US, S.Korea likely to approve new military exercises

July 14, 2010
Reuters

The United States and South Korea are likely to approve next week a series of joint military exercises, including naval and air exercises, in both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

"We are not yet ready to discuss the precise details of those exercises but they will involve a wide range of assets and are expected to be initiated in the near future," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.

The exercises will be discussed when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visit Seoul next week for bilateral talks, Morrell said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT01458420100714

spy chief-nominee warns of more N.Korean attacks

July 20, 2010

Reuters

North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year may have marked the start of a "dangerous new period" of direct attacks by Pyongyang on the South, the retired general nominated to be President Barack Obama's intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

"The most important lesson for all of us in the intelligence community from this year's provocations by Pyongyang is to realise that we may be entering a dangerous new period when North Korea will once again attempt to advance its internal and external political goals through direct attacks on our allies in the Republic of Korea," James Clapper, nominated as director of national intelligence, said in a written response to questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Coupled with this is a renewed realization that North Korea's military forces still pose a threat that cannot be taken lightly," Clapper added in his response to the questions, released by the committee at the start of his Senate confirmation hearing.

(Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66J5KX20100720

U.S. and South Korea to stage military drills after ship sunk

July 14, 2010

Retures

The United States and South Korea are expected to soon approve a series of joint military exercises that aim to deter the North from any future attack following the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The naval and air exercises in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, likely to be finalized during high-level talks next week in Seoul, go beyond those previously announced following the March attack that killed 46 sailors.North Korea has denied responsibility but is widely blamed for sinking the warship.

"All of these exercises are defensive in nature but will send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea and demonstrate our steadfast commitment to the defense of South Korea," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.

He declined to offer details but said the exercises "will involve a wide range of assets and are expected to be initiated in the near future."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will likely approve the plans when they meet their counterparts in Seoul on July 21, he said.

China, North Korea's only real ally and benefactor, has closely followed the possibility of U.S. military exercises in the Yellow Sea. It has voiced concern about reports that a U.S. aircraft carrier may be involved.

Morrell said Beijing had no say about the drills, however.

"Obviously (the Chinese) are a regional power and a country ... whose opinion we respect and consider," Morrell said.

"But this is a matter of our ability to exercise in open seas, in international waters. Those determinations are made by us and us alone."

The United States has about 28,000 forces in South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North nearly six decades after the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The U.S. military had long planned to hand over potential wartime operational control of South Korean forces by 2012, should conflict break out on the Korean Peninsula again.

But President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed last month to push back that date until the second half of 2015.

The delay was meant to send a clear message about U.S. staying power in the region and had been under discussion months before warship's sinking, U.S. officials have said.

Morrell said the delay would allow a broader transfer of responsibilities, including off the ground operations command.

"This will allow us to make sure we are all synched up and ultimately be stronger as an alliance for having taken the time to do so," he told reporters at the Pentagon.

(By Phil Stewart Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66D47V20100714

South Korea urges world to rein in reclusive North

June 4 2010
Reuters


South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who blames North Korea for sinking a navy vessel, will urge the world on Friday to respond firmly to such aggression and to convince the hermit state to give up nuclear weapons.

Lee, speaking at a security conference in Singapore, will also stress the importance of the North returning to stalled six-party talks on ending its atomic ambitions and reaching a successful conclusion, the presidential Blue House said.

The North, for its part, said war could break out at any moment.

South Korea has blamed the North for torpedoing its naval vessel, the Cheonan, in March, killing 46 sailors. The North denies responsibility and has regularly accused the South of staging the incident to help Lee in this week's local elections. 

"The international community must join in efforts to convince the North's leadership to discard the belief that the way to survival as a powerful nation is by nuclear armament," Lee will say.

Lee will also stress that the six-party talks "must be used to fundamentally resolve the North Korean nuclear problem", the Blue House said.

"Lee will stress the graveness of the North Korean nuclear issue and the Cheonan incident and will underscore the need for the international community to respond firmly to the North's threats to peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia," it said in a statement.

"The Cheonan incident in particular requires the North to admit to its wrongdoing and promise that similar incidents will not be repeated."

"ALL-OUT WAR"
A North Korean envoy said in Geneva on Thursday that war could erupt at any time on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea's troops were on "full alert and readiness to promptly react to any retaliation", including the scenario of all-out war, Ri Jang Gon, North Korea's deputy ambassador in Geneva, told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament.

Ri said that only the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two countries would lead to the "successful denuclearisation" of the peninsula. The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, but no formal treaty.

The North's KCNA news agency accused the South of trespassing into its naval territory ahead of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills next week and said war could break out "at any moment".

"The puppet military is massively amassing offensive forces in the waters off five islets of the West Sea ... and ceaselessly infiltrating its warships into the territorial waters of the DPRK for the purpose of sparking off a new armed conflict," it said.

"It is needless to say that the large-scale 'demonstration of military muscle' and war manoeuvres taking place under this situation are as dangerous acts as playing with fire by the side of a powder magazine.

"These moves are, in fact, a prelude to an all-out war." 
by Nick Macfie; Editing by Alex Richardson
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSTOE65303Q

N Korea 'exporting nuclear goods'

May 28, 2010

The Press Association

North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries and overseas criminal networks to avoid UN sanctions, a report has said.
A UN panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea said research indicates that Pyongyang is involved in banned nuclear and ballistic activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
It called for further study of these suspected activities and urged all countries to try to prevent them.
The 47-page report documents sanctions violations reported by UN member states, including four cases involving arms exports and two seizures of luxury goods by Italy - two yachts and high-end recording and video equipment.
The report also details a broad range of techniques that North Korea is using to try to evade sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council after its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
These "masking techniques" included providing false descriptions and mislabelling the contents of shipping containers, falsifying the manifest and information about the origin and destination of goods and "use of multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial institutions".
Council diplomats discussed the report by the experts from Britain, Japan, the US, France, South Korea, Russia and China at a meeting on Thursday.
The report's release coincides with heightened tensions between North Korea and South Korea over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship which killed 46 sailors in March.
The council is waiting for South Korea to decide what action it wants the UN's most powerful body to take in response to the sinking, which a multinational investigation determined was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hz6TeBw20mR7FXePW43AVUGB9dTw