines and concrete tank-traps, the so-called "hermit kingdom" has come to rely for its very existence on maintaining a constant war footing.

Visiting North Korea as a tourist last year, it was impossible to avoid the message thrashed out again and again on the streets and on the airwaves that the country is under constant threat of invasion and outsiders are to be feared.

It is the message that is drilled into children from the day they are born, during the minimum six years of military service that every citizen must undertake, and in the workplaces and homes of every North Korean.

It is the message that also underpins the governing national philosophy of "juche" or self-reliance, encouraging North Koreans to shun the outside world and fuelling a national sense of paranoia that the country's rulers use to maintain their iron grip on power.

Culture of war

In the capital, Pyongyang, escalators more than 100 metres long lead down to the city's metro rail system built deep underground.

North Korea's "military first" policy has made it a deeply militarised society [Reuters] Accompanied by eerie piped music, the stations have been designed to act as bomb shelters in the event of a US nuclear attack that North Korea's leaders insist is imminent.

On the outskirts of the city, the state film studios churn out a steady diet of epics intended to fuel the image of a country standing alone, defiant in the face of constant foreign threat.

Almost all the films are based around the evils perpetrated on the Korean people by outsiders - the Japanese during their occupation of the peninsula, and the US and their "puppets" in the South.

The result is that North Korea is a deeply militarised society.

Under what is known as the songun or "military first" policy, all the resources of the North Korean state are directed primarily at the armed forces.

According to outside estimates – there are no official figures - almost a third of North Korea's meagre GDP is spent on the military.

Meanwhile, aid agencies say, around a third of the country's population relies on food handouts to keep them from starvation.

Travelling by train though the North Korean countryside to the Chinese border, almost every other person we saw at the various stations along the way wore a military uniform.

'Forgotten war'
Like many things in North Korea, however, all is not what it initially seems.

Quick facts Official name: Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Population: 22m (July 2009 est.)

Size: 120,540 sq km

GDP: $26.2bn (2008 est.)

Military: 1.2 million active-duty personnel, world's fourth-largest armed forces
A closer look at some of the "Kalashnikovs" carried by the soldiers for example revealed they were nothing more than wooden replicas.

North Korea may have one of the largest armies in the world, but, it seems, it cannot afford to give them all real guns.

In North Korea though - in a society that is taught not to question authority - reality is irrelevant and image is everything.

The 1950-53 Korean War has often been referred to in other parts of the world as the "forgotten war", perhaps because it achieved virtually nothing other than to flatten large parts of the peninsula and kill some 2 million civilians.

On the Korean peninsula and in North Korea in particular, however, it has left deep scars.

The conflict was one of the most brutal of the last century, and it continues to carry a painful legacy – a legacy seen most poignantly in form of the thousands of divided families on either side of the heavily-fortified border.

The brief tearful reunions of mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, torn apart by the division of the Korean peninsula show how deep the wounds left by the war continue to run.

But while those wounds are undoubtedly real, they are also a political tool in the hands of North Korea's leaders.

Through relentless propaganda and by enforcing a rigid isolation from the outside world, it is that tool that keeps them in power and their people on the brink of war.

Source:Al Jazeera

[vector7]

U.S. increasingly seen as a paper tiger


President Barak Obama

North Korea celebrated Memorial Day with an underground test of a nuclear weapon reportedly the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

With that and a series of missile launches that day and subsequently, the regime in Pyongyang has sent an unmis- takable signal: The Hermit Kingdom has nothing but contempt for the so-called "international community" and the empty rhetoric and diplomatic posturing that usually precede new rewards for the North's bad behavior. The seismic waves from the latest detonation seem likely to rattle more than the windows and members of the U.N. Security Council. Even as that body huffs and puffs about Kim Jong-il's belligerence, Japan and South Korea are coming to grips with an unhappy reality: They increasingly are on their own in contending with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Until now, both countries have nestled under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. This posture has been made possible by what is known in the national-security community as "extended deterrence." Thanks to the credibility of U.S. security guarantees backed by America's massive arsenal, both countries have been able safely to forgo the option their respective nuclear-power programs long afforded them, namely becoming nuclear-weapon states in their own right.

A bipartisan blue-ribbon panel recently warned the Obama administration that extended deterrence cannot be taken for granted.

In its final report, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States unanimously concluded: "Our military capabilities, both nuclear and conventional, underwrite U.S. security guarantees to our allies, without which many of them would feel enormous pressures to create their own nuclear arsenals. ... The U.S. deterrent must be both visible and credible, not only to our possible adversaries, but to our allies as well."

Unfortunately, the Obama administration is moving in exactly the opposite direction. Far from taking the myriad steps needed to assure both the visibility and credibility of the U.S. deterrent, Mr. Obama has embraced the idea of eliminating that arsenal as part of a bid for "a nuclear-free world."

The practical effect of such a policy direction is to eschew the steps called for by the Strategic Posture Commission and, indeed, the recommendations of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command; and Thomas D'Agostino, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Each has recognized the need for modernization of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, enhanced "stewardship" of the obsolescent weapons that likely will continue to make up the bulk of the arsenal for years to come, and sustained investment in the infrastructure - both human and industrial - needed to perform such tasks.

The Obama administration is, nonetheless, seeking no funds for replacing existing weapons with designs that include modern safety features, let alone ones more suited to the deterrent missions of today - against states such as North Korea and Iran rather than the hardened silos of the Soviet Union. It is allowing the steady atrophying of the work force and facilities of the Department of Energy's nuclear-weapons complex.

Arguably worst of all, Team Obama is pursuing an arms-control agenda that risks making matters substantially worse. Using the pretext of the year's-end expiration of the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the president has dispatched an inveterate denuclearizer, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, to negotiate in haste a new bilateral agreement with the Russians. By all accounts, she is seeking a deal that would: reduce by perhaps as much as a third what is left of our arsenal (leaving as few as 1,500 nuclear weapons), preserve the Kremlin's unilateral and vast advantage in modern tactical and theater nuclear weapons, and limit U.S. ballistic missile defenses.

The administration is equally fixated on another non-solution to today's threats: ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), rejected by a majority of the U.S. Senate a decade ago. That accord would permanently preclude this country from assuring the viability of its arsenal through the one means absolutely proven to be effective - underground nuclear testing. Meanwhile, nonparty North Korea and its partner in nuclear crime, Iran (which has signed but not ratified the treaty), would not be hindered from developing their arsenals. In addition, Republican members of the Strategic Posture Commission, who all opposed CTBT ratification, think the Russians are continuing to do valuable underground testing as well.

The Obama agenda will not make the United States safer. If anything, it will increase international perceptions of an America that is ever less willing to provide for its own security.

States such as Russia and China that are actual or prospective "peer competitors" are building up their nuclear arsenals. They and even smaller powers such as North Korea and Iran increasingly feel they can assert themselves with impunity.

In such a strategic environment, America's allies will go their own way.

Some may seek a more independent stance or try to strike a separate peace with emerging powers such as China. Others may exercise their option to "go nuclear," contributing to regional arms buildups and proliferation.

If Mr. Obama wishes to avoid such outcomes, he would be well advised to heed the advice of the Strategic Posture Commission: "The conditions that might make the elimination of nuclear weapons possible are not present today and establishing such conditions would require a fundamental transformation of the world political order." Until then, we had better do all that is needed to maintain a safe, reliable, effective and, yes, extended deterrent.

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for The Washington Times.

[American Patriot]

Facing Down North Korea With Weak Words

Jeffrey Emanuel On Obama's Decision To React To The Weekend's Nuke Detonation By Issuing Sternly-Worded Admonitions

May 27, 2009

The United Nation's Security Council meets on North Korea's nuclear test (AP Photo/Osamu Honda)



Related

Fast Facts
North Korea
Learn about the people, economy and history.


Stories

• Analysts: North Korea Success Troubling

• North Korea Threatens Military Action

(CBS) This column was written by Jeff Emanuel.

---

North Korea’s recent underground detonation of a nuclear weapon and multiple missile launches, as well as its declaration that the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the Korean war “no longer applies,” have presented President Barack Obama with just the sort of “generated international crisis” then-vice presidential nominee Joe Biden promised supporters would come along to “test” the foreign policy neophyte in his first months in office.

Unfortunately, the statements and actions Obama has taken so far in response to the communist state’s latest series of provocations suggest he has little idea how to deal with such a situation - particularly when appealing to the United Nations and issuing sternly-worded warnings he has no intention of backing up with effective action fail to solve the problem.

As President Obama is hopefully beginning to learn, neither stern words, nor pleas, nor concessions are particularly effective problem-solving tactics in the real world. Whether this lesson will sink in deeply enough to cause the rigidly ideological Democratic executive to change his approach to foreign belligerence, though, is another question altogether.

A Series of Provocations
On the same day in April that President Obama was in Prague giving a speech on international disarmament, North Korea test-fired a multi-stage missile, the Taepodong-2, over the Pacific Ocean. In going through with this test firing of a missile capable of being armed with a nuclear warhead and of reaching the western United States, the communist state ignored a prior warning from the U.S. president that doing so would be “provocative” - an admonition which, as Obama is hopefully learning, carries far less weight with rogue regimes than with those states that still honor such quaint traditions as diplomatic niceties and international agreements.
The inexperienced president and his administration appear reluctant to go any farther than issuing sternly-worded admonitions to the rogue state.
Jeffrey P. Emanuel


Though its only immediate effect was to demonstrate Obama’s impotence when it comes to actually preventing a foreign actor from carrying out preannounced unlawful activities, at least the U.S. knew about the impending missile launch before it took place. The same cannot be said about North Korea’s May 25 nuclear weapons test, which took the Obama administration entirely by surprise.

The rogue regime’s second detonation of a nuclear device in three years, this explosion was fully four times the size of the 2006 nuclear blast according to seismic readings, showing progress by the North Koreans in solving the problems the weapons program faced three years ago. That previous detonation was met with swift action by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which issued two unanimous resolutions condemning the rogue regime and calling for tighter sanctions against it. Unfortunately, the Bush administration quickly took the teeth out of that action by resuming shipments of aid and even removing the rogue nation from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list for no reason other than its desire to lure Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

President Obama’s response to date to the 2009 nuclear detonation has been similarly disheartening. Monday’s nuclear test was a clear violation not only of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and international agreements, but of Obama’s own repeated pleas for nuclear members of the international community to divest themselves of their arsenals and join him in pursuit of his vision of “a world without nuclear weapons.” (If nothing else, this should send a clear sign to the American people that simply changing personalities in the White House cannot eliminate global security threats or to cause the international community to live in harmony.)

Following Monday’s nuclear test, Obama declared that North Korea’s actions were “directly and recklessly challenging the international community,” and that “such provocations will only serve to deepen North Korea’s isolation.” Susan Rice, Obama’s ambassador to the UN, echoed the president’s admonition, saying Pyongyang will “pay a price for the path that they're on if they don't reverse.”

However, the inexperienced president and his administration appear reluctant to go any farther than issuing sternly-worded admonitions to the rogue state, as he has given no indication as yet of any willingness to rescind his standing offer to restart the six-party talks - let alone take such a drastic step as to cut off the shipments of food and energy aid (of which the U.S. remains the largest donor) being sent to the destitute, famine-ridden state.

A Position of Weakness
Rather than toughen its stance in response to North Korea’s continued persistence in honing its nuclear device and delivery technology, the Obama administration appears willing to offer the rogue state two major concessions, one direct and one indirect, regardless of its actions.
The direct concession is a resumption of the six-party talks, a diplomatic tool which, when active, has brought North Korea to the negotiating table like a civilized nation to negotiate a reduction in its nuclear activities with Russia, China, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan in exchange for increased aid and more normalized diplomatic relations.

This is a concession the Obama administration appears determined to make, despite the fact that North Korea has a history of neglecting to live up to the promises it has made within the framework of the six-party talks (instead soaking up all the aid it can get before pulling away and resuming its illicit nuclear and conventional activities). In the run-up to the Taepodong-2 launch in April, Stephen Bosworth, a full-time academic who moonlights as Obama’s special representative for North Korea policy, made it known that the DPRK’s impending launch would have no bearing on the U.S.’s willingness to restart the talks. Once the “dust from the missiles settles,” he declared, America would be back at the negotiating table, where it would be ready and willing to discuss further concessions to, and benefits for, a North Korea that had failed once again to earn them.

The indirect concession the Obama administration is making comes in the form of its rapid scrapping of a functional missile defense system into which so many resources, both temporal and monetary, were poured over the last decade. As Pyongyang perfects a warhead delivery vehicle capable of reaching the American homeland, and as nations like Iran take aim with shorter-range missiles at U.S. interests and allies abroad, the White House and Pentagon are working hand-in-hand to fulfill the dovish executive’s campaign promise to cut off investment in a defensive technology whose necessity is likely to become more apparent in the very near future.

At what point Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will recognize that non-state actors like al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are not the only threat the U.S. will face in the near future is an open question, and one to which we can only hope the answer is “before it’s too late.”

Combating Illicit Proliferation
U.S. ally South Korea responded to Pyongyang’s nuclear test by announcing its decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a Bush-era program established to coordinate a worldwide effort to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The PSI, in which 90 nations now take part, is the brainchild of John Bolton, the former U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. The highest-profile tool used by PSI-supporting nations to prevent proliferation is shipment interdiction, often conducted by boarding ships suspected of carrying WMD materials or forcing them into friendly port for inspection - a tactic that has been used against North Korean ships in the past, and which in 2003 directly led to the unraveling of the largest nuclear black market ever discovered: that of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.

Pyongyang has long warned South Korea that a decision by the latter to join the PSI would be tantamount to an act of war. Not coincidentally, the DPRK responded to Seoul’s announcement by firing short-range rockets - one surface-to-ship, one surface-to-air - into the Sea of Japan (or the “Eastern Sea,” as the Koreans refer to it), a clear warning that its past threats should not be forgotten. That action has, of course, been accompanied by heightened rhetoric (including a declaration that the 1953 armistice “no longer applied”) aimed at reminding Seoul of the danger that exists mere miles to its north, and of convincing leaders of the free Korea to walk back their efforts to pressure the rogue regime.

An increase in counter-proliferation activities in its immediate region is a cause for concern for Pyongyang, given its reliance on black market weapons and technology sales for income and its recent history of exporting nuclear technology (as recently seen in the nuclear reactor complex in Syria, which was built with North Korean assistance and destroyed by Israeli aircraft in 2007).

Further action to prevent North Korea from aiding other states and non-state actors in their pursuit of nuclear weapons is necessary to maintain some semblance of international stability and domestic security. However, as (or if) steps are taken to that effect, Pyongyang will certainly ratchet up its threatening rhetoric and activities - something that will make President Obama’s position incredibly uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, if Obama’s response to Pyongyang’s recent missile and nuclear tests are any indication, the administration’s answer to such aggression will be to dial back the pressure, rather than to keep the heat on the rogue state to comply with international will.

The U.S. currently has 30,000 soldiers and airmen stationed in South Korea as a guarantor of American military intervention should Pyongyang decide to withdraw from the 1953 armistice and resume open war with the South. Should the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continue ratcheting up its level of belligerence in response to Obama’s efforts to placate the rogue regime, the foreign policy neophyte currently serving as Commander in Chief of the U.S. military will have some very difficult decisions to make.

Jeff Emanuel, a special operations military veteran, is a columnist, a combat journalist, and a director emeritus of conservative weblog RedState.com. He was stationed in Uijongbu, Republic of Korea in 2002.





By Jeffrey P. Emanuel

[American Patriot]

U.S Warns N. Korea Of "Consequences"

As Communist Nation Ratchets Up Threats Of Military Action, U.S. Looks To U.N. For Sanctions

Comment On This Post
May 27, 2009

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

A North Korean patrol boat ferries some youths along the Yalu river dividing China and North Korea across from Dandong, northeastern China's Liaoning province, May 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)






N. Korea Tests World Patience

North Korea conducted a nuclear test to which President Obama called a matter of "grave concern." Barry Peterson reports. Joint Chiefs Of Staff's Adm. Mike Mullen discussed the tests. | Share/Embed

• 
  N. Korea Tests World Patience (5:53)
• 
  U.N. Reacts To Nuke Test (2:20)
• 
  N. Korea's Nuclear Test (2:15)

» More Videos



Related






(CBS/AP) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning that North Korea will face consequences because of "provocative and belligerent" actions that include threatened military attacks against U.S. and South Korean warships.

Clinton also underscored Wednesday the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan in the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear and missile tests this week. She said that talks at the United Nations "are going on to add to the consequences that North Korea will face." She did not provide specifics.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that North Korea's threats against South Korea will not give it the attention Pyongyang wants and will only add to its isolation.

North Korea threatened military action Wednesday against U.S. and South Korean warships plying the waters near the Koreas' disputed maritime border, raising the specter of a naval clash just days after the regime's underground nuclear test.

Pyongyang, reacting angrily to Seoul's decision to join an international program to intercept ships suspected of aiding nuclear proliferation, called the move tantamount to a declaration of war. The threats raise the specter of a naval clash just days after the regime's underground nuclear test.

"Now that the South Korean puppets were so ridiculous as to join in the said racket and dare declare a war against compatriots," North Korea is "compelled to take a decisive measure," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state media.

Seoul's decision comes at a time when "the state of military confrontation is growing acute and there is constant danger of military conflict," the statement warned.

South Korea's military said Wednesday it was prepared to "respond sternly" to any North Korean provocation.

North Korea's latest belligerence comes as the U.N. Security Council debates how to punish the regime for testing a nuclear bomb Monday in what President Barack Obama called a "blatant violation" of international law.

Ambassadors from the five permanent veto-wielding council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - as well as Japan and South Korea were working out the details of a new resolution.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith the North Korean regime, "needs to understand that its actions have consequences. The international community, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, we're not going to walk away and just throw up our hands and say, 'Let them pursue this path.' They will pay a price for their actions."

Rice said she expected the coming meeting of the Security Council to yield a new resolution on Pyongyang which she believes "will have teeth in it.

"I expect additional sanctions. The pressure will increase on North Korea, economically and otherwise," the ambassador told Smith.

Asked whether the reclusive communist nation's defiance during the previous 48 hours had prompted the Obama administration to more seriously consider a military response, Rice told CBS News the government would "take the steps that are necessary to protect our country and our people.

For meaningful sanctions, however, the Security Council will have to convince China, traditionally softer in its approach to North Korea, of the need for firmer action.

CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports that Beijing is having to tread very carefully in how it deals with its suddenly-more-belligerent ally. North Korea is presently a huge importer of Chinese goods, but that cross-border flow could turn into a flood of North Korean refugees seeking safety in China if tensions escalate too far. (Click here to read more from Petersen.)

The international community ... [is] not going to walk away and just throw up our hands and say, 'Let them pursue this path.' [North Korea] will pay a price for their actions.
Susan Rice,
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

"It's not going too far to say that China holds the keys on sanctions," said Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Seoul's Korea University.

South Korea, divided from the North by a heavily fortified border, had responded to the nuclear test by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led network of nations seeking to stop ships from transporting the materials used in nuclear bombs.

Seoul previously resisted joining the PSI in favor of seeking reconciliation with Pyongyang, but pushed those efforts aside Monday after the nuclear test in the northeast.

North Korea warned Wednesday that any attempt to stop, board or inspect its ships would constitute a "grave violation."

The regime also said it could no longer promise the safety of U.S. and South Korean warships and civilian vessels in the waters near the Korea's western maritime border.

"They should bear in mind that the (North) has tremendous military muscle and its own method of strike able to conquer any targets in its vicinity at one stroke or hit the U.S. on the raw, if necessary," it said.

The maritime border has long been a flashpoint between the two Koreas. North Korea disputes the line unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the end of the Koreas' three-year war in 1953, and has demanded it be redrawn further south.

The truce signed in 1953 and subsequent military agreements call for both sides to refrain from warfare, but doesn't cover the waters off the west coast.

North Korea has used the maritime border dispute to provoke two deadly naval skirmishes - in 1999 and 2002.

On Wednesday, the regime promised "unimaginable and merciless punishment" for anyone daring to challenge its ships.

Pyongyang also reportedly restarted its weapons-grade nuclear plant, South Korean media said.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel. The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also carried a similar report.

The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm.

North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.

The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 13 to 18 pounds of plutonium - enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.

Further ratcheting up tensions, North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles over the past two days, South Korean officials confirmed.

Russia's foreign minister said world powers must be firm with North Korea but take care to avoid inflaming tensions further.

The world "must not rush to punish North Korea just for punishment's sake," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Russia wants a Security Council resolution that will help restart stalled six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear programs and will not provoke Pyongyang into even more aggressive activity.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged officials to "remain calm" in the face of North Korean threats, said Lee Dong-kwan, his spokesman.

Pyongyang isn't afraid of any repercussions for its actions, a North Korean newspaper, the Minju Joson, said Wednesday.

"It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions," it said in an editorial. "We've been living under U.S. sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward. The U.S. sanctions policy toward North Korea is like striking a rock with a rotten egg."

[American Patriot]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never thought I would see the day.....



Iran denounces North Korean nuclear test
http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=958976


5/25/2009 11:57 AM ET (RTTNews) - Iran, once branded by the west as a part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea over its nuclear program, criticized the nuclear test conducted Monday by Pyongyang.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this while responding to a question during a press conference in capital Tehran.

"Iran basically opposes nuclear weapons and favors international efforts for global de-nuclearization," he told reporters.

Iran is facing the threat of a fifth round of sanctions from the U.N. Security Council to pressure it to stop enriching uranium. It is irked by the continuing interference by the west, demanding transparency of its nuclear activities.

Tehran denies that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and insists that uranium-enrichment is meant for peaceful purposes.

Ahmmedinejad also denied that Iran had had any nuclear cooperation with North Korea, and added: "Iran's civil and nuclear program is developed depending solely on indigenous know-how and experts".

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

[American Patriot]

"I want to underscore the commitments the United States has and intends always to honor for the defense of South Korea and Japan," Clinton said. "That is part of our alliance commitment that we take very seriously."
more by Hillary Rodham Clinton - 47 minutes ago

(Of course, she also said:

"I remember landing under sniper fire," Senator Clinton said last week. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down.")

[American Patriot]

US underscores commitments to defend SKorea, Japan
1 hour ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...Fgt74of1k0XlgA


WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Wednesday the US commitments to defend South Korea and Japan amid continuing threats from North Korea.


"I want to underscore the commitments the United States has and intends always to honor for the defense of South Korea and Japan," Clinton said. "That is part of our alliance commitment that we take very seriously."


Speaking during a visit by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, Clinton said the United States still hoped North Korea would return to multiparty nuclear disarmament talks.


North Korea said Wednesday it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean war and warned it could launch a military attack on South Korea.
The North's anger was provoked by the South's decision to join a US-led international Proliferation Security Initiative, established after the September 11 attacks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.


The PSI, which now groups 95 nations, provides for stopping vessels to ensure they are not carrying weapons of mass destruction or the components to make them. The South announced it was joining on Tuesday.