Agreement of 13 February 2007
Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement

• Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Korea Times, Seoul
• Washington Post

• Seoul Wants 'Sovereignty' in Peaceful Nuclear Development Choi Kyung-hwan
  South Korea should seek "peaceful nuclear sovereignty," Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Kyung-hwan suggested Wednesday, emancipating itself from tight U.S. limits on what it can and cannot do in the field.
  The country could assert its sovereignty by reclaiming the right to reprocess spent fuel rods, which is restricted by the bilateral agreement. The other two areas are mining and enrichment of uranium, and making and use of nuclear fuel. [Sovereignty] [Friction] [Imperialism]
• U.S. Against Resumption of S.Korean Nuclear Program
  The U.S. administration made it clear to Congress that it is against restoring South Korea's peaceful nuclear program by means of reprocessing spent fuel, advanced mainly by the ruling Grand National Party. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher made the point in an 85-page answer to Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee, in the course of her confirmation hearing on June 9. [Sovereignty] [Friction] [Imperialism]
• S.Korea to Seek Expansion of Nuclear Activities
  Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Thursday said the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement should be revised "as soon as possible." Yu said Seoul will seek "concrete consultations in the direction of maximizing commercial gains from the supply of atomic raw materials and the handling of spent fuel." Yu made the remarks in the press briefing after the U.S. said earlier this week it is against allowing South Korea to reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel. "We'll have to depend much more on atomic energy in coping with climate change in the future," Yu said. "What we are interested in about the atomic energy agreement between the two countries is setting a more concrete boundary of bilateral cooperation for the peaceful use of atomic energy." The revision of the agreement, which expires in 2014, will reportedly begin in 2012. Under the 1974 accord, South Korea is prohibited from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. South Korean politicians have recently called for revising the agreement following North Korea's second nuclear test. [Sovereignty] [Friction] [Imperialism]
• 'NK Pilfered Equipment at Nuclear Reactor Site'
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter South Korea plans to ask a multilateral organization for cooperation in checking the validity of a report that North Korea has pilfered equipment at a nuclear reactor site, a government official said Wednesday. But confirming the reported theft it is likely to take some time as the North has kept outsiders out of the Sinpo area of North Hamgyeong Province, where the site is located. [Agreed Framework]
• Pakistani scientist depicts more advanced nuclear program in North Korea
  Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said North Korea opened a By R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 28, 2009 North Korea has constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment, according to a previously unpublicized account by the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, a development that indicates Pyongyang opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s. [HEU]
• Extended Nuclear Deterrence: Global Abolition and Korea
  By Peter Hayes December 17th, 2009 Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, analyses developments in the system of United States nuclear hegemony in East Asia deriving from North Korea’s drive for nuclear weapons. Hayes argues that “the nuclear threat projected by the US in this hegemonic system drove the DPRK to adopt a nuclear weapons proliferation strategy that was aimed at compelling the United States to change its policies towards the DPRK. The latter’s successful nuclear breakout demonstrates that today, the hegemon has no clothes, that is, it is not capable of stopping nuclear breakout by a key adversary.” Arguing that the reinforcing of guarantees of extended nuclear deterrence will be unsuccessful and “will lead to eventual nuclear proliferation by the allies themselves”, Hayes concludes that only conventional deterrence “is likely to curb the DPRK’s nuclear threat, head off long-run proliferation by the ROK and Japan, and by realigning its legitimating ideology (“Global Abolition”) with alliance institutions and force structures, restore the now rapidly dwindling US hegemony in the region.” [US NK policy] [US global strategy] [Decline]
• Hole in Ionosphere Reveals Clues About North Korean Missile Launch
  * By Alexis Madrigal * December 15, 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO — North Korean missile tests may sometimes flop, but their program continues to make strides in building bigger, more powerful projectiles, according to new research presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting Tuesday. In April of this year, the country launched a Taepodong-2 missile with the intent of placing a satellite in orbit. It does not appear to have done so, though the North Korean government claims it did. [Satellite]
• Analysts spar over launch image- North Korean rocket trajectory may be too shallow for satellite launch
  April 8, 2009 at 3:21 pm | In Space Law, Space Law Current Events | Leave a Comment by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz with the blog faculty Source: Nature News Korean rocketThe WorldView-1 satellite caught a picture of North Korea’s rocket moments after launch. A photograph snapped by a passing commercial satellite has one arms-control expert questioning whether North Korea’s rocket launch on 5 April was intended for peaceful purposes, as initially claimed. But other analysts are sceptical.
  Based on his analysis, the TD-2’s course appears to be too shallow to be a space launch. To reach orbit, Forden says, the rocket should have been travelling almost vertically in an attempt to gain altitude early on in its flight. Instead, it appears to be pitching horizontally, sacrificing height for distance in a trajectory that would allow it to sling a warhead as far as possible. Such a trajectory could be consistent with that of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). [Satellite]
• DPRK’s Stay Clear Zones
  posted Friday March 13, 2009 under north-korea, outer-space by geoffrey_forden North Korea has declared the stay clear zones ( as pointed out by a number of people in the comments to my alert post). You can down load a Google Earth file of these stay clear zones here. These zones imply that North Korea is launching its rocket due East. If its fired due East, why do the zones appear to tend to the South? Before people get excited about this, you have to realize that a launched object remains in a plane that passes through the launch point and the center of the Earth. This plane’s intersection with the Earth’s surface at the launch point forms a line that, in this case, appears locally to go directly East-West. Once you get away from the launch point, the intersection of the plane appears to fall to the South (if the launch point is in the Northern hemisphere) Believe me, this is entirely consistent with a launch due East that takes full advantage of the Earth’s rotational speed. [Satellite]
• KEPCO in talks to build nuclear reactor
  India's monopoly nuclear power generator is in talks with the Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea's largest utility, to build an atomic plant. Korea is keen to export lightwater reactors to India and sent a delegation to Nuclear Power Corp. to discuss opportunities,
  India aims to increase its nuclear power generation capacity 10-fold to 40,000 megawatts by 2035, Nuclear Power Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said on Dec. 10. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• Korea Has Come a Long Way in Nuclear Technology
  Behind-the-scenes diplomatic support played a major role in Korea winning a US$40 billion nuclear power plant order from the United Arab Emirates. But diplomatic maneuvering would have had no effect unless Korea had the necessary top-notch design, construction and operation technology. There has not been a single radioactive leak in Korea since the country began operating its first nuclear power plant in 1978. The operating rate was 93.3 percent, compared to 89.9 percent in the U.S., 76.1 percent in France and 59.2 percent in Japan [Nuclear energy]
• N.Korea 'Had Enriched Uranium in 2002'
  North Korea had enriched small amounts of uranium by 2002 with some 3,000 centrifuges and a plant making uranium hexafluoride, a gas essential for the process, built there in the 1990s, the Washington Post reported on Sunday citing the renegade nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The paper based the claim on a previously unpublicized account by Khan (73), the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb who has since been hawking nuclear technology around the world to all comers, including the North. [HEU]
• North Korea’s Missile Program
  By David Wright December 15th, 2009 David Wright, Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) Global Security Program, writes, “There are a range of specific steps the United States can take as part of a diplomatic effort to place meaningful limits on North Korea’s ballistic missile program. These could help roll back the threat posed by these weapons, and could help integrate North Korea into the international community.” [US NK policy]
• Nation given N-bomb warning
  From: The Australian December 14, 2009 12:00AM AUSTRALIA may be forced to acquire nuclear weapons to tackle deteriorating Asian security, a government-funded defence think tank has warned. Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Rod Lyons said a loss of confidence in US nuclear deterrence or the appearance of a new nuclear state in Asia could force Australia to take the nuclear arms option. The comments will embarrass Kevin Rudd ahead of the launch of the report from the international commission on nuclear disarmament during his visit to Japan this week. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Strategic incoherence]
• A delicate issue: Asia's nuclear future
  Monday, 14 December 2009 The world stands on the cusp of a new era in nuclear relations—one in which Asia is likely to become the dominant influence on global nuclear arrangements. The old, bilateral nuclear symmetry of the Cold War is giving way to new multiplayer, asymmetric nuclear relationships. And it is doing so at a time when power balances are shifting across Asia, when pressures for proliferation are returning to the regional agenda, and when non-state actors are an increasingly worrying part of the Asian nuclear equation. The paper, authored by Rod Lyon, argues that Australia’s own policy options will be profoundly shaped by how Asia’s nuclear future unfolds. It looks at how Australia can assist with redesigning nuclear order in a cooperative Asia but notes a darker, more competitive Asian nuclear future would confront Australian policymakers with difficult choices, of hedging rather than ordering. The report concludes that Australian strategic policy should retain the flexibility to accommodate a range of possible Asian nuclear futures, striking a balance between its ordering and hedging strategies during a possible turbulent era in regional security. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards] [Strategic incoherence] A
• Rethinking Extended Nuclear Deterrence in the Defence of Australia
  Richard Tanter “US intelligence also helped us to assess the risk of Soviet nuclear strikes on Australia in the event of global nuclear war. We were able to identify the locations in Australia that were targeted by Moscow and assess likely casualties. We judged, for example, that the SS-11 ICBM site at Svobodny in Siberia was capable of inflicting one million instant deaths and 750,000 radiation deaths on Sydney. And you would not have wanted to live in Alice Springs, Woomera or Exmouth -- or even Adelaide.” Paul Dibb, America has always kept us in the loop1 Synopsis This article examines the foundations and rationale for Australian reliance on US assurances of extended nuclear deterrence (END). The Australian model of END is marked by its lack of public presence, a lack of certainty about its standing and character in American eyes, its lack of a direct nuclear threat, and its resurgence at a time when nuclear abolition possibilities are being embraced by the leader of the deterrence provider. Australian policy amounts to a claim that the nuclear guarantee is necessary ‘just in case’ – though without any plausible specifics. The fundamental questions remain: what threats, what probabilities, what alternatives? These have never been seriously discussed in public in Australia.”
• More Than 23,000 Nukes Found in 14 Nations, Report Says
  Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 There are an estimated 23,360 nuclear weapons stockpiled in 14 nations, with the great majority held by Russia and the United States, two nonproliferation experts said in a report issued this week (see GSN, Oct. 20). (Nov. 18) - There are nine nations known or widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons -- China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Another five European states -- Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands -- also host U.S. nuclear bombs. Russia is believed to hold roughly 13,000 nuclear weapons, of which 4,850 are on active or operational status. "The status of the other 8,150 warheads is unclear. Some portion may be in reserve with the balance retired and awaiting dismantlement," Robert Norris and Hans Kristensen stated in the November/December edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The United States holds about 9,400 nuclear weapons, with 2,700 on operational status. [Nuclear weapons] [military balance]
• A faux disarmament plan has roots in the Golden State's pro-nuclear lobby
  December 2009 By Darwin BondGraham and Nicholas Robinson and Will Parrish printer friendly version BondGraham's ZSpace page In early 2007 four honored Cold Warriors published what appeared to be an unlikely op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) calling for a "world free of nuclear weapons." The essay was signed by none other than the former Secretaries of State George P. Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William S. Perry, and former Georgia Senator and long-time Chair of the Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn. Now referred to as the "the four horsemen" by those who work on nuclear policy, they wrote that complete nuclear disarmament is "a bold initiative consistent with America's moral heritage." The essay implored international leaders to work "energetically on the actions required to achieve" the lofty goals outlined within. [Disarmament] [Spin] [Camouflage] [[US global strategy]
• NATO's Secret Transatlantic Bond: Nuclear Weapons In Europe
  By Rick Rozoff    Global Research, December 4, 2009 "Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and German pilots remain ready to engage in nuclear war." [Nuclear weapons]
• Satellite launched to watch N. Korea
  Saturday, November 28, 2009 12:37 PM   Nov. 28, 2009 (The Yomiuri Shimbun) -- MINAMI-TANECHO, Kagoshima--An H-2A rocket carrying an intelligence-gathering satellite intended to inspect military facilities and other locations in North Korea was successfully launched Saturday morning from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. The H-2A No. 16 rocket lifted off at 10:21 a.m., and the satellite was confirmed to have reached orbit soon after. It was this country's 10th consecutive successful launch of an H-2A rocket and the 15th successful launch overall. [Satellite] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Double standards]
• Pyongyang must be willing to abandon nuclear arms before deal: official
     By Byun Duk-kun SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea must be ready to completely give up its nuclear ambitions before talking of rewards under Seoul's "grand bargain" that seeks to denuclearize the North in a single step, a senior South Korean official said Wednesday.    Kim Tae-hyo, secretary to President Lee Myung-bak for national security strategy, said the countries involved in six-way nuclear negotiations will no longer commit to any deals that would only partially disable or dismantle the North's nuclear programs.    "North Korea must at least be ready to dismantle its nuclear programs if it wants to come to the negotiating table for discussions on the grand bargain," Kim said on a news program aired by local cable news channel YTN.    "Coming to the negotiating table to discuss what it can get from the international community while hiding key elements of its nuclear programs will simply not be enough," he added.    The remarks come amid hopes Pyongyang will soon return to the six-nation nuclear negotiations following its anticipated bilateral dialogue with Washington. South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are parties to the talks.    Kim's comments apparently reflect the frustration of the international community at the recurring pattern of Pyongyang reneging on agreements and demanding more incentives for returning to negotiations.    Pyongyang disabled the key elements of its plutonium program up until late last year under a six-way accord signed in 2007, but has since restored most of the facilities and announced earlier this month that it has completed extracting plutonium, a core ingredient for making atomic bombs, from spent fuel rods.    The communist nation also provoked an armed clash with South Korea's naval forces last week in the Yellow Sea, just days before U.S. President Barack Obama was to visit Seoul.    "A serious message to the North will likely emerge from the upcoming summit (between Lee and Obama)," the presidential aide said.    Lee and Obama hold summit talks Thursday [SK NK policy] [Sequencing] [Intelligent design]

• KEDO to Discuss Selling Nuclear Reactor Materials
  Member countries of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) will begin talks on Tuesday to tie up loose ends after it terminated the construction of a light-water nuclear reactor for North Korea in 2006. Seoul's foreign ministry says KEDO representatives from South Korea, the U.S., Japan and the European Union will meet in New York for two days. They will discuss how to go about liquidating the equipment and construction materials used in the now defunct multinational project to build a power plant. After the project's cancellation the Korea Electric Power Corporation acquired the rights to all machine parts and supplies, which are currently in storage. With prospects for restarting the project very grim and storage fees costing millions of dollars every year, the Seoul-based electric company wants to sell them. [KEDO] [Agreed Framework] [Renege]
• First Weather Satellite to Lift Off in March
  South Korea will launch its first weather-communications satellite in March that will allow the country to gather high-quality ocean meteorological data. The satellite will be placed in geostationary orbit 36,000km from Earth and be equipped with a multi-spectrum camera and sensor array that can help monitor typhoons, ocean temperatures, the movement of dust and cloud formations, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. "The satellite, built in cooperation with Astrium, has been assembled in the country by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and will be shipped to Toulouse, France, within the month for final performance evaluations," Yoo Guk-hee, head of the ministry's space development division, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. The official added that cooperation with Astrium, a global leader in satellite production, has helped improve the country's capabilities in this state-of-the-art field. The actual launch of the satellite will take place at the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou in South America, he said. [Satellite]
• Firm Will Is Needed to Advance Korea's Space Program
  An independent panel of experts investigating the failure of Korea's first satellite launch rocket earlier this year announced on Thursday that the cause was an abnormal separation of the nose fairing assembly which covered the satellite payload. It caused by either a mechanical problem or a delayed detonation of a charge that facilitates the separation. The panel said no other abnormalities occurred during the launch. If that analysis is correct, then there is a good chance that the failure of the Naro or KSLV-1 rocket to put its satellite payload into orbit was due to a mistake in the portion of the rocket that Korean scientists were in charge of. [Satellite]
• IAEA Faces Continuing Funding Troubles, ElBaradei Says
  Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 Despite becoming a "major player" on nuclear security issues, the International Atomic Energy Agency continues to face funding difficulties that threaten the organization's ability to carry out its mandate, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly (see GSN, Oct. 22).
  "The gravest threat the world faces today, in my opinion, is that extremists could get hold of nuclear or radioactive materials," he said. "In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the IAEA initiated a comprehensive program to combat the risk of nuclear terrorism.
  "Important lessons need to be learned" from how proliferation concerns were addressed in Iraq and North Korea, he said. "We must let diplomacy and thorough verification take their course, however lengthy and tiresome the process might be. We need to carefully assess the veracity of intelligence information. We must engage those with whom we have differences in dialogue rather than seeking to isolate them. We must act within the framework of international institutions -- in this case, the IAEA and the Security Council -- and empower them, rather than bypass them through unilateral action. The agency, for its part, must draw conclusions justified by the facts only. It must not jump the gun or be influenced by political considerations. Force should never be used unless every other option has been exhausted, and then only within the bounds of international law, as codified in the United Nations Charter." [IAEA] [Terrorism] [UNUS]
• N.Korea 'Completes Plutonium Extraction'
  North Korea on Tuesday said it completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods in late August. "Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering the nuclear deterrent," it said. The claim was made by the official KCNA news agency. It said the North was "compelled to take measures for bolstering its deterrent for self-defense against the increasing nuclear threat and military provocations of the hostile forces."
• DPRK Completes Reprocessing of Spent Fuel Rods
  Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Six months have passed since the United States brought up the DPRK's launch of a satellite for peaceful purposes for discussion at the UN Security Council in last April, putting into effect sanctions against it. In this period, the DPRK restarted the reprocessing facilities and successfully completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods by the end of August as part of the measure taken to restore the nuclear facilities in Nyongbyon to their original state which had been disabled under the agreement reached by the six parties. The DPRK had already clarified that this action taken by the UNSC itself was a wanton infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and a grave insult to the dignity of its people as it legitimately conducted the satellite launch after going through international legal procedures. The DPRK which regards the security of the country and the sovereignty of the nation as its life and soul was compelled to take measures for bolstering up its deterrent for self-defence to cope with the increasing nuclear threat and military provocations of the hostile forces. Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent in the DPRK. [Resolution 1874] [Satellite]
• N. Korea appears to have restored plutonium-generating plant: officials
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has apparently restored its facility used to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear complex that had been mothballed under a six-nation accord, officials here said Monday. "The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier conditions," a senior defense official said, citing satellite photos that also showed a continuous stream of workers in and out of the site in Yongbyon, 90km north of Pyongyang.
• The Atomic Bombing, The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the Shimoda Case: Lessons for Anti-Nuclear Legal Movements
  Yuki Tanaka and Richard Falk Yuki Tanaka’s article is followed by a companion article by Richard Falk The War Crimes Trials and the Issue of Indiscriminate Bombing On May 14, 1946, ten days after the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (popularly known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal), Captain George Furness, a member of the defense counsel, cast serious doubt on the fairness of the Tribunal conducted by the victorious nations in World War II: ‘We say that regardless of the known integrity of the individual Members of this Tribunal they cannot, under the circumstances of their appointment, be impartial; that under such circumstances this trial, both in the present day and history, will never be free from substantial doubt as to its legality, fairness, and impartiality.’1 For this reason Captain Furness urged that the trial be conducted “by representatives of neutral nations free from the heat and hatred of war.”2 [War crimes]

• U.S. Backs U.N. Committee Call for Nuclear Disarmament
  Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 A disarmament committee of the United Nations passed a resolution yesterday that calls for the global elimination of nuclear weapons. The United States added its support to the measure for the first time in nine years, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Sept. 24). The First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly announced that the resolution submitted by Japan had the support of 170 countries. That is the most support ever for the resolution, which has been approved annually since 1994. North Korea and India voted against the measure, while Bhutan, China, Cuba, France, Iran, Israel, Myanmar and Pakistan abstained. The resolution urges all U.N. nations to "take further practical steps and effective measures toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons." In the resolution, the committee recognized actions taken by certain states, notably Russia and the United States, in encouraging "the recent global momentum of nuclear disarmament toward a world without nuclear weapons." Member nations were urged to enforce sanctions placed on North Korea under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in the wake of the regime's second nuclear test in May. The First Committee called for North Korea to "return immediately and without preconditions" to the six-nation nuclear negotiation talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States (see related GSN story, today). [Disarmarmament] [UNUS]
• DPRK holds disarmament seminar
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-29 19:56:05 Print PYONGYANG, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a disarmament seminar on Thursday on the occasion of "U.N. Disarmament Week (Oct. 24-30)." The meeting was attended by researchers and scientists from the International Affairs Institute and the Disarmament and Peace Institute of the DPRK. They discussed a series of issues including how to improve the function and role of the U.N. and the Geneva disarmament conference, and the efficiency and limitations of international treaties and agreements on disarmament. They believed that the world's biggest nuclear weapons states should take the lead in materializing nuclear disarmament. They underlined the need to make the "hostile forces roll back their policies of antagonizing the DPRK" as well as pressurize the U.S. forces to pull back from South Korea and its vicinity, and stop all forms of war exercises there. It was also important to hold in check U.S. moves for building a missile shield as it might trigger a new arms race, they added. [Disarmament]
• DPRK rejects UN Resolution 1887 on non-proliferation, disarmament
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-30 22:28:52 Print PYONGYANG, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) "totally rejected" UN Security Council Resolution 1887 on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, the KCNA news agency reported Wednesday. The DPRK "will not be bound to it at all," as the resolution was "a double-standard document," which "failed to fully reflect the desire and will of the international community," the KCNA said, citing an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman. Countries with the most nuclear weapons should take the lead in reducing and destroying them, which was a prerequisite to establishing a "world free of nuclear weapons," said the spokesman. The DPRK, which had lived under constant nuclear threat from the United States over the past half-century, "was compelled to have access to a nuclear deterrent," he said. He added that the DPRK was willing to make vigorous efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula in the future and contribute its efforts in building a world free of nuclear weapons under the precondition that the United States changed its nuclear policy toward the DPRK. The UN Security Council last Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at enhancing nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Resolution 1887 calls for nations to begin talks on nuclear arms reduction and to negotiate "a treaty on general and complete disarmament." [Disarmament]
• N.Korea 'Preparing for Possible Return to Nuke Talks'
  A Russian representative announced that North Korea is gearing up for a potential return to the multilateral negotiating table depending on the outcome of upcoming bilateral talks with the U.S. Stressing that this does not necessarily mean the six-party nuclear talks, Georgy Toloraya, director of the Korean program at the Russian Academy of Science, projected that the communist regime would not renounce its nuclear program unless it is sure it will "get some tangible results."
• Iraq goes nuclear with plans for new reactor programme
  * Martin Chulov in Baghdad * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 20.43 GMT Iraq has started lobbying for approval to again become a nuclear player, almost 19 years after British and American war planes destroyed Saddam Hussein's last two reactors, the Guardian has learned. The Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war. The government has also contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations to seek ways around resolutions that ban Iraq's re-entry into the nuclear field. Iraq says it envisages that a reactor would be used initially for research purposes. "We are co-operating with the IAEA and expanding and defining areas of research where we can implement nuclear technology for peaceful means," the science and technology minister, Raid Fahmi, told the Guardian. "After the dissolution [of the regime] we did not have an industry, but we have become more and more conscious of the need for nuclear technology. This was raised several months ago with the relevant bodies."
• NIE Reveals Qom Facility Followed 2007 Bush Threats
  By Gareth Porter* WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (IPS) - The Barack Obama administration claims that construction of a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility at Qom began before Tehran's decision to withdraw from a previous agreement to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in advance of such construction. But the November 2007 U.S. intelligence estimate on Iran's nuclear programme tells a different story. The Iranian decision to withdraw from the earlier agreement with the IAEA was prompted, moreover, by the campaign of threats to Iran's nuclear facilities mounted by the George W. Bush administration in early 2007, as a reconstruction of the sequence of events shows. A senior administration official who briefed reporters Sep. 25 said, "We know construction of the facility began even before the Iranians unilaterally said they did not feel bound by that [IAEA] obligation." The U.S. intelligence assessment of the period, however, makes it clear that Iran did not begin construction on the Qom enrichment facility until long after its public change of policy on informing the IAEA. The published key judgments of the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear programme contained a little-noticed statement that the intelligence community judged that Iran's "covert" uranium conversion and enrichment activity had "probably been halted in response to the fall 2003 halt", and "probably had not been restarted through at least mid-2007". That clearly implied that U.S. intelligence had found no evidence of any undeclared covert enrichment facility.
• Calls for nuclear weapons in South Korea
  Published: Oct. 21, 2009 at 9:07 AM By LEE JONG-HEON, UPI Correspondent SEOUL, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- With the U.S. defense chief in Seoul for security talks, a group of scholars and retired military officials have called for a redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea to counter North Korea's nuclear drive. They also urged the United States to delay the planned transfer of wartime control of South Korean troops to Seoul beyond 2012, citing lingering threats from the North. [Nuclear weapons] [Sovereignty] [SK NK policy][Proliferation]
• Clinton Says Iran and North Korea Must Curb Nuclear Ambitions
  By BRIAN KNOWLTON Published: October 21, 2009 WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took a tough approach on Wednesday on several proliferation issues, saying that Iran and North Korea must take decisive action to curb their nuclear programs, and not just talk about doing so, if they expected to enjoy an easing of global pressures. [US NK policy] [Sequencing] [Double standards]
• DPRK Energy Sector Assistance to Accompany Progress in Denuclearization Discussions: Options and Considerations
  By David von Hippel and Peter Hayes October 21st, 2009 This paper was produced as part of the project “Improving Regional Security and Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula: U.S. Policy Interests and Options.” http://www.nautilus.org/DPRKPolicy.html These reports are also available on the National Committee on North Korea web site: http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/DPRKPolicy_interests_and_options David von Hippel, Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, and Peter Hayes, Nautilus Institute Executive Director, write, “Resolving—or at least taking meaningful steps toward resolving—North Korea’s chronic energy sector problems is a necessary condition to induce the country to surrender its nuclear weapons and fissile material. Failing to address the DPRK’s underlying needs for energy services will virtually guarantee that any solution to the nuclear weapons issue will be unsustainable. [US NK policy] [Energy]
• Thinking creatively about the North Korean stalemate
  By Hugh Gusterson
  | 12 August 2009 We all know the saying that you can't be a little bit pregnant--either you are or you aren't. According to Henry Kissinger, getting nuclear weapons is like getting pregnant. In a Washington Post op-ed published on Nagasaki Day, Kissinger wrote, "The root cause of our decade-old controversy with Pyongyang is that there is no middle ground between North Korea being a nuclear-weapons state and a state without nuclear weapons." This is quite simply wrong--so wrong that Kissinger's statement suggests that another root cause of our decade-old controversy with Pyongyang may be an inability on the part of U.S. defense intellectuals to think creatively about the stalemate. Because being nuclear isn't like being pregnant at all: One can think of a number of agreements with North Korea that might allow it to be a little bit nuclear.
  In a situation where the U.S. government named them a charter member of the "axis of evil"; Washington made a provision for an attack on North Korea in its last Nuclear Posture Review; and pundits keep prattling on about the desirability of regime change in North Korea, why on earth would a rational North Korean leadership give up nuclear weapons, their ace on the hole?
  In a different way, Japan has a sort of virtual nuclear weapons status: Everyone knows that Tokyo has the nuclear material and scientific expertise to build a nuclear weapon within a few months if it should so choose, and it can use international recognition of this fact to exert subtle pressure from time to time. [US NK policy] [Nuclear weapons] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Seoul: NKorea uranium programme 'very worrying'
  (AFP) – 1 day ago SEOUL — South Korea Monday described North Korea's admission of an enriched uranium nuclear weapons programme (sic) as a "very worrying" development and questioned whether the country is committed to disarming. "North Korea indicated in a letter to the UN Security Council chairman that it had attempted to enrich uranium and succeeded to a degree," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told reporters. "Since this is a very worrying development, this issue is expected to be discussed separately by the United Nations." [HEU] [Spin] [Media]
• S.Korea 'Worried' About North's Uranium Program
  South Korea is calling North Korea's uranium enrichment program "worrisome." Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said in Seoul Monday the United Nations might discuss how to handle the uranium issue. He did not elaborate. North Korea announced last month it has entered the final stage of enriching uranium. That would give Pyongyang a second way to make nuclear bombs, in addition to its plutonium-based program. North Korea has signaled it is ready to return to international talks on its nuclear weapons program, if it gets to talk one-on-one with the United States. [HEU]
• Conferees Approve Study of Nuclear Bomb
  By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 17, 2009 The first step toward rebuilding one of the nation's tactical nuclear weapons so it could be put in the stockpile well into the 21st century has been approved by House and Senate conferees. The lawmakers permitted $32.5 million to be spent next year on feasibility, design and cost studies for the non-nuclear components of the B61-12 tactical nuclear bomb, according to their report released this week on the fiscal 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. The measure contains funds for the nation's nuclear weapons programs. The rebuilding of the bomb has raised caused some members of Congress and anti-nuclear activists to question whether a new nuclear weapon is being assembled. [Nuclear weapons]
• Nuclear double standard
  Like Iran, Israel, India and Pakistan also have dismal records of little or no cooperation with international inspectors By John Grula 10/14/2009 America’s perennial need for bogeymen (remember North Viet Nam? Manuel Noriega? Saddam Hussein?) is now focused on Iran. A recent example was the Sept. 25 announcement by President Obama that Iran is building a nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom. This revelation was orchestrated by a few Western leaders for maximum propaganda value. However, this Iranian project is not nearly as menacing or beyond the pale as Obama and company would have us believe. [NPT] [Double standards]
• Funds Released for New U.S. Plutonium Lab
  Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 Washington has made $47 million available for construction of a new nuclear research complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, May 5). One completed, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement building would assume the duties of an aging Los Alamos facility used for studying various radioactive substances such as plutonium. The site could also be capable of manufacturing plutonium nuclear-weapon cores, Obama administration officials have indicated. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• N.Korea 'Proposed Turning Reactor into Research Center'
  Last year North Korea reportedly proposed converting its Yongbyon nuclear complex into a research facility. Pyongyang's overture is thought to have come when the now suspended six-party nuclear talks were still alive. The revelation came at a conference in Washington where Joel Wit, a former senior U.S. State Department strategist with the Clinton administration spoke. Wit, now a senior research scholar of East Asian affairs at Columbia University, said North Korean scientists mentioned the possibility of transforming Yongbyon into a plant that would produce isotopes for medical applications. [Overtures] [US NK negotiations]
• EXCLUSIVE: Obama agrees to keep Israel's nukes secret
  Eli Lake President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said. The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May. Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs. Israel had been nervous that Mr. Obama would not continue the 1969 understanding because of his strong support for nonproliferation and priority on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. and five other world powers made progress during talks with Iran in Geneva on Thursday as Iran agreed in principle to transfer some potential bomb fuel out of the country and to open a recently disclosed facility to international inspection.
  Mr. Netanyahu let the news of the continued U.S.-Israeli accord slip last week in a remark that attracted little notice. He was asked by Israel's Channel 2 whether he was worried that Mr. Obama's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, calling for a world without nuclear weapons, would apply to Israel.
  "It was utterly clear from the context of the speech that he was speaking about North Korea and Iran (sic)," the Israeli leader said. "But I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue. It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received [that document]." [Disarmament] [Double standards] [Israel] [Spin]
• U.S. Not Seeking Disclosure of Israeli Nuclear Arsenal
  Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 The Obama administration does not intend to press Israel to give international monitors access to its nuclear weapons, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Sept. 29). Images). Israel has never officially acknowledged possession of what is believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, which is roughly estimated at between 100 and 200 warheads. Then-U.S. President Richard Nixon and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier in 1969 reportedly agreed that Washington would not challenge Jerusalem on the issue. The deal -- of which there is no official accounting -- essentially means that "the United States passively [accepts] Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon," according to expert Avner Cohen. The understanding has held up for 40 years. President Barack Obama indicated during a meeting in May with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he did not intend to change that policy, three officials told the Times. This comes even as Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament one of his key initiatives, very publicly raising the issue again last month at the United Nations (see GSN, Sept. 24). [Disarmament] [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• North vows not to give up its nuclear weapons
  October 02, 2009 North Korea vowed Wednesday not to be bound by the latest United Nations resolution on non-proliferation and disarmament, saying it will never give up its nuclear weapons under any circumstance (sic). A spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry told the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the prerequisite (sic) to global denuclearization is the United States and other heavy possessors of nuclear weapons carrying out their own disarmament. [Media] [Disinformation]
• DPRK's Will to Strive for Building Nuclear-free World Reiterated
  Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA on Wednesday as regards the recent summit of the UNSC member nations: Heads of state of the UNSC member nations met in New York on September 24 to discuss the issues of nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament and adopted UNSC Resolution 1887 on building "a world without nuclear weapons." What matters is that this resolution, too, is a double-standards document as it failed to fully reflect the desire and will of the world community as a whole. As a matter of fact, the summit should have called into question and dealt with the U.S. nuclear threat and the reality in which peace and stability are being seriously disturbed in different regions due to the above-said threat. [Disarmament] [Double standards]
• Korea to Spend $1.3 Bil. on Next Rocket
  By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter South Korea will spend about 1.5 trillion won (about $1.3 billion) on its second generation space rocket, after the joint Russian-Korean-made first generation vehicle failed to deliver its payload satellite into orbit last month. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the country's space agency, expects to complete the development of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle II (KSLV-II) by 2017, when it is to blast off from the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province to send a 1.5-kilometer satellite into orbit. [KSLV]

• North Korea’s Second Nuclear Test: Implications of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874
  By the Congressional Research Service September 29th, 2009 The Congressional Research Service prepared this report on the implications of UNSC Resolution 1874 which placed “sanctions on North Korea’s arms sales, luxury goods, and financial transactions related to its weapons programs, and calls upon states to inspect North Korean vessels suspected of carrying such shipments.” The report outlines the main provisions of the bill and notes the implications of both the resolution and the sanctions it imposes. [Test] [Resolution1874]
• UNSC Sanctions Tougher Steps Against Nuclear Rogues
  The heads of state of the 15 members of the UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution recognizing the right of civilian nuclear technology suppliers to retrieve nuclear materials from recipient states that have diverted it for military purposes. In the resolution, the nuclear security summit at the UNSC chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama clarified the right of states which have supplied nuclear materials and equipment in conformity with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to retrieve them if the recipient states ignore their nonproliferation obligations or withdraw from the NPT. The UNSC presidency rotates monthly and is held by the U.S. for September. [NPT] [Double standards]
• Obama's U.N. Disarmament Meeting Highlights U.S. Rifts Over Approach
  Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009 By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to chair a U.N. Security Council meeting tomorrow on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament has drawn to the surface dramatically different views of his approach (see GSN, Sept. 21). (Sep. 23) - U.S. President Barack Obama, shown addressing the U.N. General Assembly today, plans to chair a U.N. Security Council meeting tomorrow on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament (Stan Honda/Getty Images). As the first U.S. president to lead such a gathering, Obama is expected to seek Security Council sponsorship for some specific measures to grapple with the dangers posed by atomic weapons. However, he appears intent this week on largely steering clear of singling out nations like Iran or North Korea, where nuclear work remains of international concern. Some conservative pundits see his strategy of pressing the Security Council to address proliferation challenges generally, rather than focusing on specific punitive measures from the outset, as a reckless gambit that could signal weakness to the world. "The [Obama] move represents one of the most dangerous diplomatic ploys this country has ever seen," according to Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. [Proliferation] [Disarmament] [Double standards] [Spin]
• UK using Iran as nuclear distraction, says CND
  London, Sept 22, IRNA -- The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Tuesday criticised Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s attempt to use Iran as well as North Korea to distract from the UK’s failure to carry out its commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. CND chair Kate Hudson said it was “good news” that President Barack Obama has kicked back the Pentagon's "timid" proposals for a new nuclear posture review in favour of a radical rewrite to slash the US nuclear arsenal. “It was disappointing, then, to read David Miliband's comments, pushing attention off on to Iran and North Korea, as usual,” Hudson said in reference to his article in the Guardian newspaper ahead of this week’s UN summit on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. She suggested that his attempt to distract from Britain’s failure “isn't surprising when you consider that the UK's nuclear policy remains the replacement of Trident.” [Proliferation] [Disarmament] [Double standards] [Camouflage]
• Gates Hints at Call for New Warhead Designs in Nuclear Posture Review
  Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 A congressionally mandated review of U.S. nuclear strategy is likely to recommend developing "safer and more reliable" warhead designs as part of a broader effort to modernize and maintain the nation's nuclear deterrent, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in remarks published last week by the Defense Department (see GSN, Sept. 18). (Sep. 24) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, shown last week, indicated during a recent discussion that an upcoming nuclear strategy review could advocate development of new warhead designs (Alex Wong/Getty Images). "The Nuclear Posture Review is well under way, and I would say we're beginning to see what some of the likely conclusions are," Gates said at an Air Force Association event. "I would say that it is clear, at least to me, that it is important for us to continue to make investments, and I think larger investments, in modernizing our nuclear infrastructure, the labs and so on, the expertise in those places, to have the resources for life-extension programs, and in one or two cases probably new designs that will be safer and more reliable." Gates had been a supporter of the Bush administration's Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which was intended to produce new warhead designs aimed at providing increased safety and reliability for the nuclear arsenal. Congress provided no funding for the program in the last two budgets and Vice President Joseph Biden earlier this year sought to shut down one discussion of resuming a warhead replacement effort (see GSN, Aug. 18). Gates said there is no intention to produce nuclear weapons with new capabilities. "That's a red herring," he said. "This is about modernizing and keeping safe a capability that everyone acknowledges we will have to have for some considerable period into the future before achieving some of the objectives of significant arms reduction and eventually no nuclear weapons at all. All recognize that is a considerable distance in the future, and we have an obligation to keep this capability safe" (U.S. Defense Department release, Sept. 16). [Disarmament] [Double standards] [Spin]
• Iran's missile program potential greater than N.Korea's - expert
  © http://www.islam.ru/ 23:0921/09/2009 MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's missile potential is greater today than North Korea's, the former head of a Russian defense industry research institute said on Monday. International experts said Iran is working to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Islamic Republic has Shahab-3 (Meteor-3) medium-range ballistic missiles with a range up to 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles). North Korea provided assistance to the country to design and produce these missiles. "Believing that Iran is not developing missiles we [the U.S.S.R.] invented back in the 1950s is naive. In my view, Iran has even greater potential and greater resources than North Korea has today," Maj.-Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, the chief research associate of the International Security Center, told journalists in Moscow.
• N. Korea Open to Talks, Kim Tells China
  Statement Signals Reversal on Nuclear Issue, Fits Familiar Bargaining Pattern
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 19, 2009 TOKYO, Sept. 18 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a Chinese diplomat Friday that his government is willing to discuss its nuclear program in "bilateral or multilateral" meetings, China's official news agency said. This Story N. Korea Open to Talks, Kim Tells China Special Report: North Korea -- Closed, Hungry, Heavily Armed Special Report: The Spread of Nuclear Weapons North Korea walked away from stalled six-nation nuclear talks in the spring, during a time of stepped-up belligerence in which it launched missiles, conducted an underground nuclear test and threatened war with South Korea. Since August, however, the unpredictable communist state has reversed course, releasing several detained foreign nationals, including two U.S. journalists, and opening doors to trade with South Korea. [Cliché] [NK US policy]
• Iranian missile support
  Bill Gertz
  A researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that he has acquired internal Iranian documents showing China and North Korea's close involvement in Iran's missile program. Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at MIT's Science, Technology and Global Security Working Group, stated in a Sept. 14 post on the Web site armscontrolwonk.com that he obtained "internal secret Iranian documents" showing how several countries are helping Tehran develop missiles or are providing technology for them. "If my understanding is correct, they indicate that representatives from North Korea and China have been present at all phases of production and flight testing," Mr. Forden stated. "Iran has also gotten important help from Russia, though Russians do not appear to have been as ubiquitous as the Chinese and the North Koreans." [Double standards]
• N. Korean Leader Willing to Have Nuclear Talks
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Friday told a Chinese envoy that he was willing to engage in bilateral and multilateral talks on his country's controversial nuclear program, AFP reported quoting Chinese state media.  
• South Korean Rocket Launch OK, U.S. Says
  Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 The United States on Tuesday reaffirmed that it had no concerns about South Korea's rocket launch, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, Aug. 25). "The Republic of Korea developed its space launch vehicle program in a responsible manner," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. "We have no information at all that this launch was conducted in any way inconsistent with its international obligations and international commitments." [Satellite] [double standards]
• American Planning for a Hundred Holocausts: An Insider’s Window into U.S. Nuclear Policy
  Daniel Ellsberg This is the first installment of Daniel Ellsberg’s personal memoir of the nuclear era, “The American Doomsday Machine.” The online book will recount highlights of his six years of research and consulting for the Departments of Defense and State and the White House on issues of nuclear command and control, nuclear war planning and nuclear crises. It further draws on 34 subsequent years of research and activism largely on nuclear policy, which followed the intervening 11 years of his preoccupation with the Vietnam War. The author is a senior fellow of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His earlier Building a Better Bomb: Reflections on the Atomic Bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, and the Neutron Bomb is available here.
  Each of these warheads had more power than all the bombs and shells exploded in all the wars of human history [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons]
• N.K. appears to have 10 nuclear warheads
  North Korea appears to have 10 nuclear weapons, although it is not clear if all are ready for military use, a report said Thursday. The World Nuclear Stockpile Report, by Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists and Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the North Korean warheads are part of 23,375 nuclear weapons being held by nine nuclear weapons states, Yonhap News reported. The report, written with the support of Ploughshares Fund, which provides grants for projects promoting security and peace, also said, "There is no publicly available evidence that North Korea has operationalized its nuclear weapons capability." [Nuclear weapons]
• World Nuclear Stockpile Report
  The exact number of nuclear weapons in global arsenals is not known; each country guards these numbers as closely held national secrets. Experts and several governments have proposed a global inventory of all weapons and stockpiles of weapons materials as a necessary first step towards securing weapons from theft or diversion and towards the eventual elimination of these weapons. What is known, however, is that more than a decade and a half after the Cold War ended, the world's combined stockpile of nuclear warheads remain at unacceptably high levels. Of the more than 23,300 in the best expert estimates, more than 8,190 warheads are considered operational, of which approximately 2,200 U.S. and Russian warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice. These estimates are compiled and maintained by Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists and Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council (both with support from Ploughshares Fund) and are based on publicly available information and occasional leaks. [Nuclear weapons]
• Transform U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
  By Daryl Kimball Published: 24 August 2009 The U.S.-Soviet standoff that gave rise to tens of thousands of nuclear weapons is over, but the policies developed to justify their possession and potential use remain largely the same. As the administration of President Barack Obama works to complete the congressionally mandated Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) by year's end, it is clear to most that yesterday's nuclear doctrines are no longer appropriate for today's realities. In an April address in Prague, Obama called for "an end to Cold War thinking" and declared that the United States will "reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy." Unfortunately, two previous post- Cold War efforts to update the U.S. nuclear posture fell woefully short. Over the past two decades, deployed arsenals have been significantly reduced, yet Washington and Moscow each deploy more than 2,200 strategic warheads, mainly to deter an attack by the other. Policies still call for the possible use of nuclear weapons to defend U.S. forces and allies against conventional attacks and counter chemical or biological threats. The forces of nuclear policy inertia are hard to overcome. Once again, entrenched interests inside the Pentagon and elsewhere threaten to undermine long-overdue, transformational changes in U.S. nuclear weapons thinking. The White House must ensure the NPR process supports today's highest national security priority: preventing the use of nuclear weapons and their proliferation to terrorists and additional states, and moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama should clarify that maintaining a large nuclear arsenal dedicated to performing a wide range of missions is unnecessary and contrary to U.S. security interests. The number and role of U.S. nuclear weapons should be strictly limited to what is essential and unique. Given the U.S.' conventional military edge, there is no conceivable circumstance that requires or could justify the use of nuclear weapons to deal with a non-nuclear threat. As an eminent National Academies of Science panel concluded more than a decade ago, "[T]he only remaining, defensible function of U.S. nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War era is 'core deterrence': using the threat of retaliation to deter other countries that possess nuclear weapons from using them to attack or coerce the United States or its allies." Indeed, a U.S. nuclear arsenal of many thousands of weapons does nothing to deter terrorists from using a nuclear bomb should they acquire one. The more nuclear weapons there are in the world, the more difficult it is to maintain adequate security standards. [Nuclear weapons] [Terrorism]
• Pakistan 'Bought 200 Missiles from N.Korea'
  Pakistan purchased 200 missiles from North Korea in 1999, according to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Khan made the remarks in a recent TV interview in Pakistan, saying at the time Pakistan was eager to have missiles capable of shooting down aircraft. According to a translation of his remarks released by the U.S. director of National Intelligence's Open Source Center, then Pakistani army chief of staff Pervez Musharraf sent Khan and a senior Air Force officer to North Korea to purchase missiles from the Stalinist country.
• Kim's Uranium Spin
  Pyongyang admits to enrichment—again.
  Only last month, the conventional wisdom was that North Korea was showing promising new signs of moderation, what with Kim Jong Il's parley with Bill Clinton, the release of two American journalists and some South Korean hostages, and a highly publicized meeting between a Pyongyang diplomat and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. On Friday, the charm offensive ended. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, the North announced that "reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized." As significant, Pyongyang also announced that an experimental uranium enrichment process—the second route to an atomic bomb—was nearing its "completion phase." Some background: In 2002, U.S. officials presented North Korean negotiators with evidence that Pyongyang was secretly working on a uranium enrichment program, a violation of both the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Clinton Administration's 1994 "Agreed Framework" that supposedly put a stop to the North's nuclear ambitions. Remarkably, the Koreans admitted as much—an admission they later denied making. The admission triggered the Bush Administration's decision to suspend its obligations under the 1994 accord, which included fuel shipments and the construction of electricity-generating "light-water" reactors in the North. [HEU] [Admission] [Disinformation] [Media]
• Why We Don't Want a Nuclear-Free World
  The former defense secretary on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat.
  By Melanie Kirkpatrick Maclean, Va. 'Nuclear weapons are used every day." So says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, speaking last month at his office in a wooded enclave of Maclean, Va. It's a serene setting for Doomsday talk, and Mr. Schlesinger's matter-of-fact tone belies the enormity of the concepts he's explaining -- concepts that were seemingly ignored in this week's Moscow summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev. [The Weekend Interview] Terry Shoffner We use nuclear weapons every day, Mr. Schlesinger goes on to explain, "to deter our potential foes and provide reassurance to the allies to whom we offer protection."
  The U.S. nuclear deterrent has no influence on North Korea or Iran, he says, or on nonstate actors. "They're not going to be deterred by the possibility of a nuclear response to actions that they might take," he says. [Nuclear weapons] [US global strategy] [Bizarre]
• North Korea Impatient for Dialogue With US
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter North Korea's uranium enrichment program is seemingly aimed at pressing the United State to promptly agree to hold bilateral talks, an analyst here said Friday. In a letter to the United Nations, the secretive state said that it had completed the final phase of uranium enrichment and had also extracted a batch of plutonium from spent fuel rods.
  North Korea has already gave up everything it could offer including the release of two U.S. journalists," Prof. Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told The Korea Times. "It appears that the North is trying to say it cannot help but strengthen its nuclear deterrent if the United States does not agree to two-way talks." [NK Us policy] [HEU] [Overtures]
• Nuclear Brinkmanship
  `North Korea Is in Final Phase of Uranium Enrichment' It is more than regrettable that North Korea is again stepping up its nuclear brinkmanship. The official (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday that the communist country has successfully conducted experimental uranium enrichment and entered into the completion phase. It also said that reprocessing of spent fuel rods is in the final stage and extracted plutonium is being weaponized.
  The recalcitrant country is certainly showing its impatience at the Barack Obama administration's refusal to accept the North's offer of bilateral talks to mend ties between Pyongyang and Washington. [Overtures] [Clichés]
• S. Korean Satellite Lost After Flawed Launch
  A South Korean satellite carried by a rocket launched Tuesday afternoon got lost shortly after blastoff due to problems in the payload fairing system, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The ministry said while the first and second stage rockets separated as planned after launch at Naro Space Center, one of the two fairings covering the satellite did not fall off properly. [KSLV]
• Yesterday's Launch Failure Helps Tomorrow's Success
  Korea launched its first space rocket from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on Tuesday, but the attempt to put a scientific satellite into orbit failed.
  But that is no cause for disappointment. Korea's space industry, which began 15 years ago, is still in its fledgling stage. The world's leading countries in the space race have more than 50 years of history and tasted countless failures. The success rate for first launches is just 27 percent. The Vanguard, America's first rocket, exploded two seconds after blastoff, and this is just one of many major accidents that have occurred. Brazil, which has been developing its own rocket, attempted three launches, and all of them ended with either the rocket blowing up in flight or during the launch preparation stage. One of those explosions caused the deaths of many scientists. The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and Japan all experienced similar failures but did not give up and thoroughly analyzed their mistakes, using them as opportunities to advance their space programs.
  In May next year, Korea will launch another space rocket similar to the Naro. And in 2018, it will launch a rocket built entirely with Korean technology. [KSLV]
• North Korea Reveals Second Path to Nuclear Bomb
  By CHOE SANG-HUN and DAVID E. SANGER Published: September 4, 2009 SEOUL — North Korea’s announcement on Friday that its experiment in enriching uranium is at “completion stage” marks the strongest signal yet from Pyongyang that it is racing to develop a second method of making nuclear bombs. North Korea also said it was building additional nuclear bombs with plutonium it had recently gleaned from its reactor in Yongbyon. It said it had completed reprocessing the latest batch of spent fuel unloaded from the reactor, repeating the procedure believed to have given the North enough plutonium for six to eight bombs. For years, officials in Washington and elsewhere have debated whether North Korea was pursuing a clandestine uranium-enrichment program. After years of denial, North Korea announced in April that it intended to enrich uranium (sic). [HEU]
• S.Korea, U.S. Concerned by N.Korean Uranium Announcement
  North Korea has announced new progress in its nuclear weapons development, drawing expressions of regret and concern from the United States and its regional partners. A senior U.S. envoy is in the region discussing a response.
  Bosworth says he has no immediate plans to visit North Korea. He says Washington wants dialogue, but that Pyongyang also must return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear programs. "Any bilateral engagement with the North Koreans must be as a part of the six-party process," said Bosworth.
  Dan Pinkston, northeast Asia analyst with the International Crisis Group, says the U.S. and its partners need to evaluate how far they want to take a punitive approach toward the North. "Where do you set the bar for relaxation of those sanctions? How do you walk back from that? And if there is no criteria set, then North Korea has no incentive to cooperate whatsoever," said Pinkston. "You know, if all you are going to be is sanctioned no matter what, then why cooperate at all? I mean, who would?" Pinkston says the U.S. should come up with some kind of positive incentive to draw North Korea back to the six-nation talks. [US NK policy] [US NK negotiations] [Bilateral]
• [Analysis] North Korea puts pressure on U.S. to choose dialogue or sanctions
  Although N. Korea appears to be making concessions, analysts say its letter to the UNSC references uranium enrichment capabilities and presses U.S. to choose dialogue
  In a letter sent to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday in the name of North Korea’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the country accepted some of the conditions set by the U.S. for dialogue while also attempting to apply reverse pressure on the U.S. to choose between dialogue or sanctions.
  References to uranium enrichment raise an especially sensitive issue, as it is not known precisely what level of technology North Korea possesses. North Korea is saying that the enrichment is for “light water reactor development,” but some analysts are expressing concern that if the enrichment process continues, it could also be diverted to military use. There is also a dispute between North Korea and the U.S. over whether North Korea possessed a nuclear weapon-grade uranium enrichment program (UEP) that set off the “second North Korean nuclear crisis” in 2002. [US NK policy] [NK US policy] [HEU] [US NK negotiations] [Overtures]
• [Editorial] North Korea’s letter: Request for negotiations
  North Korea sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday in which it criticized international sanctions and announced its intentions to improve its nuclear capabilities. Although it cannot be interpreted as a new provocation, we feel regret over any possible negative effects it may have on resuming negotiations. We are especially concerned about the effect of North Korea’s declaration, “We are in the last stages of uranium enrichment.” This letter was a response to the UNSC’s request for an explanation about the fact that a North Korean ship was detained by the United Arab Emirates because of weapons on board. In this letter, North Korea fails to recognize UNSC resolutions related to sanctions. Moreover, North Korea focuses on direct negotiations with the U.S. by saying, “The denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula is closely related to the U.S.’s nuclear policy on the Korean Peninsula.” This can be interpreted to mean that North Korea has made it clear that it will counter sanctions by improving its nuclear capability, but hopes for dialogue with the U.S. The attitude of the letter is in line with its recent behavior to improve the environment for negotiations with South Korea and the U.S. [NK US policy] [HEU] [Overtures] [Resolution1874] [Arms sales]
• Pyongyang is in ‘final phase’ of uranium program
  North’s envoy tells Security Council about its ‘weaponized’ plutonium September 05, 2009
  North Korea said yesterday its uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons production (sic) has entered its final phase and that it is making more weapons from extracted plutonium. The North also claimed it is prepared for both dialogue and punitive measures. [HEU] [Disinformation] [NK US policy]
• DPRK Permanent Representative Sends Letter to President of UNSC
  Pyongyang, September 4 (KCNA) -- The permanent representative of the DPRK to the United Nations sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council Thursday. Noting that he would like to bring the attention of the president to the DPRK's already stated principled stand and countermeasures in connection with a letter addressed to the DPRK by the so-called "Sanctions Committee" of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) requesting a clarification, he continued: The DPRK totally rejects the UNSC "Resolution 1874" which was unfairly orchestrated in June 13 in wanton violation of the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity and that the DPRK will never be bound by this resolution.
  Had the UNSC, from the very beginning, not made an issue of the DPRK's peaceful satellite launch in the same way as it kept silent over the satellite launch conducted by south Korea on August 25, 2009, it would not have compelled the DPRK to take strong counteraction such as its 2nd nuclear test.
  We have never objected to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and of the world itself. What we objected to is the structure of the six way talks which had been used to violate outrageously the DPRK's sovereignty and its right to peaceful development. The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is closely related with the U.S. nuclear policy toward the DPRK. The DPRK has already made clear its countermeasures to cope with sanctions as well. Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized. Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase. We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions. [Resolution1874] [NK US policy]
• S Korea to train Myanmar technicians on nuclear energy
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-02 21:29:19 YANGON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will provide training on nuclear energy to officials and technicians from Myanmar along with other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the local weekly Myanmar Times reported Wednesday. It was offered by the South Korean government when ASEAN+3 energy ministers met recently in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay, South Korean embassy here was quoted as disclosing. [Double standards]
• North Korea says uranium enrichment in final stage
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, September 4, 2009; 12:59 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Friday that it is in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that could give it a second way to make nuclear bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based program. North Korean state media said officials had informed the U.N. Security Council it is forging ahead with its nuclear programs in spite of international calls to abandon them. "Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized. Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," the Korean Central News Agency reported. The U.S. and North Korea's neighbors had been negotiating for years with the North to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program, which experts say has yielded enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. North Korea walked away from those talks earlier this year. The U.S. had long suspected that the North also had a covert uranium enrichment program, which would give it a second source of nuclear material. North Korea for years denied the claim but in response to U.N. sanctions announced in June that it could enrich uranium. [HEU]
• N. Korea Reports Advances in Enriching Uranium
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: September 3, 2009 WASHINGTON — North Korea declared Friday that it was in the “concluding stage” of tests to enrich uranium. Its statement would appear to end a decade-long debate within American intelligence agencies about whether the country was working on a second pathway to building nuclear weapons. The statement came in a brief announcement by the official North Korean news agency, quoting what it said was a letter from the North Korean government to the United Nations. No details were offered, and the use of the word “tests” suggests that the country may only be experimenting and has not yet undertaken the huge expense required to install the thousands of centrifuges necessary to produce enough uranium for a nuclear weapon. For the North, the new nuclear program would amount to an insurance policy. For decades it pursued another pathway to a bomb, taking the spent fuel from one of its nuclear reactors and producing plutonium. To prove its capacity, the North has conducted two nuclear tests, one that fizzled in 2006 and a more successful detonation in May. In February 2007, the North agreed to dismantle its reactors and stop producing bomb fuel. But it reversed that commitment this year, and on Friday it said it had harvested the remaining spent fuel, which could provide it with enough plutonium for one or two additional weapons. North Korea was believed to already have enough plutonium for about six to eight nuclear weapons. But the existence of a second program to build bomb fuel would give the country something else to negotiate over with the West, and it would create the possibility that the government of Kim Jong-il could try to sell the technology, just as it has sold some of its reactor technology. North Korean officials announced in April that they intended to start a uranium enrichment program. [HEU]
• N. Korea Issues Threat on Uranium
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 29, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday that it would start a uranium enrichment program, declaring for the first time that it intended to pursue a second project unless the United Nations lifted sanctions. Full Statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry (KCNA via Reuters) (April 29, 2009) Calling the United Nations Security Council “a tool for the U.S. highhanded and arbitrary practices,” North Korea also threatened to conduct nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. [HEU] [Inversion] [Continuity] [Sanctions]
• Analysis Finds No Proof of Secret Myanmar Nuclear Program
  Monday, Aug. 24, 2009 No strong proof exists that Myanmar is developing a secret nuclear program with North Korean assistance, but reports from the South Asian state continue to be cause for concern, says an analysis published today by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (see GSN, Aug. 18). "Some of the information that has leaked out of Burma appears credible, and in recent years other snippets of information have emerged which, taken together, must raise suspicions," Griffith University research fellow Andrew Selth wrote in the analysis. [Disinformation] [Media] [Proliferation] [Evidence]

• Rocket launch hopes for lucky number 8
  After seven failed attempts to get its first space rocket off the ground, Korea announced yesterday it has scheduled the next attempt for Aug. 25. The latest attempt to launch Naro, or the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, failed Wednesday after a technical glitch halted the countdown minutes before blastoff [Satellite]
• Nuclear Weapon's Refurbishing Woes Draw Congressional Attention to Treaty
  By Walter Pincus Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Concern over the U.S. strategic nuclear stockpile, illustrated by problems with a classified material called "Fogbank," has triggered quiet maneuverings on Capitol Hill related to negotiations to extend the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. That treaty expires at year's end. "Fogbank" plays a key part in the W-76, the nuclear warhead on the Navy's Trident II sub-launched intercontinental ballistic missile and the country's most numerous and important strategic nuclear weapons. Initially deployed in 1978, about 3,000 were produced with a planned 30-year life. In 2000, planning began for refurbishing about 2,000 W-78 warheads under the ongoing life-extension program being used to upgrade existing U.S. nuclear systems. [Nuclear weapons]
• Aborted Rocket Launch Shows Urgent Need to Develop Own Space Technology
  The launch of Korea's first space rocket was halted at the last minute. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, dubbed Naro, was scheduled to lift off at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The countdown began at 4:45 p.m but with just seven minutes and 56 seconds left on the clock, the blastoff was scrubbed. Mission control officials explained that there was a technical problem with the automated launch sequence system, but it looks like more time will be needed to find out the exact cause of the problem. This is the seventh time the launch has been delayed, and the fourth this year alone.
• The Nuclear Age at 64: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Struggle to End Nuclear Proliferation
  Jeff Kingston revisits the epochal events of August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and draws on interviews in Japan, India and Pakistan to assess their ongoing political and social fallout.
  To this day, though, expert opinion remains divided between those who think the atomic bombs saved lives and caused the quick Japanese surrender that followed on Aug. 15, 1945, and those who challenge those claims and provide alternative explanations of why U.S. President Harry S. Truman used the bombs. [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation]
• Nuclear Proliferation – What If…
  Immanuel Wallerstein No. 263 - August 15, 2009 At least since the 1990s, if not longer, a major and very public concern of the United States (and to a slightly lesser extent western Europe) has been the prospect of North Korea remaining and Iran becoming a nuclear power. The only serious debate within the U.S. government has been on the tactics to use to achieve the objective of stripping both countries of any potential to be nuclear powers. The hard-liners have argued that both regimes are dissembling, have always been dissembling, and fully intend to achieve the objective of becoming established nuclear powers. This group has therefore advocated the use, sooner rather than later, of hard action against the regimes – if necessary military action. Their internal opponents have argued for attempting a more diplomatic approach. They have emphasized the need to get other major powers to be in accord with U.S. pressures. In the end, this has meant getting China and Russia to agree to their diplomatic moves. This group has however always said that, if this were to fail, they could not rule out the ultimate use of military power.
  I have a fantasy. Let us play what scientists call a mental experiment. Suppose that the United States just dropped the issue, and made no further attempt to stop either North Korea or Iran from becoming an established nuclear power. Suppose the United States also made it clear to other powers – close allies or not – that they would not collude in or tolerate military action on their part. This of course means primarily Israel. What would then happen?
  Would these countries sell their bombs and technology to other countries and, even worse, to non-state actors? Well, let’s see. North Korea has done something of this sort (sic). So has Pakistan. So have various actors in western Europe and the United States. If anything, state control over such actions seems to me tighter in North Korea and Iran than in most of the rest of the world’s nuclear powers. [Proliferation] [US NK policy] [US NK negotiation] [Hardliners]
• Deciphering Kim Jong Il
  The real intentions behind North Korea's nuclear test By Takashi Yokota | Newsweek Web Exclusive May 26, 2009 | Updated: 1:01 p.m. ET May 26, 2009 Kim Jong Il seems to have a penchant for spoiling American holidays. In July 2006, North Korea test fired seven ballistic missiles just before Independence Day, provoking an international outcry. Now on Memorial Day 2009, the Dear Leader's generals conducted North Korea's second nuclear test, which South Korean officials estimate had an explosive power as much as three to four times the strength of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Whether Kim's henchmen purposefully timed the test for Memorial Day is unclear. One theory is that Pyongyang tested its nukes to rally the nation because of Kim's reported health problems and the looming succession issue. It's a logical explanation, but like all things North Korean, there's nothing to prove that. Then how to decipher North Korea's motives? It's not about having secret sources inside the Hermit Kingdom. As simple as it may seem, seasoned negotiators and experts say that North Korea's Foreign Ministry statements are the most reliable source of information when it comes to analyzing Pyongyang's policies and motives. True, these statements are littered with nationalistic rhetoric on the "hostile policies" of the U.S., Japan and South Korea. But buried in these messages are North Korea's true intentions and demands. "[The statements] do contain a lot of bombast that can sometimes obscure their core position, but if you read them closely, ultimately what they demand and request, their bottom lines are very clear," says Scott Snyder, a North Korea expert at The Asia Foundation in Washington. [NK US policy] [Spin] [Inversion] [Test]
• North Korea looks at new deal of its nuclear cards
  Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:40am EDT By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL, Aug 12 (Reuters) - North Korea seems in no rush to restore its old plutonium-producing plant, but that does not mean it has given up on building a bomb and it may now be betting on uranium enrichment instead for its next nuclear bargaining chip. A switch to uranium would alarm Western powers because it could be done away from the prying eyes of U.S. spy satellites, it may lead to enhanced cooperation with Iran and it could lure customer states keen to start their own nuclear arms programmes. Analysts say Pyongyang now needs to make crucial decisions about whether it should use its limited resources to rebuild its largely inactive Yongbyon plant, which is designed to produce bomb-grade plutonium, start on a full-scale plan to enrich uranium for weapons or use a combination of both. [ID:nSEO6779] "It makes little sense to restore an obsolete (plutonium-based) nuclear complex. What makes much more sense is for them to work on the highly enriched uranium (HEU) programme," said a well-informed South Korean government source, who declined to be named.
  U.S. and South Korean officials said North Korea has previously acquired centrifuges and materials for HEU but experts doubt if Pyongyang, which said earlier this year it had started enriching uranium, yet had anything near a full-scale programme.
  "There is a terrifying way that North Korea could overcome its limitation while simultaneously helping another nuclear aspirant: it could work with Iran," Siegfried Hecker, the former head of the U.S. Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory, wrote earlier this year for the website of Foreign Policy magazine. "Pyongyang lacks uranium centrifuge materials, technology, and know-how; Tehran has mastered them. Pyongyang has practical uranium metallurgy capabilities; Tehran has little," said Hecker, one of the few U.S. experts to have visited Yongbyon
  Hecker, a professor at Stanford University, wrote separately in an email this week that it makes little sense at this time for for North Korea to switch from plutonium to HEU because it would take several years to build a programme, even with Iran's help. "It would make much more sense to restart the ... reactor. The fact that they are not may indicate that they believe their small nuclear stockpile serves as a sufficient deterrent," Hecker said. [HEU]
• Naro space rocket to be launched next Wednesday
  The country's first space rocket, Naro, or the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, will be launched Wednesday next week, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said yesterday. "Following the successful combustion test, the conclusion was reached after close consultation between Korean and Russian engineers that the rocket can be safely launched," Lee Sang-mok, a senior ministry official, told reporters. He added that depending on weather conditions and other unexpected issues, the launch could be postponed up to Aug. 26. [Satellite]
• UN Security Council Fails to Reach Agreement on North Korea Rocket Launch
  Apr 9, 2009
  John Feffer had an interview with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman
• Hans Blix says security assurances are the key
  August 11, 2009 Hans Blix Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and veteran diplomat in nuclear issues, believes it will take more than United Nations Security Council resolutions to stop North Korea’s nuclear development. In an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo in Seoul Sunday, Blix said the international community must assure Pyongyang that it can have security without nuclear weapons. “Until now, [the Security Council resolutions] have not stopped [North Korea’s] activities. That is clear,” Blix said. “If you want to tell North Korea that ‘you don’t need nuclear weapons, you can do without them,’ then the first thing is to reassure North Korea that its security will not be jeopardized by absence of nuclear weapons.” [US NK policy] [Resolution1874]
• Spokesman for Foreign Ministry Clarifies Stand on S. Korea's Projected Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Monday gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA as regards foreign press reports that south Korea would launch a satellite soon: It was reported that south Korea would launch a satellite soon with the technical cooperation from Russia. Four months ago parties to the six-party talks brought up the DPRK's satellite launch for a scientific purpose to the United Nations Security Council for discussion and "denounced" it and applied "sanctions" against it. This resulted in violating the principle of respect for sovereignty and equality, the life and soul and basis of the talks, and bringing them to an end. We will closely watch if the above-said parties will also refer south Korea's satellite launch to the UNSC. Their reaction and attitude towards south Korea's satellite launch will once again clearly prove whether the principle of equality exists or has collapsed. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• N. Korean Ship Searched for Radioactive Material
  By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: August 10, 2009 NEW DELHI — Indian authorities have detained a North Korean vessel and are searching it for radioactive material, the first time a ship has been seized and boarded under sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council in June. The cargo ship, M V San, was spotted Friday, officials said, and detained under the authority of the United Nations resolution passed after North Korea tested a nuclear device in May. The ship anchored without authorization in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a territory of India in the Bay of Bengal, last week, according to the Indian military.
  Indian officials said it was carrying more than 16,000 tons of sugar bound for the Middle East. But the ship’s proximity to Myanmar, a North Korean ally, and the fact that it had no apparent reason to be in the area raised suspicions. [Resolution1874]
• N. Korea warned (sic) over S.Korean rocket launch
  North Korea warned Monday that it will "closely watch" how regional countries react to South Korea's imminent launch of a space rocket, claiming it has been unfairly punished for its own, according to Yonhap News. North Korea's long-range rocket test in April prompted the United States and other regional powers to turn to the U.N, Security Council, which then unanimously adopted a resolution of sanctions against Pyongyang. "We will closely watch if the above-said parties will also refer South Korea's satellite launch to the UNSC," an unidentified spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said in a report carried by the Korean Central News Agency. "Their reaction and attitude towards South Korea's satellite launch will once again clearly prove whether the principle of equality exists or has collapsed," he said. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• India fires on North ship but finds no illicit arms
  Incident follows UN resolution against suspect vessels August 10, 2009
  NEW DELHI - India’s coast guard detained a “suspicious” North Korean cargo ship after a six-hour chase off the country’s southeastern coast, a coast guard official said Saturday, but a preliminary search of the vessel revealed it was only carrying sugar. The MV Mu San was pursued by the Indian coast guard, which opened fire above the vessel after it attempted to flee from an island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands where it had dropped anchor without permission Wednesday, said Commander Vijay Singh, a spokesman for the Indian coast guard. The incident comes in the wake of a UN resolution passed in June that allows other countries to request boarding and inspection of North Korean ships suspected of transporting illicit cargo - though the vessels do not have to give permission (sic). The resolution was passed to punish the North for its recent nuclear and missile tests. [PSI] [Resolution1874]
• The nuclear perils of the 21st century
  By Amir D. Aczel | July 23, 2009 THE WORLD IS STILL far from safe from nuclear weapons. While President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently agreed to modest mutual nuclear weapons reductions, the North Koreans are intensifying their quest to build and test ballistic missiles, are continuing their nuclear weapons production project, and have shown no sign of giving up their push to sell nuclear technology to other nations, such as Syria.
  They enlisted Einstein to write his famous letter to FDR urging US development of an atomic bomb, a device that exploits the process of chain reaction, to counter such possible development by the Nazis. And the rest - the Manhattan Project, which produced the bomb - is history. But what science historians did not know until recently is how far the Germans really were from obtaining their own bomb.
  Other documents, based on the American “Magic’’ spying operation on Japan, were originally classified “Top Secret,’’ and “Ultra Top Secret’’ and were recently released by the US government. They show that the Japanese were seeking to surrender in the period before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Avoiding the immensely expensive and resource-depleting Manhattan Project - or abandoning it before completion and burying its secrets - would have prevented not only the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians, but arguably also the Cold War and the present alarming state of nuclear proliferation. Joseph Stalin did not possess the resources that would have allowed him to explore making an atomic bomb on his own unless impelled to do so by American nuclear development. Neither would any other country have had the resources and know-how to make a bomb. Once the Manhattan Project became a reality, the blueprint for a bomb had been created - in a massive scientific-industrial effort only possible in the United States - and the Soviet Union, France, Britain, China, and now Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea could follow suit without the immense effort of having to reinvent this terrible “wheel.’’ In fact, we trained some of the Iranian nuclear scientists who now work on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s atomic bomb project in our own universities: Back at Berkeley in the 1970s, most of the Iranian foreign students I knew were studying nuclear engineering. I wonder how many went back to Iran to work on the bomb. [Nuclear weapons]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Unreasonable Call for Resumption of Six-Party Talks
  Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday in connection with the fact that at the Ministerial Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Thailand on July 23, some countries expressed their views that the six-party talks should be resumed. The statement said that while some of them were motivated to call for dialogue by their concerns about the mounting tension on the Korean Peninsula, there was a country that deliberately raised the voice to bring pressure to bear on the DPRK. Any attempt to side with those who claim the resumption of the six-party talks without grasping the essence of the matter will not help ease tension; on the contrary, it may lay a fifth wheel to the resolution of the problem. Explaining the reason why the six-party talks came to a definite end, the statement noted: Given the complicated composition of the six-party talks, the talks couldn't make progress apart from the principle of respect for sovereignty and equality. [Satellite] [Sovereignty]
• Building a Better Bomb: Reflections on the Atomic Bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, and the Neutron Bomb
  Daniel Ellsberg
  It was a hot August day in Detroit. I was standing on a street corner downtown, looking at the front page of The Detroit News in a news rack. I remember a streetcar rattling by on the tracks as I read the headline: A single American bomb had destroyed a Japanese city. My first thought was that I knew exactly what that bomb was. It was the U-235 bomb we had discussed in school and written papers about, the previous fall. The Hiroshima mushroom cloud presented to the world, August 8, 1945 I thought: “We got it first. And we used it. On a city.” I had a sense of dread, a feeling that something very ominous for humanity had just happened. A feeling, new to me as an American, at 14, that my country might have made a terrible mistake. I was glad when the war ended nine days later, but it didn’t make me think that my first reaction on Aug. 6 was wrong. [Nuclear weapons]
• Hiroshima: A Visual Record
  elin o'Hara slavick On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb fueled by enriched uranium on the city of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Another 70,000 died by the end of 1945 as a result of exposure to radiation and other related injuries. Scores of thousands would continue to die from the effects of the bomb over subsequent decades. Despite the fact that the U.S. is the only nation to have used atomic weapons against another nation, Americans have had little access to the visual record of those attacks. For decades the U.S. suppressed images of the bomb's effects on the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as they did the images of sixty-four other cities that were firebombed in the final months of the war. [Nuclear weapons]
• How Light Water Reactors Figure into Negotiations with North Korea
  By Jeff Goldstein July 30, 2009 Jeff Goldstein, a State Department desk officer for North Korea from 1994 to 1996, writes, “the provision of a LWR will not be the centerpiece of an agreement, as was the case with the Agreed Framework… this time around, Pyongyang will certainly demand far more concrete concessions from the United States and its allies in those areas. Nevertheless, a LWR project might be a useful­perhaps even an essential­component of a negotiated resolution that achieves the goal of verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” [LWR] [US NK policy] [Nuclear energy]
• Rumor on the “nuke chain reaction”
  Dear friends, Warm greetings from Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People! We are sending this letter in connection with the fact that the U.S. is now spreading in countries around the DPRK the rumour that “chain reaction” may occur in Japan and south Korea unless the DPRK’s access to nukes is checked. This, namely, means that if the DPRK possesses nuclear, Japan and south Korea will be able to equip themselves with nuclear arms because they apprehend “threat”. It is none other than sophistry with intention to put collective pressure upon the DPRK. Japan and south Korea have long been under the U.S. “nuclear umbrella”. [Proliferation] [Threat] [NK China]
• Response to “How Light Water Reactors Figure into Negotiations with North Korea”
  August 07, 2009 The following are comments on the essay, “How Light Water Reactors Figure into Negotiations with North Korea” by Jeff Goldstein, a State Department desk officer for North Korea from 1994 to 1996, which appeared as Policy Forum Online 09-063A: August 4th, 2009. This response includes comments by Marion Spina, a Washington DC attorney. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on contentious topics in order to identify common ground. II. Comments by Marion Spina I greatly appreciate Jeff Goldstein's article explaining the role of light water reactors (LWRs) in future negotiations with North Korea. He provided excellent perspective and tidily identified practical problems associated with the idea and the possibility of salvaging some parts of the earlier efforts.
  More importantly, once a positive program is in place, the activities and communication required to implement these plans would have a huge impact on the DPRK's methods and abilities for coping with international commerce. While the nuclear power plants appear to be the carrots, they would really be tent-poles, holding up the tent so that other activities could develop, gradually transforming the DPRK. This would ultimately lead to "regime change" in a positive, gradual way. As a process, using LWRs as tent-poles seems much more attractive than the process of crisis management. As a realistic way of achieving US objectives, this seems much more workable than the constant return to the idea that regime change comes from regime collapse that comes from isolation and sanctions. In the past, the US has found ways to set aside its distaste for dictators in order to pursue US national interests. This is possible with the DPRK. The question is whether US national interests lie in peacefully and gradually transforming the DPRK or in maintaining the status quo. [LWR] {US NK Policy] [Regime change] [inversion] [Nuclear energy]
• Uncertified hibakusha set to finally get relief
  THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 2009/8/6 After a string of court defeats, the government is preparing to set up a fund for plaintiffs who failed to win recognition as sufferers of radiation-related illnesses caused by the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, instead of clinging to its basic policy of awarding recognition to those who won their cases on appeal at a high court, the government says it will consider granting certification to plaintiffs after their initial victory at district court level.
  As for a government apology, if it reaches an agreement with the plaintiffs, Aso intends to issue a public statement to coincide with today's memorial service in Hiroshima and again on Sunday in Nagasaki when that city marks the anniversary of its atomic bombing
• Stamp on Artificial Satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 2 Published
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has brought out a postage stamp (souvenir sheet) to commemorate the successful launch of artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 2. Scientists and technicians of the DPRK succeeded in putting artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 2 into orbit of space by means of carrier rocket Unha-2 on April 5. The souvenir sheet carries the words "Launch of Artificial Satellite 'Kwangmyongsong No. 2' in the DPRK" in Korean and English and a photograph showing the launch of carrier rocket Unha-2, on which the national flag of the DPRK is painted. Seen in the souvenir sheet are a picture showing carrier rocket Unha-2 and the orbit's angle of inclination, perigee, apogee and the cycle of the experimental communications satellite. [Satellite]
• http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090721/155576709.html
  Related News Russia, Bangladesh to sign nuclear cooperation agreement in July Russia, Jordan sign civil nuclear cooperation deal Russia's Medvedev seeks nuclear cooperation with Bahrain Russia, Venezuela ink nuclear cooperation deal
  19:4821/07/2009 MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Nuclear cooperation between Russia and Myanmar is not in conflict with the Nonproliferation Treaty or IAEA requirements, and will move ahead, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. Andrei Nesterenko's comment came in response to U.S. concerns over the cooperation. However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier on Tuesday that Washington was taking concerns about military cooperation between nuclear-armed North Korea and Myanmar "very seriously," but made no mention of Russia. [Double standards]
• Burma suspected of forming nuclear link with North Korea
  • Hillary Clinton warns of military co-operation between regimes • Proliferation experts track purchases of suspicious equipment
  Hillary Clinton today expressed concern over military links between North Korea and Burma, after evidence emerged that the Burmese junta may be trying to acquire nuclear technology from Pyongyang. Experts said there is no proof of a Burmese nuclear programme but pointed to worrying signs. [Spin] [Evidence] [Softwar] [Double standards]

• Rocket Launch Could Be Delayed to Mid-August
  By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter South Korea will likely have to wait until mid-August for its very first space launch, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday. Although technical issues and weather conditions may force authorities to delay the schedule further down the road, government officials hope to pull off the historic launch within August and avoid the typhoon-effected months of September and October. [KSLV]
• Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
  Paolo Cotta-Ramusino Secretary General of Pugwash and Physics Department, Universita’ degli Studi di Milano The control of nuclear weapons so far It is almost 65 years since the development of the first nuclear bomb, and yet we have had only two cases of use of nuclear weapons in war, namely Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So we have been spared the horror of a large nuclear war during this period of time during when more than 130 000 nuclear weapons were built. This is a very unusual event in the history of mankind: so many weapons built, never to be used. Why has this happened?
  One should not underestimate the degree of resentment that has been induced by this (real or perceived) unfair treatment, and the ensuing political consequences. Israel was never subjected to any pressure to renounce its possession of nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan were subjected to sanctions which were later removed, while India in the end got the best deal—the so called US India nuclear deal. North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT, is under severe sanctions. While we do not want to deny here that there may be serious motivations and reasonable considerations behind these unequal treatments, the overall impression is nonetheless that nuclear proliferation lost its character of being a shared ideal (or value) of the international community and instead became one of the many instruments of some partisan foreign policy. [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Kim Jong-il's Yachts Impounded
  Two luxury yachts ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have been confiscated by Italian police, Italian daily Libero-News reported Friday. It said financial police in the province of Lucca in Tuscany confiscated two yachts waiting for delivery to Kim in a shipyard in the city of Viareggio. The confiscation came under the international trade embargo against North Korea. In Resolution 1718 in 2006, the UN Security Council banned UN members from exporting luxury goods to North Korea. The two yachts were worth 13 million euros (approximately W23.4 billion), the daily reported. Italy's financial police are in charge of investigations into tax evasions or financial crimes. According to the daily, a businessman in Vienna, Austria paid cash to place an order for the yachts in the first place, but the title to the yachts and the responsibility for the balance were later transferred to a Chinese company. [Sanctions] [Spin]
• KCNA Report on New Successful Underground Nuclear Test (5.25)
  Links to KCNA articles
• Naro-1 will miss its launch date due to technological hitches
  July 18, 2009 Korea will postpone its first space rocket launch due to technical complications, the Education Ministry said yesterday. The Korea Satellite Launch Vehicle-1, or Naro-1, was scheduled to take off on July 30. The pre-launch combustion test won’t be carried out until after July 27, according to the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Russia, which is responsible for the first stage of the rocket. “The center was scheduled to perform a combustion test on July 23 but the center notified us that the test would have to be delayed until after July 27 because of technical problems,” said Lee Sang-mok, an official of the ministry on Thursday. “This means we will have to put off the launch for four days or more.” Lee added that the center called for renegotiations on the launch schedule once the center had completed the combustion test. [Satellite] [KSLV]
• Launch of Naro to be delayed
  The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said yesterday that it would be inevitable to postpone the launch date of Naro, Korea's first space rocket, due to "technical problems." Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which has developed the first-stage of the two-stage rocket, sent a letter to the ministry Wednesday, saying the test on the combustion system of the first-stage rocket will have to be delayed until after July 27 due to technical problems, which it did not elaborate on. The test, which is a requisite before lift-off, was scheduled to be conducted next Thursday. The ministry will give more details today, officials said. Naro, or Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, was set to be fired on July 30 at the Naro Space Center, the country's first spaceport in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. The Russian company has been conducting final tests on another first-stage rocket in Russia, which is exactly the same as the one, delivered last month to Korea. If a problem is found in the rocket in Russia, the launch in Korea should be delayed as the problem means the possibility of the same problem in the one in Korea. The second-stage rocket, which will carry a 100-kilogram experimental satellite into a low earth orbit, was developed by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. "The Science and Technology Satellite 2" was built jointly by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. Korea has spent 502.4 billion won ($393 million) on the project, with about 40 percent of the expenditure paid to the Russian institution. [KSLV] [Satellite]
• What's Next Now the 6-Party Talks Are Dead?
  Kim Yong-nam, the president of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly Presidium, told 15th Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt that six-party talks on the North's nuclear program are over for good. "There can be no dialogue or negotiations where the principles of respect for sovereign rights and equality are denied," the North's no.2 leader said. "The six-party nuclear talks are over for good, because the U.S. and its many supporters participating in the talks have given those principles up." Already on April 14, North Korea declared it would "never participate in the six-party talks again." That declaration was given weight by the statement at the NAM meeting, which brought together 118 member states and was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It "crushed the possibility of resuming the talks," said Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University. Nam Sung-wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, said, "We should pay attention to his remarks about arms reduction talks. He means the North will engage only in nuclear arms reduction talks with the U.S., instead of the six-party talks that envisage the North abandoning nuclear weapons." [NK US policy] [Bilateral] [Six Party Talks]
• Launch of Korea's First Satellite Rocket Postponed
  The much anticipated Korea's first satellite launch using a homemade launch vehicle has been postponed due to technical problems. The satellite rocket was scheduled to be launched on July 30 from the Naro Space Center in Korea's south, but the plan could be pushed back by at least four days. The ministry of Education, Science and Technology says the setback came after a Russian aerospace company had to delay the test of one of the main boosters of Korea's Naro rocket. The multi-stage rocket consists of a liquid fuel-based Russian-made rocket for first-stage propulsion and a solid fuel-based Korean-made rocket for the second stage. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute says the rocket launch could be postponed indefinitely if Russia's rocket booster test fails. [KSLV] {Satellite]
• UNSC Slaps New Sanctions Against N. Korea
  The United Nations Security Council has imposed new sanctions against five North Korean officials, four companies and a state agency, and banned imports of two weapons-making materials, in a rare unified push by the world's powers to thwart Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, The Associated Press reported. [Sanctions] [Spin]
• U.N. Security Council Sanctions 10 in N. Korea
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 17, 2009 UNITED NATIONS, July 16 -- The U.N. Security Council on Thursday banned travel and froze assets of 10 North Korean individuals and businesses linked to the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, marking the first time the United Nations has directly penalized members of the nation's military and business elite. [Sanctions] [Spin]
• INTERVIEW - Nuclear watchdog image hurts IAEA -incoming chief
  Fri Jul 10, 2009 7:13pm IST By Mark Heinrich and Sylvia Westall VIENNA (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency's predominant image as a nuclear watchdog -- played up by the West -- has weakened the IAEA by dividing rich and poor member states, its incoming head said in an interview on Friday. Japan's Yukiya Amano vowed not to shrink from pursuing cases of alleged nuclear proliferation, like Iran, but suggested this policing role had come to overshadow the agency's other duty to foster development through peaceful uses of the atom. "One of (its) weaknesses is that the IAEA is perceived as a nuclear watchdog," Amano said in his first international media interview since narrowly winning election on July 2 to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei. "That is not all it is. It is a dual objective organisation. But it is not recognised, perceived as such. And that is one of the causes of mistrust and division," Amano, 62, Japan's veteran IAEA ambassador, told Reuters. Amano said balancing the IAEA's priorities was crucial to shoring up its credibility among rich and poor member states. Developing nations fear a campaign by U.S.-led big powers to stop Iran's uranium enrichment work without hard proof of a bomb agenda will undo their right to a share of nuclear technology and are concerned the agency is not doing enough to uphold it. [IAEA] [Double standards] [US dominance]
• Preparations for Naro launch on track
  Researchers are putting the final touches on the launch of Korea's first space rocket scheduled for July 30. Naro, or Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, will carry a domestically-built experimental satellite into a low earth orbit. It will be fired at the Naro Space Center, the country's first space launch site, between 4:40 p.m. and 6:40 p.m., weather permitting. A successful launch would make Korea the 10th country to send up a satellite of its own making from its territory [Satellite]
• U.S. general rejects calls to lift limits on missiles
  July 16, 2009 By Yoo Jee-ho The commander of the United States troops stationed in South Korea said there’s no immediate need to bolster South Korea’s missile range. In a video news conference from New York, Gen. Walter Sharp was asked about the missile agreement between South Korea and the United States that restricts South Korean missiles to 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) in range and 500 kilograms (1,102.3 pounds) in payload weight under an agreement reached in 2001. Before then, South Korea’s missiles couldn’t travel more than 180 kilometers. Discussing the possibility of revision to the agreement, Sharp said, “There’s been no request to do that and I really don’t see a need for that right now.” [Sovereignty] [Military balance]
• U.N. sanctions committee to blacklist N. Korean officials
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- About a dozen North Korean officials are expected to be banned from overseas travel under a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on the communist nation for its recent nuclear test, diplomatic sources here said Tuesday. Resolution 1874, issued on June 12, obliges the 15-member committee under the Council to draw up a list of entities, goods, and individuals to be subject to sanctions, including embargoes and travel bans, "within thirty days of adoption" of the resolution. "The member governments should have agreed on the list by July 12 to meet the first deadline, but they decided to continue discussions for a few more days," a foreign ministry source said. "There appears to be progress in the consultations and a deal will be made as early as tomorrow." The source said the North's traditional allies, China and Russia, have again been involved in disputes with the U.S. and Japan over the scope of sanctions. [Sanctions] [NK China]
• Pakistan nuclear program – a monstrosity for its adversaries
  Published by editor Pakistan Jul 13, 2009 Asif Haroon Raja While the army is fighting a precarious war and is shedding blood to safeguard integrity of the country, politicians are neck deep involved in intrigues and power play.
  Fake Taliban equipped with sophisticated weapons and technologies provided by their foreign patrons are already waging a war in greater part of NWFP where some nuclear installations are installed. In case such an attack takes place it would not come as a bolt from the blue. The world has already been conditioned for such an eventuality. The idea is not to steal a nuclear weapon, which is simply impossible given the safety system in place. Real design is to create a sensation and authenticate their stance of vulnerability of Pak nukes and thus achieve multiple objectives. It would facilitate USA to move UN to either intervene and takeover Pak nuclear arsenal, or allow US to shift it to a safe place outside Pakistan, or allow permanent placement of IAEA inspectors in Pakistan to monitor nuclear activities and inspect each and every defence oriented building on the pattern of Iraq under the plea of locating and safeguarding nuclear materials. Latter option would inhibit Chinese working in various projects. In case Pakistan resists, it will be subjected to harsh sanctions which it will not be able to bear given the fact that US controlled IMF has provided lifeline to Pakistan. Pakistan nuclear program is a monstrosity for India, Israel and USA, which the trio is overly keen to defang and deprive Pakistan of its deterrence capability. Pakistan intelligence apparatus should further streamline its systems to offset such an eventuality. Pakistan should reassert its declared policy that onus of any attack on its nuclear installation would be entirely on India for which Pakistan reserves the right to react accordingly.
• Evidence of N. Korea's uranium enrichment not detected: Yonhap
  SEOUL, July 8 KYODO Intelligence authorities from South Korea and the United States have not detected evidence of North Korea's uranium enrichment, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday, quoting a South Korean intelligence source. ''After North Korean Foreign Ministry's announcement on (the North's) beginning of uranium enrichment on June 13, various suspected places have been put under close surveillance, but no evidence has been detected yet,'' the source said. [HEU] [Evidence]
• Seoul Seeks Renegotiation of Nuclear Pact
  Seoul is considering a taskforce to deal with a renegotiation of the Atomic Energy Agreement with the U.S. that would enable South Korea to expand nuclear activities. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Monday said the taskforce could be led by the Foreign Ministry's special ambassador for energy and resources "in cooperation with other government agencies concerned." Seoul Seeks Renegotiation of Nuclear PactSeoul is considering a taskforce to deal with a renegotiation of the Atomic Energy Agreement with the U.S. that would enable South Korea to expand nuclear activities. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Monday said the taskforce could be led by the Foreign Ministry's special ambassador for energy and resources "in cooperation with other government agencies concerned." [Double standards]
• South Korea's missiles
  Visitors walk by South Korea's missiles on display at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 7, 2009. The United States is open to talks on the possibility of South Korea developing ballistic missiles capable of striking all of North Korea, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Photo Credit: AP Photo [Missiles] [Double standards]
• UN Council condemns NKorea missiles
  By RON DePASQUALE The Associated Press Tuesday, July 7, 2009; 12:31 AM UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council on Monday condemned North Korea's recent firing of seven ballistic missiles on U.S. Independence Day, the reclusive country's biggest display of firepower in three years. Uganda U.N. Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, who holds the 15-member council's rotating presidency, said the council members "condemned and expressed grave concern" at the missile launches, which violated U.N. resolutions and "pose a threat to regional and international security." The council will continue to closely monitor the situation and is committed to a "peaceful, diplomatic and political solution," he said.
• US set for talks on boosting SKorean missile range
  By HYUNG-JIN KIM The Associated Press Tuesday, July 7, 2009; 5:19 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- The United States is open to talks on the possibility of South Korea developing ballistic missiles capable of striking all of North Korea, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. A senior general at the U.S. command in Seoul told aides to South Korean lawmakers last week the allies can discuss the revision of a 2001 accord barring the South from developing missiles with a range of more than 186 miles (300 kilometers), the ministry official said.
• 'NK Fires Missiles to Improve Accuracy'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea's latest test-firings of seven short- and medium-range missiles off the east coast have sparked strong condemnation from the international community. Some analysts say the missile launches Saturday appear to have been aimed at improving the missiles' accuracy. ``Five of seven missiles North Korea fired landed within the same area in the East Sea. This means the accuracy of North Korean missiles is improving,'' a government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. [Rocketry]
• Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano is new IAEA chief
  5 Jul 2009, 0259 hrs IST, Indrani Bagchi, TNN NEW DELHI: Veteran Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano was elected new director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a closely contested election this week. Widely seen as a candidate for the developed world, Amano's election would have been difficult without the support of one crucial country: India. Amano wasn't India's first choice. It was South Africa's Abdul Samad Minty who won India's support as the premier developing country candidate. As 2009 rolled around, the developed and developing worlds were split in their choice of IAEA chief. The developed countries chose Amano, and openly expected him to get tough with countries like Iran as well as on non-proliferation issues. The `poor' countries wanted Minty, a person who would understand their quest for nuclear power. The first March poll saw Amano significantly ahead. A straw poll held on June 2 found Amano winning 20 votes (he needed 24) and Minty at a distant 11. Amano was in danger of not making the required two-thirds, but Minty's candidature looked in greater danger. Then the Slovenian candidate, former IAEA envoy, Ernest Petric withdrew, along with Belgian Areva executive Jean-Pol Poncelet, when they came in at the bottom of a straw poll. The last candidate to withdraw was Spanish nuclear power expert Luis Echavarri, which left the field open between Minty and Amano. The Japanese stepped up their diplomacy but among many countries where they urged support, India was a biggie, and sources said they got a "favourable consideration". Amano's first remarks indicate he may not be as big a pushover for the west. In his first comments, Amano said there was nothing that showed Iran wanted nuclear weapons. What can India look forward to in the IAEA in the foreseeable future? Amano, said sources, laid out his vision to board members in May. He said he would strongly support disarmament, which has been pushed by India in the global arena. He promised full support to radioactive cancer therapy under the aegis of IAEA. He said he was prepared to help build nuclear power infrastructure in developing countries, which was a crucial point of departure for the `poor' countries on the board. On non-proliferation, he balanced it with access to nuclear energy. On the whole, India is likely to find a more sympathetic ear in Amano. [UNUS] [Nuclear deal]
• DPRK's new missile launch raises int'l concerns
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-04 23:19:28 ·Shortly after the DPRK's missile launch on Saturday, S. Korea expressed deep regrets. ·Japan lodged a protest against the DPRK through diplomatic channels in Beijing. ·The United States also called for the DPRK not to "aggravate tensions." HONG KONG, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired a total of seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, raising international concerns over regional security. According to South Korean Joint Forces, the seven missiles, estimated to have a range of 400-500 km, were fired off the east coast from a base near Wonsan, Gangwon Province. This file photo shows a model of a SCUD-B missile produced in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, displayed at the War Memorial Hall in Seoul. According to South Korean Joint Forces, the DPRK fired seven missiles off the east coast from a base near Wonsan on Saturday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>> The missile firing came two days after the DPRK test-fired four short-ranges off its eastern coast, which South Korean officials described as part of routine military drills. "Although the missiles fired on Thursday appear to be part of routine military drills, the recent scud missiles seem to have political purposes as they were fired a day before the U.S. Independence Day," an unnamed South Korean official was quoted by Yonhap as saying. [Rocketry] [Double standards]
• Indonesia successfully launches rocket into space
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-02 18:30:21 JAKARTA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia Aeronautics and Space Agency successfully launched a rocket into space on Thursday morning as part of its plans to send a satellite into orbit in 2014, the agency said here. The home-grown RX-420 rocket was launched from a pad in Garut regency of Wet Java province this morning, the spokesperson of the agency Elly Kuntjahyowati said. "The launch of the rocket has been successful," she told Xinhua over phone. Another launch of the combined-two rockets, RX-420 and RX-430 would be conducted next year, the spokeswoman said. [Rocketry] [Double standards]
• Brazil plans to expand rocket launching base at north
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-02 09:53:07 RIO DE JANEIRO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Brazil plans to expand its Alcantara aerospace base in the north by building 12 more rocket launching pads at there, the government said Wednesday. Defense Minister Nelson Jobim described the project as one of "international importance." "we must not be naive. There are nations who are seeking to prevent Brazil from entering the exclusive circle of nations that launch rockets," Jobim said. [Rocketry] [Double standards]
• U.S. test fires intercontinental missile from California coast
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-06-30 00:40:34 Print LOS ANGELES, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Air Force test fired an intercontinental missile from a base west of Santa Barbara in Southern California early on Monday. The launch produced a spectacle that could be visible in Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire. The Minuteman 3 was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base during a six-hour window that started at 3:01 a.m., carrying three unarmed re-entry vehicles that hit their targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, some 4,200 miles (6,720 kilometers) away, the Air Force said. It said the launch was an operational test to check the weapon system's reliability and accuracy.
  Monday's launch will mark the last time that the Air Force Space Command will be in charge of such tests. Its function has been absorbed by the newly-created Global Strike Command, according to earlier press reports. A handful of anti-nuclear weapon activists staged a picket outside Vandenberg's gates as the missile was fired. [Rocketry] [Double standards] [ICBM]
• S Korea notifies int'l agencies of space rocket launch
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-06-18 16:24:45 SEOUL, June 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea made an official notification to international civil aviation and maritime agencies of its rocket launch scheduled for next month, the government said Thursday. The notification was made to the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization so as to give prior warnings to ships and planes operating near the launch site and along the trajectory of the rocket, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. South Korea plans to launch the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), carrying a 100-kilogram scientific satellite, from its Naro Space Center located in the southwest on July 30. [KSLV] [Double standards] [Rocketry]
• S.Korea to Seek Expansion of Nuclear Activities
  Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Thursday said the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement should be revised "as soon as possible." Yu said Seoul will seek "concrete consultations in the direction of maximizing commercial gains from the supply of atomic raw materials and the handling of spent fuel." Yu made the remarks in the press briefing after the U.S. said earlier this week it is against allowing South Korea to reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel. [Double standards]
• North Korea test-fires seven missiles
  SEOUL, July 4 - North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea’s defence ministry said, in an act of defiance towards the United States that further stoked regional tensions already high due to its nuclear test in May. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missiles test-fired were ”Scud-type”, marking an escalation of recent sabre-rattling by the reclusive North, which has fired several non-ballistic, short-range missile since the May 25 nuclear test.
• N. Korea Fires 7 Missiles Off Eastern Coast
  North Korea Saturday fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast over a stretch of several hours, violating the U.N. sanctions and sending an apparent message of defiance to the United States which commemorated its Independence Day.
• Defying U.S., N. Korea Fires Barrage of Missiles
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: July 3, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a barrage of seven ballistic missiles into the sea between the Communist state and Japan on Saturday in a move that flouted a United Nations Security Council resolution and sent a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday.
• North Korea Launches 5 Missiles Off Its East Coast
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, July 4, 2009; 3:00 AM TOKYO, July 4 -- Defying the United States on Independence Day, North Korea fired five missiles on Saturday into the sea off its east coast. This Story North Korea Launches 5 Missiles Off Its East Coast Full Coverage: North Korea The test-firings came two days after North Korea, which is being squeezed by the U.S. government and other countries for its recent nuclear test, fired four short-range missiles into the sea. [Media]
• No sign Iran seeks nuclear arms: new IAEA head
  Fri Jul 3, 2009 12:26pm EDT By Sylvia Westall VIENNA (Reuters) - The incoming head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's nuclear program since his election, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Current IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei told the BBC last month it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was seeking the ability to produce nuclear arms, if it desired, as an "insurance policy" against perceived threats from neighboring countries or the United States. "I'm not going to be a "soft" director general or a "tough" director general," Amano told Reuters, when asked how he would approach issues like Iran and Syria, which are both subject to IAEA probes. [IEAE]
• NK Fires 2 Scud Missiles Toward East Sea
  North Korea fired two Scud missiles toward the East Sea early Saturday morning, two days after shooting four short-range missiles off its east coast Thursday. “North Korea fired two Scud-level missiles from the base near Wonsan on the east coast toward the East Sea around 8 a.m.,” said a Seoul official. “The range of the missiles are ckeckedto be some 500 kilometers,” he said.
• North Korea raises tension with missile launch
  07.02.09, 10:20 AM EDT pic By Jack Kim and Miyoung Kim SEOUL, July 2 (Reuters) - North Korea test-fired three 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 U.N. sanctions. North Korea fired two surface-to-ship missiles off its east coast between 5:20 p.m and 6 p.m. (0820-0900 GMT) that flew about 100 km (60 miles) and splashed into the sea, a South Korean defence official said. A third missile was fired around two hours later. [Media] [Spin]
• S.Korea to Seek Expansion of Nuclear Activities
  Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Thursday said the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement should be revised "as soon as possible." Yu said Seoul will seek "concrete consultations in the direction of maximizing commercial gains from the supply of atomic raw materials and the handling of spent fuel." [Double standards]
• North Korea Test-Fires 4 Short-Range Missiles
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 3, 2009 TOKYO, July 2 -- North Korea on Thursday continued to rattle its neighbors by firing four short-range missiles into waters off its east coast. The missile tests, monitored by the South Korean government, had been widely expected, as North Korea had warned ships to avoid the east coast through July 10 because of military exercises.
• Uranium gives NKorea second way to make bombs
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Sunday, June 28, 2009; 1:15 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- After repudiating negotiations on dismantling its plutonium-based nuclear program, North Korea admitted (sic) this month to having an even more worrying way to make bombs. Following nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced it can enrich uranium - a simpler method of building nuclear weapons than reprocessing plutonium. Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous factories that can better evade spy-satellite detection, and uranium bombs may work without test explosions. The admission - made in a threatening response to a June 12 U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Pyongyang for an underground plutonium bomb test last month - poses a new challenge to the U.S., China, South Korea, Russia and Japan as they seek to stem the reclusive country's atomic ambitions. [HEU] [Media] [Disinformation]
• Stick to the Six Party Talks on North Korea
  June 23rd, 2009 Author: Peter Van Ness The DPRK has now tested a second nuclear device, launched more missiles, and even nullified all of its agreements from previous negotiations, including the truce that ended the Korean War (1950-1953). After the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1874, more provocations followed. Clearly Kim Jong-Il’s first priority is to keep his regime in power, and it is very likely that Pyongyang sees nuclear weapons adventurism as the best way to do that. If so, what can be done to dissuade the DPRK and move to a new course? [US NK policy]
• North Korea trying to enrich uranium, South says
  By Jon Herskovitz Reuters Tuesday, June 30, 2009; 7:16 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea appears to be enriching uranium, potentially giving the state that has twice tested a plutonium-based nuclear device another path to making atomic weapons, South Korea's defense minister said on Tuesday. "It is clear that they are moving forward with it," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a parliamentary hearing, adding such a programme was far easier to hide than the North's current plutonium-based activities. North Korea earlier this month responded to U.N. punishment for its most recent nuclear test in May by saying it would start enriching uranium for a light-water reactor. [HEU] [Evidence]

• yield pertaining to Pakistani Nuclear tests on 28 and 30 May 1998
  A research paper by German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung wissenschaft und Politik) questions the yield pertaining to Pakistani Nuclear tests on 28 and 30 May 1998. As per the paper “ Seismological data indicates that Pakistan gave inflated figures on the explosive power of weapons it used. Some detonations may even have been partial failures. It is furthermore debatable whether some of the tests involved plutonium in addition to those with highly enriched uranium.” [test] [Nuclear weapons]
• Politicians Debate Idea of Nuclear-Free World
  By NICK WILSON ShareThis WASHINGTON (CN) - House Democrats and Republicans argued Wednesday over whether the United States should aim for a world without nuclear weapons months before the expiration of an arms-reduction treaty with Russia. At the congressional hearing, Republicans called talk of eliminating nuclear weapons "nonsense" and expressed concern that the United States might forfeit plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe as it negotiates nuclear non-proliferation. Democrats and members of an expert panel said nuclear weapons are outdated, and possessing them makes the country less safe. [Nuclear weapons] [Disarmament]
• G8 countries condemn North Korea's missile tests
  The Associated Press Friday, June 26, 2009; 2:09 PM TRIESTE, Italy -- Foreign ministers from Group of Eight countries on Friday condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and urged the country to return to the negotiating table. [US dominance]
• N. Korea denounces S. Korea-U.S. summit and six party talks as a “shattered bowl”
  N. Korea criticizes timing as indicating Lee’s repudiation of the June 15 Joint Declaration, and demonstrates further resolve for nuclear armament » North Koreans participate in a rally held to commemorate the June 25 anti-U.S. Day in front of the Pueblo, a U.S. spy ship that North Korea seized 41 years ago, in Pyongyang in this June 23, 2009 picture. (REUTERS/KCNA) North Korea has presented its first response nine days after the South Korea-U.S. summit held in Washington on June 16. A commentator’s piece entitled “Disgusting kiss shared between a master and its dog in the White House Rose Garden” was published in the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, and included an itemized critique of the agreements and statements on North Korea made by the two leaders. Commentator’s pieces in the Rodong Sinmun are pieces that contain policies organized at the party level, and are in effect a formal response by North Korea. However, aside from conveying criticism, the piece made no direct or specific mention of any response measures.
• Swiss to destroy papers in intl nuke smuggling case
  Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:03am IST * Documents smuggled to Iran, Libya, North Korea * Follows IAEA advice to keep designs from "bad hands" By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, June 24 (Reuters) - Switzerland said on Wednesday it would destroy bomb designs and other sensitive documents seized from a Swiss man accused of being part of an international nuclear smuggling ring.
  Switzerland, which is not a nuclear power, is not authorised under the global Non-Proliferation treaty to possess documents related to nuclear weaponry. The Swiss were told by the IAEA they could either transfer the files to one of the five nuclear powers allowed to possess such documents -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- or destroy them. "The IAEA estimates nevertheless that the destruction of these documents is the surest solution to preventing this information from falling into bad hands," the Swiss statement said. "For reasons of sovereignty and in order to satisfy the requirements of security policy, the Federal Council chose this last solution." [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Korea Prepares for Crucial Rocket Launch
  All eyes will be on the Naro Space Center July 30, when Korea is to launch a homemade spacecraft from its own soil for the first time. / Korea Times By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter One of the most important moments in Korean science history will take place on July 30 at the brand new Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, when the country launches its first spacecraft from its own soil. Should the rocket, the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, successfully deliver an experimental satellite into the low earth orbit, Korea will become the world's 10th nation to send a domestically-produced satellite into space from its own territory [Satellite] [Double standards]
• US Nuclear Umbrella: Double-Edged Sword for S. Korea
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Amid growing concern about North Korea's high-stake nuclear gamesmanship, the United State has vowed to provide an ``extended'' nuclear umbrella to South Korea, where no tactical nuclear weapons are present. [Denuclearisation]
• Sweet talk – sour lemons
  Wednesday, June 24, 2009 By A Q Khan There was a lot of publicity and great expectations about President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. While not much was expected in terms of public engagements, all attention was focussed on his visit to Egypt and his address to students and faculty at the famous Al-Azhar University in Cairo. I heard that speech live and, as was to be expected, it was more rhetoric than substance. [Continuity] Islam]
• Pyongyang turns the clock back
  by Dr Leonid Petrov, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU
  On the heels of the recent UN Security Council Resolution, which pursued tough new sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for blasting a long-range missile and detonating the second atomic bomb, North Korea has moved aggressively against the last remaining zone of inter-Korean economic cooperation, the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIP). [Inversion]
• Arms Sales Monitoring Project
  North Korea’s Taepodong and Unha Missiles Overview History The Taepodongs The Threat References The Taepodongs are not production missiles and have never been successfully tested. The Taepodong-1 has been used as a space launcher and analysts are fairly confident about its performance. The one launch attempt of the Taepodong-2 ended after 40 seconds of flight when the missile disintegrated. There is, therefore, much greater uncertainty about what its performance could be or even precisely what the missile is. Developing, designing, and producing a missile is a complex, challenging, and expensive task. As a result, once a missile component has been developed, it will often be reused in several applications or, looking at it from the missile-designers’ perspective, a “new” missile can sometimes be assembled largely from existing components. When making a multi-stage missile from existing components, the missile may not be optimized, but better to accept that performance loss than incur the high costs of developing an entirely new missile. This works to the advantage of outside analysts in the case of North Korea because, while the North Koreans are extremely secretive about new missile developments, analysts can make intelligent guesses based on existing tested hardware. Even so, one should be aware that all existing descriptions, especially of the Taepodong-2, include some speculation and guesses.
• N.Korea 'Unperturbed' by Sanctions
  North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun daily last Saturday grandly dismissed UN sanctions against the impoverished country, asking whether the international community believed the "self-reliant" North Korean "will even bat an eye." In an editorial, the daily said, "It is silly and ridiculous for the hostile forces to call for sanctions and a blockade against us." It added North Koreans have not tightened their belts or built "matchless defense capabilities" for the sake of "meager assurances or insignificant concessions." "We will teach them a lesson by countering rifles with cannons, cannons with missiles, sanctions with retaliation, and nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons." [Sanctions]
• Mammoth Pyongyang Rally Denounces UNSC "Resolution"
  Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang city rally was held at Kim Il Sung Square Monday to denounce the United Nations Security Council's "resolution on sanctions" cooked up at the instigation of the U.S. imperialists. Attending the rally were senior party, army and state officials, the chairman of a friendly party, leading officials of the party, armed forces and power organs, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons, youth and students and people from all walks of life, more than 100,000 in all. [test] [Sanctions]
• Pakistan Rules Out Test Ban Treaty Endorsement
  Friday, June 19, 2009 Pakistan yesterday said it did not intend to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, June 16). "Let me tell you, Pakistan has no plan to sign the CTBT," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said, adding that circumstances have changed since Islamabad pledged in 1998 to sign off on the agreement if nuclear rival India did the same. The 1996 pact must be signed and ratified by 44 states before it can enter into force. The holdout nations are China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, June 18).
• Pak pushes for FMCT to nuke India’s stockpile
  17 Jun 2009, 0508 hrs IST, Nirmala Ganapathy, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: As the Obama administration announces plans to mount a diplomatic offensive to push India and other countries to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), India at this stage is anticipating more pressure on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), which looks at clamping down on material used for making nuclear weapons. Though the Obama administration has made its intention of pushing the CTBT very clear, pressure is expected to mount only after the US Congress ratifies the treaty, sources said. And this is not going to be easy as President Barack Obama does not yet have the required numbers in the US Senate to push through the CTBT. But the FMCT, which is seeing a revival due to US efforts, is being seen here as more troublesome for India. Mr Obama’s announcement last month that the US is ready to negotiate a new treaty that `verifiably e nds’’ the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons has infused new life into negotiations. And the Conference on Disarmament, which has 65 members, also agreed recently to start negotiations after breaking the deadlock. [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Declares Strong Counter- Measures against UNSC's "Resolution 1874"
  Pyongyang, June 13 (KCNA) -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following statement Saturday in connection with the fact that at the instigation of the U.S., the United Nations Security Council has finally adopted a "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK over its second nuclear test:
  On June 12, the United Nations Security Council, at the instigation of the U.S., has finally adopted a "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK over its second nuclear test.
  This is yet another vile product of the U.S.-led offensive of international pressure aimed at undermining the DPRK's ideology and its system chosen by its people by disarming the DPRK and suffocating its economy.
  The U.S. and Japan, not content with this "resolution", are hatching dirty plots to add their own "sanctions" to the existing ones against the DPRK by framing up the fictional issues of "counterfeit money" and "drug trafficking".
  Upon authorization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK strongly condemns and rejects the UNSC "resolution 1874" and declares that it will take the following countermeasures at this early phase of all-out confrontation with the U.S. in order to defend the national dignity and the country's sovereignty.
  First: The whole amount of the newly extracted plutonium will be weaponized. More than one third of the spent fuel rods has been reprocessed to date.
  Second: The process of uranium enrichment will be commenced. Pursuant to the decision to build its own light-water reactor, enough success has been made in developing uranium enrichment technology to provide nuclear fuel to allow the experimental procedure.
  Third: An attempted blockade of any kind by the U.S. and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response. [test] [Sanctions] [Toolkit] [NK US policy]
• In Mortal Hands – A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age
  Review By Jim Miles
  In Mortal Hands – A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age. Stephanie Cooke. Bloomsbury, New York, 2009.
  In an era when the corporate media and the corporate politicians and the corporate military men gang up together and denounce and threaten other countries because of their nuclear related activities, they should spend much of that rhetorical energy by cross-examining themselves in a mirror. North Korea’s latest nuclear test received much more attention than its earlier ‘possible’ test because of its greater power and the strategic message sent by its politically timed Taepodong II rocket launch. Iran has moved a little bit off the radar screen as its elections have proven more interesting than its nuclear ‘threat’ but it is under increasing scrutiny as it reaches weapons potential. When placed in relation to this “cautionary history”, North Korea and Iran are acting only as all other nuclear powers have acted in the past, for the main theme behind In Mortal Hands is that of lies, deceit, deception, cover-ups, and secrecy to cover up the real issues with the nuclear industry.
• Disarmament call for nuclear powers
  18 hours ago The failure of the five recognised nuclear powers to make progress with disarmament is undermining prospects of containing the spread of atomic weapons around the world, MPs warned. A House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report urged the five powers - Britain, the US, Russia, China and France - to step up efforts to secure "decisive movement" towards disarmament at a key conference in 2010. [Disarmament] [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Interview with Mohamed ElBaradei
  IAEA: Der Standard Interview with Mohamed ElBaradei with Gudrun Harrer Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 1997, will leave his job in autumn. In an interview with Gudrun Harrer, the Egyptian lawyer speaks about the challenges for the Agency and the hopes for change in the Middle East inspired by US President Barack Obama. STANDARD: You are leaving the IAEA after 12 years as its Director General in autumn. The succession question is still open, after a Board meeting on Tuesday we are back to square one with candidates without clear majorities. MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: I am very concerned about that. The person who comes here has to be a unifier. He has to have the trust of both the North and the South. STANDARD: And he should also be very independent from his capital, shouldn´t he? ELBARADEI: Independence is the key. I am not the most popular with many of the countries, but I like to believe I am respected. Nobody can accuse us of being biased or having a hidden agenda. Independence and objectivity is absolutely key for us. We go through 50 drafts when we write a report on Iran to make sure that, as far as humanly possible we are objective, impartial and rooting every word we say in facts. We don´t have an army, we don´t have a government, our credibility is our strength. Independence is the key for the next DG otherwise everybody will lose. Because all the issues the Agency deals with require absolute international cooperation. You need a person who has the trust of the North and the South - and unfortunately you have mistrust right now between the two. You need a person who is a manager, to manage people from a hundred different nationalities and different cultures. It is an organisation which - I hate to say - we are sure is infiltrated by many intelligence agencies... STANDARD: It happened to yourself, your telephones had been tapped by the CIA. [IAEA] [Dilemma]
• U.S. tracking N. Korea ship
  From news reports The U.S. military is closely watching a North Korean ship that may be carrying banned military cargo, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday. It is the first vessel to be tracked under new U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang last week after it carried out an underground nuclear test on May 25. "There is a particular ship that we are closely monitoring," said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. military has been tracking the ship, the Kang Nam, for "several days now," said the official. He said the military had "a variety of ways keep an eye" on the vessel. Those include Navy ships at sea, submarines and satellite surveillance.
  The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas - with the owner country's approval - if they believe the cargo contains banned weapons. Under compromise language favored by China and Russia, the U.N. resolution rules out the use of military force to back up the inspections. The U.S. military has long kept a close watch on ships heading in and out of North Korea and the new U.N. resolution means "we have newfound authorities and responsibilities," the official said. The U.N. sanctions allow South Korea's allies to ask to inspect North Korean vessels and ships flagged from other countries suspected of carrying banned cargo. "We intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 to include options, to include, certainly, hail and query," Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, told a news conference earlier on Thursday. If the ship refuses the search, then the vessel would be directed to a nearby port, Mullen said. "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. Mullen sidestepped a question as to whether the military was tracking the North Korean vessel. The United Nations resolution calls on member states to inspect ships if there are "reasonable grounds" that a vessel may be carrying illicit cargo. If a country refuses to order an inspection, or if a government licensing the ship refuses, both states would risk penalties from the Security Council. [PSI] [Legality] [UNUS]
• Korea's nuclear expertise a plus for AMEC
  Korea's nuclear engineering talent is ready to explore beyond its home boundaries and seriously compete in the global market, the head of one of the world's leading energy technologies consultancy groups said. Samir Brikho, chief executive of U.K.-based AMEC, said in an interview with The Korea Herald that a strategic move for Korea now is to take the competence and skills of its engineers offshore. Brikho arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for a five-day visit to follow up on and fortify AMEC's joint venture established in March with several Korean partners: Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation and the Korea Development Bank. [Nuclear energy]
• UN Security Council Imposes New Sanctions on N.Korea
  United Nations Security Council (file photo) After more than two weeks of negotiations among the permanent five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, the full 15-member council adopted a resolution Friday condemning and sanctioning North Korea for its May 25 underground nuclear test. The action came as concerns grow that Pyongyang may be preparing for yet another nuclear test. U.S. envoy Rosemary DiCarlo said Resolution 1874 provides a strong and united international response to North Korea that its behavior is unacceptable. "This resolution will give us new tools to impair North Korea's ability to proliferate and threaten international stability," she said. Among its provisions, Resolution 1874 strengthens an existing arms embargo and expands it to include a ban on all weapons exports from North Korea. It also allows for the inspection of suspect cargo on ships and airplanes, and the confiscation and disposal of any banned items that are found.
• Korean Space Center Targets Tourists
  Korea's space center Naro is to become a new tourist destination like Cape Kennedy and other such facilities around the world. When a space shuttle launch is imminent, the Kennedy Space Center in the U.S. attracts tens of thousands of visitors. And Japan's Tanegashima Space Center gets 100,000 tourists a year. Designated as a national wildlife protection zone, the entire Cape Kennedy area has attracted the attention of visitors for tours of space facilities and observation of wildlife that Florida alone can offer. The Naro Space Center too has its pristine natural resources. [Satellite]
• UN Seeks to Ensure Compliance with N.Korea Sanctions
  The UN Security Council has reached agreement on a harsh resolution sanctioning North Korea over its second nuclear test, and the key will lie in ensuring that the sanctions are implemented. Immediately after the North conducted the first nuclear test in 2006, the UN adopted UNSC Resolution 1718, which was regarded at that time as containing strong and elaborate sanctions. But they produced little result in the ensuing political developments, including resumption of the six-party nuclear talks. The new resolution has already achieved sufficient symbolic effects as a show of unity by the international community, including even North Korean allies China and Russia. But it will be difficult to expect all UN members to implement the three kinds of sanctions -- ban on weapons trade, searches of suspicious ships entering or leaving North Korea, and financial sanctions, all of which are aimed at choking off North Korea's money supply for arms development. A diplomatic source said, "UN members are under an obligation to implement UN resolutions, but there is no way for the UN to punish any members for failing to do so." Because of this, the UNSC introduced a mechanism to guarantee the implementation of the new resolution. Clause 22 of the draft resolution stipulates that members must submit reports on their implementation of the resolution to the UNSC within 45 days after it is adopted. Clause 25 stipulates that the Sanctions Committee must submit by July 15 action plans for support and cooperation. And Clause 26 provides for panels of experts to be launched under the council so it can gather, review and analyze information on failure to implement the sanctions. [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• Resolution 1874 (2009)
  Adopted by the Security Council at its 6141st meeting, on 12 June 2009 (full text) [test] [UNUS]
• NZ-DPRK Society media release on DPRK nuclear test
  The second nuclear test by the DPRK (North Korea) on 25 May 2009 is highly regrettable but must be viewed within the context of the deteriorating relationship with the ROK (South Korea) and Japan and the lack of a coherent and positive policy by the incoming Obama administration. The test is clearly a reiteration of North Korea’s message to successive American administrations to engage in meaningful bilateral negotiations to resolve issues between the two countries to produce a peaceful and normal relationship, free of sanctions and military threats.
• Security Council imposes tougher sanctions on DPR Korea
  Security Council in session 12 June 2009 – The United Nations Security Council today imposed tougher sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including a tighter arms embargo and new financial restrictions, following the nuclear test conducted by the East Asian nation last month. By unanimously adopting resolution 1874, the 15-member body condemned the 25 May nuclear test conducted in “violation and flagrant disregard” of relevant Council resolutions, particularly 1695 (2006) and 1718 (2006). It also demanded that the DPRK “not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology.” The Council imposed a series of measures on the DPRK that include tougher inspections of cargo suspected of containing banned items related to the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities, a tighter arms embargo with the exception of light weapons and new financial restrictions. [test] [Sanctions] [UNUS] [Satellite]
• Russia Blocks Resolution on Imposing Sanctions on NK
  JUNE 11, 2009 08:28 The U.N. Security Council seemed close to reaching an agreement on imposing sanctions on North Korea yesterday but was delayed after Russia raised new concerns. Along with South Korea and Japan, the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- held a meeting on the draft text of a resolution on the sanctions Tuesday. As major world powers reached agreement on the most sensitive issue of ship inspections, passage of the resolution seemed imminent. A high-ranking U.N. official said, however, “We’ve got the makings of a deal, but one delegation still needs to hear back from its capital.” He added they would reach a final agreement early Thursday morning. Sources close to the talks said Russia unexpectedly raised concerns over the draft resolution that urges North Korea to test fire nothing using ballistic missile technology. South Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Park In-kook told South Korean journalists, “We’ve made considerable progress. A lot of issues have been dealt with. Delegations will have another meeting Wednesday after hearing back from their own governments.” The draft of the new resolution requires U.N. member states to inspect suspicious sea cargo to and from North Korea under agreement with the state to which the ship belongs; ban all financial services that could help programs or activities related to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction; and prevent Pyongyang from exporting any arms except for small weapons and light firearms. [UNUS] [Satellite] [test] [Sanctions]
• China calls for 'balanced' UN resolution on N.Korea
  1 day ago BEIJING (AFP) — China called on Thursday for an "appropriate and balanced" UN resolution against North Korea for its recent nuclear test and missile launches after a draft was submitted to the Security Council. "We always believe that the Security Council should pass an appropriate and balanced resolution which is conducive to promoting the de-nuclearisation on the Korean peninsula," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. He added the resolution should help "safeguard peace and stability in northeast Asia," and said China would continue to make efforts in that regard. Major powers at the United Nations, including China, agreed Wednesday on a draft resolution that includes expanded sanctions on North Korea, such as tougher cargo inspections and a tighter arms embargo. The compromise draft was worked out following two weeks of bargaining by envoys of seven nations -- the five permanent members of the Security Council, and Japan and South Korea -- and has been presented to other council members. It is widely expected to be endorsed at a vote by the end of the week. [UNUS] [Satellite] [test] [Sanctions]
• U.N. Imposes Tough New Sanctions on North Korea
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, June 12, 2009; 2:04 PM UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Friday to impose a broad range of additional financial, military and trade sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests, and called on states for the first time to seize banned North Korean cargo on the high seas. The Security Council's action marked a significant escalation in the United Nations' effort to coerce North Korea into halting a barrage of ballistic missile tests and to prod it back into six-nation talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The 15-nation council is now set to begin negotiations over imposition of an asset freeze or travel ban on additional individuals and state companies linked to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program But the authority of the council's move was mitigated by its unwillingness to use force to ensure compliance, or to impose a comprehensive economic blockade that would severely curtail a boom in North Korean trade, particularly with China. "This is not a trade embargo," Britain's deputy U.N. ambassador, Philip Parham, said shortly before the vote. In a sign of its reluctance to cut off Pyongyang, Beijing insisted that today's resolution include an exemption from an arms embargo that allows China to sell Pyongyang small arms and light weapons, including the signature AK-47 used by North Korea's giant military, according to council diplomats. [UNUS] [Satellite] [test] [Sanctions]
• Value of N. Korea Sanctions Disputed
  International Curbs After '06 Explosion Seen as Ineffective
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, June 12, 2009 TOKYO, June 11 -- As the United Nations moves this week to sanction North Korea for its second nuclear test, there is strong evidence that a previous international squeeze did not work. Thanks to booming business with neighboring China, North Korea's overseas trade has grown substantially since the U.N. Security Council imposed punitive sanctions after the government of Kim Jong Il exploded its first nuclear device in 2006. Trade volume rose last year to its highest level since 1990, when a far more prosperous and less isolated North Korea was heavily subsidized by the Soviet Union, according to an analysis by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a government-funded organization in Seoul. North Korean exports surged 23 percent last year, compared with the previous year, and imports jumped 33 percent, the agency said. It found that China's share of overseas trade with the North is soaring, up from 33 percent in 2003 to 73 percent last year. The Security Council sanctions have had "no perceptible effect" on North Korea's trade with its largest partners, according to another study by Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. [Sanctions]
• Text of United Nations Draft Resolution on North Korean Sanctions
  The Security Council, Recalling its previous relevant resolutions, including resolution 825 (1993), resolution 1540 (2004), resolution 1695 (2006), and, in particular, resolution 1718 (2006), as well as the statements of its President of 6 October 2006 (S/PRST/2006/41) and 13 April 2009 (S/PRST/2009/7), Reaffirming that proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security, Expressing the gravest concern at the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“the DPRK”) on 25 May 2009 (local time) in violation of resolution 1718 (2006), and at the challenge such a test constitutes to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (“the NPT”) and to international efforts aimed at strengthening the global regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons towards the 2010 NPT Review Conference, and the danger it poses to peace and stability in the region and beyond,
  Calls upon all States to inspect, in accordance with their national legal authorities and consistent with international law, all cargo to and from the DPRK, in their territory, including seaports and airports, if the State concerned has information that provides reasonable grounds to believe the cargo contains items the supply, sale, transfer, or export of which is prohibited by paragraph 8(a), 8(b), or 8(c) of resolution 1718 or by paragraph 9 or 10 of this resolution, for the purpose of ensuring strict implementation of those provisions; 12. Calls upon all Member States to inspect vessels, with the consent of the flag State, on the high seas, if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo of such vessels contains items the supply, sale, transfer, or export of which is prohibited by paragraph 8(a), 8(b), or 8(c) of resolution 1718 (2006) or by paragraph 9 or 10 of this resolution, for the purpose of ensuring strict implementation of those provisions; 13. Calls upon all States to cooperate with inspections pursuant to paragraphs 11 and 12, and, if the flag State does not consent to inspection on the high seas, decides that the flag State shall direct the vessel to proceed to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities pursuant to paragraph 11; [test] [Sanctions] [PSI] [Legality]
• Russia Requires 1,500 Nuclear Warheads, Military Official Says
  Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Russia must retain no fewer than 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads under a new arms control agreement with the United States, the head of Russian strategic missile forces told Interfax today (see GSN, June 8).
• Avoiding catastrophe in the Korean peninsula
  *maintaining momentum to nuclear zero
  letter by organisations worldwide to governments of dprk, rok, united states, russia, china and japan secretary-general kim jong il, dprk, president, prime minister, and foreign minister of rok prime minister and foreign minister of japan president and foreign minister of china president of usa president of russia prime minister of russia foreign minister of russia secretary of state of usa us senate committees on foreign affairs and armed services, russian duma committees on foreign affairs and defense, un security council Dear Secretary-General Kim Jong IL, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers/Secretaries of State, of the DPRK, Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia, China, and the United States,
  We are writing: (a) To urge that no party takes any action subsequent to the recent nuclear test by the DPRK that might in any way further raise tensions.
• S. Korea Completes Work on Naro Space Center
  South Korea has completed work on its first space center that will play a pivotal role in the development of rockets and launching satellites into orbit. The Naro Space Center, located 485 kilometers south of Seoul and covering 5.11 million square meters, was built at a cost of 312.4 billion won ($248.6 million), Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting the Ministry of Education, Science and technology. Work began in December 2000, with the ground-breaking taking place in mid-2003. The vast complex located on the southern coast has a state-of-the-art mission director center, launch and flight safety control facilities, launch pad, meteorological observatory and both radar and optical tracking systems to follow the trajectory of all rockets launched. It is scheduled to launch the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) on July 30, which could make South Korea the 13th member of the so-called "space club" comprising countries that currently operate space centers and can send satellites into orbit. [Satellite] {double standards] [KSLV]
• Pyongyang bans ships off east coast
  June 09, 2009 North Korean authorities have banned ships from the waters off a major portion of its east coast starting today, including a site where it fired a long-range rocket on April 5, South Korean officials said yesterday. The ban, effective between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. from June 9 to 29 according to the National Oceanographic Research Institute, starts at the mid-eastern port of Yongodan and stretches 266 kilometers (165 miles) northeast along the coast of South Hamgyong Province. Covering nearly 9,700 square kilometers (2,396 acres), the ban ends near the Musudan-ri base where the North launched a long-range rocket in April despite international warnings.
  North Korea has vowed to resume its nuclear and missile testing since the UN Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch, which only Pyongyang says put a satellite in space. South Korea and the U.S. say the rocket could be converted (sic) into a ballistic missile capable of hitting the western U.S. coast. [Satellite]
• Breaking into nuclear exports
  [Nuclear energy: risk or opportunity? Last in a three-part series] Korea can turn to developing markets, but may need to forge alliances: experts June 08, 2009 Yeonggwang Nuclear Power Plant in South Jeolla, seen here at night, was first built in the 1970s. [JoongAng Ilbo] Countries that are able to build and export nuclear power plants include the United States, France, Russia, Canada and Japan. However, the market for commercial nuclear power plants is mostly split between the U.S., France and Russia. In particular, Westinghouse and GE of U.S. and Areva of France dominate. The U.S. currently holds the highest number of key technologies to build nuclear power plants. It has 129 such sites, the most in the world. Nuclear power is being reviewed for expanded use by U.S. President Barrack Obama for economic and environmental reasons. [Double standards] [Nuclear energy]
• Written nuclear pledge bolsters alliance with U.S.
  The latest agreement between the United States and South Korea to document Washington's extended provision of its nuclear umbrella over Seoul is seen as further steps to bolster the alliance in the face of continued North Korean threats. Questions linger, however, as to how effective the document will be when the "nuclear umbrella" itself is in need of repair. On Friday, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said he reached an agreement with his U.S. counterpart Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a written guarantee that Seoul remains under Washington's "Nuclear Extended Deterrence Strategy," commonly referred to as a "nuclear umbrella." [Denuclearisation] [Deterrence] [US NK Negotiations] [JS050919]
• Is Pyongyang reacting to or shaping events?
  June 6th, 2009 Author: Ron Huisken, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU In a fit of calculated fury, North Korea has undone the work of several years of negotiations, declared the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953 to be null and void, and promised ‘merciless’ retaliation against anyone that violates its unilateral definition of sovereign rights.North Korea has crossed the Rubicon Subtlety and imagination are among the many things in short supply in Pyongyang. Policy setbacks lead the regime to press the only button on the console: belligerence. Even so, the latest phase of ill-humour is strikingly fierce. Why? Has one or more of the other five participants in the Six-party talks done something so aggressive or insulting that Pyongyang was left without a choice? If not, then perhaps Pyongyang wants to be where it currently is, and has inflated lesser policy setbacks to the point where it believes they can serve the constructed appearance that the DPRK has responded to extreme provocation. [NK US policy] [Inversion] [Agency]
• Talks on North Korea Sanctions Stall Over Inspections
  By NEIL MacFARQUHAR Published: June 5, 2009 Negotiations over toughening sanctions against North Korea in the wake of its underground nuclear test last month have stalled over the issue of inspecting cargo ships on the high seas, according to two Security Council diplomats. China has yet to sign off on the idea that North Korean vessels could be stopped and searched, the diplomats said. Ambassadors from the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — plus Japan and South Korea, locked in intensive bargaining sessions all week, have agreed on other issues, including widening an arms embargo and financial restrictions, the diplomats said. North Korea has declared cargo inspections an act of war. [PSI] [NK China]
• The nuclear-weapons prospect
  Paul Rogers
  The global opportunity to reduce the nuclear danger may be greater than North Korea’s weapons-test implies. 4 - 06 - 2009 North Korea's nuclear-weapon test on 25 May 2009 has produced strong condemnation across a range of states and world leaders, though (so far at least) little action. In part, this is because the circumstances of Pyongyang's decision to conduct the test were unusual even for this particularly unpredictable (sic) state. It was accompanied by other missile-tests, disputed claims over the status of the ceasefire in the Korean war (1950-53), threats against South Korea should it join international counter-proliferation initiatives, and vocal antagonism to the long-established six-party talks. Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September North Korea's initiative and harsh rhetoric may be part of a bid for international attention as a lever to gain more economic aid; or of a political-transition struggle where harder-line elements aspire to internal power. The difficulty of reading the Kim Jong-il regime's intentions makes it even harder for the Barack Obama administration and its allies in Europe and east Asia to formulate an effective response. But the test also highlights the issue of nuclear proliferation - and notwithstanding the understandable unease over a "maverick" state's calculations, there are grounds for optimism in the larger picture. [Test] [Cliché] [Proliferation] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Don’t Make It Worse
  By MIKHAIL GORBACHEV Published: June 4, 2009 News of the nuclear test in North Korea on May 25 came while I was visiting the demilitarized zone on the Korean Peninsula. I had been invited to the inauguration ceremony for a peace bell on the 38th parallel — the truce line where the hostilities between North and South Korea ceased in 1953. [Test] [Inversion]
• U.N. Inspectors Find Traces of Uranium at Second Site in Syria
  By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 6, 2009 U.N. inspectors probing allegations of a clandestine nuclear program in Syria have discovered traces of uranium at a second location, fueling concerns among nuclear experts that the country was secretly planning to build nuclear weapons. A report yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency said the uranium traces were discovered during routine testing at a small research reactor in Damascus, the capital, that is subject to U.N. oversight. Lab analysis showed the particles to be a form of chemically processed uranium -- a "type not included in Syria's declared inventory of nuclear material," the report said. The traces were discovered on equipment known as "hot cells," suggesting to some independent experts that Syria was experimenting with techniques that could be used in a more sophisticated facility to isolate plutonium from spent reactor fuel. [Hype]
• Ramifications of the North Korean Nuclear Test
  By Emily B. Landau and Ephraim Asculai May 27th, 2009
  Emily B. Landau and Ephraim Asculai, Senior Research Fellows at the Institute for National Security Studies, write, “Without strong action on the part of the US, we might enter a new dynamic with parallel developments: nuclear proliferation that proceeds at an accelerated pace, together with inspiring but ineffective talk about (unheeded) international arms control treaties. So unless the US and its allies coordinate their moves, recognizing the acute seriousness of the North Korean nuclear challenge for both the immediate region and beyond, the situation will continue to deteriorate and could reach a dangerous point of no return.” [Test] [Proliferation] [US Global strategy]
• North Korea as a Nuclear Weapons State
  by Michael McDevitt
  Michael McDevitt (mcdevitm@cna.org) is vice president and director of the Center for Strategic Studies at CNA Corporation. The most immediate and dangerous development in Northeast Asia today is the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Between April 5 when it launched a long-range missile and its nuclear test on May 25, North Korea has withdrawn from the Six-Party talks, effectively backing out of the September 2005 Six Party Joint Statement that included a denuclearization pledge. If nothing else, its test last week made this point clearly. It is now reportedly working to recommission the reprocessing plant at Yongbyan with the obvious intent of turning the spent fuel in the rods removed from its now idle reactor into weapons grade material – essentially making good the weapons-grade material used in the latest test, plus some. [US NK negotiation] [Inversion]
• N.Korea 'Preparing to Fire Mid-Range Missiles'
  North Korea has begun preparations to fire three or four medium-range missiles, the South Korean military reported to the National Assembly's National Defense Committee on Tuesday. Defense Committee members quoted military officers as saying this when they visited the command post of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They said the North is preparing to fire medium-range missiles near Anbyon-gun, Gangwon Province. The South has detected several vehicle mobile launchers carrying missiles in the area and assumes that the North will fire more than three missiles. Officers do not rule out that North Korea will launch an intercontinental ballistic missile from a launch pad in Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province on the west coast at the same time. The medium-range missiles are most likely of the Rodong type with a range of 1,300 km or a new type with a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km which the North deployed warfare-ready in 2007.
• U.S. Double Standards Policy on Nuclear Issue under Fire
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- U.S. President Obama declared in the Czech Republic in last April that the United States would take the lead in making a "nuclear arms reduction" and "bringing about a world without nuclear weapons." During his trip to France made later he uttered he would pursue the goal of "working toward a world without nuclear weapons." But when he was meeting former Japanese Prime Minister Abe, Obama claimed that the U.S. "nuclear disarmament should not be a hurdle in providing a nuclear umbrella to its allies." Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: As seen above, the U.S. is double-tongued and applies double standards as regards the nuclear issue. The U.S. unreasonably brands the DPRK, Iran and other countries incurring its displeasure as "nuclear criminals" by taking issue even with their legitimate nuclear activities for peaceful purposes. But it shuts its eyes to the nuclear issues of the countries and forces that meekly obey and follow it and keep mum about them. [Double standards]
• Column One: Israel and the Axis of Evil
  By CAROLINE GLICK [Recent columns] May 27, 2009 23:53 | Updated May 28, 2009 0:00
  North Korea is half a world away from Israel. Yet the nuclear test it conducted on Monday has the Israeli defense establishment up in arms and its Iranian nemesis smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Understanding why this is the case is key to understanding the danger posed by what someone once impolitely referred to as the Axis of Evil. Less than two years ago, on September 6, 2007, the IAF destroyed a North Korean-built plutonium production facility at Kibar, Syria. The destroyed installation was a virtual clone of North Korea's Yongbyon plutonium production facility. This past March the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported that Iranian defector Ali Reza Asghari, who before his March 2007 defection to the US served as a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards and as deputy defense minister, divulged that Iran paid for the North Korean facility. Teheran viewed the installation in Syria as an extension of its own nuclear program. According to Israeli estimates, Teheran spent between $1 billion and $2b. for the project. It can be assumed that Iranian personnel were present in North Korea during Monday's test. Over the past several years, Iranian nuclear officials have been on hand for all of North Korea's major tests including its first nuclear test and its intercontinental ballistic missile test in 2006.  [Test]
• Israel demands world 'respond decisively' to North Korea nuclear test
  Last update - 22:20 25/05/2009        By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press Tags: nuclear weapons, Israel News Israel has joined the West in condemning North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test. "Israel views the second North Korean nuclear test with extreme gravity, and is party to the global concern caused by this event," according to a Foreign Ministry statement released on Monday. "Furthermore, Israel is concerned with North Korea's nuclear proliferation, which has negative implications in this region," the statement read.  Advertisement "Israel expects the international community to respond decisively to the nuclear detonation by North Korea, so as to transmit an unambiguous message to other countries." [test]
• Israel, not DPRK the biggest danger
  Tue, 26 May 2009 00:59:41 GMT Israel is attempting to muster global support against nuclear North Korea amid worldwide criticism of Tel Aviv's widely-reported possession of nuclear weapons. On Monday, in yet another move to seemingly deflect criticism from its own atomic arsenal, Tel Aviv called for a crushing international response to the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea's (DPRK) latest nuclear test. "Israel expects the international community to respond decisively to the nuclear detonation by North Korea," The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday quoting a foreign ministry statement. The response was supposed "to transmit an unambiguous message to other countries," the statement added. Earlier in the day, Pyongyang said it had conducted another test of a potent nuclear device "as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense." News of three short-range missile test launches after the underground nuclear exercise sparked the outrage of the international community which has repeatedly censured North Korea's contempt for the United Nations' sanctions on its nuclear activities. Amid the condemnations, however, analysts take the Israeli barrage against Pyongyang with a grain of salt given Tel Aviv's reputation as the sole possessor of scores of nuclear warheads in the Middle East according to former US president Jimmy Carter, aerial footage and decades of recurrent reporting. The arsenal has made Tel Aviv a target of high-profile media attacks. Most recently, the Arab League Chief, Amr Mousa, warned that Israeli nukes posed "the real danger" in the Middle East. [Test]
• North Korea dangers lurk whatever nuclear test result
  By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent – Analysis WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The jury is still out on the size and success of North Korea's nuclear test, but the May 25 blast could give any proliferation plans Pyongyang might have a marketing boost no matter how it measures up. Even nuclear experts who see the explosion as militarily insignificant paint scenarios ranging from future sets of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea to exports of dangerous technology to full-blown cooperation with Iran. Last week, a U.S. official said initial American testing was "inconclusive" in confirming whether a nuclear device was detonated and more tests were needed. The Vienna-based Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said the blast North Korea asserts was its second nuclear test since 2006 resembled both an explosion and an earthquake. But it said absolute proof required detection of radioactive particles and noble gases, expected this week at the earliest. [Test] [Proliferation]
• Why N.Korea Moved Long-Range Missile to New Site
  North Korea has moved a long-range missile from a launch site in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province to a new missile testing site in Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. There is a lot of speculation why what is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile was moved. A South Korean government source on Monday said a train carrying the missile arrived in Dongchang-ri over the weekend from a research center in Pyongyang and the missile appears to have been placed in a large structure to be assembled. It is expected to be assembled over the next week or two before it is placed upright on the launch pad. South Korean intelligence are wondering why the missile is at the new test site, which has yet to be completed. One reason may be that the Dongchang-ri site is more advanced, thereby lowering the time and risk involved in launching a missile. The Dongchang-ri site is believed to be equipped with automated systems to track and control missiles and rockets, and to load them with liquid fuel. Also, the vertical launch pad is 40 m high, while the one in Musudan-ri is only 30 m, making it capable of launching long-range missiles or rockets carrying satellites. The source said another advantage may be that if the missile crosses North Korea on an eastward trajectory, it can travel a longer distance than if it was fired from Musudan-ri, while making it easier to track and gather data from radar and other facilities in the North. He added that North Korea could fire the missile southward along the West Sea. Until now, a missile and long-range rocket fired from Musudan-ri crossed Japan, triggering strong protests from the Japanese government. Tokyo threatened to intercept the rocket. Intelligence officials note that the Dongchang-ri site is only around 70 km away from the Yongbyon nuclear facility. North Korea has yet to develop a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile, but the proximity of Dongchang-ri to the Yongbyon nuclear facility would allow the North to transport a nuclear warhead to the missile site in less time than the old site.
• More Meetings Hail Successful Nuclear Test
  Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- Meetings were held in North Phyongan, South Hamgyong, North Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces of the DPRK to hail the second successful nuclear test. Present there were leading officials of local party and power organs and working people's organizations, servicepersons, working people of different circles and youth and students. Speakers at the meetings said that the recent nuclear test helped further strengthen the power and defence capability of Songun Korea as it satisfactorily solved the scientific and technological problems for developing the nuclear technology of the DPRK. They said that the army and people of the DPRK, who demonstrated to the world the spirit of Juche Korea making no concessions in defending the supreme interests and sovereignty of the country, would dynamically advance along the road of independence, the road of Songun, full of confidence in sure victory and optimism. They stressed that the Korean revolution is sure to triumph as it is led by Kim Jong Il.
• S. Korea Deploys Guided-Missile Vessel
  South Korea bolstered its naval defense capabilities Tuesday along its western sea border with North Korea by deploying its first guided-missile high-speed boat. The deployment of the 440-ton Yun Yeong Ha comes as tension mounts in the Yellow Sea after North Korea scrapped the 1950-53 Korean War truce and threatened the safety of South Korean and U.S. naval vessels near the Northern Limit Line, according to Yonhap News Agency. North Korea says the border should be drawn farther south. The two Koreas clashed near the border island of Yeonpyeong in 1999 and 2002, resulting in the deaths of dozens of soldiers on both sides. The South Korean Navy said it has commissioned a survivor of the 1999 battle as captain of the vessel, which was named after a lieutenant commander who was killed in the 2002 clash. The Yun Yeong Ha is equipped with guided missiles that can hit targets as far away as 140 kilometers and a 40-millimeter gun that can fire 600 bullets per minute, the Navy said in a statement. The ship, partially coated with stealth technology, also has a 76-millimeter gun that can hit targets up to 16 kilometers away and can travel at the speed of 40 knots or 74 kilometers per hour, it said. [Military balance]
• NK Long-Range Missile Arrives at Launch Pad
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea appears to be accelerating preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and provoke an incident near the western sea border, military and intelligence authorities here said Monday. Tension has been growing on the Korean Peninsula since the communist state's second nuclear test and test-firings of short-range missiles last week.
• Gates Says North Korea May Test Another Missile
  By ELISABETH BUMILLER Published: June 1, 2009 FORT GREELY, Alaska — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates descended into an underground silo in this sub-Arctic outpost on Monday to deliver the message to North Korea — and his critics in Congress — that the United States had plenty of interceptors to shoot down an enemy missile should the North launch an attack. “We have a good capability here,” Mr. Gates said after clambering down the stairs of the silo to view one of 16 interceptor missiles designed to stop a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile before it reaches, theoretically, San Francisco or Hawaii. “Knowing that we have this capability and that it becomes more effective each passing day should be a source of comfort to the American people in an uncertain world.”
• Expert: North’s test not a surprise, more to come
  June 01, 2009 American nuclear expert Sigfried Hecker believes North Korea is “improving its nuclear weapons capabilities, not giving them up,” following its recent nuclear test. In an e-mail interview, Hecker, co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, also said North Korea could go ahead with another nuclear and missile test. “They stated that they would test an ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile], so they likely will test again,” Hecker said. “As for another nuclear test, they are limited by their small plutonium inventory, but one more test is possible.” Hecker, who is also a research professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford, has visited North Korea six times since 2005; his most recent trip there was last February. He has previously noted that North Korea has given him “remarkable access to its Yongbyon nuclear facilities and its technical specialists.” “They told me that it was useful to reduce the ambiguities about the North Korean nuclear program,” Hecker said. “To some extent the access to Yongbyon has allowed me to do that.” What it has also allowed him to do was gather information on the state of the nuclear program there. Hecker noted that North Korea possesses enough plutonium for a third nuclear test. “[North Korea] likely used only a small portion of the 26 kilograms it had on hand, perhaps as much as 6 kilograms,” Hecker said. “Since it is now reprocessing another 8 kilograms from the spent fuel, it can replace whatever it used during this test.” The expert also thought highly of the skill level of North Korean nuclear scientists. “North Korean scientists and engineers have mastered the plutonium fuel cycle,” he said. “That is, they have demonstrated all the capabilities to make fuel, construct and operate a reactor, and extract plutonium in a reprocessing facility.” Hecker estimated the latest nuclear yield to be in the range of 2 to 4 kilotons and if a device with this power were detonated above a major city, “it could cause tens of thousands of deaths.” “I believed that North Korea planned to do a test once it decided to reprocess the 8,000 fuel rods [in mid-April],” he said. “I did not believe it had to finish before it tested because it could use its previously reprocessed plutonium for the test and replace it once the new plutonium is reprocessed. So, I am not surprised they tested early. This test had been in the planning stage for a long time.” By Kim Su-jeong, Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr] [Test]
• N.Korea Declares Wide Coastal Area Off Limits
  North Korea has declared a wide area in the West Sea off Hwanghae and Pyongan provinces off-limits until the end of July. It is also becoming more secretive. A South Korean government official on Sunday said the North Korean Army has reduced communications to a significant extent, "and they exchange only messages that seem essential during communications as if they are mindful of our monitoring." On about 120 occasions every year, North Korea declares areas in its waters off limits for ships for military exercises or oil exploration in both East and West seas. But it has seldom declared such a large area off limits for such a long period.
• U.S. 'Would Try to Intercept N.Korean Missile'
  The U.S. Defense Department has said it could intercept a long-range North Korean missile with ground-based interceptor rockets before it reached the U.S. mainland. Charles McQueary, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department, told Bloomberg on Friday, "I believe we have a reasonable chance" of an intercept. "I’d put it 'likely' -- than 'highly likely' -- as opposed to putting it 'unlikely,'" he added. "If North Korea launched a missile or two against us, we wouldn’t sit back... I wonder if we have enough test data in order to launch... We would launch," McQueary said. The U.S. would likely launch multiple rockets at the incoming missile to improve the chance of an intercept, Bloomberg quoted him as saying. The U.S. has deployed a Boeing-managed US$35.5 billion ground-based system of 28 interceptors in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Bloomberg reported. Before North Korea test-launched a rocket in April, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. had no plans to try to shoot down the North Korean missile but might consider trying if an "aberrant missile" were headed to Hawaii "or something like that." [Satellite] Missile defense]
• Seoul Could Sell Steel Products Set Aside for NK
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter South Korea is planning to sell steel products which were supposed to be offered to North Korea in return for denuclearization, according to a report Sunday. Sources said the government is considering the sale of 3,000 tons after the secretive state escalated tensions on the peninsula by conducting an underground nuclear test and firing short-range missiles last week, according to the Yonhap News. ``Given that North Korea conducted the nuclear test, we cannot send the steel products,'' an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was quoted as saying. ``Besides the storage problem, we cannot keep them any longer because of rust.'' It costs 500,000 won ($399) a day to store the products, which were produced last October, according to another government source. He said the government will likely sell the steel through a public auction. The South planned to send steel as agreed during the six-party talks in February 2003 in return for the North's promise to dismantle nuclear facilities in Yongbyon. The Feb. 13 agreement also called for 1 million tons of crude oil. Seoul had considered an appropriate date to offer the aid but delayed the schedule as North Korea and other nations involved in the six-party talks failed to narrow differences over ways to disable nuclear facilities in a verifiable way. The communist state has escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula since it launched a long-range rocket on April 5, despite repeated warnings from the international community. The U.N. Security Council condemned the rocket launch, citing its violation of Resolution 1718 but the North conducted the nuclear test a month later and fired a series of short-range missiles. The Security Council is reportedly preparing a stronger resolution to sanction the North. [Renege]
• 'NK Preparing for Long-Range Missile Test'
  North Korea appears to be preparing for a long-range missile test, defying the U.N. Security Council whose members are negotiating a resolution to punish it for its recent nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday, quoting an informed intelligence source. The source, asking not to be identified, said an object that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was recently spotted on a cargo train at an artillery research center near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. [Satellite]
• N. Korea Seen Moving Missile to Launchpad
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, May 31, 2009 TOKYO, May 30 -- North Korea, which launched a long-range missile over Japan in April, appeared Saturday to be moving another one to a launchpad. Reports that a large rocket was moving by train toward North Korea's east coast punctuated a tense week on the Korean Peninsula. It began Monday with the North's underground test of a nuclear device, included the firing of six short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, and featured a declaration by the government of Kim Jong Il that the truce that ended the Korean War was null and void. [Satellite] [Spin]

• N.Korea Fires Another Short-Range Missile
  South Korean navy speed boats patrol near Yeonpyong Island on May 29, 2009. North Korea test-fired another short-range missile off its east coast Friday, and threatened to take retaliatory action if the United Nations imposes sanctions for its latest nuclear test. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quotes a South Korean official as saying the North launched a "new type" of land-to-air missile from its Musudan-ri launch site. It was the sixth short-range missile North Korea has fired since its nuclear test Monday.
• 'Nuclear Sovereignty'
  Hardliners Urged to Refrain From Irrational Demands It is important to form a cool and rational response to North Korea's series of provocative actions, including its second nuclear test and missile launches. Overreaction and emotional approaches are certainly what the isolated communist state is trying to extract from South Korea and its allies. The South should take firm and resolute action against the North in cooperation with the international community to encourage the Kim Jong-il regime to give up its nuclear brinkmanship and other types of provocations. However, some hardliners are putting forth reckless and irrational demands for an ``eye for an eye" approach toward the recalcitrant North. Such demands include South Korea's development of its own nuclear weapons and the postponement or abolishment of a plan to take over wartime operational command from the United States. It goes without saying that these radical demands only make it more difficult to find a solution to the escalating crisis on the Korean Peninsula. [Energy security] [Sovereignty]
• N.K. test reignites nuclear sovereignty debate
  Pyongyang's second nuclear test on Monday has reignited a controversy over the issue of "nuclear sovereignty" - the right to process nuclear material as desired. Those in support of the idea that South Korea should have nuclear sovereignty have two reasons - to increase self-defense against the North, and for a stable supply of power as the South depends on atomic power for much of its energy. [Energy security] [Double standards] [Sovereignty]
• Responding to North Korea's Nuclear Test
  Gareth Evans in The Age 28 May 2009 The Age With this week's nuclear test North Korea, as so often in the past, has acted for reasons that are largely impenetrable (sic) to present the international community with choices that are for the most part unpalatable. It is difficult to respond in a cool and measured way in the face of behaviour as irresponsible and provocative (sic) as this, and so obviously in defiant contempt of Security Council authority. But a response that keeps the door open for negotiations, while being tough-minded about containment, is the best available. [cliché] [test]
• India takes tough stand on North Korean nuclear test
  26 May 2009, 0000 hrs IST, TNN NEW DELHI: India reacted strongly against North Korea's nuclear test on Monday, indicating that it would take a more tough position on international non-proliferation issues. In a statement issued soon after he assumed office on Monday morning, new foreign minister S M Krishna said, "For the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to conduct such a test in violation of its international commitments would be unfortunate. Like others in the international community we are concerned at the adverse effect on peace and security in that region of such tests." India's tough stand on North Korea is in line with new thinking in the Manmohan Singh government that India would be more upfront on non-proliferation issues, particularly as these are expected to be uppermost in the Obama administration. [Test] [Double standards] [Chutzpah]
• How Far Will N.Korea Go?
  What is North Korea's next move after conducting its second nuclear test sooner than expected? That was the question on many people's minds on Monday. The North Korean Foreign Ministry on April 29 threatened to conduct a second nuclear test, launch an intercontinental ballistic missile and develop nuclear weapons through uranium enrichment, unless the UN Security Council lifts sanctions and issues an apology. And less than a month later, North Korea pushed ahead with its second nuclear test. One South Korean security official said North Korea's next move is expected to be the launch of an ICBM or the start of a uranium enrichment program (sic). [HEU]
• N.Korea 'Restarts Reprocessing Plant'
  Northy Korea has apparently restarted a fuel reprocessing facility at Yongbyon. Steam has recently seen coming from the facility. Experts had earlier speculated that it would take two to four months for the North to resume operations at the plant. Fuel reprocessing extracts plutonium, the raw material for nuclear weapons, from spent fuel rods. North Korea has some 8,000 spent fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility. If it reprocesses them, it could obtain an additional 6 to 8 kg of plutonium, enough to make one nuclear weapon.
• U.S., China 'Had 20 Minutes' Notice of N.Korea Nuke Test'
  North Korea notified the U.S. and China 20-30 minutes before it conducted a nuclear test Monday morning, but that did not leave them enough time to inform South Korea, National Intelligence Service director Won Sei-hoon was quoted as telling the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Lawmakers quoted Won as saying the North notified the U.S. and China through diplomatic channels around 9:30 a.m. on Monday. The message said the North would conduct a nuclear test unless there was an apology for the recent chairman's statement of the UN Security Council condemning its rocket launch. North Korea told China a little earlier than the U.S. Denying reports that the North launched surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, Won reportedly said North Korea launched two surface-to-ship missiles from Wonsan at 5 p.m. on Monday and was still expected to fire another [Intelligence]
• ‘Useful idiot’ beware Beijing anger
  By Quentin Peel in London Published: May 26 2009 20:05 | Last updated: May 26 2009 20:05 North Korea is a miserable relic of Stalinist dictatorship, a closed kingdom of starving citizens where military spending runs at about one quarter of gross domestic product, but its leaders have always been good at one thing: international blackmail. Again and again, they have played on the paranoia of the international community about nuclear proliferation, pressing ahead with uranium enrichment, firing long-range missiles across the Sea of Japan in the guise of satellite launches, and now – for the second time – actually exploding a nuclear device. EDITOR’S CHOICE N Korea threatens South over ship searches - May-27US weighs options to tackle N Korea - May-26Editorial: De-fang Pyongyang - May-26Slideshow: North Korea’s second nuclear test - May-26In depth: North Korea - Nov-24Analysis: Calibrated message from Pyongyang - May-25Maybe this time it is partly a question of domestic politics, with the ailing President Kim Jong-il trying to bolster his position with a new bout of sabre-rattling aimed at the new US administration of President Barack Obama, not to mention the nervous governments in Japan and South Korea. But the tactics are similar to those adopted in the past – demonstrating his readiness to behave in such an outrageous manner that he exposes the inability of the great powers, and the United Nations, to restrain him. The question is when or whether he might overplay his hand, as serial blackmailers usually do. The answer to that lies more in Beijing than anywhere else. [Bizarre]
• Experts diagnose S. Korea’s options while agreeing going nuclear is not N. Korea’s real aim
  S. Korea experts on N. Korea say PSI participation has closed off S. Korea‘s participation in devising a solution and its economy will take a direct hit
  » Sin Son Ho, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, exits the North Korean Mission in New York, May 25. The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Monday, saying it was a “clear violation” of a previous resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang’s first atomic test. (REUTERS) Following North Korea’s second nuclear test, the South Korean government has adopted the “tough response” of declaring full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on weapons of mass destruction. We sought the opinions of two experts on how to view the current situation and what the Lee Myung-bak government needs to do in response. Jeong Se-hyun, former Unification Minister North Korea’s real aim is not to become a fully-fledged nuclear-armed state. Its real aim is to gain more economic support for itself and to establish diplomatic relations with the U.S. quickly in order to achieve its greater goal of becoming a “strong and prosperous country” by 2012. [Test] [NK US policy]
• 'N. Korea Restarted Yongbyon Nuke Facility'
  North Korean soldiers, officials and people participate in the Pyongyang People's Rally to celebrate what the North says is a successful second nuclear test at the Pyongyang Gym Tuesday. The Korean characters on a red propaganda sign (top) read: " Let's arm ourselves more thoroughly with revolutionary ideology of the great leader Kim Il-sung comrade!" / Reuters-Yonhap North Korea has apparently restarted its nuclear reprocessing facility at Yongbyon to produce plutonium, two days after it conducted a second nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. The Yongbyon facility had been undergoing a disablement process under an aid-for-denuclearization deal signed in 2007. Pyongyang said in April that it will restart the nuclear facility, reacting to a U.N. Security Council statement that condemned its long-range rocket launch earlier that month.
• 'N. Korea's Nuclear Capability Much Stronger Than 2006'
  05-26-2009 19:07 By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea's second nuclear test Monday indicated that the regime has improved its capacity to some extent since 2006, as it inches toward full membership in a club of unofficial nuclear-weapons states, most experts agreed Tuesday. South Korean and U.S. authorities said that the test produced a 4.7-magnitude tremor at the northeastern site of North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006. Seoul believes the previous test registered 3.58 on the Richter scale, while Washington said it was magnitude 4.3. Estimates of the size of the latest underground explosion in North Korea vary from 1 to 2 kilotons to as high as 10 to 20 kilotons. The higher estimate would match the power and potency of the bombs America dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to end World War II. Russia estimated Monday its measurements reflected the higher range, while the United States downplayed it as a few kilotons of TNT. Seoul's National Intelligence Service said Tuesday that the second test by the North was believed to have an explosive force four to eight times stronger than that of the first test. It also warned that Pyongyang could test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile soon (ICBM). A successful nuclear test is considered producing a yield of 5 to 15 kilotons. A kiloton is equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT. Washington regarded the 2006 test as a failure, citing the explosion force of 0.8 kilotons.
  ``They're not anywhere as good as Israel, but they could probably deploy a weapon on top of a Nodong (Rodong) missile and be fairly confident that it would work,'' David Albright, a former nuclear inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, was quoted by the Washington Times as saying. [Intelligence]
• Diplomatic Memo Leadership Mystery Amid N. Korea’s Nuclear Work
  By MARK LANDLER Published: May 26, 2009 WASHINGTON — In dealing with North Korea, American officials are reduced to studying two-month-old photographs of its reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, to calculate how long he is likely to live. The new administration’s North Korea team includes a special emissary who works part time as an academic dean and a State Department official who has yet to be confirmed by Congress. And as President Obama tries to find a way to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test and missile launchings, his senior aides acknowledge that every policy option employed by previous presidents over the past dozen years — whether hard or soft, political or economic — has been fruitless in stopping North Korea from building a nuclear weapon. [Inversion]
• NZ condemns North Korean nuclear test
  Foreign Minister Murray McCully today condemned reports of a nuclear weapons test by North Korea – the second such test in the past two and a half years. “Today’s test, if confirmed, is another provocative act by North Korea that risks destabilising the Korean peninsula. It is also a significant step backwards for global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts,” Mr McCully said. [test]
• North Korea’s Nuclear Test of International Resolve
  By Stephen Noerper May 27th, 2009
  Stephen Noerper, Senior Fellow, Asia, at the EastWest Institute and Senior Associate of the Nautilus Institute, writes, “What needs to occur among the U.S., its allies Japan and South Korea, and dialogue partners China and Russia is a seriously enhanced commitment toward solving rather than simply managing the North Korea problem.” [test] [US NK policy]
• Speculation Running High After N.Korea Nuke Test
  North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Monday and later test-fired three additional short-range missiles within a range of 160 km from Musudanri, North Hamgyong Province and Wonsan area. The test has sparked fresh speculation about its military capacity. The first purported nuclear test in 2006 left some skeptical whether the North really had a properly functioning nuclear weapons system based on an estimated explosive force equal to less than 1,000 tons of TNT. But now doubts are disappearing, with the test this time suggesting a nuclear weapon with 10 times stronger explosive force. Experts speculate the North has managed to improve the nuclear trigger device. It is worth noting that North Korea has already tested a long-range ballistic missile twice, and missiles are the most powerful means of delivery of nuclear weapons. There is now speculation that the North may have produced nuclear warheads that could be carried by a Scud missile, which has a range of 300 to 500 km, or a Rodong, which has a range of 1,300 km, since both can carry heavier warheads than long-range ballistic rockets. North Korea has some 600 Scuds and some 200 Rodongs. A researcher with a government-funded think tank who asked to remain anonymous said, "If it succeeds in putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile, the North would be ranked among a club of nuclear states including China and India. That would cause a great stir in the international community." [Test]
• Seoul, Washington 'Expected N.Korean Nuclear Test'
  South Korean and U.S. military authorities had been observing signs of North Korean preparations for another nuclear test in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province where it conducted the first in October 2006. According to a source, the two countries monitored vehicle and personnel movements there through the U.S.' KH-12 reconnaissance satellite. They also observed construction work to expand an underground mine, where it would conduct a nuclear test, and the erection of a building in a nearby area, a senior South Korean government official said. A government official said, "It was hard to find out exactly when it would be possible to conduct a nuclear test due to the difficulty of making predictions about an underground test. But we'd judged from early this month that since it made the threat in April, the North had finished preparations to conduct a test in the near future if it wanted." [Test][Intelligence]
• N.Korea Restricts Sailing off Northwest Coast
  North Korea has restricted passage of ships in the area off the coast of the West Korea Bay some 100 km northwest of Pyongyang. Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted the Japanese Coast Guard as saying one of its patrol boats had intercepted a warning sent out by the North to one of its vessels. The timeframe is reportedly from Monday through Wednesday during 9 am and 5 pm. The exact reason behind the warning has yet to be confirmed, but it could be a precursor to another missile launch. Just last week North Korea designated other coastal areas as no sail zones and this was followed by the test-launch of three short-range missiles Monday.
• North Korea fires two more missiles after nuclear test
  • UN security council discusses stronger sanctions • Pyongyang accuses US of 'hostile intent'
  Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Tania Branigan in Beijing and Ed Pilkington in New York guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 May 2009 08.21 BST Article history Protesters in South Korea burn a portrait of Kim Jong-il after North Korea's nuclear test. Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters A defiant North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast today, according to news reports, hours after the UN security council condemned the apparently successful test of a nuclear weapon as powerful as the one that destroyed Hiroshima. [Media] [Spin]
• North Korea’s second nuclear test heightens concerns on the Korean Peninsula
  Experts say the fate of the Korean Peninsula may ultimately be at the mercy of the North Korea-China-U.S. triangle North Korea’s second nuclear test on Monday has shaken the political situation on the Korean Peninsula. Observers are referring to it as a large-scale uncertainty that blew up one month and 20 days after North Korea’s April 5 long-range rocket launch. This latest nuclear test represents a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which came immediately after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006. Item 2 of this resolution forbids North Korea from conducting any additional nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches. This means there is no room for debating whether the test was intended for peaceful purposes or not, as occurred with North Korea’s long-range rocket launch. Experts are predicting that some form of sanctions against North Korea will have to be discussed. Since various financial and economic sanctions are possible even in the case of issuing a measure that merely reconfirms Resolution 1718, there is a substantial possibility that another wave of tensions will fall over the Korean Peninsula as experts anticipate strenuous objections from North Korea. [Test]
• Reaffirming efforts to resolve the N. Korea nuclear issue
  [Editorial] North Korea pushed through with an underground nuclear test yesterday morning. Its brinkmanship strategy has reached new heights and has been strengthening over the last couple of months with the termination of the nuclear disablement process and the restart of fuel rod reprocessing. If the situation does not change, it could lead to additional provocations. This nuclear test was not unexpected [Test]
• North Korean nuclear blast tests Obama and diplomacy
  By Steven Thomma and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — North Korea's new in-your-face test of a nuclear weapon poses a grave new challenge to President Barack Obama, one with no clear path to a solution. Obama vowed Monday that the international community would "stand up" to North Korea for its belligerent action, and the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the North Korean test Monday afternoon, calling it a "clear violation" of a 2006 U.N. resolution. However, Obama's and the international community's options are limited, and the prospects are none-too-promising for influencing a rogue nation headed by an aging dictator in poor health who may believe his legacy is making his impoverished country a nuclear power. [Test] [Spin]
• Test Delivers a Message for Domestic Consumption
  By MARTIN FACKLER Published: May 25, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — When North Korea suddenly announced Monday that it had conducted a second nuclear test, the initial view across the region was that this had been yet another defiant gambit by the North to extract more concessions from Washington.
  That has been the oft-repeated pattern in the past, and is likely to be one motivation now as well, say North Korea watchers. But this time around, North Korea’s succession crisis is the primary impetus, many experts believe, suggesting that the audience for the test is its own population as much as the United States. [Test] [Spin]
• North Korean Nuclear Blast Draws Global Condemnation
  China, Russia Decry Ally; Device Seen as Small Advance
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, May 26, 2009 TOKYO, May 27 -- North Korea's detonation of a nuclear device Monday appears not to have been a significant technical advance over its first underground test three years ago. But it has triggered a swifter, stronger and more uniform wave of international condemnation, most notably from the isolated nation's historical allies, China and Russia. [Test]
• Obama, Lee agree to strongly punish N. Korea for nuke test: White House  
     By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee  Myung-bak on Monday agreed to strongly punish North Korea for its nuclear test conducted a  day earlier in violation of U.N. resolutions passed following its previous test.      "The President spoke to Republic of Korea President Lee Myung-bak this evening to consult  and coordinate our reaction to the North Korean nuclear test," the White House said in a  statement. "They agreed to work closely together to seek and support a strong United Nations  Security Council resolution with concrete measures to curtail North Korea's nuclear and  missile activities."    
• Washington pre-notified Seoul of N.K. nuke test: spy chief  
     SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- The United States had informed South Korea in advance of  Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, Seoul's spy agency chief said Tuesday, adding China also  knew but had not notified Seoul.   Pyongyang said it conducted an underground nuclear test early Monday. The North detonated a  nuclear device in October 2006 in its first-ever nuclear experiment. [Intelligence] [Test]    
• United Nations react to DPRK nuclear test   
    www.chinaview.cn  2009-05-26 08:09:42      Print     ·Reaction by UN to DPRK nuclear test was swift and strong in condemnation. ·The Council was called into an unusual session and came up with a statement. ·Security Council members all agreed quickly to open a new resolution.     by William M. Reilly       UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Reaction by the United Nations on Monday to the  nuclear test by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) was swift and strong in  condemnation.     Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin, president of the UN Security  Council for May, speaks to the press at the UN headquarters in New York, May 25, 2009.  Reaction by the United Nations on Monday to the nuclear test by the Democratic People's  Republic of Korea (DPRK) was swift and strong in condemnation.  (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Photo Gallery>>>           UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was first with a statement issued by his spokesperson  in which he "strongly deplores" the DPRK test, which he says was "in clear and grave  violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions."       Pyongyang announced it had conducted "one more" nuclear test earlier in the day, the  second since 2006.       The Council was called into an unusual session near the end of the U.S. national  Memorial Day Holiday and quickly came up with a unanimous statement read out to reporters.       "Members of the Security Council voiced their strong opposition and condemnation of the  nuclear test conducted by the DPRK on May 25, 2009, which constitutes a clear violation of  Resolution 1718, adopted in 2006," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the  Council for May.     South Korean ambassador to the United Nations Park In-kook leaves the UN headquarters after  an emergency Security Council meeting in New York, May 25, 2009.  (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Photo Gallery>>>           He said the panel of 15 "decided to start work immediately" on a resolution "in  accordance with the Security Council's responsibilities under the Charter of the United  Nations."       What was certain after the brief late afternoon closed-door consultation of the Council  was that they all agreed quickly to open a new resolution, and likely a tough one at that.           Although the statement read out to reporters did not specify sanctions, it was clear at  least some members of the Council would seek such a stringent measure against Pyongyang  [Test]
• N. Korea conducts second nuclear test, draws condemnation
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea carried out its second atomic test on Monday, declaring a "success" for the expansion of its nuclear weapons program and sparking condemnation from around the world. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006. On April 5 this year, it launched a long-range rocket that neighbors say was a provocative test of its ballistic missile technology. "The latest nuclear test could have resulted in a force of up to 20 kilotons," South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in a parliamentary hearing. The 2006 blast generated a yield of less than one kiloton, according to South Korean officials. A nuclear test is considered successful if it produces a force of five to 15 kilotons. North Korea announced through its official media that Monday's test helped resolve technical problems that had prevented the country from improving its nuclear arsenal in the past. "The test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons," the North's Korean Central News Agency said.
  Despite the condemnation, a North Korean diplomat in Moscow warned his country could conduct more nuclear tests "if the U.S. and its allies continue their policy of intimidation," Itar-Tass reported. Since the U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, North Korea has threatened additional nuclear and missile testing, vowing to toughen its "nuclear deterrent." Pyongyang claims it put a satellite into orbit with the launch, while Seoul and Washington say nothing entered space and argue the rocket could be turned into a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S.
  Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea is stepping up its pressure on Washington to squeeze it for "maximum" concessions. Its leader, Kim Jong-il, also knows further U.N. sanctions would have little economic impact on his already isolated country, Yang said. "Kim is following his roadmap under meticulous calculations," he said. "After the sanctions and temporary condemnations, he is looking at maximizing profits North Korea may get by holding nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S." [Test] [Satellite] [Sanctions] [NK US policy]
• N. Korea fires missiles to threaten U.S. spy planes: official
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired two additional short-range missiles Monday in an apparent move to threaten U.S. spy planes monitoring a site where the regime is believed to have conducted its second nuclear test, a South Korean official said. "The launches took place at around 5:03 p.m.," the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. North Korea had earlier launched a surface-to-air missile around noon, hours after it said it detonated a nuclear device in an underground bunker. "The latest missiles were fired from Wonsan, which isn't too far from Taepodong, where the first one was launched," the official said. "The launches appear to be a reaction to U.S. surveillance efforts."
• N. Korea moving fast in timetable of provocative steps
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's second nuclear test came as no surprise to South Korean officials on Monday, but they said the unpredictable (sic) communist nation pulled out its trump card earlier than expected. "North Korea seems to want a speedy game," a senior South Korean government official handling the nuclear issue said. "It seems to be seeking to create a condition favorable to itself as early as possible, rather than dragging its feet." The North, infuriated by the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, announced April 29 that it would conduct a nuclear test unless the council offers an apology. [Cliche] [test]
• Chinese gov't "resolutely opposes" DPRK's nuclear test
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 18:17:27 Print ·China was resolutely opposed to the nuclear test by the DPRK, Foreign Ministry said Monday. ·DPRK announced it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday. ·The statement demanded DPRK live up to its commitment to non-nuclearization on Korean Peninsula. BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- China was resolutely opposed to the nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Foreign Ministry said here in a statement Monday. According to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the DPRK announced it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday. "The DPRK ignored universal opposition of the international community and once more conducted the nuclear test. The Chinese government is resolutely opposed to it," the statement said. It has been the firm and consistent stance of the Chinese government to achieve non-nuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and oppose proliferation of nuclear weapons in an effort to maintain peace and stability in northeast Asia, the statement stressed. The statement voiced a strong demand that the DPRK live up to its commitment to non-nuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, stop any activity that might worsen the situation and return to the track of the six-party talks. The statement noted that maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia region conformed to the common interests of all parties concerned, called for a calm response from all parties concerned and [Test] [Double standards]
• North Korea nuclear test: time for a test ban
  25 May 2009 MEDIA RELEASE: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons this afternoon expressed grave concerns following reports of a nuclear test explosion in North Korea. "Any nuclear testing is unacceptable and flies in the face of a long-standing international moratorium on testing of these most deadly of weapons," stated Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Chair of ICAN Australia.[Test]
• N.Korea 'Conducts Nuclear Test'
  North Korea claims it conducted a nuclear test on Monday, the second since 2006. According to the official Korean Central News Agency, the North "successfully" conducted a nuclear test. An official at Cheong Wa Dae said the Korea Meteorological Administration detected an artificial earthquake of 4.5 magnitude at 9:54 a.m. in Gilju, North Hamgyong Province. President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency meeting of security ministers earlier in the morning to discuss a response.
• Activity at N.Korean Test Sites Intensifies
  North Korea has been speeding up construction of a new long-range missile test site in Tongchangri, North Pyongan Province. And vehicles and personnel are busily moving around in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province, where the North conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006, showing signs of preparations for another. "The North has recently been speeding up construction at the test site in Tongchangri by deploying more equipment and personnel," a South Korean government official said Wednesday. "We expected the North would complete construction sometime late this year, but it now seems that it could be completed several months earlier." Construction of the test site began eight years ago and was 80 percent complete last September. South Korean military authorities believe the North could accelerate completion of the test site and test-launch a long-range ballistic missile from there. North Korea on April 29 threatened to conduct a second nuclear test and test an intercontinental ballistic missile, unless the UN Security Council lifts sanctions against it and "apologizes." The test site in Tongchangri is believed to be capable of launching both ICBMs and satellite rockets, and is much larger and has more up-to-date facilities than the current similar test site in Musudanri, North Hamgyong Province. [Test] [Intelligence]
• North Korea conducts nuclear test
  May 25, 2009 North Korea said it successfully conducted a nuclear test on Monday, a move certain to further isolate the impoverished state which argues it has no choice but to build an atomic arsenal to protect itself in a hostile world. "[North Korea] successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way," the North's official KCNA news agency said. It added that the underground test "was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control." The news knocked South Korean financial markets with the main share index falling 4 percent at one stage on fears the test will raise tension in a region which accounts for one sixth of the global economy. North Korea has for weeks threatened to conduct the test -- its first was in October 2006 -- in response to tighter international sanctions following its launch of a rocket in April. [test] [Satellite]
• North Korea Announces 2nd Test of Nuclear Device
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: May 25, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced on Monday that it had successfully conducted its second nuclear test, defying international warnings and dramatically raising the stakes in a global effort to persuade the recalcitrant Communist state to give up its weapons program. [Test]
• S. Korea condemns N. Korean nuclear test as unpardonable provocation
  SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's government on Monday issued a statement strongly denouncing North Korea's latest nuclear test as a "serious threat and challenge" to the international community. The statement read by South Korean presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan in a news conference also vowed to call on the United Nations Security Council to take strong countermeasures to punish the communist nation. "The nuclear test is a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and a serious challenge to the international regime on nuclear non-proliferation," said the statement [Test]
• Financial markets largely unscathed by N. Korean nuke test
  By Kim Soo-yeon SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's financial markets were little affected Monday by North Korea's announcement of another nuclear experiment as most investors shrugged off its fallout, analysts said. After a roller-coaster session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 2.85 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,400.90, with the local currency ending at 1,249 won to the U.S. dollar, down 1.6 won from Friday's close. "Investor sentiment was initially dented by the news, but the KOSPI cut earlier losses as investors were used to North Korean risks," said Lee Sun-yup, a market analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities Co. [test]
• China notified of N. Korea's nuke test in advance: source
  BEIJING, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea gave advance notice to China that it was preparing to conduct a second nuclear test, a diplomatic source here said Monday. The source did not provide details, such as the exact timing of the notification or through what channel. Whether Pyongyang informed its closest ally of the test plan appears to be significant, as Chinese officials were reportedly upset over the North's short notice before its first atomic weapons test in 2006. Many watchers have questioned China's influence over North Korea. China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, accepted a proposal by the U.S. and Japan to adopt a binding resolution to sanction the North's first nuclear test. "North Korea appears to have informed China of its second nuclear test," the source said. "But there is no information on the timing and other details." Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-hwan in Hanoi, called for the international community to cope with the latest development in a calm and cool-headed manner, according to Yu's aides. [Test] [NK China]
• DPRK conducts successful nuclear test: state media
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 11:17:02 Print ·DPRK said Monday it has successfully conducted "one more" underground nuclear test. ·DPRK: test was "part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence..." ·The statement did not give any details about the test, including its location. PYONGYANG, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Monday it has successfully conducted "one more" underground nuclear test earlier in the day. In a statement released by the official news agency KCNA, the DPRK government said the test was "part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way as requested by its scientists and technicians." "The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology," the statement said. But the brief statement did not give any details about the test, including its location. The test came after the United Nations Security Council adopted a presidential statement in late April, condemning the April 5 rocket launch by the DPRK and demanding the country "not conduct any further launch." Pyongyang subsequently announced it was quitting the six-party talks on nuclear disarmament and would restart nuclear facilities in protest of the UN statement. The DPRK conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. [test]
• Backgrounder: DPRK's two nuclear tests
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 14:12:08 Print BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted its second underground nuclear test on Monday morning. The DPRK's official KCNA news agency announced success of the test. "According to the demand of our scientists and technicians, our republic has successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25 ... as part of measures to strengthen its nuclear power in self-defense," it said. "The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology," the statement said, but did not give any details about the test or its location. A South Korean official, quoted by the Yonhap news agency, said South Korea had detected artificial tremors of 4.5 seismic scale at around 0054 GMT on Monday near Poong kye-ri in North Hamkyong Province, which were indications of a nuclear test. The site is not far from the first nuclear test conducted by the DPRK in October 2006. [Test]
• World concerned on DPRK's nuclear test
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 13:18:17 BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said it successfully conducted a nuclear test on Monday, arousing immediate concerns and various responses from the world community. The United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the reported nuclear test staged by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency. South Korea's defense ministry said Monday it launched a "crisis management team" of general-level officers. "The team will come up with measures to respond to the nuclear test," said Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at the Ministry of National Defense, adding the military is yet to put its troops on heightened alert. [test]
• U.S. consulting with allies on DPRK's fresh nuclear test
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-25 12:50:56 Print WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States is consulting with allies on DPRK's fresh nuclear test, an anonymous State Department official told reporters late Sunday. The official said the department is establishing the facts and will have more to say. State Department spokesman Andy Laine said earlier that "We are attempting to get more information at this point." The DPRK announced Monday it has successfully conducted a underground nuclear test. The Seoul-based Korea Meteorological Administration said it detected an "artificial earthquake" of 4.5 magnitude around local time 09:54 a.m. (0054 GMT) Monday in North Hamkyong Province, 10 to 15 km away from the site of previous DPRK nuclear test in 2006. South Korean Defense Ministry said it launched a "crisis management team" of general-level officers and the team will come up with measures to respond to the nuclear test. The Japanese government also set up a special task force at the emergency management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office after the nuclear test. Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka said that Japan is to request the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting on the test. [test]
• N. Korea's 2nd nuke test occurred few kilometers from previous test site: weather agency
  SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's second nuclear test on Monday appeared to have taken place 10-15 km away from the site of the first test in the country's northeast, Seoul's weather agency said. Pyongyang's state media confirmed the country has "successfully" conducted the underground nuclear test but did not say where it took place. [Test]
• N. Korea Conducts 'Successful' Underground Nuclear Test
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, May 25, 2009 TOKYO, TOKYO, May 25 -- North Korea exploded a nuclear device Monday morning, which is its second underground test in three years and is part of a pattern of escalating belligerence this year that has included a missile launch and withdrawal from all nuclear negotiations. [Test] [Inversion]
• North Korea Claims to Conduct 2nd Nuclear Test
  Do Kwang-hwan/Yonhap, via Associated Press South Korea’s nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, center, and other officers at an emergency meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday. By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: May 25, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced on Monday that it had successfully conducted its second nuclear test, defying international warnings and dramatically raising the stakes in a global effort to persuade the recalcitrant Communist
  The test appeared to have caught South Korea and the United States off guard, and the news hit just as South Korea’s government and people were mourning the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun. And hours after the test was reported, South Korean media reported that the North had test-fired a short-range ground-to-air missile. President Obama reacted swiftly, warning the North to retreat from its defiance of the international community. “Today, North Korea said that it has conducted a nuclear test in violation of international law,” Mr. Obama said in a statement early Monday. “It appears to also have attempted a short-range missile launch. These actions, while not a surprise given its statements and actions to date, are a matter of grave concern to all nations. North Korea’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security. “By acting in blatant defiance of the United Nations Security Council, North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community. North Korea’s behavior increases tensions and undermines stability in Northeast Asia. Such provocations will only serve to deepen North Korea’s isolation. It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery,” the statement said.
  If the North’s latest test was more successful, it could mean that North Korea has bolstered its atomic weapons capabilities — and its leverage over the United States, which has sought to denuclearize the North. There was no immediate reaction to the test from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, but China’s official news agency, Xinhua, cited concern by officials in Japan, Russia and the European Union. Japan was expected to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Xinhau said. Hints that the North had conducted a new test first emerged Monday morning when South Korean authorities detected an artificially triggered tremor emanating from the area of Kilju, in northeastern North Korea, said Lee Dong-kwan, spokesman of the office of President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea. The spokesman said “intelligence officials of South Korea and the United States are analyzing the data and closely monitoring the situation.” Earlier Monday, North Korea announced that Kim Jong-il had sent a message expressing “profound condolences” to the widow of Mr. Roh, who had pursued a more conciliatory policy toward the North. It remained unclear whether Mr. Kim would send a delegation to Mr. Roh’s funeral on Friday. [Test] [Intelligence]
• N. Korea confirms second nuclear test
  By Kim Hyun SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said it has "successfully" conducted its second nuclear test on Monday, following a warning it issued last month after the U.N.'s rebuke of its rocket launch and amid a diplomatic deadlock with Washington. South Korea and Japan swiftly agreed to take the test to the U.N. Security Council. Washington could not immediately confirm the North's claimed test. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25," the official Korean Central News Agency said. North Korea warned of the second nuclear test -- following the first in October in 2006 -- last month after the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch. Monday's report did not say when and where the test was conducted. According to the Seoul-based Korea Meteorological Administration, artificial seismic waves were detected at 9:54 a.m. and their origin was 10-15 km away from the previous test site near the town of Kilju, in the country's northeast province of North Hamgyong. The waves had a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter Scale, compared to the previous 3.6, the agency said. The North said the second test was "higher" in terms of its explosive power and technology. Analysts have said the previous test was a relatively small one with an explosive force of less than one kiloton. The test results "helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems ... further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology," the report said. Washington was consulting with allies but could not yet confirm the report, said a U.S. State Department official on condition of anonymity. "Once we have established the facts, we will have more to say. At this point, I do not have a timeline as to when there will be more to say," the official said. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency meeting of security ministers earlier in the morning to discuss countermeasures. The timing of the test was particularly embarrassing for South Korea, where the whole nation was mourning the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun who leaped to his death on Saturday amid a bribery probe. North Korea's Kim had sent a message of "profound condolences" to Roh's family just hours before the nuclear test. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone agreed to bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Hanoi. The Security Council bans North Korea's nuclear activity under its 1718 resolution adopted immediately after the country's previous test.
  Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea intended to bear international condemnation in order to pressure Washington into opening direct talks with his country. The North also knows that the U.N. sanctions would have little impact on its already isolated economy, Yang said.
  "Chairman Kim Jong-il is following his roadmap under meticulous calculations," he said. "After the sanctions and temporary condemnations, he is looking at maximizing profits North Korea may get by holding nuclear disarmament talks with the U.S." Yang also said North Korea appears to be expecting increased internal military unity as a result of the nuclear test. [Test] [NK US policy]
• Doosan exports first nuclear parts
  May 23, 2009 Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co. said yesterday that it has sold nuclear power plant equipment to the largest nuclear energy generating facility in the United States. The company said it shipped control element drive mechanisms, or CEDMs, and replacement reactor vessel heads to the Palo Verde nuclear facility in Tonopah, Arizona, which has a capacity of 1,400 megawatts. The sale marks the first time Doosan has exported such equipment, according to the company. [Double standards]
• North Korea Moves to Test-Fire Missiles
  By Kim Jong-chan Assistant Managing Editor North Korea is showing signs of preparing to test-fire short-range missiles, a defense ministry official said Friday. The North began to relocate missile-related equipment and vehicles on its east coast, and banned ships from nearby waters, the official said on condition of anonymity. ``We've been seeing brisk activities along the North's east coastal area over the past two to three days, indicating trucks mounted with mobile rocket launchers are on the move,'' the official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. ``Judging from an analysis of military movements, the North appears to be preparing to test-launch short-range missiles,'' he said. An official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a shipping ban usually comes ahead of a short-range missile test or a live-fire drill. [Double standards] [Media]
• US must rein in Israel's nuclear arms
  Obama needs to spell it out to the Israeli government: your weapons of mass destruction are just as dangerous as Iran's (sic) The surprise announcement by Rose Gottemoeller, a US assistant secretary of state, that America would like every nation – including Israel – to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) has sent shockwaves through Tel Aviv, confirming the fears (or hopes, depending on who you ask) that the Obama administration is initiating a major overhaul of its policy on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The Israeli government will certainly challenge the Obama administration on this issue, as Israel is not likely to ­co-operate, to put it mildly, with the state department's new logical, fair-minded approach to non-proliferation. [Asymmetry] [Double standards]
• Iran Test-Fires Missile With 1,200-Mile Range
  By DAVID E. SANGER and NAZILA FATHI Published: May 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — Iran test-fired a sophisticated missile on Wednesday that was capable of striking Israel and parts of Western Europe, adding to concerns that Iran’s weapons-development program is fast outpacing the American-led diplomacy that President Obama has said he will let play out through the end of the year. The solid-fuel Sejil-2 missile used a technology that Iran appeared to have tested at least once before, but the Obama administration nonetheless described the event as “significant,” largely because missiles of its kind can be relatively easily moved or hidden. [Missiles]
• No Nuclear Weapons. Why Not?
  Published: May 16, 2009 To the Editor:
  The Trouble With Zero (May 10, 2009) Re “The Trouble With Zero,” by Philip Taubman (Week in Review, May 10):
  All abolitionist movements, including the one to end slavery, have appeared quixotic to those invested in the status quo. The problem with nuclear weapons is that there is no stable status quo. We must radically devalue them or face a new era of proliferation, with greatly increased risk of at least regional nuclear wars or nuclear terrorism. Why do countries like North Korea and possibly Iran seek to join the nuclear club? Unless we want to fight endless wars of prevention, we have to abolish the club. The doctrine of preventive war is another reason rogue states want a nuclear deterrent. As the world’s leader in advanced conventional forces, the United States would gain from a nuclear-weapons-free world. The quest toward it would also strengthen common security and cooperation, vital to confront global warming, poverty and pandemics. Ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would be a first step. David Keppel Bloomington, Ind., May 10, 2009 [NPT] [Double standards]
• Kopec to help upgrade nuclear reactor in Greece
  May 16, 2009 Korea’s state-run power engineering company said yesterday it has signed a 1.5 billion won ($1.2 million) deal to upgrade a nuclear research reactor in Greece. The project aims to improve the capability of the 5-megawatt GRR-1 reactor operated by NCSR Demokritos, Korea Power Engineering Co. said. Upgrade work on the GRR-1, built in 1960, will involve the removal of the primary cooling system and boosting the power output to 10 megawatts. [Double standards]
• Nuclear Industry Exploring Export Markets
  The Korean nuclear power generation industry has come a long way since the country built its first research reactor, Hanaro, in 1995. / Korea Times By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter South Korea's nuclear industry is benefiting from the increased global demand for nuclear energy, with companies starting to find export markets for technology, equipment and components, industry sources said Friday. Currently, there are about 250 nuclear projects around the world, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan. Korean manufacturers are upping their efforts to exploit the growing market and generate more of their revenue from abroad. [Double standards]
• IAEA Chief Warns Of Possible New Wave Of Nuclear Proliferation
  May 15, 2009 (RFE/RL) -- The outgoing head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has warned that 10-20 countries could soon develop the capacity to build nuclear weapons. In an interview with Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Muhammad el-Baradei suggested that the current international regime for limiting the spread of nuclear weapons, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), is in danger of falling apart. El-Baradei said the number of potential nuclear weapons states could more than double in a few years unless major powers take radical steps toward disarmament
• Does N.Korea's Taepodong-2 Ballistic Missile Pose a Serious Threat?
  North Korean Rocket ? April 5 Launch of Missile Considered a Provocative Act April 5th 2009, North Korea launched a long range ballistic missile, considered by many Western countries as a provocative act. In this report from Washington we look at whether the missile poses a threat to the United States and other countries. The North Korean missile is called the Taepodong-2. Analysts say little is known about it. They say theoretically the three-stage rocket has a range of between 3,600 and 4,300 kilometers, making it capable of reaching the western United States. [Intelligence] [Satellite] [Spin]
• The Atom Bomb: “A Poor Killer”
  Crawford Sams and the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan
  Monday, May 11, 2009 General Crawford Sams reconstituted or, to be more accurate, recreated the Japanese public health system after World War II. No stranger to pride or self-confidence, he characterized himself as one the six men who ran Japan under MacArthur.
  General Sams also ran the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, charged with evaluating the mortality and morbidity associated with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to an oral history Sams recorded in 1979, his first job was to collect the data; the second job was to hype it:
  He placed the Truman administration’s need to exaggerate the destructive effects of the atomic bomb in the context of the desire to create a new, more credible deterrent now that the strategic bombing boogeyman was a thing of the past:
• 'No U.S.-N.Korea Talks Outside 6-Party Framework'
  The U.S.' point man on North Korea Stephen Bosworth says Washington is not thinking of holding bilateral talks with North Korea outside the six-party framework. Japan's Kyodo News on Monday said Bosworth spoke of the issue in separate meetings with Japanese vice foreign minister Mitoji Yabunaka and chief nuclear envoy Akitaka Saiki in Tokyo. Japanese officials said they agree with Washington's stance and called for close consultations. On Monday the two sides also agreed not to give in to North Korea's provocations and to remain cool-headed while patiently pursuing the resumption of the stalled six-party nuclear talks. [Bilateral] [US NK policy]
• Report: Iran accuses US of breaching NPT
  May. 4, 2009 JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST In the face of new American openness to dialogue, Iran on Sunday offered not reciprocity but a fierce counter-offensive, accusing Washington of cooperating with Israel and India on nuclear issues ahead, of a major meeting on the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Reuters news agency reported. The agency obtained four documents prepared for the meeting by Iran which all point to the fact that Teheran is trying hard to deflect attention from its nuclear program by blaming the United States for breaching the NPT because of discriminating policies in favor of its allies. The signatories to the treaty are slated to meet Monday for a preparatory meeting ahead of a major conference in 2010 that many countries hope will result in an overhaul of the landmark 1970 treaty. The NPT is aimed at halting the spread of nuclear arms globally and demands that countries with atomic arsenals take steps to get rid of them. Israel has never been a signatory to the treaty and has never overtly admitted to having a nuclear program. In the four papers Iran's delegation submitted for the May 4-15 NPT conference, Teheran alleges that Washington is in clear breach of the treaty by developing new atomic weapons and providing nuclear aid to Israel and India. India, too, does not abide by the NPT and has been developing its weapons program since the 'Smiling Buddha' experiment in 1974. Iran, however, is a signatory of the NPT but has insisted that its nuclear program is geared at providing energy. The Islamic republic remains determined to press on with its nuclear program despite three rounds of UN sanctions and additional US-imposed sanctions. [Proliferation] [Chutzpah] [Nuclear deal]
• Korea's 1st Space Rocket Named 'Naro'
  The government has selected "Naro" as the name for Korea's first space rocket, the KSLV-1, which will be launched in late July. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on Sunday said the choice was the result of public suggestions. It is taken from Oenaro [outer Naro] Island in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, home of the Naro Space Center, from where the rocket carrying Korea's Science and Technology Satellite 2 will be launched. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• Editorial] Locating an exit to North Korea nuclear issue stalemate
  It has been close to four months since U.S. President Barack Obama took office and efforts to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue, including the restart of the six-party talks, have not escaped stalemate. Moreover, it does not appear that inter-Korean issues are improving. In short, we find ourselves in a rather frustrating situation in which the exits are blocked in all North Korea-related issues continues. U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth, who is on his second tour of six-party talk nations since his appointment, is leaving South Korea without having made any clear gains. He said he would continue to work to get North Korea back to the six-party talks, but he reportedly did not put forward a plan to make that happen. Like his last tour, he did not visit North Korea or meet with high-ranking North Korean figures
• Analysts Examine N.Korean Motive in Restarting Plutonium Enrichment Program
  Last month, North Korea launched a long range ballistic missile, considered by many Western countries as a provocative act. The North Korean missile is called the Taepodong-2. Analysts say it theoretically has a range of between 3,600 and 4,300 kilometers, making it capable of reaching the western United States [NK US policy]
• Korean Committee of Space Technology on Satellite Kwangmyongsong-2
  Pyongyang, May 7 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Committee of Space Technology issued a statement on Thursday, one month after satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 started its normal operation after being put into orbit.
  It says: As already reported, scientists and technicians of the DPRK successfully put Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into orbit of space by means of carrier rocket Unha-2 on April 5 in the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province. The carrier rocket has three stages and the satellite is tasked to transmit information about its performance and experimental relay communications to the earth along with melodies. Installed in the carrier rocket and the satellite are measuring and transmitting devices including remote-controlled measuring devices and orbit measuring devices for the purpose of measuring orbit and sending information. There are on the ground such measuring devices as radar for tracking orbit and remote-controlled receiving devices. The melodies of "Song of General Kim Il Sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong Il" sent to the earth at 470 MHz already made public and the observation of information about the satellite and the operation of such measuring devices as the radar for tracking orbit on the ground confirmed that the satellite was accurately put into orbit. Various information sent by the satellite has been received and analyzed, the movement of the satellite changed as commanded by the control posts on the ground and a relay communications test through the satellite successfully conducted at relay communications posts in various regions.
  The observation by the satellite and a control test were normally conducted despite the unidentified strong jamming done in the above-said communications frequency band, in particular.
• Activity at N.Korean Test Sites Intensifies
  North Korea has been speeding up construction of a new long-range missile test site in Tongchangri, North Pyongan Province. And vehicles and personnel are busily moving around in Kilju, North Hamgyeong Province, where the North conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006, showing signs of preparations for another. "The North has recently been speeding up construction at the test site in Tongchangri by deploying more equipment and personnel," a South Korean government official said Wednesday. "We expected the North would complete construction sometime late this year, but it now seems that it could be completed several months earlier."
• Japanese Reactionaries' Moves to Introduce Early Warning Satellite Blasted
  Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- The Japanese reactionaries' intention to introduce an early warning satellite under the pretext of "threat" from someone is nothing but a crafty trick to justify their moves for turning the country into a military giant and launching reinvasion and cover up the danger of those moves, says Minju Joson Wednesday in a signed commentary. The Japanese reactionaries claim that the early warning satellite does not threaten anyone as it is for "defense" but its introduction is evidently aimed to hold a military edge in outer space and mount a preemptive attack on other countries any moment, the commentary says, and goes on: [Threat] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Pyongyang Blasts Washington for UN Sanctions
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter North Korea has launched a verbal assault on U.S. President Barack Obama for his government's allegedly peddling of influence in the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its rocket launch early last month. The North also stood firm on its nuclear program, calling it a critical measure to assure its security in an era of what it called ``unilateralism.'' Pyongyang said there were few differences between the Obama administration and its predecessor. [Continuity]
• Expert Groups Largely Back Obama's Nuclear Stance
  By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 2, 2009
  Two bipartisan panels of nuclear weapons experts are endorsing much of President Obama's ambitious arms-control effort in advance of next week's nonproliferation talks here between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A congressionally mandated commission will recommend next week that the United States resume the lead in international efforts to prevent further proliferation of nuclear weapons. The U.S. government should declare that it will rely less on such weapons and seek to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles through extension of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START), according to the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. But, the commission said, it also should maintain "an appropriately effective nuclear deterrent force." [Disarmament] [NPT] [Continuity]
• N.Korea Threatens Fresh Nuclear, Missile Test
  North Korea on Thursday threatened to test a second nuclear bomb and an intercontinental ballistic missile unless the UN Security Council lifts sanctions and apologizes. Experts speculate North Korea is capable of a nuclear test any time given its stockpile of about 30 to 40 kg of plutonium and possession of several nuclear warheads. The North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement said construction of a light-water reactor power plant was "the first step of that process" and technological development to secure its own supply of nuclear fuel would start "without delay." That suggests the North is determined to produce fissile material since nuclear fuel for the light-water reactors is produced by enriching uranium. Nuclear bombs are made with plutonium, which is produced through treatment of spent nuclear fuel rods, or highly enriched uranium. A South Korean government official said, "We assumed that the North would offer some kind of resistance [to the UNSC sanctions], but simultaneous threats to conduct a second nuclear test, push for a uranium enrichment program and test-launch a missile all at once are very drastic." The North called a UNSC chairman's statement condemning its launch of a long-range rocket and the imposition of sanctions against three North Korean firms "wanton provocations." "We already declared in the 1990s that we will consider it a declaration of a war if the UN, the legitimate signatory to the armistice treaty, imposes sanctions against us. Such sanctions will never work on a nation that has lived under various kinds of sanctions and blockades imposed by hostile forces for decades." [Sanctions] [US NK polic]
• UNSC Urged to Retract Anti-DPRK Steps  
          Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a statement today as regards the fact that the hostile forces' vicious moves against the DPRK over its satellite launch for peaceful purposes have reached the extremely dangerous phase. In accordance with its "presidential statement" which has no binding force, on April 24 the UNSC officially designated three companies of the DPRK as targets of sanctions and many kinds of military supplies and materials as embargo items over the DPRK's peaceful satellite launch, a DPRK's exercise of sovereignty, and thus committed such illegal provocations as setting in motion its sanctions on the DPRK, the statement notes, and says: Such sanctions can never work on the DPRK which has been subject to all sorts of sanctions and blockade by the hostile forces for the past scores of years.      
  The UNSC should promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative "resolutions" and decisions adopted against the DPRK. This is the only way for it to regain confidence of the UN member nations and fulfill its responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, not serving as a tool for the U.S. highhanded and arbitrary practices any longer. In case the UNSC does not make an immediate apology, such actions will be taken as: Firstly, the DPRK will be compelled to take additional self-defensive measures in order to defend its supreme interests. The measures will include nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Secondly, the DPRK will make a decision to build a light water reactor power plant and start the technological development for ensuring self-production of nuclear fuel as its first process without delay.
• N. Korea Issues Threat on Uranium
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 29, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday that it would start a uranium enrichment program, declaring for the first time that it intended to pursue a second project unless the United Nations lifted sanctions. Calling the United Nations Security Council “a tool for the U.S. highhanded and arbitrary practices,” North Korea also threatened to conduct nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. [media] [HEU]  

• The Rocket Science of Missile Threats
  By WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: April 25, 2009 Many Western analysts greeted North Korea’s failure to put a satellite into orbit early this month with scorn, with one joke complimenting the dictator for a successful launch into the deep sea. “Pacific plankton will forever live in fear of the mighty reach of Kim Jong Il,” one analyst wrote, “now that millions have perished in one mighty splash.” But not everyone is laughing. Others have portrayed the rocket launching not as an embarrassing flop but a technical success that threatens the West with atomic ruin. “This is a very serious development,” Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a former Pentagon official who directs the Center for Security Policy, a private group in Washington, said of the Korean launching on the MSNBC talk show “Hardball.” Eerily, such upbeat assessments sounded much like those of Pyongyang, which boasted that the satellite was up there after all, broadcasting patriotic tunes from outer space. What gives? Nothing unusual in the strange world of defense lobbying, where threat inflation and deflation can portray the same potential enemy as a dwarf one minute, a towering giant the next. [Threat] [Satellite] [Disinformation]
• North Korea not proliferating, but not in compliance: Clinton
  by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) April 25, 2009 North Korea may not be currently spreading nuclear weapons or nuclear weapon-construction knowledge, but Washington will not let Pyongyang "pretend" that it is in compliance, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Fox News in an interview on Saturday.
  "As of right now, we don't have any evidence" of active proliferation, Clinton told Fox in an interview in Baghdad.
  "But we don't get satisfied by that. Because we consider North Korea to be a rogue regime that has in the past aided and abetted rogue regimes as well. And one of our highest priorities is to keep nuclear materials out of terrorist networks," Clinton said, according to an advance transcript of the interview.
  "And part of the reason we are encouraged by the strong stance we got out of the United Nations, with all of the participants of the six party talks and the recent agreement on very tough sanctions on entities and goods is because we're not going to be blackmailed by the North Koreans," she said. "We're not going to let them pretend that they are in compliance and then under the table and, you know, behind the back they are continuing to proliferate," she said. "We're going to crack down in conjunction with the Chinese, the Russians, the Japanese, the South Koreans and other allies to try to you know tighten the band around North Korea so that they cannot do that," Clinton told Fox. [Proliferation] [Spin] [Double standards] [Syria] [Evidence]
• N.Korea Must Face the New Reality
  North Korea on Saturday claimed the reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the atomic power plant in Yongbyon "has begun." The communist country once again turned to its nuclear option after the UN Security Council selected three North Korean businesses as targets for sanctions and froze their US$31.7 million in overseas assets. When the Security Council issued a statement on April 14 denouncing North Korea's long-range rocket launch, the communist country announced it would pull out permanently from the six-country talks and vowed to drastically strengthen its nuclear deterrent. Experts in South Korea and the U.S. said the brinkmanship demonstrated by North Korea was expected and added it was the North that appeared nervous and puzzled. It is clear that things are not going the way North Korea wants them to. It declared on April 5 that it had succeeded in launching a long-range rocket, but Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said nobody would buy missiles from a country that failed three times in test firing them.
• UNSC Lists 3 N.Korean Firms for Sanctions
  The UN Security Council Sanctions Committee last Friday listed three North Korean companies whose assets will be frozen in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1718 of 2006, which suspends all activities related to North Korea's ballistic missile program and requires it to abandon all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs. The firms, Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., Korea Ryongbong General Corp. and Tanchon Commercial Bank are suspected of dealing in nuclear technology and missile technology. [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• N.Korea 'Cleaning Reprocessing Plant'
  North Korea is cleaning the nuclear reprocessing facility at Yongbyon for extracting plutonium for nuclear weapons. A South Korean official said there was "no evidence yet showing that North Korea has put the reprocessing facility into full operation again. We assume the North is cleaning it in preparation for operation because many personnel and vehicles are arriving at the reprocessing facility and removing something." A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency, "The work of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods has begun."
• North Korea moves rapidly towards reprocessing spent fuel rods
  U.S.’s ambivalent response: US applies pressure on Pyongyang, while remaining open on direct North Korea-U.S. meeting » North Soldiers, workers and students offer flowers to the statue of Kim Il-sung, a former leader and founder of the country, as they commemorate the 77th anniversary of the establishment of the (North) Korean People’s Army in Pyongyang April 25, 2009 in this picture released by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency on Saturday. North Korea has started to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods at its nuclear arms plant, its foreign ministry said on Saturday. (REUTERS/KCNA) In response to activity from the international community regarding its recent long-range rocket launch, including the pursuit of sanctions from the United Nations (UN) Security Council, North Korea displays an uncompromising response. It continues to work towards the completion of reprocessing its spent fuel rods.
• Successful Satellite Launch Hailed
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- The successful launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 precisely means the victory of the might of the DPRK's ideology and mental power, will and pluck and self-supporting economy and science and technology. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a signed article. It goes on: Many countries have their satellites but they put them into orbit in various ways. The DPRK succeeded in launching the satellite entirely with its own technology and by its own efforts. This serves as a clear example for the countries and nations desirous of independence to follow in developing outer space. It has become a world trend to study and develop space. If a country fails to pay attention to this trend and neglects space development based on the cutting-edge science and technology, it will find itself controlled and subjugated by the imperialists scientifically and technologically and will be dependent on them in the end. When the DPRK released a report on the projected satellite launch, the imperialists and their followers left no stone unturned to hold the DPRK's plan in check. They made so much fuss about the projected satellite launch because its successful launch means a victory of sovereign DPRK in the standoff with the forces hostile to it. The DPRK succeeded in launching the satellite by its own efforts and technology at one go but the U.S. and Japan have the precedents of failures. Their desperate efforts can be explained by the fact that the DPRK's successful satellite launch might remind the world of their setbacks in the past and offer an opportunity of declaring before it their defeat in the political and scientific and technological confrontation with the DPRK. The DPRK's successful satellite launch, its victory, have inspired the world progressive people and exerted great influence on the world political structure and the development of the situation. The DPRK's satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, a satellite of independence, satellite of victory, will fully demonstrate the dignity and might of Songun Korea throughout our planet, turning round the earth in its orbit non-stop to creditably perform its mission.
• N.Korea Begins Reprocessing Spent Fuel Rods
  North Korea says it is restarting its nuclear facilities, in order to reprocess weapons-grade material. The move deals another serious blow to diplomacy aimed at ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, and aggravates high tensions in the region. North Korea alarmed the world Saturday with an announcement it was beginning to reprocess spent fuel rods from its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon. A North Korean news presenter reads a Foreign Ministry statement that says reprocessing the fuel rods will improve North Korea's nuclear deterrent, even as hostile nations ratchet up their military threat.
• North Korea Says It Has Restarted Nuclear Work
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 25, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced Saturday that it had begun reprocessing thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods, adding that it would use plutonium extracted from the rods to make nuclear weapons. Reprocessing the rods, which were unloaded from the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the capital, “will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces,” an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the nation’s official news agency.
• NKorea says it has reactivated nuclear facilities
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Saturday, April 25, 2009; 10:23 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said that it has begun harvesting plutonium from spent fuel rods at its main nuclear plant to build up its atomic arsenal. The move, in defiance of tightening U.N. sanctions, threatened to further damage efforts to dismantle the communist nation's rogue program. "This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from hostile forces," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying Saturday.
• Kim Jong Il Meets Those Who Contributed to Successful Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il met the scientists, technicians, workers and officials who contributed to the successful launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 and posed for a photograph with them. He acknowledged the enthusiastic cheers of the scientists, technicians, workers and officials and extended warm greetings to them. He warmly congratulated them on making a great contribution to the launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 by devoting all their wisdom and enthusiasm with ardent patriotism and posed for a photograph with them. [Satellite]
• N. Korea Will Not Return to Nuke Talks, Russian FM Says
  By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter North Korea has no intention of returning to the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks yet, according to Moscow's top diplomat. Sergei Lavrov, who was in Seoul Friday after a visit to Pyongyang, also said that the calls for expanded sanctions on North Korea, following its April 5 rocket launch, would be ``unconstructive.'' In a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan, the Russian foreign minister urged patience in efforts by related nations to bring the Stalinist state back to the negotiating table. ``North Korea has no intention to return to the six-way talks yet,'' Lavrov said through a translator. ``Right now, the top priority is to create conditions for the resumption of the six-way talks and the related nations should approach the matter calmly, not emotionally.''
• U.N. Sanctions 3 N. Korean Firms Over Missile Launch
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, April 25, 2009 UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- The U.N. Security Council agreed Friday to impose financial sanctions on three North Korean firms, marking the first time the United Nations has penalized individual companies linked to Pyongyang's nuclear- and ballistic-missile trade. The action came in response to North Korea's April 5 rocket launch, which triggered international condemnation and renewed calls for U.N. sanctions. It also followed a call by President Obama to punish North Korea for launching a rocket in violation of U.N. resolutions. The three state companies, Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Ryongbong General Corp., have previously been sanctioned by the United States for trading missile technology with Iran, Yemen and Pakistan. Their customers included Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani physicist who is considered the father of his country's nuclear weapons program. [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• Russia's Lavrov says N. Korea talks unlikely to restart soon
  14:36 | 23/ 04/ 2009 PYONGYANG, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not expecting the resumption of six-nation negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear program, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday after talks with his North Korean counterpart. "We are not expecting a breakthrough yet. This is a complicated issue, and we should not give way to emotions, instead we should concentrate on what we have already achieved," said Lavrov, who is the first top diplomat to visit the reclusive communist state since the nuclear row broke out. North Korea withdrew from the six-nation talks on the disablement of its nuclear program after the UN Security Council condemned the launch of rocket carrying a "communications satellite." Pyongyang also expelled IAEA nuclear inspectors and pledged to resume its work at the Yongbyon reactor. Russia's top diplomat urged all parties to honor earlier agreements: "If everybody takes such a stand, we will be able to get through the crisis," Lavrov said. The six-nation talks, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Lavrov said he discussed all aspects of bilateral relations between Russia and North Korea with Pak Ui Chun. He said work on the modernization of the Khasan-Rason railroad along the two countries' border, which is part of a project to link Korean rail routes to Russia's Trans-Siberian railway, had already started. Lavrov is due to travel to South Korea on Friday for a two-day visit. [Railways]
• UN Finalizing Sanctions on N.Korea
  A list of targets for sanctions on North Korea over its April 5 long-range rocket launch is in the final stage. Chances are that the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee will announce the list on Friday, the first deadline, a government official said Thursday. If not, the Security Council will finalize the list in a general session next Thursday. "Despite differences between some member nations, the list could be finalized early due to a strong sense that consensus in the sanctions committee will carry greater authority," said the official. [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• Top UN Nuclear Official Optimistic About N.Korea, Iran
  IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in Beijing on April 20, 2009 The head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog agency says he believes the international community's nuclear disagreements with North Korea and Iran can be resolved through dialogue, not confrontation. [IAEA] [Spin]
• IAEA Chief Calls NK a Nuclear Power
  North Korea must be regarded as a nuclear power, German news agency DPA reported Monday, quoting the head of the United Nations' international nuclear watchdog. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said in Beijing, four days after North Korea forced the agency's inspectors out of the country, that North Korea could restart its main nuclear facility within months, according to DPA. Therefore, North Korea must be persuaded to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible, he said. "North Korea has nuclear weapons, which is a matter of fact," ElBaradei said of the nation that conducted a nuclear test in 2006. "I don't like to accept any country as a nuclear weapon state," ElBaradei said but added, "We have to face reality," as he counted nine nuclear powers in the world, including North Korea.
• Security Council Condemnation of North Korean “UFO” Deepens Korean Crisis
  Gavan McCormack
  On 13 April (14 April East Asian time), Claude Heller, the Mexican president of the United Nations Security Council, read a “Statement” on behalf of the Council. He condemned North Korea for something described as a “launch” it had conducted on 5 April, demanded it desist from any further such act, reaffirmed the principles of a 2006 Security Council resolution (No 1718, adopted in the wake of North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests of 2006, banning any “missile-related activity”), directed the UN Sanctions Monitoring Committee to take further steps to secure compliance and to advise on possibly widening the sanctions list, and called for early resumption of the Beijing Six Party negotiations on the North Korean problem.[1] Notably, the Council nowhere spelled out what North Korea might have launched, for the simple reason that its members could not agree: some thought missile, some thought satellite. Unable to agree on a noun, it therefore compromised with the verb “launch.” The Council’s strong and peremptory diplomatic language - “condemns,” “demands,” etc – was therefore oddly out of kilter with its inability to decide what it was condemning. Essentially it was saying North Korea was not to launch any more unidentified flying objects, or “UFOs.” Whatever it was you launched,” said the Security Council in effect, you should not have and you must not do it again.”
  Like those of Japan, North Korean launches take place over the Pacific, in a due-east direction, as indeed do virtually all satellite launches around the world. This is for the technical reason that the earth’s own rotation provides up to 5 per cent of the speed needed to gain orbit. However, where virtually all launches elsewhere in the world occur over oceans, deserts, or sparsely populated areas, because of the geographical fact that North Korea’s path eastwards to the Pacific is blocked by Japan, it has no alternative. If it insists on its right to space exploration, it must launch over Japanese territory. Such direction is scientifically, not politically, determined. The same problem arises in the case of the projected South Korean launch later this year. Just as North Korea’s crossed over Northeastern Japan, South Korea’s will have to cross over Western Japan, somewhere between Hiroshima and Okinawa. The only way to resolve such problems is for international agreement to provide internationally acceptable launch sites.[14] [Satellite] [Japanese remilitarisation] [KSLV] [Double standards]
• Rodong Sinmun Refutes UNSC's "Presidential Statement"
  Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK in a recent statement vehemently refuted the UNSC's "presidential statement" condemning the DPRK's satellite launch. It clarified its resolute political decision that it would never participate in the six-party talks but bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way. Rodong Sinmun Sunday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: The decision made by the DPRK is the most just and timely independent countermeasure to cope with the prevailing grave situation. The UNSC brought the issue of the DPRK's satellite launch up for discussion and condemned it, dancing to the tune of the U.S. and its followers. This was an unpardonable rash act quite contrary to the principles of sovereign equality and impartiality, ground for the existence and activities of the UN, and outer space treaty. The UNSC, defying the principles of sovereign equality and impartiality, tabled and discussed the DPRK's launch of satellite for peaceful purposes although it was legitimately conducted after going through procedures under international law. This was an intolerable mockery of the Korean people and extremely hostile acts against the DPRK which can never be pardoned. The commentary cites facts to prove that the action taken by the UNSC was the height of partiality, double-standards and arbitrary practices. It goes on: The spirit of respect for sovereignty and sovereign equality stipulated in the September 19 joint statement for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula serves as the basis and the life and soul of the six-party talks. The DPRK was quite just when it declared that it will never participate in the six-party talks which are reduced to a platform for encroaching upon its sovereignty and forcing it to disarm itself and bringing down its system. The military threat escalated by the hostile forces, taking issue with and challenging even the satellite launch for peaceful purposes, compels the DPRK to further increase its nuclear deterrent. The DPRK will bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence, guarantee for the protection of the country's sovereignty, right to existence and supreme interests. The day will surely come when those resorting to partiality, double-standards and arbitrary practices meet punishment of the history. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• S Korean govt admits DPRK rocket followed satellite trajectory
  (Xinhua) Updated: 2009-04-14 16:42 SEOUL -- The South Korean government for its first time officially admitted that the rocket fired by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) last week followed the trajectory of a satellite, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said on Tuesday. "The rocket launched by the North followed the trajectory of a satellite and later separated in its final two stages before crashing into the Pacific Ocean,"South Korean defense minister Lee Sang-hee said during a National Assembly hearing, when asked to clarify if the launched rocket was a satellite or a missile.
  It is the first official remarks of a top South Korean government official to acknowledge the DPRK rocket followed a satellite trajectory and the stages from the rocket made separation, according to Yonhap. The minister's remarks were interpreted as having officially acknowledged the rocket as a non-missile item, as South Korean officials had kept saying that the trajectory of the rocket could help clarify whether the attempted rocket was a satellite or a Taepodong-2 missile, Yonhap added. [Satellite]
• FM: China disapproves of new UN sanction on DPRK
  (Xinhua) Updated: 2009-04-14 15:34 BEIJING -- China has said it disapproves of the United Nations adopting any new resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) rocket launch, and is opposed to any new sanction against the DPRK, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday. China maintains that the reaction from the Security Council should be conducive to safeguarding peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, and conducive to the six-party talks and also to the process of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, and it should also be conducive to safeguarding the international non-proliferation regime, Jiang said. China has noticed the DPRK's announcement of its satellite launch on April 5 local time and other countries' concern over it. The UN Security Council had just passed a presidential statement as a response, calling relevant parties for fulfillment of resolution 1718, she said. [Satellite] [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• Sellafield: the most hazardous place in Europe
  Last week the government announced plans for a new generation of nuclear plants. But Britain is still dealing with the legacy of its first atomic installation at Sellafield - a toxic waste dump in one of the most contaminated buildings in Europe. As a multi-billion-pound clean-up is planned, can we avoid making the same mistakes again? Digg it Robin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday 19 April 2009 Article history The disused plutonium reactors at Sellafield are a 'slow-motion Chernobyl', according to Greenpeace campaigners against nuclear energy. Photograph: Robert Brook/Alamy/Alamy Building B30 is a large, stained, concrete edifice that stands at the centre of Sellafield, Britain's sprawling nuclear processing plant in Cumbria. Surrounded by a three-metre-high fence that is topped with razor wire, encased in scaffolding and riddled with a maze of sagging pipes and cabling, it would never be a contender to win an architectural prize. Yet B30 has a powerful claim to fame, albeit a disturbing one. "It is the most hazardous industrial building in western Europe," according to George Beveridge, Sellafield's deputy managing director. Nor is it hard to understand why the building possesses such a fearsome reputation. Piles of old nuclear reactor parts and decaying fuel rods, much of them of unknown provenance and age, line the murky, radioactive waters of the cooling pond in the centre of B30. Down there, pieces of contaminated metal have dissolved into sludge that emits heavy and potentially lethal doses of radiation. It is an unsettling place, though B30 is certainly not unique. There is Building B38 next door, for example. "That's the second most hazardous industrial building in Europe," said Beveridge.
• Korea Ready to Launch Own Satellite
  The KSLV-1, Korea's first carrier rocket designed to transport satellites, stands on the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province on Wednesday. [KSLV] [Satellite] [Double standards]
• U.S. Pursuing N.Korea Sanctions at UN
  The United States said Thursday that it is pushing for U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its long-range missile test and subsequent expulsion of international monitors from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex. U.S. officials want to curb North Korea's import of goods that could be used to advance its nuclear and missile programs. [Satellite] [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• N. Korea could produce nuclear bombs within four months
  Experts say dialogue is necessary to prevent the situation from deteriorating within that timeframe » International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, who were in North Korea to monitor the country‘s main nuclear complex, prepare to leave a hotel in Pyongyang, April 16. (REUTERS/Kyodo) In an April 14 statement issued by its Foreign Ministry, North Korea announced it would restore and restart activities at its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, which had been disabled under a breakthrough agreement in early 2007. For some analysts, this indicates that a firm timeline has been established for preventing North Korea from engaging in production of weapons-grade plutonium.
• Russia not in nuclear reactor talks with N.Korea – Kiriyenko
  17:11 | 15/ 04/ 2009 Print version UDOMLYA (Tver Region), April 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not holding any talks with Pyongyang on building a nuclear reactor in North Korea, the country's nuclear power chief said on Wednesday. "We are not working with them [North Koreans]... we only work with those countries who are members of the IAEA, and who have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty," Sergei Kiriyenko said. [IAEA] [NPT]
• EXCLUSIVE: U.S. failed to use best radar for N. Korea missile
  Gates refused area commander's request
  By Bill Gertz (Contact) | Wednesday, April 15, 2009
  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied permission for the U.S. Northern Command to use the Pentagon's most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea's recent missile launch, precluding officials from collecting finely detailed launch data or testing the radar in a real-time crisis, current and former defense officials said.
  According to a senior military official involved in continental missile defense, Gen. Renuart initially sought to use the SBX out of concern that the anticipated launch was aimed at the United States or allied territory. However, Obama administration civilian policymakers accepted North Korea's claim that the rocket spotted by intelligence satellites being fueled at North Korea's Musudan launch complex was a space launcher with a satellite, and not a missile, the official said. He spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal deliberations. In the end, the missile failed to put a satellite into orbit, although the missile (sic) traveled farther than in previous North Korean tests. [Satellite] [Dissension] [Pentagon]
• North Korea expels IAEA inspectors from Yongbyon nuclear facility
  N. Korea issues first response following UN Security Council’s statement, while S. Korea postpones announcement of full participation in PSI Following a United Nations (UN) Security Council Chairman’s Statement critical of its recent rocket launch, North Korea has issued an order expelling U.S. nuclear experts and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) participating in the disablement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. In a statement issued Tuesday (local time), the IAEA announced that North Korea had declared a complete halt to all cooperative efforts, informing the agency’s personnel participating in disablement that it would be removing seals and cameras from the Yongbyon nuclear facility. The IAEA personnel were also informed that they were to leave North Korea as soon as possible, the statement said. The Associated Press quoted a U.S. government official Tuesday, as saying that it appeared the nuclear disablement and verification teams would be leaving North Korea as early as this week
• Korea’s first space rocket
  Korea’s Space Launch Vehicle-1 is unveiled yesterday as it is put onto the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. The rocket is scheduled to carry a satellite into orbit in late July. [Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald] [Satellite] [Double standards]
• Russia's Lavrov upbeat on six-party Korea talks, rejects changes
  14/ 04/ 2009 MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday there was no need to change the format of discussions on North Korea's nuclear program, adding the six-nation talks would resume soon despite current problems. "There is no need to establish a new international forum to address the situation on the Korean Peninsula," Sergei Lavrov told reporters. The North announced earlier on Tuesday that it was pulling out of the international talks and said it had restarted its nuclear program in response to a UN Security Council statement condemning its April 5 rocket launch. [Satellite] [Six Party Talks]
• Korean-Made Satellites Ready for Launch
  Several satellites made by Korean firms will be launched overseas. Satrec Initiative, a Korean satellite venture firm, on Tuesday said the RazakSAT, which Malaysia ordered in 2001 to build, will be launched from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific on April 21, and DubaiSat-1, ordered by the Arab emirate in 2006, will be shot into orbit from Baikonur in Kazakhstan in late June. They are small 180 kg satellites, 1.2 m long and 1.2 m wide. They carry black-and-white cameras with a resolution of 2.5 m from an orbit of 685 km above the earth. They will monitor the natural environment and watch for natural disasters such as wildfires. [Double standards] [Satellite]
• N. Korea loudly declares its withdrawal from six-party talks
  While N. Korea announces plans to resume its nuclear facility activity, analysts say there are some signs of waiting for a U.S. response North Korea says it will stop participating in the six party talks and refuses to move forward on denuclearization agreements in response to the United Nations Security Council’s “presidential statement” about its recent rocket launch. This recent development means the Korean peninsula will see increased tensions for some time to come.
  N. Korea loudly declares its withdrawal from six-party talks While N. Korea announces plans to resume its nuclear facility activity, analysts say there are some signs of waiting for a U.S. response “The six-party talks have turned into a platform for infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and forcing the DPRK to disarm itself and bring down the system of the DPRK,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement released through the North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. It also says, North Korea “will no longer participate in the talks, nor will it be bound to any agreement of the six-party talks.” The statement also says it is going to restart activity at its nuclear facility at Yongbyon, after halting operations there in July 2007, and that it will begin reprocessing to extract weapons-grade plutonium. “We have no choice but to further strengthen our nuclear deterrent to cope with additional military threats by hostile forces that say they are going to shoot down a peaceful satellite.” It could be interpreted that the DPRK will take measures for restoring the nuclear facilities to their original state, which had been disabled under the agreement of the six-party talks, place their operations back on track and fully reprocess the spent fuel rods.” The language used in the statement is stronger than might have been expected, but given the premise it provides, some analysts interpret it as indicating that North Korea might not directly move to action. They read the statement as leaving some room to wait for a reaction by the U.S. The statement can be translated as saying that North Korea is not going to participate in the six party talks, …han isang can just as easily be translated to mean, “as long as the six-party talks have turned into a platform for infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and forcing the DPRK to disarm itself and bring down the system of the DPRK” in place of “now that the six-party talks...” This room for dual interpretation leaves some to suggest that North Korea is not entirely saying no to the talks. The statement is also not as severe as the one North Korea’s Foreign Ministry immediately issued after the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning its missile launch in July 2006. At the time, it promised an “even stronger physical action.” In effect, the result was the testing of a nuclear device in October of the same year. This time, however, it says only that it will “bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense” in addition to reprocessing its spent fuel rods. The UN Security Council’s presidential statement denounces the recent rocket launch and reaffirms Resolution 1718, however, as it has no legal binding, it is all “words.” North Korea’s response is likewise “loud,” but they have not yet reached the point of issuing a “resolution.” The statement North Korea has issued saying it will no longer participate in the six party talks might be a message demanding direct negotiations with the U.S. However, this “war of words” that rejects participating in the six party talks could become an obstacle to bilateral dialogue, lead to unnecessary misunderstanding and cause unintended tension
• North Korea Says It Will Halt Talks and Restart Its Nuclear Program
  By MARK LANDLER Published: April 14, 2009 WASHINGTON — North Korea, angered by a United Nations rebuke of its recent missile launching, declared on Tuesday that it would permanently pull out of nuclear disarmament talks and restart its nuclear program. It also expelled United Nations inspectors from the country. The moves, which came hours after the United Nations Security Council chastised North Korea for violating a United Nations resolution, pose a nettlesome foreign policy test for the Obama administration. Political analysts said they did not expect North Korea’s latest actions to immediately heighten the nuclear danger the country posed because it had dismantled parts of its nuclear plant at Yongbyon. North Korea has taken a hard line before, only to soften its stance once it got concessions or made a political point.
• N. Korea Answers U.N. With Defiance
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, April 15, 2009; Page A01 TOKYO, April 14 -- Fuming at the U.N. Security Council for condemning its missile launch, North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country on Tuesday, said it will restart its plutonium factory and vowed never to participate again in six-country nuclear negotiations. In response, the White House called on North Korea to "cease its provocative threats" and honor its commitments. North Korea had warned before launching a long-range missile on April 5 that it would tolerate no U.N. criticism of what it insisted was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit. When the 15-member Security Council unanimously condemned that launch on Monday and demanded a halt to future missile launches, the North's reaction was swift and vitriolic. It called the Security Council's statement "brigandish," "wanton" and "unjust." It said six-party nuclear talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China had "turned into a platform" for forcing the North to disarm and for bringing down its system of government. "We have no choice but to further strengthen our nuclear deterrent to cope with additional military threats by hostile forces," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement released by the state news agency. But analysts in Seoul said North Korea appeared to be up to its familiar tactic of brinkmanship -- creating a crisis in order to be rewarded for helping to solve it.
• N. Korea to Quit 6-Way Nuclear Talks
  Challenging the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its rocket launch, North Korea said Tuesday it was withdrawing from nuclear disarmament talks and restoring its partly disabled nuclear facilities. Nine days after North Korea fired a long-range rocket, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a statement accusing Pyongyang of violating an earlier U.N. resolution barring its ballistic missile activity. The statement, issued in the name of the council's president on Monday (New York time), also demanded that North Korea forgo further missile launches and return to six-party denuclearization talks. Ahead of its April 5 rocket launch, North Korea warned that any U.N. action against it _ or even an attempt to consider one _ would rupture the six-party talks that also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
• 'US Planned Attack on Yongbyon in 1994'
  By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter Former President Kim Young-sam said Monday the United States prepared for an attack on North Korea in 1994 when the communist regime was beginning to produce plutonium at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. ``At the time, the U.S. Navy's 33 destroyers and two aircraft carriers were waiting for an order in the East Sea to bomb the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon,'' Kim said in a radio program. ``I strongly opposed the military action because I thought it could lead to a full-fledged war on the Korean Peninsula. The United States would have gone ahead with the strike without my objection. ``It was a touch-and-go situation,'' recalled Kim, who served as president from 1993 to 1998. [Agreed Framework] [Friction] [Military option]
• Security Council condemns DPR Korea’s recent launch
  Ambassador Claude Heller of Mexico 13 April 2009 – The Security Council today spoke out against the recent rocket launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), stressing the importance of preserving peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in North-East Asia. In a statement read out by Ambassador Claude Heller of Mexico, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency, the 15-member body deems the 5 April launch to be in contravention of resolution 1718, which demanded that the country “not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile,” following its claims to have conducted a nuclear test in October 2006. “The Security Council demands that the DPRK not conduct any further launch,” according to today’s statement, which expressed the body’s desire for a “peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation” and welcomed Member States’ efforts to reach a “comprehensive solution through dialogue.” It also said that it will adjust sanctions, imposed by the 2006 resolution, by the end of this month. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the adoption of today’s statement, “which sends a unified message of the international community” on the DPRK’s launch. According to a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban voiced hope that the Council’s actions today will “pave the way for renewed efforts towards the peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues in the region, including through the early resumption of the Six-Party Talks and the inter-Korean dialogue.” Expressing its support for the also expressed it support for the resumption of the so-called Six-Party Talks – involving China, DPRK, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States – the Council called on these nations to step up efforts to implement the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005 in which the DPRK committed itself to abandon nuclear weapons and rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Addressing reporters after today’s Council meeting, Mr. Heller said the statement adopted unanimously sends a “clear message” to the DPRK, signalling that the East Asian nation must “show that it’s capable [of fulfilling] this confidence gap that exists before the international community for past actions.” [UNUS] [Double standards]
• North Korea Says It Will Restart Nuclear Plant
  By REUTERS Published: April 13, 2009 Filed at 11:52 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said Tuesday it saw talks on ending its nuclear weapons program as "useless" and it planned to restart a plant that makes arms-grade plutonium, state media quoted its Foreign Ministry as saying. The comments came in response to the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemning North Korea's long-range rocket launch nearly two weeks ago as contravening a U.N. ban, and demanding enforcement of existing sanctions against Pyongyang. "We will actively consider building our own light-water nuclear reactor, will revive nuclear facilities and reprocess used nuclear fuel rods," KCNA news agency quoted the ministry as saying. North Korea began taking apart its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant more than a year ago as a part of a disarmament-for-aid deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The steps in total were aimed at taking a year to reverse but experts said the North could have its plant that separates plutonium from spent fuel rods up running again in as little as three months. [Satellite] [UNUS] [Sanctions] [Six Party talks]
• U.N. expected to sanction some 10 N. Korean companies: official
      UN-NK sanctions list      SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) - About 10 North Korean companies will be sanctioned by the United Nations over the nation's recent rocket launch, a ranking official here said Monday. In particular, the draft statement responding to the North's April 5 rocket launch calls for the council's sanctions committee to list North Korean businesses and goods to be subjected to a trade embargo. "The statement clarifies that the sanctions committee should work out a list containing companies and goods to be under U.N. sanctions by April 24, and some 10 North Korean companies are expected to be put on the list," the official, asking not be named, said. If the committee fails to present the list in time, the council is required to take related steps by the end of the month, the official said. "It's very unusual for the statement to call for the listing of companies and goods to be sanctioned and designate a specific time for listing," the official said. [Sanctions] [UNUS] [Satellite]
• Do Not Let the Rocket Launch Block North Korean Denuclearization
  By Hui Zhang April 14th, 2009 Hui Zhang, Research Associate in the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, writes, “From China’s perspective, the first step should be taken by the side with the least to lose. This is not North Korea… Washington should take the first step that will eventually lead to North Korean denuclearisation.” [Sequencing] [Satellite]
• Column] Was the North Korean launch a “provocation”?
  Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy
  Was the North Korean launch a “provocation”? Not to the United States and Japan, as they allege, but South Korea‘s anxieties are more understandable. The timing of the launch on the eve of the first Supreme People’s Assembly meeting in six years makes clear that it was mainly a domestic political event, a big show by Kim Jong Il to bolster his prestige internally. Similarly, the 1998 launch was timed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the DPRK. With South Korea is planning to use a Russian rocket for its own KSLV I launch from Goehung this summer, Kim wants to show that North Korea is more self-reliant. Military analysts will no doubt emphasize the technical differences that make North Korea‘s launch “military” and threatening in contrast to the anticipated South Korean launch and to the 25 Japanese launches since 1971. But the fact is that the rocketry involved in any satellite launch has a potential utility for missiles, and the Japanese J-1 and J-5 rockets have a range and thrust comparable to the best U.S. ICBMs. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Vehemently Refutes UNSC's "Presidential Statement"
  Pyongyang, April 14 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday flatly rejecting the brigandish "presidential statement" which the U.S. and its followers finally released by abusing the UNSC to condemn the DPRK's launch of satellite for peaceful purposes. Saying that throughout history the UNSC has never taken issue with satellite launches, the statement continues: First, the DPRK resolutely rejects the unjust action taken by the UNSC wantonly infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and seriously hurting the dignity of the Korean people. Second, there would be no need to hold six-party talks which the DPRK has attended. Now that the six-party talks have turned into a platform for infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and seeking to force the DPRK to disarm itself and bring down the system in it the DPRK will never participate in the talks any longer nor it will be bound to any agreement of the six-party talks. Third, the DPRK will bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence in every way. It will take the measure for restoring to their original state the nuclear facilities which had been disabled under the agreement of the six-party talks and putting their operation on a normal track and fully reprocess the spent fuel rods churned out from the pilot atomic power plant as part of it. [Satellite] [Six Part Talks] [UNUS]
• N.Korea Rocket 'Flew Farther than Previously Thought'
  South Korean, U.S. and Japanese intelligence authorities are still analyzing North Korea's April 5 rocket launch amid claims that the projectile flew farther than previously thought. U.S. aviation and space science website Spaceflight Now on Sunday said the rocket temporarily left the atmosphere and flew up to 800 km further in the direction of Hawaii. Based on analysis of radar data and data from the U.S. Air Force's missile warning satellite, the website said the rocket actually flew 3,846 km, rather than the 3,058 km the U.S. and Japan had estimated. It said U.S. and Japanese military authorities earlier believed that the projectile had a problem with its second-stage booster rocket, but now feel the second-stage rocket worked as programmed. But Spaceflight Now said the projectile failed to enter the normal orbit because the third-stage booster rocket did not separate properly. The U.S. on April 5 said it did took no steps to intercept the rocket since it failed to enter space orbit and thus posed no threat to the U.S. mainland or Hawaii. On April 6, the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, said, "The technology they were seeking after the first two failures was the ability to stage; in other words, transition from one stage of boost to the next. They failed." [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• North Korean rocket flew further than earlier thought
  BY CRAIG COVAULT SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: April 10, 2009 New details emerging from the analysis of data from North Korea's April 5 Taepo-Dong-2 test indicate the vehicle flew successfully several hundred miles further than previously believed and used more advanced steering than has been demonstrated by the North Korean's before. The rocket impacted as far as 2,390 miles from the launch site as opposed to about 1,900 miles as earlier announced by the U. S. and Japan. Smoke puffs from the side of the vehicle at the moment of liftoff and after, indicate the rocket could have been equipped with attitude control thrusters. It also temporarily flew in space before failing and dropping back into the atmosphere at relatively slow speed that enabled debris to survive till impact rather than burning up. {Satellite] [Intelligence]
• Video and pictures reveal North Korean launch details
  BY CRAIG COVAULT SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: April 7, 2009 Video footage obtained by The Associated Press and a remarkable commercial satellite image of the ill-fated North Korean launch are providing new insights into the rocket. The Taepo-Dong 2 lifted off on 235,000 pounds of thrust during its Sunday mission to launch a North Korean satellite while continuing development of the vehicle as an ICBM that could threaten the U.S. These images from North Korean state television aired by the AP on Tuesday provide far more engineering detail on the rocket than has ever been made public since its first mission 11 years ago that failed, as did the most recent [Media] [Satellite]
• New Japanese rocket fires its engines on launch pad
  BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: April 2, 2009 Japan's new H-2B rocket rolled to its oceanfront launch pad this week and briefly fired its two main engines Thursday, concluding the heavy-lift booster's first practice countdown after a six-day delay due to faulty ground equipment. The orange and white rocket, stripped of its payload shroud and four solid rocket boosters, was driven atop a mobile platform overnight Tuesday to Launch Pad No. 2 at Tanegashima space center's Yoshinobu launch complex. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• North Korean missile launch a failure or....?
  April 10, 2009 North Korea's test launch last weekend of a Taepodong-2 missile was a failure, right? Unless you believe the Pyongyang government's propaganda (we're skeptical), the missile failed to place an experimental satellite into orbit. The rocket's third stage did not do its job, essentially. Well, yes ... and no. Bruce Bechtol, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst and professor at the U.S. Marine Command and Staff College, argued at a forum at the conservative American Enterprise Institute this week that the launch did bring benefits to North Korea. "It was not as successful as it could have been," Bechtol said, but North Korea learned from the failure. It shows the North Koreans "have advanced their capabilities for an ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile)." The launch was certainly more successful than the last test in 2006, when the rocket exploded 40 seconds after lift-off. The nightmare scenario, for Japan (sic), the United States and others, is that North Korea could someday develop a reliable missile with intercontinental range that could carry a miniaturized nuclear weapon. For now, Pyongyang has neither a reliable missile or, as far as we know, a miniaturized nuclear weapon. Bechtol pointed out that it also does not have the advantage of surprise. During the Cold War, U.S. and Soviet nuclear missiles were ready to be fueled and launched within minutes. With North Korea's Taepodong-2 missile, U.S. spy satellites watched for weeks as the missile was taken out of a building, transported to the launched pad, erected and fueled. "A missile that takes two months to get ready is not a threat to us or anybody else," Bechtol said. [Satellite ] [Spin]
• Korea Space Launch Vehicle
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV) will be South Korea's first space rocket, scheduled for launch in Summer 2009. It is being built by KARI, the national space agency of South Korea along with Korean Air and is set to launch into space from the country's new spaceport, the Naro Space Center. A successful launch would make South Korea the world's 10th country to launch a home-made satellite from its own soil.[1] The KSLV-I launch vehicle is based on the first stage of the Russian Angara rocket and the solid-fueled second stage of KSLV-I will be built by South Korea. It will be capable of launching a satellite weighing 100 kilograms into low orbit. The first launch of KSLV-I is planned for July 2009. [KSLV] [Satellite] [double standards]
• KSLV-1 (Korean) launch soon?
  NASASpaceFlight.com Forum [KSLV] [Satellite] [double standards]
• Russia Dragging Feet Over Korean Rocket Launch
  By Kim Tong-hyung Staff Reporter South Korean ambitions to launch the country’s first space rocket by Christmas might have to be put on hold for a few months. The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) had planned to send its Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), a carrier rocket designed for transporting satellites, into orbit on Dec. 21. However, with its Russian partner failing to deliver the ground test vehicle (GTV), a machine for testing the rocket engine and liquid-fueled propulsion system, in time, there is the possibility the launch date could be moved to next year. ``We have been doing everything on time and still expect the rocket to be launched in December,’’ said Eum Young-shik, a KARI spokesperson. ``However, how the Russians do their job is out of our control and there have been some delays to date,’’ he said. The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, which is providing the technology for the KSLV-1 project, was to send the GTV to Korea during this month. Now, KARI officials can’t give a date. [KSLV] [Satellite] [double standards]
• Korean space launch vehicle unveiled
  Korea’s first Space Launch Vehicle- KSLV-1 that will carry a satellite into orbit has been unveiled at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. Space launch vehicle KSLV-1 consists of the upper part, which will be loaded with Science and Technology Satellite, and the lower part carry KSLV-1 from ground into space after launch. The 7.7m-high upper part was completed recently by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute with its own technology. The 25.8 m-high lower parts will be made in Russia and imported around January next year. The KSLV-1 is identical with the vehicle that will be launched into space next year in terms of design and performance. The KSLV-1 was to be launched at the end of this year, but the launch has been postponed due to delays in technical cooperation with Russia and in the supply of rocket components. Now KSLV-1 will be launched during the second quarter, between April and June, next year. [KSLV] [Satellite] [double standards]
• ITU Dismisses N.Korean Satellite Claim
  The International Telecommunication Union, the international agency in charge of radio frequency allocation for satellites, has dismissed North Korea's claim that it successfully put a communications satellite into orbit last Sunday. In an interview with Radio Free Asia on Tuesday, Sanjay Acharya, ITU's chief of media relations and public information, said the organization has no information about a satellite, adding that nobody else has probably been given any information about it either.
• Russia opposes sanctions against N.Korea over rocket launch
  14:28 | 08/ 04/ 2009 MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow is concerned by Pyongyang's recent rocket launch, but believes that imposing sanctions against North Korea would be counterproductive, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday. North Korea launched a multistage rocket that it said was carrying a communications satellite on Sunday morning, defying pressure from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, which suspect the launch was a cover for a test of a Taepodong-2 long-range missile. (VIDEO) "We are definitely concerned by the recent rocket launch and believe it does not offer grounds for stabilizing the situation in the region," Sergei Lavrov said, adding that "we also believe that any threat of sanctions would be counterproductive." The 15-member Security Council convened for an emergency meeting late on Sunday at Japan's request, to discuss sanctions against Pyongyang following the launch, but strong opposition from Russia and China prevented the adoption of even a preliminary statement of condemnation. The top Russian diplomat said Moscow will not change its stance concerning proposed sanctions against Pyongyang. [Satellite]
• Kim Jong-il's Son Says Rocket Launch Escalates Tensions
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son has said the launch of the country's long-distance rocket "would escalate tensions between North Korea and its neighbors," and that he is "very concerned" about it, Japan's TBS reported Wednesday. Kim Jong-nam met with TBS reporters in a hotel in Macau, and replied in English when asked if launch of the rocket violated a UN Security Council resolution. "I don't have any information on the launching. But if you ask me how I feel about it, I could tell you that I am keenly observing the reaction of the international community on the launching," he said. [Media]
• N.Korean Rocket 'Made Using Chinese Technology'
  The rocket launched by North Korea last Sunday was made using the technology of the Long March-1 rocket China fired in the 1970s. After looking at video footage of the rocket launch released by AP on Tuesday, Chae Yeon-seok, a former president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said, the external appearance of the rocket shows that the North must have used technology of the Chinese rocket to make it. The assembly method also seems to be Chinese. "The North set the first-stage booster rocket up vertically first, and then put the second and third-stage rockets on one by one. This assembly method is often used in China and backs up speculation that North Korea has borrowed the technology," Dr. Roh Woong-rae of KARI said. (sic) [Spin] [Media]
• Despite evidence, North insists satellite launched
  April 09, 2009 North Korea released television footage of its rocket launch late Tuesday night and continued to insist it successfully put a communications satellite into orbit. And at the United Nations, Pyongyang threatened to take “strong steps,” should there be a Security Council resolution condemning its action. The state-run Korean Central News Agency aired the clip last night, showing a white rocket printed with the word “Choson” in red. The footage showed the rocket blasting off from the launch pad as well as shots of the control and command center where a white dot, apparently indicating the rocket, was on display on a radar screen. Tunes paying homage to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il, which are reportedly being transmitted through the satellite, were played as background music. From the footage, the bulbous-shaped payload at the top of the rocket appeared to be a satellite. The South Korean government said on Sunday that the North “appeared to have tried to launch a satellite” but has yet to make a conclusive announcement on the nature of the payload.
• N.Korea 'Notified U.S., China, Russia of Launch Time'
  North Korea notified the U.S., China and Russia in advance of its plan to launch the long-range rocket on Sunday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service officials told the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee Monday. A lawmaker said after the meeting, "It seems that earlier on the day it launched the rocket, North Korea notified the U.S., China and Russia of its plan to launch it after a certain hour." Pyongyang apparently gave them a more specific timeline than the one it had given to the International Maritime Organization earlier, which put the moment sometime between Apr. 4 and 8. An official with a security-related agency said, "I understand it's unprecedented for the North to notify the U.S. in advance of the time. This shows it didn't conceal that the launch was aimed at gaining political and economic profit through direct negotiations with the U.S." A researcher at a government-funded think-tank speculated the North could have been attempting to emphasize that its latest rocket was not a missile but a peaceful satellite carrier and show that it has nothing to hide. In October 2006, North Korea did not even properly notify allies China and Russia in advance of its nuclear test. [Satellite]
• North Korea did not follow the necessary international procedures for launching a satellite, according to sources.
  North Korea launched what it claims to be communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 on Sunday. But the Japanese government increasingly believes the communist state's satellite claim is merely a cover for a missile launch. The Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to which North Korea also belongs, stipulates that the launch of a communications satellite needs to be announced in advance. The regulations also require member states to give prior notice of a satellite's operating frequency, its orbital location and other information to the ITU two to seven years before a satellite goes into use. However, North Korea did not give such prior notice to the ITU, the sources said. Nevertheless, the regulations, which carry no provisions for punishing violations, have exceptions allowing member states to waive such procedures under certain conditions. For these reasons, some member states have launched communications satellites without following such procedures in the past, according to the sources. [Satellite] [Legality]
• China Urges Cautious Response to N.Korea Launch
  China is urging the United Nations Security Council to respond with restraint to North Korea's controversial rocket launch and is refusing to condemn Pyongyang's actions. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday the issue also involves a country's right to peaceful use of outer space. She told reporters in Beijing that while there are similarities between rocket technology and missile technology, China believes that launching a satellite is different than firing a ballistic missile.
• North Korean rocket launch caught on film
  Ian Sample, science correspondent The Guardian, Wednesday 8 April 2009 Article history An exhaust trail follows the rocket launched from Musudan-ni, North Korea, despite US censure. Photograph: Digital Globe/AP A striking satellite image released yesterday shows the moment North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday in defiance of international pressure. The image was taken from an altitude of 308 miles (496km) by the WorldView-1 satellite moments after the rocket blasted off at 11.10am local time.
  The significance of this image is quite extraordinary," she said. "I have never seen anything like it." The image shows a long contrail left behind by the rocket as it reaches supersonic speeds over the Korean peninsula. The rocket itself appears in white at the end of the contrail. Puccioni said analysts are still studying the image, which appears to show the rocket at an angle. "It looks as though there's been a slight change in its trajectory," she said. The rocket may have been caught during a stage separation. The camera aboard the WorldView-1 satellite has a resolution of 50cm and would have been over North Korea from 11am to midday on the morning of the launch. It travels at 17,000mph and can only take one picture as it hurtles overhead. Puccioni suspects Pyongyang had timed the controversial launch to coincide with the satellite's arrival, in the hope of maximising publicity of the launch. [Bizarre] [Satellite] [Double standards]
• Miami Herald Cartoon
  [Bizarre] [Victim]
• How Hard Is It to Fire a Rocket?
  By The Editors April 7, 2009, 8:50 pm (Credit: Reuters) North Korea’s rocket, shown in video footage that was released on Tuesday. The North Koreans failed in their much-vaunted attempt to fire a long-range rocket, military and private analysts said on Sunday. Tracking data showed the missile and its payload — a satellite — falling into the sea. How hard is it to fire a rocket? In recent years, even private companies have shown prowess in this area, and the technology is decades old. How exactly should we regard the North Korean threat?
• N. Korea hopes to launch more rockets: report
  By Kim Hyun SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea hopes to launch more satellites to boost its economy, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said Monday, a day after the communist nation fired a rocket that experts say could also carry a missile. Sunday's launch of what Pyongyang calls an experimental communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2, was the opening stage of a larger plan to send various practical satellites into orbit in the future, said Choson Sinbo, which typically conveys North Korea's official position.
  "North Korea is preparing to launch practical satellites for the purpose of communications, exploration of natural resources and weather forecasting, which are essential for the country's economic development," the Choson Sinbo said. The paper featured an interview with the head of a North Korean national weather agency, Ko Sang-bok, who called the launch a "historic feat" that raised national morale and took the country closer to its foremost goal of becoming a powerful nation by 2012. The year is important for North Korea as the centennial of the birth of late President Kim Il-sung, father of current leader Kim Jong-il. "Within the next few years, during which our country plans to launch a polar-orbiting meteorological satellite or a geostationary meteorological satellite, great progress will be achieved in the field of weather forecasting," Ko said, adding his country currently receives data from China and Russia. "This experimental communications satellite launch is a front stage procedure toward launching a meteorological satellite and other practical satellites," he said.
• North Korea's Missile Test: Off-target?
  Posted by Scott Snyder on 04/06/2009 :: Permalink :: Comments North Korea's launch of a multi-stage rocket has been assessed by international experts as a technical failure, but the test has been at least a partial success in hitting four political targets: North Korea's domestic audience, exploitation of international divisions among members of the six party talks, testing of the newly-established Obama administration, and exploitation of Chinese dilemmas over how to balance multiple conflicting objectives in its North Korea policy.
• What's Up with North Korea?
  John Feffer | April 5, 2009
  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why North Korea just launched another rocket. The country wants attention. It craves the prestige of putting a satellite into orbit. It hopes to gather information for its missile program. And it's angling to up the ante in the great poker game called the Six Party Talks that also involves the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia. The stakes are certainly high. The launch could dramatically escalate tensions in the region. Or it could, like North Korea's nuclear test in 2006, provide a bracing reminder of the importance of diplomacy and compromise. 1. How can North Korea's rocket be both a satellite and a missile? The rocket that puts a satellite into orbit is indistinguishable from a long-range missile. Only the nose cone and the trajectory are different. In 1998, North Korea also declared its rocket a satellite launch vehicle while the United States and other countries called the rocket a missile. Some time after the launch, however, even the Pentagon agreed that North Korea had tried and failed to put a satellite into orbit. This year's launch, on a modified rocket, followed the same pattern.
• Why Did North Korea's Satellite Launch Fail?
  Why did North Korea's carrier vehicle fail to put the satellite into orbit on Sunday? An accurate assessment is difficult in the absence of detailed information, but based on information that has been announced so far, experts believe there must have been a critical defect in the three-stage rocket. (sic)
• N. Korea continues its solitary celebration of a “successful satellite launch”
  When asked about the launch by reporters while heading to his New York mission office Sunday, local time, Shin Son-ho, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “We are happy. Very, very successful. You should congratulate us.” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Monday that Kim Jong-il expressed “great satisfaction” after watching the entire launch process Sunday. Other North Korean television stations and newspapers continued broadcasts about a “successful satellite launch” into Monday. Sources say that although North Korea has launched its satellite, it does not have the technical means to confirm objectively whether the launch was successful since it lacks the broadband radar network ability to track the entire process from launch to entry into orbit. The United States, which possesses a global radar surveillance network, reported that the satellite failed to enter orbit.
• N. Korea Sees 'Progress' in Missile Capability: Official
  Seoul Mulls Buying PAC-3 Missile Interceptors By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The latest rocket launch by North Korea, though believed to be a failure, has proved its ever-improving missile capability, which could pose a serious threat to regional security, a government official here said Monday. The official, who asked not to be identified, said there seemed to have been substantial ``progress'' in the North's missile technology, citing the distance that the second and third spent stage of the three-stage rocket carrying a communications satellite were jettisoned at. The second and third boosters fell into the Pacific Ocean about 2,100 kilometers from Japan's east coast, which means the rocket flew about 3,100 kilometers from the North's eastern missile site, he said. Whether or not the second and third stages separated or not remains unclear at the moment, he added. When the rocket is converted to a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile platform, the missile could have a range of more than 5,000 kilometers, missile experts here say. [Missile defense] [Threat]
• North Korea Seeks Political Gain From Rocket Launch
  By CHOE SANG-HUN, HELENE COOPER and DAVID E. SANGER Published: April 6, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — Despite the failure of North Korea’s attempt to launch a satellite, Pyongyang’s adversaries voiced alarm on Monday over the extended range of the North’s latest rocket, while the United Nations tumbled into a disarray over how to respond to what President Obama called a “provocative act.” Washington and Seoul said the North Korean rocket launched on Sunday failed to thrust a satellite into orbit. But on Monday, seeking to garner political gain from the test, the North Korean media praised Kim Jong-il’s leadership, insisting that a communications satellite was circling the Earth, broadcasting patriotic songs. Officials and analysts in Seoul said the North’s rocket, identified by American officials as a Taepodong-2, flew at least 2,000 miles, doubling the range of an earlier rocket it tested in 1998 and boosting its potential to fire a long-range missile. The impoverished country may be years away from building a truly intercontinental ballistic missile and tipping it with a nuclear warhead. But to governments grown increasingly concerned by the North’s military might, the launch was a sign that it was doggedly moving in that direction.
• Russian space control: DPRK satellite not placed in orbit
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-06 16:28:07 MOSCOW, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has not placed its satellite into the near-Earth orbit, Russian media reported Monday. "Our space control system has not registered the placement of the DPRK satellite into orbit. According to our data, it simply is not there," the Interfax news agency cited a high-ranking source with the Russian General Staff as saying. The DPRK's official media reported Sunday that the country successfully launched a rocket carrying the "Kwangmyongsong-2" communications satellite which entered orbit about 10 minutes after launch. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Satellite Launch Fails
  North Korea on Sunday launched a rocket but failed to put a satellite into orbit as announced. The long-range rocket took off from Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province at 11:30 a.m.
• Let's hope Obama keeps his cool
  It's easy to get exercised about North Korea but Washington's relationship with Pyongyang lies at the heart of non-proliferation Comments (33) John Gittings guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 April 2009 14.58 BST Article historyThe people who are really justified in denouncing North Korea's satellite launch are those who cannot do so – the people of North Korea who would prefer to see their miserable standard of living improved rather than a ruinous boost to the "immortal" prestige of Kim Jong Il and his father. For the rest of the world, this is a wake-up call on two fronts, regardless of whether the launch has been successful. First, a much more sustained effort has to be made to settle the persistent problem of the Korean peninsula, one of the last unsolved problems left over from the cold war. The abnormal division of the two Koreas, and the abnormal character of the Pyongyang regime, stem directly from this failure. Second, we cannot expect to deal effectively with would-be nuclear proliferators in a world that has already condoned proliferation by others and where progress towards disarmament by the five recognised nuclear weapons states is so painfully slow. President Barack Obama, to his great credit, has acknowledged the fatal flaw all previous American presidents and British prime ministers had denied – that new nuclear states may only be persuaded to abandon their quests if the big nuclear powers set the example.
• S. Korea announces, “N. Korea failed to launch their satellite into orbit”
  UN Security Council convenings discuss joint responses to North Korea » The above graph indicates the path of North Korea‘s satellite, launched on April 5. The graph below shows three projectiles that North Korea has launched since 1998 from left to right: the latest projectile, a projectile launched in 2006, a projectile launched in 1998. North Korea carried out the launch of its previously announced experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 on board the carrier rocket Unha-2, a Taepodong-2, at 11:20 am Sunday from a launch site in Musudan-ri, Hwadae-gun, North Hamgyeong Province. North Korea‘s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday afternoon that the Kwangmyongsong-2 entered orbit successfully nine minutes and two seconds after its launch, and transmitted melodies and measured information at 470 MHz. The governments of South Korea, the United States and Japan announced that the rocket launch took place 15 seconds after 11:30 am, but they said that North Korea failed to carry its satellite to the orbit. South Korea Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee presented to the National Assembly on April 5 a report that North Korea’s launch was unsuccessful.
• N. Korea hints at possible military uses for rocket technology
  Chosun Shinbo also analyzes economic benefits N. Korea garners from the launch » An anchor of Korea Central Television announces during their news program on April 5 that the Unha-2 carried satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 to the orbit successfully. The Chosun Shinbo, a newspaper published by the General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan, quickly deleted a story mistakenly published on the Internet believing that the rocket had been launched the day prior on April 4. Although it was deleted, analysts suggest it still offers an interesting perspective into how North Korea may perceive the launching of its communications satellite. For starters, the Chosun Shinbo reported that if the international community takes a confrontational stance to this latest activity by North Korea, it could “force Pyongyang to transfer its multistage rocket technologies for military purposes.” In making reference to a “confrontational stance,” the Chosun Shinbo may have been attempting to urge the international community to reconsider the level of pressure that it applies in response to the launch. Whatever its intention, the news report displayed a tone that differs from North Korea’s. Pyongyang has claimed that the satellite launch is intended for peaceful purposes.
• Minimizing aftereffects of North Korea’s launch
  [Editorial] Yesterday, North Korea carried out the launch of its Kwangmyongsong-2 experimental communications satellite. This has been a highly unfortunate situation, in that in doing so North Korea spurned demands from the international community to halt the launch. However, it has been fortunate that there has not been a military clash that has resulted from the matter, for example, a launching of an interception missile. It is now time to work towards resolving this incident and minimizing its negative repercussions. The governments of several nations have now confirmed that the object launched by North Korea was a satellite and not a ballistic missile, which is what North Korean authorities have been asserting all along. However, this does not mean that the international community is any less concerned about the rocket technology used to launch the satellite, as it could easily be transformed into long-distance missile technology. In effect, this launch indicates that North Korea possesses intercontinental ballistic missile technology. North Korea is distrusted within the international community as a result of its actions to date regarding nuclear weapons and missiles. The mere fact that a nation that has already carried out a nuclear test possesses such a technology presents a latent threat to the entire global community. This launch will only deepen this distrust further.
• KCNA on DPRK's Successful Launch of Satellite Kwangmyongsong-2
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- Scientists and technicians of the DPRK have succeeded in putting satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into orbit by means of carrier rocket Unha-2 under the state long-term plan for the development of outer space. Unha-2, which was launched at the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province at 11:20 on April 5, Juche 98 (2009), accurately put Kwangmyongsong-2 into its orbit at 11:29:02, nine minutes and two seconds after its launch. The satellite is going round the earth along its elliptic orbit at the angle of inclination of 40.6 degrees at 490 km perigee and 1,426 km apogee. Its cycle is 104 minutes and 12 seconds. Mounted on the satellite are necessary measuring devices and communications apparatuses. The satellite is going round on its routine orbit. It is sending to the earth the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans "Song of General Kim Il Sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong Il" and measured information at 470 MHz. By the use of the satellite the relay communications is now underway by UHF frequency band. The satellite is of decisive significance in promoting the scientific researches into the peaceful use of outer space and solving scientific and technological problems for the launch of practical satellites in the future. Carrier rocket Unha-2 has three stages. The carrier rocket and the satellite developed by the indigenous wisdom and technology are the shining results gained in the efforts to develop the nation's space science and technology on a higher level. The successful satellite launch symbolic of the leaping advance made in the nation's space science and technology was conducted against the background of the stirring period when a high-pitched drive for bringing about a fresh great revolutionary surge is under way throughout the country to open the gate to a great prosperous and powerful nation without fail by 2012, the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung, under the far-reaching plan of General Secretary Kim Jong Il. This is powerfully encouraging the Korean people all out in the general advance.
• Kim Jong Il Observes Launch of Satellite Kwangmyongsong-2
  Pyongyang, April 5 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the General Satellite Control and Command Centre to watch the process of launching the experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 on Sunday. He acquainted himself with the preparations made for the satellite launch. After being briefed on the satellite launch, he observed the whole process of the satellite launch at the centre. At 11:20 a.m. the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, a shining product of self-reliance, soared into space by carrier rocket Unha-2. It was smoothly and accurately put into its orbit 9 minutes and 2 seconds after being completely separated from the carrier rocket. Expressing great satisfaction over the fact that scientists and technicians of the DPRK successfully launched the satellite with their own wisdom and technology, he highly appreciated their feats and extended thanks to them.
• World leaders condemn N. Korea launch but have few options
  By Steven Thomma and Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers PRAGUE, Czech Republic — From New York to Prague, world leaders criticized North Korea's long-range rocket launch on Sunday, but there appeared to be little appetite for escalating the confrontation with the isolated regime that defied international warnings with its early morning test. North Korea's launch of its Taepodong-2 missile came on the same day that President Barack Obama, in a speech in the Czech capital, pledged the United States to the long-term goal of ridding itself and the world of nuclear weapons. [Spin]
• North Korean Missile Launch Was a Failure, Experts Say
  By WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: April 5, 2009 North Korea failed in its highly vaunted effort to fire a satellite into orbit, military and private experts said Sunday after reviewing detailed tracking data that showed the missile and payload fell into the sea. Some said the failure undercut the North Korean campaign to come across as a fearsome adversary able to hurl deadly warheads halfway around the globe.
• After Launch, Obama Focuses On Disarmament
  N. Korea Complicates President's Trip By Michael D. Shear and Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 6, 2009; Page A01 ANKARA, Turkey, April 6 -- President Obama arrived in Turkey on Sunday night as global condemnation of North Korea gave way to intense diplomatic debate about how to punish the rogue nation for the brazen weekend launch of a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. As Obama prepared to address the Turkish parliament Monday, the U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session. Despite the urging of the United States and Japan, the 15-member council could not agree on a statement criticizing North Korea's rocket launch. China and Russia said they were not yet convinced that Pyongyang had violated any U.N. rules, according to council officials. The council adjourned after three hours and agreed to continue negotiations on a resolution in the coming days. "Every state has the right to the peaceful use of outer space," said Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Igor Shcherbak. [Satellite] [UNUS]
• North Korea puts into orbit communication satellite
  05.04.2009, 11.33 PYONGYANG, April 5 (Itar-Tass) - The North Korean mass media reported a successful launch of an experimental communications “Unha-2” satellite. The Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite was put into orbit at 11. 29 local time (6.29 Moscow time), says here a report, circulated by the KCNA news agency. North Korea has failed to put into orbit its satellite, blasted off this morning from the Musudan-ri proving ground in north-eastern Korean Peninsula, said on Sunday South Korean National Defence Minister Lee Sang-hee, addressing the parliament. "According to available information, all the three stages of the missile dropped into the Pacific. Therefore, the satellite failed to ride into orbit,” he said. This information is confirmed by the American military. [Media]
• Scholars around the World Express Concerns about Current Crisis in Northeast Asia
  Statement to be issued by the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK) http://www.asck.org/ The statement: Scholars around the World Express Concerns about Current Crisis in Northeast Asia Despite some hopeful signs in the last two years, the Korean peninsula is again teetering toward crisis. The Six Party Talks are stymied. Progress toward normalizing relations between the United States and North Korea has stalled. Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated. In this context, North Korea’s rocket launch this week and the overreaction to it threaten to trigger another round of escalation. We urge all the governments in the region to remain calm and turn to dialogue and diplomacy to stop the peninsula from degenerating into a conflict. We believe that this crisis is a reminder of the absolute imperative of achieving permanent peace in the region.
• Commentary: North Korean launch not a cause for panic
  By Joseph Cirincione Special to CNN Editor's note: Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit organization that makes grants to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the author of "Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons." He formerly was a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that describes itself as "progressive," and was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee. Joseph Cirincione says a serious missile threat to the U.S. from North Korea would take years to develop.
  (CNN) -- North Korea's thinly disguised missile test violates U.N. resolutions and should be condemned. But it is not a serious threat to the United States, nor does it justify a crash program to deploy an expensive, unproven anti-missile system. North Korea's missile and nuclear capabilities do not add up to a nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM. This third failure to create such a missile in as many attempts since 1998 likely represents the upper limits of what the country can do by stretching and adapting the Scud technology it acquired from the former Soviet Union. This small, impoverished nation would need to make three key additional breakthroughs to turn this launch vehicle into a real nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching the continental United States
• U S. Korea, U.S. say North Korea failed to orbit satellite
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea failed to send a satellite into space, South Korea and the United States said Sunday, declaring no object entered orbit. North Korea said earlier in the day that it has succeeded in orbiting a communications satellite after launching a rocket from a launch pad on its east coast. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee disputed the claim, telling a National Assembly hearing that the three-stage rocket failed to put anything in orbit. "All three stages are believed to have fallen into the ocean," Lee said, while a U.S. military command in Colorado said separately on its Web site that "no object entered orbit." "The payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean," the U.S. Northern Command said, adding it has "assessed the space launch vehicle as not a threat to North America or Hawaii."
• N. Korea's rocket launch rattles regional security despite failure
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's ambitious launch of a space vehicle backfired Sunday, but it reminded the world of the nuclear-armed communist nation's long-range missile threat, South Korean and U.S. officials said. North Korea fired off a three-stage rocket which flew over Japan from its east coast base at 11:30 a.m., they said. "All three stages are believed to have fallen into the ocean," South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told lawmakers, adding no object has entered orbit. Citing information shared by the U.S. military, a senior South Korean foreign ministry official also told reporters, "The first stage fell into the East Sea and the remaining ones including a payload landed in the Pacific Ocean." The assessment contradicts Pyongyang's announcement that its brand new satellite is orbiting the earth. The South Korean foreign ministry official said the North is likely to continue its claim of success, potentially complicating efforts to punish its "provocative act," which violates the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. The resolution, adopted after the North's missile and nuclear tests in 2006, bars Pyongyang from all activities linked to ballistic missile program. The 15-member U.N. Security Council will meet at 4 a.m. Monday (Seoul time) to discuss the issue at Japan's request.
• N. Korea claims satellite in orbit despite reports of failed launch
  By Kim Hyun SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea claimed on Sunday that it put a communications satellite into orbit in a step toward becoming a powerful nation, ignoring foreign analysis that the launch failed. The North's state media continued to promote its "successful satellite launch," while the South Korean government and the U.S. military confirmed no North Korean satellite made it into orbit. North Korea earlier said it launched the communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 through a three-stage rocket from its east coast at 11:20 a.m. and that the satellite entered orbit 9 minutes later. "Our satellite rose to the sky. The space star world is now mine," a song aired by the Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station said. The same song was broadcast after North Korea launched its first satellite in 1998, which it claimed made it into orbit but international monitors concluded to be a failed attempt.
• UNSC ends 1st-day session on N. Korean launch without agreement: sources
  NEW YORK, April 5 (Yonhap) -- The United Nations Security Council Sunday failed to agree on how to deal with North Korea's launch of a rocket that the U.S. and its allies say violated a security council resolution, diplomats here said. Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, who holds the rotating chair of the Security Council this month, said another session will be held to "continue consultations on an appropriate action by the council in accordance with its responsibilities given the urgency of the matter." The 15 member states of the Security Council could not come to an agreement in the three-hour closed-door session, a diplomatic source said, adding the council will convene again Monday. The meeting, held at the request of Japan less than 24 hours after the North's launch of what it says was a communications satellite, came amid differing positions between the U.S. and its allies and China and Russia. China and Russia, which have veto power in the council, have urged restraint by all parties concerned and have expressed sympathy for North Korea's claim that it has the right to develop a peaceful space program.
• Kim lauds 'successful' rocket launch, photos show little sign of emotion
  SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il watched the country's rocket launch at a command center and celebrated the "successful" orbiting of a satellite, the North's state media said Monday, but photos showed him expressionless and tight-lipped. North Korea claims its communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2, made it into orbit on Sunday, contradicting outside monitoring sources who say it fell into the Pacific Ocean. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim watched the satellite launch at the General Satellite Control Command Center and lauded scientists for their success.
• S. Korea unclear about final separation of N. Korean rocket: spokesman
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is trying to determine whether or not the final two stages of North Korea's long-range rocket separated from each other before plunging into the Pacific Ocean, its defense spokesman said Monday. "It is not clear whether they fell into the same region after being separated or just plunged in one piece," Won Tae-jae, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense told reporters, declining to give coordinates for the crash site. North Korea on Sunday launched a three-stage rocket from a launch pad on its east coast, later announcing through its official media that it has successfully put a communications satellite in orbit. The reclusive country, which is suspected of having in fact tested ballistic missile technology, released specific details as to the trajectory and function of its "satellite." South Korea and the U.S. dispute the success while Japan said it has yet to detect any transmission of signals. "The clear fact for now is that a satellite did not enter orbit," Won said.
• State media: DPRK leader Kim Jong Il observes satellite launch
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-06 08:27:14 Print The photo released on April 6, 2009 by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows Kim Jong Il (5th L,front row), top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), poses with staff members of the General Satellite Control and Command Centre after watching the launching of the experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 on April 5. Kim visited the General Satellite Control and Command Centre and watched the whole process of the satellite launch at the centre, the KCNA said in a report dated Monday. (Xinhua/KCNA) Photo Gallery>>> Backgrounder: Chronology of DPRK's satellite, missile launches PYONGYANG, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Il observed the whole process of the launch of an experimental communications satellite on Sunday morning, DPRK state media said in an overnight report. Kim, who is general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK, watched the launch at the General Satellite Control and Command Center, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over the successful launch and repeatedly praised the "patriotic devotion" of the scientists and technicians who "developed both the multistage carrier rocket and the satellite with their own wisdom and technology," the KCNA reported. The DPRK leader also stressed the need to "bring about a new turn in conquering outer space and making a peaceful use of it on the basis of the successful launch," the agency added. According to earlier reports by KCNA, the DPRK launched an "Unha-2" rocket at 11:20 a.m. local time (0220 GMT) Sunday from the East Sea Launch Ground in the east coast of the country, and sent a "Kwangmyongsong-2" satellite into orbit in about 9 minutes.
  South Korean and Russian news agencies reported that the rocket did carry a satellite, dismissing speculations that it was a disguised missile launch. The United States, however, said what the DPRK launched was a "Taepodong-2 missile" and it was a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718.>
• Roundup: DPRK launches rocket
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-05 12:18:55 Print Developing S KOREAN GOVERNMENT TO JOIN U.S.-LED PSI: YONHAP 15:08:27 DPRK SAYS SATELLITE HAS BEEN SENT INTO ORBIT 14:54:02 DPRK SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES ROCKET: KCNA 14:30:02 UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO HOLD CONSULTATIONS ON DPRK: DIPLOMATIC SOURCES 11:49:08 U.S. TO TAKE "APPROPRIATE STEPS" IN RESPONSE TO DPRK'S ROCKET LAUNCH: STATE DEPARTMENT 11:29:06 DPRK ROCKET CARRIES SATELLITE: YONHAP 11:05:13 DPRK'S ROCKET LAUNCH CONFIRMED: U.S. 10:54:00 JAPANESE MEDIA SAYS NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE IN JAPAN AFTER DPRK LAUNCH 10:52:59 SECOND STAGE OF DPRK ROCKET APPEARS TO FALL INTO PACIFIC OCEAN: JAPAN 10:52:09 JAPAN SAYS DPRK ROCKET APPEARS TO HAVE PASSED OVER JAPAN AND LANDED IN SEA 10:46:05 DPRK'S ROCKET APPEARS TO BE FLYING OVER PACIFIC 10:42:09 JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SAYS DPRK APPEARS TO LAUNCH ROCKET 10:37:25 FLASH: DPRK LAUNCHES ROCKET: YONHAP 2009-04-05 10:36:49 ·DPRK launched a rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time, which was confirmed by U.S., Japan and S Korea. ·South Korean and Russian news agencies said a satellite was carried by the rocket. ·U.S. President Obama said what the DPRK launched Sunday was a "Taepo-dong 2 missile." The undated satellite photo provided by Google Earth shows the Musudan-ri missile base in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The DPRK on Sunday launched communications satellite by Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket at local time 11:32 (02:32 GMT Sunday), South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, by quoting Japan's NHK, Sunday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>> SEOUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT),which was confirmed by the United States, Japan and South Korea. South Korean and Russian news agencies said a satellite was carried by the rocket. "We believe North Korea (DPRK) fired a rocket carrying a satellite," a South Korean government official was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency. Russia's Interfax news agency also said a satellite is apparently carried by the rocket according to Russian air defense radar detection.
• China calls for restraint on DPRK launching activity
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-05 13:48:43 Print BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said here Sunday that China has taken notice of the launching activity by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday morning, and also noticed responses from relevant parties. "The DPRK earlier announced to launch experimental communications satellite. We have taken notice of the launching activity by the DPRK this morning, and also noticed responses from relevant sides," Jiang said. "We hope relevant parties to keep calm and restraint, properly handle this issue, and work together to safeguard peace and stability of the region," Jiang said. "China will continue to play a constructive role for this purpose," the spokeswoman added. Media reports said the DPRK launched a rocket from a site in northeastern DPRK at 11:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Sunday. The launch has been confirmed by the governments of Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States. The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Sunday afternoon to discuss the DPRK launch activity. The UN spokesperson's Office told Xinhua that the 15-nation council will start to meet at 15:00 EDT (1900 GMT).
• Russia closely follows development after DPRK rocket launch: DM
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-05 12:48:26 Print MOSCOW, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia will closely follow the subsequent development after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a rocket earlier Sunday, the Defense Ministry said. Russia is currently collecting relevant data for further analysis, the Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing sources from the defense ministry. Russia's air defense radars have detected the launch Sunday and were prepared to take actions in case the rocket altered its route, said Sergei Roshcha, the commander aide of air defense forces in the Far East. He said Russia's air defense radars followed the rocket until it disappeared from their range. The launch site was some 400 km away from Russian border, said Roshcha, and air defense radars had been put on high alert prior to the launch. The rocket launch poses no threat to Russia, he said, but if the rocket were targeted at Russia, it would shoot the rocket down within the range of its air borders. The DPRK launched a rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Sunday, according to the Japanese government.
• N. Korea says launch 'successful,' communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 in orbit
  SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea confirmed its rocket launch on Sunday and said the "communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2" has successfully entered into orbit. "Our scientists and technicians have succeeded in sending communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 through the carrier rocket Unha-2 into orbit according to our national space devleopment project," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. The launch took place at 11:20 a.m., and the satellite entered orbit 2 seconds past 11:29 a.m., it said. hkim@yna.co.kr
• N. Korea fires long-range rocket, draws international outcry
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korea carried out a "provocative" launch of its long-range rocket Sunday, deepening regional tensions already running high over the country's nuclear ambitions. The South Korean government confirmed that the North fired off a multistage rocket from a launch pad on its east coast 15 seconds past 11:30 a.m., and it flew over Japan, which made no attempt at interception. South Korea and other regional powers reacted angrily to the North's action, calling it a clear breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution that bars all ballistic missle activities by Pyongyang.
• Obama denounces N. Korea's rocket launch, vows to bring it to UNSC
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, April 5 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday denounced North Korea for launching a "Taepodong 2 missile" in violation of a U.N. resolution and pledged to bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council for possible additional sanctions. "We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council," Obama said in a statement from Prague that was released by the White House. "The launch today of a Taepodong 2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind." The State Department confirmed that the launch took place at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday (0230 GMT Sunday). Obama still used the word missile, although South Korean officials said that North Korea appears to have launched a space vehicle, possibly for satellite delivery, citing the trajectory of the rocket. They added it was unclear whether the launch successfully orbited a communications satellite.
• North Korea fires rocket over Japan
  By Christian Oliver in Seoul, Jonathan Soble in Tokyo and Harvey Morris at the United Nations Published: April 5 2009 03:50 | Last updated: April 5 2009 05:51 North Korea fired a rocket over Japan into the Pacific ocean on Sunday, ignoring warnings from the US and neighbouring countries and threatening a bitter international dispute over whether Pyongyang is expanding its nuclear weapons capability. Japanese authorities said the long-range rocket, which North Korea insists was carrying a satellite into orbit, passed over northern Japan a few minutes after its launch at 11:30 local time. Police and medical units had been put on alert in case the rocket failed and sent debris toward Japanese territory, but the government said it appeared to have passed over intact. Japan had deployed anti-missile destroyers and coastal batteries in the lead-up to the launch and had suggested it might try to shoot the rocket down, but Tokyo said it held off after tracking the rocket’s initial trajectory and determining that no part of it would hit Japan.
• North Korea fires rocket over Tohoku
  No shootdown attempted as launch appears to go off without a hitch By JUN HONGO and MASAMI ITO Staff writers North Korea fired a long-range rocket over the Tohoku region Sunday, but Japan did not try to shoot it down because its debris posed no threat to Japanese territory. Standing down: A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 antimissile unit is taken offline Sunday at the Defense Ministry in Ichigaya, Tokyo, after the government decided not to try to intercept a North Korean rocket that passed over Japan. KYODO PHOTO The missile, which Pyongyang claimed was carrying a satellite, blasted off from the Musudan-ri launch facility at 11:30 a.m. despite warnings from Tokyo and Washington that it would violate U.N. resolutions banning the North from ballistic activity. The Defense Ministry said the rocket's first booster fell into the Sea of Japan approximately 280 km west of Akita Prefecture at around 11:37 a.m. The Self-Defense Forces finished tracking the rocket at 11:48 a.m. after it had crossed the Tohoku region and was about 2,100 km east of Japan over the Pacific. The SDF said a second booster could have dropped into the Pacific. Thirteen SDF planes were dispatched to the Tohoku region to look for damage, the ministry said.
• NK: Satellite in Orbit After Successful Launch
  North Korea confirmed its rocket launch on Sunday, saying that the "communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2" has successfully entered into orbit. "Our scientists and technicians have succeeded in putting communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 in orbit via carrier rocket Unha-2 in line with our national space development project," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The three-stage rocket Unha-2 blasted off from a launch pad on the country's northeast coast at 11:20 a.m. and put the satellite safely into orbit 2 seconds past 11:29 a.m., the report claimed. The Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite is now following an oval orbit, 490 km and 1,426 km at its closest and farthest points respectively from the earth, it said, adding a full orbit of the globe takes 104 minutes and 12 seconds. "The satellite is normally operating on its orbit," the KCNA report said. "The carrier rocket and the satellite developed by our own wisdom and technology are the fruit of our struggle to enhance our nation's space science technology to a higher level," it said.
• NK Rocket Launch Likely to Fail: Rand
  North Korea’s rocket launch is likely to be unsuccessful up to 80 to 90 percent, said a prominent analyst at the U.S.-based Rand Corporation. “I estimate the possibility of North Korea’s rocket launch failure up to 80 to 90 percent,” said Hahm Chai-bong of Rand. He added, however, that in case it succeeds, it will pose a “serious security threat” to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday. Hahm believes that North Korea aims to strengthen its domestic power grip through the missile program and its development of nuclear weapons, while also trying to get the attention of Washington which has been preoccupied with other priorities, including the economic crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan.
• North Koreans Launch Rocket Over the Pacific
  By CHOE SANG-HUN and DAVID E. SANGER Published: April 5, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea defied the United States, China and a series of United Nations resolutions by launching a rocket on Sunday that the country said was designed to propel a satellite into space, but that much of the world viewed as an effort to prove it is edging toward the capability to shoot a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile. North Korea launched the rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, said the office of the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. Early reports from the Japanese prime minister’s office indicated that the three-stage rocket appeared to launch successfully, with the first stage falling into the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and the second stage into the Pacific. South Korea vowed a “stern and resolute” response to the North’s “reckless act.” South Korean officials, after studying the rocket’s trajectory, said it appeared to have been configured to thrust a satellite into orbit, as the North had claimed. North Korea announced that it successfully put its satellite into orbit nine minutes after the rocket’s blastoff.
• Defiant N. Korea Launches Missile
  Neighbors Express Dismay; U.S. Decries 'Provocative Act'
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, April TOKYO, April 5 -- North Korea launched a long-range missile Sunday morning, defying repeated international warnings, worrying its neighbors and setting up the prospect of increased sanctions. This Story Defiant N. Korea Launches Missile At the Heart of North Korea's Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis Obama Condemns North Korean Rocket Launch White House Statement, April 5, 2009 View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story The launch, from a base on the country's northeast coast, came shortly after 10:30 p.m. Saturday EDT, the U.S. State Department reported. The three-stage rocket flew over Japan, with its first two booster stages falling harmlessly into the Sea of Japan -- also known as the East Sea -- and Pacific Ocean, respectively. North Korea said the "peaceful" launch would put a communications satellite into orbit, and South Korean officials confirmed that the rocket was carrying a satellite. But President Obama called it a "provocative act" with which North Korea has "further isolated itself from the community of nations." The apparently successful launch of the Taepodong-2 missile, which can fly as far as the western United States, came on its second test. The first, in 2006, failed after less than a minute. Experts said North Korea has been working on long-range missile development with Iran, which successfully launched a similar missile in February. North Korea announced about four hours after the launch that it had succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit. "The satellite is rotating normally in its orbit," the Korean Central News Agency reported. But there was no immediate confirmation of that from other governments.
• Monday 'Best Day' for N.Korea Rocket Launch
  As North Korea began fueling a long-range rocket to be launched between Apr. 4 and 8, the last remaining variable for the projected launch will be weather, experts say. "Because the launch of a long-distance missile gets easily affected by wind, humidity and cloud, the actual launch will take place any day with the best weather," said Dr. Cho Gwang-rae at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
• Barack Obama's new offensive against nuclear weapons
  Radical drive among series of measures to improve security Ian Traynor and Patrick Wintour in Strasbourg, Ewen Macaskill in Washington The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009 Article history Barack Obama is expected to announce his disarmament proposals in Prague. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters Barack Obama yesterday announced a radical drive aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons, as the focus of his European visit switched from financial to geopolitical security. "In Prague, I will lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said yesterday after arriving in continental Europe for the first time as president. "The spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet," he warned, adding that suspected rogue nuclear states, such as North Korea or Iran, may only be persuaded to abandon their quests if the big nuclear powers set an example. [NPT]
• N. Korea's liquid fuel loading process indicates launch is imminent
  While N. Korea counts down to satellite launch, S. Korean official offers admission regarding decision in PSI participation The countdown has begun for North Korea's satellite launch, at least according to the April 4-8 time period that North Korea had used to inform relevant international organizations of its intentions. Government offices have gone into emergency mode, with ministries responsible for North Korea, foreign affairs, and security matters all offering their respective predictions regarding the timing of the event. An official at one intelligence agency says weather predictions for the North's launch site at Musudan-ri in North Hamgyong Province indicate there "won't be any hindrances to a rocket launch." The official added, "the fuel loading process is near completion, so it is highly likely there could be a launch as early as the 4th and as late as the 5th."
  South Korean military and weather officials are saying the possibility of a launch early next week cannot be excluded, however, since April 6 and 7 are expected to have the clearest weather, and it would be following typical launch procedure for North Korea to opt for the days with the best weather in order to increase its chances of success(sic)
• N. Korea says it will launch satellite 'soon'
  SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday that it will "soon" launch its communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, with preparations on its launch pad on the east coast complete and Seoul reporting signs of an imminent launch within hours. North Korea has said it will send the 'Kwangmyongsong-2,' an experimental communications satellite, into orbit by carrier rocket 'Unha-2' some time between Saturday and Wednesday. Its projectile will fly over the East Sea and the Pacific, it has told U.N. agencies. "The satellite will be launched soon," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Launch preparations have been "completed at the satellite launching ground in the east coastal area," it said, adding there is "no change in the technological indexes necessary for the safe navigation of airliners and ships" it had provided to the U.N. agencies last month.
• Clock is ticking as missile crisis fires up tensions
  Weather and political factors may affect exact timing of rocket launch April 04, 2009 The South Korean Foreign Ministry has scheduled an emergency meeting for 8:30 a.m. this morning to be chaired by First Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-rak as the possibility grows that North Korea might launch its rocket as early as today after almost completing the fueling process. Satellite photos over the past week have shown a rocket on the launch pad at the North’s missile base in Musudan-ri in the northerly province of North Hamgyong. [Media]
• North Korea Rocket Launch on Track
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 3, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — Determined to demonstrate its latest missile technology both to its adversaries and perhaps to potential buyers in the Middle East, North Korea pressed ahead with final preparations on Friday to launch a multistage rocket. The countdown could begin as early as Saturday morning, and North Korea says its rocket will blast off sometime between then and Wednesday. It warned aircraft to stay clear of its easterly trajectory over northern Japan, toward the Pacific. Weather forecasts say it will be cloudy with no strong winds over the Musudan-ri launching site on North Korea’s coast, meaning the North could launch the rocket anytime during the period.
• A Calm Response Needed to North Korea’s Missile Brinkmanship
  Gareth Evans
  3 April 2009 There can be few in the international community who would not wish that Kim Jong-Il could find some more constructive way of seeking attention than provocatively launching a missile over the heads of his neighbours, as North Korea seems likely to do in the next day or two. But at least his current behaviour is more or less predictable: Pyongyang regularly engages in tantrums (sic) and brinkmanship when faced with stresses at home, political changes abroad, or failure to get what it wants in negotiations [Spin]
• Missile or Satellite Carrier?
  North Korea's rocket launch is drawing nearer at the launch site in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province, where it has started filling the long-range rocket with fuel. Soon it will become clear whether it is a carrier rocket for an experimental satellite, as Pyongyang claims, or a ballistic missile. The South Korean government and military authorities are keeping silent as to the nature of the rocket North Korea has put on the launch pad, but in the U.S. and Japan there is a growing conviction that the projectile is indeed a carrier rocket. CNN quotes U.S. Defense Department officials as saying the payload appears to have a bulbous cover, which could indicate that there is a satellite loaded on it. Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday reported, "Some within the Japanese government, who had claimed that the North Korean projectile is a ballistic missile, have now begun speculating that the rocket is highly likely loaded with a simple type of satellite."
• Monday 'Best Day' for N.Korea Rocket Launch
  As North Korea began fueling a long-distance rocket to be launched between Apr. 4 and 8, the last remaining variable for the projected launch will be weather, experts say. "Because the launch of a long-distance missile gets easily affected by wind, humidity and cloud, the actual launch will take place any day with the best weather," said Dr. Cho Kwang-rae at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. According to the Thursday's weather forecast by the Korea Meteorological Administration for North Hamgyong Province, where the launch site is, the best day would be Monday but any day except Wednesday will be fine
• Construction of Home-Made Reactors to Start This Year
  Construction of the new Uljin nuclear reactors nos.1 and 2 will begin this year and be completed in late 2016, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Thursday. Only domestic technologies will be used in the project. The new reactors will become the second APR 1400, a homemade light water reactor, following power plant reactors at Gori where construction started in 2007. But at Gori, key technologies including the reactor coolant pump and the man-machine interface system were borrowed from abroad, while at Uljin everything will be Korean-made. Some W6.3 trillion (US$1=W1.336) will be spent. Once completed, the new Uljin reactors will increase the number of reactors in Korea to 28. They will generate 211,448 GWh or 40.1 percent of all electric power in Korea. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• A realistic response to North Korea
  [Editorial] President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama held a bilateral summit meeting yesterday while in London for the G20 summit. It is their first meeting since Obama was inaugurated, and primarily served to give introductions to each other. They met for a mere 30 minutes, fit within a busy schedule of discussions on multilateral agreements. It does not seem as though they got to discuss any of the issues between the two countries. Since trust between leaders is just as important as policy and ideology in any two countries’ relations, it is nonetheless significant that the two men got to meet--all the more so because their ideas and policies differ and some have worried it might be hard for them to work together on various issues.
• Pyongyang issues still more threats
  Warns of fiery retaliation if Japan shoots down rocket April 03, 2009 North Korea threatened yesterday to retaliate immediately even at the “slightest” sign of an attempt to intercept its satellite and deployed fighter jets along the east coast. The announcement came after CNN reported, citing a senior United States military official, that the North has begun fueling its rocket in preparation for the launch.
• KPA General Staff Warns against Any Interception of Satellite
  Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- The General Staff of the Korean People's Army in an important report on Thursday warned that if hostile forces take any slight move to intercept the DPRK's satellite for peaceful purposes, the KPA will make a prompt just retaliatory strike at it. The report said: It is the Japanese reactionaries, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, who are perpetrating the most evil doings over the DPRK's projected satellite launch for peaceful purposes. It is a legitimate right of a sovereign state in which no one can interfere to use space for peaceful purposes and the above-said satellite launch is a just work for the prosperity of the country and the nation and progress of humankind. The KPA General Staff solemnly declares as follows to cope with the prevailing situation: 1. If Japan recklessly "intercepts" the DPRK's satellite for peaceful purposes, the KPA will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets. 2. The U.S. should immediately withdraw its already deployed armed forces if it does not wish to be hurt by the above-said strike as DPRK clarified its stand on its projected satellite launch for peaceful purposes. 3. The south Korean puppet bellicose forces should refrain from disturbing the said launch, the pride of the nation, while currying favor with their U.S. and Japanese masters.
• Seoul Beefing Up Watch Ahead of NK Rocket Launch
  South Korea is beefing up surveillance operations as North Korea appears on the verge of launching a rocket that it says is meant to orbit a satellite. ``The move would mean elevating the official watch condition to the second highest level to counter any contingencies that could arise along with the launch," Yonhap News Agency quoted a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official as saying. A clear North Korean move indicating an imminent launch, expected between Saturday and Wednesday, will prompt the South Korean JCS to convene an emergency meeting and discuss raising the level, he said. Pyongyang, whose relations with Seoul have rapidly unraveled over the past year (sic), has warned of conflicts along their intensely guarded border.
• N. Korean Threats Grow as Launch Draws Near
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, April 3, 2009; Page A11 TOKYO, April 2 -- Amid reports that it is fueling a missile for launch as soon as this weekend, North Korea escalated threats on Thursday against a worried neighbor, warning that it would attack "major targets" in Japan if Tokyo shot the missile down. North Korea has shifted MiG-23 fighter jets to its east coast, near the missile launch site, according to South Korean media reports. President Obama, in London for the Group of 20 summit, criticized the launch Wednesday as a "provocative act" that would violate a United Nations resolution and trigger a response from the U.N. Security Council. The leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed in London that the launch, if it occurred, should be addressed by the Security Council. The three countries have dispatched ships with antimissile systems to monitor the launch, which they describe as a test of a long-range ballistic missile that could fly as far as the western United States. North Korea is trying to miniaturize nuclear warheads to fit atop its growing arsenal of missiles, U.S. intelligence officials have said. North Korea says the missile is part of a peaceful research effort to put a communications satellite into orbit. Based on satellite (sic) photographs, experts say the missile (sic) appears to be carrying a satellite payload. (sic) [media]
• Examining North Korea's Satellite Launch Vehicle
  By David Wright The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists April 2nd, 2009
  This article is available online at: David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) Global Security Program, notes that ?between April 4 and April 8 North Korea will attempt to place a satellite into space using the Unha-2 launcher. While some have characterized this as a ballistic missile test, a successful satellite launch wouldn't necessarily demonstrate the ability to launch a nuclear warhead to intercontinental range. Modifications to increase the capability of the launcher pose both material and manufacturing challenges that North Korea may have yet to overcome. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Threatens to Shoot Down U.S. Spy Plane
  North Korea has reportedly deployed fighter jets near the east coast and threatens to shoot down the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft monitoring the Stalinist country's preparations to launch a missile if it enters its airspace. The South Korean government has spotted latest-model fighters being moved from their base to another in North Hamgyeong Province, an official said Wednesday. "We're paying close attention to the possibility that the North has deployed the fighters to threaten the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft as in 2003," he added.
• Absurd Assertion over DPRK's Projected Satellite Launch Refuted
  Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- There is an absurd assertion in the international arena these days that in case the DPRK launches a satellite, it should be taken up by the UN Security Council as it disturbs the regional peace and stability. This is a silly talk absolutely unacceptable to anyone. Minju Joson Wednesday says this in its signed commentary. It goes on: The DPRK is a sovereign state with an equal independent right with other countries and a full-fledged member state of the UN. To pull up the DPRK over its satellite launch is a wanton infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and a serious insult to its dignity. If the UNSC takes up the above-said issue at the prodding of the U.S. and its followers, it will either leave only a disgraceful stain on its history or reveal itself before the whole world that it is no more than a puppet mechanism controlled by specified states. [Satellite] [UNUS] [Independent states] [Nationalism]
• For U.S. Satellite Makers, a Bid for a No-Cost Bailout
  By WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: April 1, 2009 Officials in Washington are moving to revitalize yet another faltering American industry: the business of making the communications satellites that hover above Earth and knit the planet into a global community. But this rescue would not cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. In fact it could be virtually free — if Congressional Democrats succeed in lifting export controls that classify satellite technology as weapons and have handicapped American manufacturers since the last days of the Clinton administration. House hearings on the controls are to begin Thursday. Proponents of change are optimistic, pointing to a campaign pledge by President Obama and the support of respected figures like Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Bush. But the export revision is by no means a sure thing. The national security arguments cited in imposing the limits still resonate with conservatives who believe strict regulation is needed to keep China and other countries from stealing secret technology. Since the rules took effect in 1999, the legal complications involved in selling commercial communications satellites and components abroad have contributed to a sharp decline in American companies’ share of the market, from nearly 90 percent to about 50 percent. The drop in sales has coincided with a reversal in America’s balance of trade in high technology, which went negative in 2002 and has stayed there. [China confrontation] [IPR] [Double standards]
• Editorial North Korea’s Test
  Published: March 31, 2009 For weeks, North Korea has been talking about plans to launch a rocket sometime between April 4 and 8. Whether it intends to put a satellite in orbit — as it claims — or test a long-range missile, as the Obama administration and many others suspect, Pyongyang has fueled dangerous new tensions in East Asia. Japan has ordered its military to destroy the missile if the launch fails and debris falls on its territory. The Pentagon has sent two missile-interceptor ships off the Korean coast, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that they would act only if the missile appeared headed toward American territory. North Korea, meanwhile, has threatened unspecified “strong steps” if the United Nations Security Council decides to penalize it for the launch. Before things get any worse, we urge the North Koreans to reconsider this foolhardy course [Double standards]
• Op-Ed Contributor To Beat a Dictator, Ignore Him
  By B. R. MYERS Published: April 1, 2009 Busan, South Korea NOT so long ago, when we wanted to learn why hostile leaders were hostile, we studied their ideologies. Nowadays, having learned that ideology is either dead or an arbitrary system of signs, we analyze leaders by “putting ourselves in their shoes” — in other words, by assuming that everyone thinks the way we do. [Bizarre]
• Russia to test launch Topol ballistic missile in April
  16:06 | 30/ 03/ 2009 MOSCOW, March 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will test launch on April 10 a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said on Monday. The RS-12M Topol (SS-25 Sickle) is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) approximately the same size and shape as the U.S. Minuteman ICBM. The first Topol missiles were put into service in 1985. [Double standards]
• N.Korea 'Has Nuclear Warheads'
  Intelligence authorities in South Korea and the U.S. believe North Korea has already succeeded in manufacturing small nuclear warheads, which can be mounted on a 1,300 km-range missile, a member of a private think thank claimed Tuesday. North Korea maintains Rodong missile bases in North Pyongan Province, Jakang Province and Yangkang Province. In a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Daniel Pinkston, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group's Northeast Asian office in Seoul, quoted an anonymous intelligence officer as saying North Korea is storing nuclear warheads in underground storage facilities, with their plutonium and trigger devices separated. He claimed it would take about two or three days to assemble and mount them on missiles.
• Kim Jong-il's Son Feels Japan's Reaction 'Justified'
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam has said he believe Japan's reaction to the North's impending rocket launch "justified" for self-protection, Fuji TV reported Tuesday. The cable news channel interviewed Kim's eldest son on Monday at Beijing International Airport and in Macau. Kim had been asked whether the Japanese government was overreacting. The questioner did not directly mention the missile launch, but Fuji TV said Kim's reply was surprising since North Korea warned on Mar. 9 that shooting down the missile would be tantamount to a declaration of war. When the reporter asked Kim why North Korea was bent on launching a missile at this moment, he said he did not know but felt the timing must be connected to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks and direct dialogue with the United States. When the reporter said Kim senior looks pale and emaciated, Kim responded, "As you know, you lose weight as you grow older. Isn't it better to be thin than to be fat? Perhaps father was tired because of his overwhelming workload." [Media]
• S.Korea Prepares Its Own Satellite Launch
  The Korea Meteorological Administration is preparing to launch a meteorological satellite to improve its capacity to gather weather information. The KMA, which has often been criticized for the haphazardness of its forecasts, on Tuesday said the stationary communication, ocean and meteorological satellite (COMS) will be carried into orbit by an Ariane V Rocket from the European space center in French Guiana in November. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• Rocket Launch to Cost NK $500 Million
  North Korea may have spent nearly $500 million to build the long-range rocket it plans to launch within days, the head of a Seoul-based think tank said Wednesday, citing leader Kim Jong-il's remarks on a previous launch. Nam Sung-wook based his estimate on remarks Kim made during his summit with then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000. Nam is a former advisor to incumbent South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, an arm of the National Intelligence Service. At that time, the North Korean leader said that Pyongyang had spent between $200 million and $300 million to launch what it called the "Kwangmyongsong-1" satellite in 1998, Yonhap News Agency said, quoting Nam. "He himself had told that to Seoul officials, and we have reached the assumption that it has now cost up to $500 million, considering that equipment costs must have risen," Nam said in a meeting with reporters.
• NKorea threatens to shoot down spy planes
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Wednesday, April 1, 2009; 1:26 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea threatened Wednesday to shoot down any U.S. spy planes that intrude into its airspace ahead of a planned rocket launch. North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket between April 4 and 8. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and they warn Pyongyang would face sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution banning the country from ballistic activity. Pyongyang's state radio accused U.S. RC-135 surveillance aircraft of spying on the launch site on its northeast coast, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is in charge of monitoring the North. "If the brigandish U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down," the ministry quoted the radio as saying. It was unclear what capability the North Korea has to shoot down the high-flying Boeing RC-135, which can reach altitudes of nearly 10 miles (15 kilometers) high. The threat came a day after the North claimed the U.S. and South Korea conducted about 190 spy flights over its territory in March, including over the sea off the launch site. [Espionage]
• North Korea's Missile Launch: The Risks of Overreaction
  International Crisis Group Asia Briefing N°91
  31 March 2009 OVERVIEW North Korea says it is preparing to launch an experimental communications satellite using a rocket that is part of its ballistic missile program. This would be in the face of an international outcry, and of what is a strong though not definitive argument that it violates two UN Security Council resolutions. Japan has been most vocally opposed, saying it will shoot down the rocket if it threatens to fall on its territory. But even if the test is successful, it would only slightly increase security risks, while an overblown response would likely jeopardise the Six-Party Talks to end North Korea’s nuclear program. What is needed is a calm, coordinated response from the key actors to raise pressure on Pyongyang to return to the talks rather than a divided reaction that only fulfils the North’s desire to widen splits among its neighbours.
  Taepodong-2 missiles involve an unproven technology and do not represent a signifi­cant increase in risk to Japan. North Korea’s tested and apparently reliable Nodong missile can already carry a nuclear warhead as far as Tokyo [Satellite] [Spin]
• North launch may mark power shift
  March 31, 2009 North Korea is getting closer to launching what it claims is a communications satellite. The communist state has argued that the launch will be for peaceful purposes, but neighboring countries, including South Korea, see the action as a cover for a ballistic missile test. Whatever it is, success or failure of the launch will have a significant impact on security on the Korean Peninsula and in the surrounding area. Experts say the North could successfully send its satellite into orbit. In February, Iran launched its first home-built satellite; North Korea and Iran have worked closely in developing their rocket technology. Intelligence sources say that Iranian missile technicians were present when the North test-fired its Taepodong-2 ballistic missile in July 2006. Within the intelligence community, that Iran relied on the Taepodong-2 to develop its own missile is an open secret. Reuters reported earlier this year, citing intelligence reports, that North Korea has helped Iran develop its nuclear program. One such report stated: “In the late 1990s, cooperation began between the two countries, which focused on nuclear [research and development]. There has been a significant improvement in relations between Iran and North Korea over the past few months.” And if the launch is successful, it will shift the balance of power and the security paradigm in Northeast Asia. “A successful launch will essentially make North Korea a nuclear power,” said Kim Sung-han, a professor at Korea University. The North already conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, and a successful launch next month would give the communist regime the capability of sending a nuclear warhead a long distance. And the bigger the threat, the more leverage North Korea will have at the negotiating table. “[A complete launch] will alter the U.S. government’s and its public’s perception of North Korea,” said professor Yun Duk-min of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, suggesting that Washington won’t be able to take the North lightly. The North won’t necessarily have to put a satellite into orbit to prove its capabilities. It would have to send one at least 15,000 kilometers (9,320.6 miles) to reach orbit, but a missile needs to travel only about half that distance, 8,000 kilometers, to hit mainland America. The Taepodong-2 can theoretically reach Alaska. If the impending launch turns out to be a success, then South Korea and the U.S. would have to drag the North to the table and ask for a moratorium on further tests. If the North’s object reaches orbit, it will complicate matters. North Korea would argue that as a sovereign state, it merely exercised its right to space development. Because it took the formal step of adhering to international accords on space use, other countries would have little ground to dispute the claim. [Satellite] [Legality] [Double standards]

• N.Korea Threatens 'Stronger Measures'
  North Korea has threatened dire consequences if the international community sanctions it over a rocket launch it has announced for between Apr. 4 and 8. The official Rodong Shinmun newspaper on Sunday said once the rocket issue is "raised at the UN Security Council for discussion, the six-party nuclear talks will come to a complete rupture." It warned the North will "take a stronger measure." Prof. Nam Joo-hong of Kyonggi University speculated that means North Korea "could reverse its nuclear disablement process, while hinting it could conduct a second nuclear test." Arthur Brown, a former CIA officer for East Asia, agreed.
• China, Russia Must Come on Board Over N.Korea Rocket
  The chief nuclear negotiators of South Korea, the United States and Japan met in Washington D.C. on Saturday and agreed to refer North Korea to the UN Security Council should it go ahead with the launch of what it claims is a satellite launch vehicle. South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac said he views the launch of any long-range projectile by North Korea as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
• S. Korea-U.S.-Japan step up their joint response against N. Korea’s imminent “satellite” launch
  However, with China and Russia opposing sanctions against Pyongyang, coordinated responses to North Korea are in question
  » Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force‘s (JMSDF) ballistic missile defense ships Chokai (R) and Kongou leave from a port of JMSDF Sasebo Base in Sasebo, southwestern Japan, March 28, 2009. Japan ordered its military on Friday to prepare to intercept any dangerous debris that might fall on its territory if a missile launch planned by North Korea goes wrong. (REUTERS/Kyodo) With North Korea‘s “satellite” launch imminent, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are stepping up their efforts to determine a joint response to what they suspect is a cover to test-fire a long-range missile. However experts worry differences in opinion with China and Russia indicates that the five powers face hurdles in developing a coordinated strategy.
• 'NK Rocket Shown Mounted in Satellite Image (sic)'
  This DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite image taken Sunday shows the North Korean rocket launch facility in Musudan-ri, North Korea. The United States has no plans to shoot down a missile North Korea plans to launch in a test Washington sees as a step toward developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. / Reuters-Yonhap A U.S. research institute has disclosed the latest commercial satellite image that shows North Korea's rocket mounted onto a launch pad on the country's east coast, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday. The image, photographed by DigitalGlobe Sunday morning (Korean time) and obtained by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), shows the three-stage rocket apparently free of any covering and casting a thick shadow.
• No U.S. Plans to Stop Korea on ICBM Test
  By THOM SHANKER Published: March 29, 2009 WASHINGTON — The United States has no plans for military action to pre-empt the launching of a long-range missile by North Korea and would act only if the missile or its parts appeared to be headed toward American territory, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday. The description by Mr. Gates of a calibrated military response was the most definitive to date as the international community, led by the United States, Japan and South Korea, pursues diplomatic action to press North Korea not to proceed with the launching of a Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. [Media]
• S. Korea Seeks to Export Reactor to Netherlands  
  South Korea will highlight the proven safety record and operability of its indigenous research reactor model to secure export orders from the Netherlands. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said efforts are underway to pitch for sales of its research reactor technology to the European country that currently operates three units and may opt to build more in the future, Yonhap News Agency reported. It said Vice Minister Kim Jung-hyun will visit the country this week to explain in detail the high quality of South Korea's reactor design, manufacturing and operation prowess. Kim, who will be in the country Monday and Tuesday, plans to hold talks with both government official and civilian experts in the nuclear energy sector. South Korea, despite being a late starter in the atomic energy field, is one of the handful of countries that can manufacture its own nuclear reactors with no outside assistance. It also operates two research reactors, with the 30 megawatt HANARO unit built in 1995 by state-run Korea Atomic Energy research Institute (KAERI). The smaller AGN-201 that began operation in 1982 was built by a U.S. company.   [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• South Korea's turn to resume six-party talks
  [Editorial] North Korea has announced that there will be no more six-party talks, and that the whole denuclearization process to date will be undone if the issue of its launching of a satellite is discussed at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) àdeemed at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has having repercussions. This is a new threat issued in response to recent moves by the United States and Japan to have sanctions enacted. The scenario reminds us of the situation in July 2006, when the UNSC adopted a resolution criticizing Pyongyang for launching a missile; North Korea followed up by testing a nuclear device in October of that year. North Korea's ambassador to the United Kingdom says there "is no UN resolution saying we cannot engage in space development because we are a poor country." The ambassador is correct in asserting that it is rare for the UNSC to take issue with the launching of a satellite, but his government surely knows why the world is concerned about the situation. North Korea says it is conducting a test of a communications satellite, but the international community suspects it is launching a test of a long-range missile, and, given its nuclear capabilities, this would indicate a clear threat to surrounding nations (sic). People are concerned less with the actual satellite launch, and more with the behavior of the North Korean government they find hard to trust.
• NOTAM: Impact Zones for the DPRK Satellite Launch
  Special Report 09-025: March 27th, 2009 This is the full Notice to Mariners (NOTAM) for the anticipated DPRK satellite launch. The first impact zone is in the East Sea/Sea of Japan while the second is in the Pacific Ocean.
• Warships Dispatched as N.Korea Rocket Launch Nears
  South Korea, Japan and the United States dispatched five Aegis class vessels, including the South's King Sejong the Great destroyer, to track down a rocket North Korea is poised to launch. The missile has apparently been set up at a launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province. A South Korean military source on Thursday said Seoul decided to immediately deploy the King Sejong the Great in the East Sea when it became clear the North had set up the rocket. The ship is South Korea's first Aegis class naval vessel and equipped with radar that can track ballistic missiles as far as 1,024 km away.
• Seoul, Washington Must Give N.Korea a Firm Warning
  South Korean and U.S. intelligence have confirmed that North Korea has set up a missile on its launch pad at the Musudan-ri test site in North Hamgyong Province. North Korea claims that the rocket will carry a "satellite" into orbit, but South Korean and U.S. officials believe the launch vehicle is actually a long-range, ballistic missile. It can be launched at any time once fueling, which takes three to four days, is completed. The countdown to the long-range missile launch has virtually begun, since North Korea has already informed the International Maritime Organization that it would launch the "satellite" between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. during Apr. 4 to 8.
• N.Korea Threatens End to 6-Party Talks
  North Korea on Thursday threatened if the UN Security Council takes even a minor action against what it claims is a satellite launch, it will mean the end of six-party talks and denuclearization [Media]
• Japan prepares interception missiles
  TOKYO, March 27 – Japan on Friday ordered its military to prepare to intercept any dangerous debris that might fall on its territory if a missile launch planned by Pyongyang goes wrong. Pyongyang has said that between April 4-8 it will launch a satellite, but regional powers believe the real purpose is to test its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2. It has already positioned what is believed to be the missile on a launch pad. I have issued an order ... to prepare to destroy any object that might fall on Japan as a result of an accident involving a flying object from North Korea,” Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters after a meeting of Japan’s Security Council.
• N. Korea may launch its “satellite” on April 4
  The procedure of adding liquid fuel will be complete by March 29, experts say “We can distinguish whether it is Missile or satellite only after it has entered orbit” The procedure of adding liquid fuel will be completed by March 29; Experts say “We can distinguish whether it is a missile or satellite only after it has entered orbit” North Korea‘s long-range rocket was spotted Tuesday afternoon on the launch pad in Musudan-ri, Hwadae-kun, North Hamgyeong Province. Following North Korea’s previous announcement about launching a “satellite,” this positioning appears to indicate that they have now moved into action. Analysts indicate that the remaining technical procedure for the launch to occur involves adding liquid fuel to the rocket booster attached to the launch pad. Because there is a significant risk of explosion if North Korea attempts to remove the fuel after it has been added to the booster, the fuel addition stage can effectively be seen as signalling a countdown to the launch.
• North places rocket on pad as world concerns intensify
  Japan considers shooting down missile after its launch March 27, 2009 Musudan-ri, North Korea, formally known as the Taepodong missile launch facility, where North Korea’s rocket launch pad is located, is seen in this satellite image by DigitalGlobe taken on March 23, 2009. North Korea has positioned what is believed to be a long-range ballistic missile on a launch pad in what could be a preparation for launch, a U.S. counterproliferation official said March 25. [REUTERS/ DigitalGlobe/ Handout] North Korea has placed what appears to be a rocket on a launching pad, U.S. and Japanese reports said yesterday. The reports prompted strong reactions from South Korea, the United States and Japan, with leaders calling the North’s action a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution that bans the country from engaging in ballistic missile-related activity. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned yesterday that any sort of response by the United Nations Security Council to its rocket launch will lead to the breakdown of the six-party talks and will nullify its denuclearization process.
• DPRK's Stand on Satellite Launch for Peaceful Purposes Re-clarified
  Pyongyang, March 26 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA Thursday as regards the March 24 statement clarifying the DPRK's stand on its satellite launch for peaceful purposes: In the statement we sternly warned that if such hostile act is committed in the name of the UN Security Council as to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK while denying its right to peaceful use of space, it will just mean the UNSC's denial of the September 19 joint statement. Some media are, however, releasing reports with a deliberate misinterpretation that the hostile act of the UNSC would be confined only to such strong measures as application of "sanctions" and adoption of "a resolution" against the DPRK. Lurking behind this is a foolish ploy of the hostile forces to blame the DPRK's satellite launch in the name of the UNSC and avoid its consequences under any circumstances. We would like to remind once again that there are not a few countries in the world that launched satellites but the UNSC has never dealt with nor taken issue with the satellite launches by other individual countries. The UNSC's discussion on the DPRK's projected satellite launch for peaceful purposes itself, to say nothing of its adoption of any document containing even a single word critical of the launch whether in the form of a "presidential statement" or a "press statement", will be regarded as a blatant hostile act against the DPRK. The moment the September 19 joint statement is ignored due to such act the six-party talks will come to an end, all the processes for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which have been pushed forward so far, will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken.
• Atomic Agency Fails to Choose New Head on First Ballots
  By ALAN COWELL Published: March 26, 2009 PARIS — Officials from 35 nations failed in initial voting on Thursday to choose a successor to Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Taous Feroukhi, the chairwoman of the agency’s 35-member board of governors, told reporters that neither of the two candidates had secured a two-thirds majority in the first three rounds of voting so “we were not able at this stage” to elect a successor to Mr. ElBaradei, whose term expires in November. The outcome raised the possibility of a stalemate that could lead to new candidates
  Mr. Amano, depicted by experts as the candidate favored by the United States, favors a strict approach toward Iran, which Western countries suspect of trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes to generate energy. With 36 years of experience as a diplomat, Mr. Amano is seen by experts as likely to adopt a more self-effacing posture than Mr. ElBaradei.
• North Korean Nuclear Test A Growing Possibility
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, March 27, 2009; Page A01 SEOUL -- North Korea moved a long-range missile to a launchpad this week and plans to send it into space in early April in defiance of repeated international warnings. While North Korea has been making missiles to intimidate its neighbors for nearly half a century, what makes this launch particularly worrying is the increasing possibility -- as assessed by U.S. intelligence and some independent experts -- that it has built or is attempting to build nuclear warheads small enough to fit atop its growing number of missiles. North Korea "may be able to successfully mate a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile," Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said this month in testimony prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee. [Media]
• MISSILE THREAT When push comes to shove, can Japan shoot down missile?
  Friday, March 27, 2009 By ALEX MARTIN Staff writer First of two parts As tensions mount over the planned launch of a North Korean rocket, so too are doubts about the effectiveness of Japan's ballistic missile shield, which has never been used in a real-world situation. Minutes away: A Taepodong missile is launched in August 1998 at Musudan-ri, on North Korea's northeast coast. KYODO PHOTO The communist state announced plans last month to send a Kwangmyongsong-2 communications satellite into space sometime between April 4 and 8. The United States and South Korea, however, have accused the North of using the launch as an excuse to test an intercontinental ballistic missile. Japan has warned it may shoot down any North Korean rocket threatening its territory, and the Security Council of Japan may decide by Friday to authorize an interception attempt.
• N.Korea Rocket Launch Depends on the Weather
  With a long-range rocket installed on a launch pad in North Korea earlier than expected, it will be technically possible to fire it up around Mar. 29 and 30. But experts predict that North Korea will launch it between Apr. 4 and 8 as it has notified international organizations. The timeline between these dates was apparently chosen to coincide with the opening of the Supreme People's Assembly slated for Apr. 9. The selection of a specific launch date will probably be determined by the weather. Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University on Thursday said the launch will depend on rain and winds. Considering that Musudan-ri, the rocket launch site in North Hamgyong Province, is on the coast where the weather is changeable, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will probably approve the launch the moment he receives a report on good weather there, he said.
• N.Korea Installs Rocket on Launchpad
  North Korea has installed a rocket on the launchpad in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province. The launch has expected in early April. A South Korean government official on Wednesday said a U.S. reconnaissance satellite on Tuesday detected a missile installed on the launchpad at the launch site in Musudan-ri. "Technically, it'll be possible to launch it in three or four days," he added.
• N. Korea Moves Missile to Launch Pad
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 26, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has placed a long-range missile (sic) on a launch pad before a test that the United States, Japan and South Korea said would violate a United Nations Security Council resolution, a news report said Thursday. Spy satellites detected what looked to be a Taepodong-2 missile in place Tuesday at the Musudan-ri launch site near North Korea’s northeastern coast, said Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s leading daily, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source. [Media]
• China is eager to resume six party talk in advance of N. Korea’s planned launch
  South Korea’s six-party talks delegate meets Chinese counterpart today With North Korea set to launch what it says is a “satellite” sometime between April 4 and 8, the countries participating in the six party talks are busy working to have them resume again. South Korea’s top delegate to the six party talks Wi Sung Lac is in Beijing for March 24-25 to talk with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei. A South Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said March 23 that Wi and Wu will talk about “things like North Korea’s missile launch and the six party talks.” The spokesperson added that Wi will soon go to Washington D.C. to meet with US special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth and top US delegate to the six party talks, Sung Kim. Akitaka Saiki, the head of Japan’s delegation to the talks, also met with Wu Dawei, on March 22 in Beijing. The two had met previously in Tokyo on March 16.
• N. Korea puts rocket on launch pad for possible launch within days: report
  (ATTN: ADDS State Department spokesman's remarks in paras 3-4) By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, March 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has put a rocket on a launch pad along the East Sea apparently toward an imminent countdown, reports said Wednesday. "North Korea has positioned a Taepodong II missile on the launch pad at its facility in Musudan in the east of the country," NBC News reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials. "According to the U.S. officials, while two stages of the missile can be seen, the top is covered with a shroud supported by a crane." U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid, however, said that he could not confirm the report "because I do not have that information." He also said that he "would not be able to share it with you, that sort of information, anyway." North Korea has said it will launch a rocket to orbit a communications satellite April 4-8, insisting the launch is part of its space program, not a ballistic missile test, banned by U.N. resolution.
• Spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry Slams Anti-DPRK Campaign over Its Projected Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday slamming the campaign of the U.S. and some of its allied forces to hold in check the DPRK's projected launch of experimental communications satellite "Kwangmyongsong 2" for peaceful purposes. It said: It is a legitimate right equally enjoyed by all countries of the earth to explore outer space and use it for peaceful purposes. However, they claim that it is necessary for the UN Security Council to take issue with the above-said matter, asserting that the DPRK's satellite launch poses a threat to them because the technology used for the rocket for carrying the satellite is not distinguishable from that involved in a long-range missile. Japan which has committed the biggest crimes against the DPRK is taking the lead in this anti-DPRK racket. This cannot be interpreted otherwise than the height of the behaviors of those bereft of elementary reason and discreet as it reminds one of a thief crying "Stop the thief!" The countries which find fault with the DPRK's satellite launch including the U.S. and Japan launched satellites before it. The claim of these countries that the technology involved in the satellite launch is just the same as that used for a long-range missile bespeaks that they developed missile technology before any others and stockpiled more missiles than any others. The brigandish logic that they may launch as many satellites as they please but the DPRK should not be allowed to do so is a revelation of hostility towards it. Their assertion is that those countries hostile to them should not have access to even means for self-defence nor develop anything for peaceful purposes. They are sadly mistaken if they think these brazen-faced high-handed and arbitrary practices will work on the DPRK. There are not a few countries in the world that launched satellites but the UNSC has never dealt with nor taken issue with the satellite launch by other individual countries. Because it has no mandate to interfere in the independent rights of the sovereign states to the development and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. The above-said assertion made by those countries is just the same far-fetched assertion that both kitchen knives and bayonets should be targets of disarmament as both are similar to each other. The attempts of Japan and the U.S., the parties to the six-party talks, to deny the DPRK's right to use space for peaceful purposes and infringe upon its sovereignty as a discriminatory measure diametrically run counter to the "spirit of mutual respect and equality" enshrined in the September 19 joint statement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. If such hostile act is perpetrated in the name of the UNSC, this will precisely mean its denial of the said statement. The abrogation of the said statement would deprive the six-party talks of any ground to exist or their meaning. The six-party talks are now on the verge of collapse due to Japan's non-fulfillment of its commitment, an intention to delay the denuclearization of the peninsula in a bid to find a pretext for going nuclear. The reality today when the said talks are in the danger of collapse due to the hostile acts of some participating countries once again testifies to the truth of the DPRK's stand that it cannot abandon its nuclear weapons even in 100 years unless the hostile relations are terminated. The responsibility for the deadlocked talks will rest entirely with Japan, to begin with, and other countries which rejected the "spirit of mutual respect and equality" enshrined in the Sep. 19 joint statement. If it is impossible to put an end to the hostile relations through dialogue, then there is no other option but to bolster up the muscle to deter the hostile acts.
• N. Korea Yelling to Seek Equal Footing in Talks’
  MARCH 23, 2009 03:20 An American expert on North Korea says the North is “yelling” to seek engagement with the world as equal negotiating partner, adding all of Pyongyang’s recent moves can be understood in this context. Peter Hayes, executive director of the Nautilus Institute in San Francisco, told The Dong-A Ilbo in an interview Saturday, “The North is doing preparatory work to get what it wants, referring to the North’s preparation for a missile launch, rejection of U.S. food aid, and the detention of two American journalists.
  On the North’s announcement of a purported rocket launch, he said, “If a tough regime like Pyongyang makes such preparations in the military aspect, it is really difficult to block them in the interim.” Authorities can easily confirm if the projectile the North plans to fire is a missile or a communications satellite through analysis of the angle and direction of the rocket and technology applied, he said. “The technological gap used in a missile and a communication satellite is as huge as the difference between a high-speed train and a bicycle,” Hayes said. “Whether Pyongyang’s claim is true or not will be revealed instantly.” [Sequencing] [Satellite]
• N. Korea Warns Over Stalled Talks
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 24, 2009 SEOUL — North Korea said Tuesday that if the United States pushed for United Nations sanctions against it after its planned rocket launching, that would spell a definitive end to the stalled six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program. North Korea says it will launch a satellite between April 4 and 8. The United States, Japan and South Korea consider the launching tantamount to a missile test and have all warned that they would try to punish what they called a “provocative” move in the United Nations Security Council. They say that for North Korea, a country that has hardly enough money to feed its own people, the costly satellite program is nothing but a disguise for testing its long-range ballistic missile technology since launching a satellite and a ballistic missile uses the same technology.
  The North derides that conclusion. “It is perversity to say satellite launch technology cannot be distinguished from a long-range missile technology,” a spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the country’s official news agency, K.C.N.A.
  That “is like saying a kitchen knife is no different from a bayonet,” said the spokesman, who was not named in the report, adding that the United States and Japan have also put satellites into orbit. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Closes 2 Air Routes for 'Satellite Launch'
  North Korea told South Korea's Air Traffic Control Center it will close two air routes on Apr. 4-8 for what it says is the launch of a communications satellite, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Sunday. In a "notice to all airmen," the North said it will close R452, which links North Korea with Russia's Vladivostok and G346, which links North Korea with Japan. Neither foreign airlines flying to South Korea nor South Korean flag carriers use the two air routes, the ministry added.
• 2 U.S. destroyers remaining nearby for rocket launch
  Warships armed with missiles that could intercept threat from the North March 23, 2009 Two American warships, initially deployed for the U.S.?South Korea joint military exercise, will remain in the waters near the Korean Peninsula in preparation for the suspected long-range rocket launch by North Korea next month, a military source said yesterday. Two Aegis-class destroyers will stay behind although the annual military drills, codenamed Key Resolve, wrapped up on Friday. “It’s my understanding that two Aegis destroyers, including the 9,200-ton USS John S. McCain, will stay behind for a new mission in the East Sea,” said the source. “They will prepare for North Korea’s [suspected] missile launch.” [US Joint military] [Missile defense]
• Russia warns against dramatizing DPRK's satellite launch
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-18 05:45:16 MOSCOW, March 17 (Xinhua) -- A senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday that the upcoming launch of a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) satellite should not be overdramatized. "The world community should carefully weigh all circumstances of the satellite launch due in early April and to refrain from fanning panic," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy Grigory Loginov as saying. "It is not worth hurrying, but the situation is a no simple one," said Loginov, Russia's ambassador-at-large on the Korean Peninsula issue. Pyongyang said on Feb. 24 that it plans to launch a communications satellite as part of its peaceful space program. But the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have voiced suspicions that it will be a cover for the test-firing of along-range ballistic missile.
• 'Pyongyang Removed 75% of Spent Fuel Rods'  
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea has removed about 6,100 of its 8,000 spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon plutonium-processing reactor in an effort to meet disarmament obligations it promised under a 2007 denuclearization-for-aid deal, the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported, Saturday. However, the North has apparently slowed down the removal process amid a stalemate over the six-party talks aimed at dismantling the communist state's nuclear weapons program, the report said.  
• N.Korea 'Spent at Least $30 Million on Missile Development'
  Japan Will Request UN Security Meeting If N.Korea Fires Missile What Regulations Govern Satellite Launches? Experts speculate that impoverished North Korea spent at least US$30 million on development of a missile it is apparently poised to launch. While the North says it is launching a rocket to propel a satellite into orbit, many in the West are convinced this is in fact a Taepodong-2 long-range missile. When North Korea test-launched seven medium and long-range missiles in July 2006, South Korean military authorities estimated the total cost at about $63.69 million (about W60 billion according to the exchange rate at that time).
• US Warns Pyongyang over Missile But Vague on Sanctions
  The U.S. government renewed its warnings on North Korea over its plan to launch a “communications rocket” but stopped short of indicating what response the North would receive in case the Stalinist nation puts its words into action, in violation of a U.N. Security Council mandate, Yonhap reported Saturday. "As to what will happen and when things happen, I'll have to leave that for a future discussion," State Department deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters in a daily news briefing. North Korea informed the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) of its schedule for a “satellite” launch sometime in early April. With that, the drawn-out antsy speculation over the North’s rocket plans is now increasingly becoming a matter of reality that only awaits countdown.
• Missile or Satellite
  Pyongyang Must Seek More Peaceful, Less Costly Ways It's now certain North Korea will launch a missile disguised as a satellite in three to four weeks. What's less certain is whether it's really worth it for the impoverished communist country ? or a paying business in capitalists' terms, economically and diplomatically. The North apparently thinks so, but most of the rest of the world doesn't, and, despite some past successes, Pyongyang seems to be in the wrong this time.
• N.Korea Announces Satellite Launch in April
  North Korea has informed international agencies it is going to launch a satellite in April. The North informed the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization "of data necessary for the safe flight and navigation of aircraft and vessels in accordance with relevant regulations as part of preparations to launch the Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, by means of delivery rocket Unha-2," the official [North] Korea Central News Agency said Thursday. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a North Korea expert as saying Pyongyang "announced a plan to launch the projectile between April 4 and 8." "We have received a letter and it contains dates, times and coordinates," IMO spokesman Lee Adamson told the BBC, confirming the dates. The KCNA also said North Korea has recently signed the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies and the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space. It added North Korea would "contribute to enhancing international trust and strengthening cooperation in peaceful space science research and satellite launch."
• N.Korea Must Be Brought to Book for Missile Launch
  North Korea has informed the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization it will launch between April 4-8 a satellite called "Kwangmyongsong-2." The unprecedented notice appears designed to quell criticism and sanctions from the international community should it push through with the missile launch. In July 2006, when North Korea test-fired seven missiles, the UN Security Council ruled that it had threatened civilian aircraft and ships by failing to notify relevant agencies beforehand. But the essence of the problem is not whether North Korea gives an advance notice. The carrier rocket "Unha-2," which that will supposedly launch the satellite into orbit, is actually no different than a ballistic missile. As a result, a satellite launch is the same as test-firing a ballistic missile. In a resolution in July 2006, the UN Security Council demanded that North Korea cease all activities related to its ballistic missile test program, and it used the same expression in October that year, when North Korea tested a nuclear device.
• What Regulations Govern Satellite Launches?
  When launching a satellite, it is required to disclose information, such as the time and location of the launch, the intended orbital position and the function of the satellite, to major international organizations. The rationale behind this transparent disclosure of information is to prove that the satellite is launched for peaceful purposes, and to prevent possible collisions with airplanes. In order to prevent such tragedies, the launch location and time and orbital position must be reported to the International Civil Aviation Organization. Kim Doo-hwan, a professor at Ajou University, said, "Only after receiving such information can civil airliners work out the flight schedule." The information also needs to reach the International Maritime Organization as well, due to the possibility of a satellite falling into the sea.
• North releases details of rocket’s flight path
  Diplomatic and technical calculations are at play with the designated drop zone near Japan and not the U.S. » An official dealing with North Korea’s projected satellite launch looks at a map of the rocket’s potential drop zone at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on March 13. After the North notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization of its plans to launch a communications satellite early next month, it released the details of the multi-stage rocket’s flight path. According to Pyongyang, the first stage would first splash into East Sea, 650 kilometers away from the launch pad at Musudan-ri, with the second stage falling into the Pacific, 3,600 kilometers from the East Sea. Missile experts and Seoul government officials say that the rocket that the North will launch on April 4-8 will fly for 125 seconds at an altitude of 50-60 kilometers before the first stage falls into the East Sea. The second stage is expected to fly at an altitude of 130-150 kilometers for 125 seconds before falling into the Pacific. The margin of error for the drop zone is 100-150 kilometers.
  The South Korean government, meanwhile, is taking special precautions for airplane safety. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that the rocket is expected to fall 90 kilometers away from the Kamchatka air route and 370 kilometers away from the Pacific route. “Airplanes using the Kamchatka route should take extra precautions, including the monitoring of wind directions. The Pacific route will be adjusted by the U.S. in charge of flight control to avoid the drop zone.”
• U.S. Intel Chief Says N.Korea Launching 'Space Vehicle'
  The director of U.S. National Intelligence on Tuesday confirmed that North Korea appears to be preparing to launch a "space launch vehicle
• U.S. National Intelligence director affirms North’s space launch
  But N. Korea’s launch of a ‘space-launch vehicle’ could still incur sanctions because U.S. policy equates satellites with missiles
  United States Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair became the first high-ranking official in the United States to announce that he thought the object North Korea is planning to launch is in fact a satellite. [Double standards]
• NK Expected to Fire Rocket April 4-8
  North Korea has informed an international organization on shipping safety that it will fire a rocket carrying a "satellite" between April 4-8, an intelligence source said Thursday. "North Korea informed the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of its plan to launch the Kwangmyongsong-2 between April 4-8," the source told Yonhap News Agency.
• N. Korea Warns of Rocket Launch Soon
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 12, 2009 SEOUL - North Korea told international aviation authorities that it would launch a satellite in early April, firing a rocket that can also be used to deliver a warhead as far as the American mainland, according to the North’s official media (sic). The notification was the latest in a series of warnings and signals North Korea has given in recent weeks about such a launch. This time, Pyongyang said it gave notice to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization to "ensure the safety of flights and sea vessels," the North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency said Thursday. [Media] [Spin]
• 'NK About to Launch Rocket Into Space'
  The chief U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that he believes that North Korea is about to launch a rocket into space as North Koreans insisted, Yonhap News Agency reported. The remark by National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair is the first by any U.S. official amid conflicting reports about the nature of the rocket Pyongyang is threatening to launch. U.S. officials have said that the North's claim to shoot a communications satellite into space is a cover to test a ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. "It is a space-launch vehicle that North Korea launches," Blair told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "The technology is indistinguishable from intercontinental ballistic missile, and if a three-stage, space-launch vehicle works, then that could reach not only Alaska, Hawaii, but also part of the, part of what the Hawaiians call 'the Mainland,' and what the Alaskans call 'the Lower 48.'" He said he "tended to believe that the North Koreans announced that they were going to do a space launch, and I believe that that's what they intend. I could be wrong, but that would be my estimate." [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• New Imperatives and Openings for a Nuclear Weapon-Free World
  The Sixth Meeting of the Article VI Forum Berlin, Germany January 29-30, 2009 [NPT]
• No Nukes in Northeast Asia
  Jon Reinsch | March 6, 2009
  Efforts to address the North Korean nuclear crisis have followed a "one step forward, two steps back" pattern. Despite 15 years of threats, negotiations, and occasional breakthroughs, what began with fears of a nuclear weapons research program progressed to an actual test explosion, and has reached the point where North Korean officials now claim to have weaponized enough plutonium for five or six bombs. Failure to resolve the crisis has helped drive up military spending in and out of the region, making resolution only more remote. This approach to North Korea's nuclear program is clearly lacking. One alternative, successful in other parts of the world, is a nuclear-weapon-free zone. It is time to try this tack in Northeast Asia. [NPT]
• CIA blunder 'prompted Korean nuclear race'
  By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles Friday, 2 March 2007 The United States appears to have made a major intelligence blunder over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, one that may have exacerbated tensions with Pyongyang over the past four years and goaded Kim Jong-Il into pressing ahead with last October's live nuclear test, intelligence and Bush administration officials have said. [HEU] [Evidence] [Disinformation] [Intelligence]
• N.Korea Can't Afford to Ignore U.S. and China
  Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a press conference on Saturday, "We have noted that the North Korean side has announced it will launch a trial communications satellite. We express our concern about the developments... We hope that all parties will do more things that are helpful." Yang added that Beijing is aware of various countries' responses to North Korea's announcement and that it is in their best interest to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula. On arrival in South Korea on Saturday, U.S. envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth said, "We've indicated our position to them on the question of the missile launch, or satellite launch, or whatever they call it. We think it's very ill-advised."  
• N.Korea 'Produced 20 Long-Range Missiles in 2006'
  New speculation is arising that North Korea may be in possession of multiple long-range ballistic missiles. The U.S. Congressional Research Service says the communist country produced a total of 20 Taepodong-2 missiles in 2006. Updating a previous report, the CRS said that North Korea was in the early stages of producing its first Taepodong-2 missile back in 2005, and in the following year produced twenty of them. These two-stage missiles are 35-m long and are said to have a range of between 4,000 and 6,700 km capable of reaching Alaska, Hawaii and parts of the U.S. west coast. Some experts are raising doubts, however, about the severity of threat these missiles pose because North Korea does not have a submarine that's capable of launching the Taepodong-2. [Evidence]
• North rolls the dice again with plans for a satellite launch
  [Analysis] Reasons for the launch could include a desire to influence negotiations with the U.S. North Korea has begun a game of “satellite.” In an official announcement yesterday, North Korean media announced that the “launch of an experimental communications satellite is in full gear” and stated a number of specifics: that the agency responsible for the launch is the (North) Korean Committee of Space Technology, that the “experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2” is going to ride inside the Unha-2 carrier rocket, and that Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, is going to be the launch site.
• N.Korea Says 'Satellite' Launch Going as Planned
  A senior North Korean diplomat says Pyongyang will launch a satellite as planned. Kim Myong-gil, a North Korean representative to the United Nations, made the remark on Thursday while meeting with South Korean reporters in Atlanta. Kim said the rocket will be launched and stressed the move is North Korea's sovereign right and it is not a long-range missile. Kim did not mention a date, saying he would have to wait and see. He also declined to comment on whether there had been any message from the U.S. government. Meanwhile, a diplomatic source in Beijing told the Yonhap news agency that China's chief nuclear envoy Wu Dawei visited Pyongyang last week to deliver a message of concern over the latest developments.  
• Six-party nations move into high gear to dissuade North from satellite launch
  [Analysis] U.S. envoy appears open to meeting with N. Korea during his visit to four six-party countries next week              » Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, speaks to the media as he arrives at Beijing airport from Pyongyang February 7, 2009. North Korea has signaled it is willing to move ahead with denuclearization talks and played down reports it may test fire missiles, Bosworth said on Saturday.       Amid continued public declarations by North Korea to go ahead with its plan to send a satellite into orbit, the nations involved in the six-party process on the North Korean nuclear issue stepped up their diplomatic efforts to ensure resumption of the talks. Stephen Bosworth, the United States special envoy to North Korea, will visit the six-party countries of South Korea, China, Japan and Russia next week. It is believed that Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei, China’s chief delegate to the six-party talks, was in Pyongyang last week to discuss resumption of the negotiations.  
• Seoul and Washington will send new envoys to the nuclear talks
  February 28, 2009 Following the appointment of current six-party talks envoy Kim Sook as the vice head of the country’s intelligence agency, South Korea needs a new chief mediator for the discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue. Kim, who was Seoul’s face at last year’s six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the North, was named the vice chief of the National Intelligence Service yesterday. That means both Seoul and Washington will be sending new chief envoys to the next round of the six-party talks, a change that, coupled with new North Korean policies under U.S. President Barack Obama, may generate fresh momentum in the long-stalled talks. The announcement came as Stephen Bosworth, Washington’s new special emissary on North Korea affairs, is set to begin an East Asia tour next week to help coordinate policies on the North among the six countries involved in the talks.  
• U.S., China Compete Over Leadership in N.Korea
  A new diplomatic push to gain influence over North Korea is being ignited between the United States and China. Not long after Washington announced that its new nuclear negotiator, Stephen Bosworth, will embark on a trip to Asia, Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that China's Vice Foreign Minister and nuclear envoy Wu Dawei visited Pyongyang from Feb. 17 to 19. His visit preceded the trip by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Seoul as part of her Asian trip. Yonhap says the Chinese minister delivered a message of concern over North Korea's alleged preparation for test-firing a long-range missile. It also reported that Pyongyang expressed a willingness to hold another round of six-party talks but showed a firm stance on its potential launch, judging from the fact that after Wu left the country it claimed it was preparing to launch a satellite. Before the Wu’s visit to the North, the U.S. showed the world its diplomatic might by sending Bosworth to Pyongyang in early February as part of a private delegation. Experts consider his visit the first contact by the Obama administration with North Korea since the former U.S. ambassador to Korea in the Clinton government was named special representative for North Korea policy right after the trip. In January, China showed the world its influence over the North by delivering a message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il via Chinese special envoy Wang Jiarui, following his visit to Pyongyang.  
• Worry of a North Korean Missile Test
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: February 24, 2009 SEOUL — North Korea announced Tuesday it was preparing to send a satellite into orbit in what American and South Korean officials believe will be a provocative test of a long-range missile capable of reaching parts of North America. The announcement came only days after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and South Korea’s foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, urged the North not to carry out the test, calling such a move “very unhelpful” and “provocative.” During her trip to Seoul last week, Mrs. Clinton called the North Korean government’s rule “tyranny,” but offered to normalize ties and provide economic help if it abandoned its nuclear weapons program. Officials in the region were awaiting the North Korean response when the announcement came on Tuesday. [Sequencing]
• Preparations for Launch of Experimental Communications Satellite in Full Gear
  Pyongyang, February 24 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Committee of Space Technology issued the following statement on Feb. 24: Outer space is an asset common to mankind and its use for peaceful purposes has become a global trend. The DPRK has steadily pushed ahead with researches and development for putting satellites into orbit by its own efforts and technology since the 1980s, pursuant to its government's policy for the development of space and its peaceful use. In this course, scientists and technicians of the DPRK registered such great success as putting its first experimental satellite Kwangmyongsong-1 into orbit at one try in August 1998. Over the past decade since then a dynamic struggle has been waged to put the nation's space science and technology on a higher level, bringing about signal progress in the field of satellite launch. The DPRK envisages launching practical satellites for communications, prospecting of natural resources and weather forecast, etc. essential for the economic development of the country in a few years to come and putting their operation on a normal footing at the first phase of the state long-term plan for space development. The preparations for launching experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 by means of delivery rocket Unha-2 are now making brisk headway at Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province. When this satellite launch proves successful, the nation's space science and technology will make another giant stride forward in building an economic power.
• Clinton casts doubts about a North uranium program
  Her statements disagree with U.S. intelligence officials
  February 23, 2009 A passenger boat connecting Incheon and Yeonpyeong Island passes a South Korean Navy vessel in the Yellow Sea yesterday. Jane’s Defence Weekly said on Friday that North Korea could be ready for a missile launch within a matter of days, basing its analysis on the latest satellite imagery. [YONHAP] Striking a different tone from American intelligence officials, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cast doubt s on the existence of North Korea’s purported highly enriched uranium program, in what some observers here believe is an indicator of Washington’s changing priorities in talks on denuclearizing the reclusive country. When referring to the suspected program in an interview with U.S. network Fox News on Friday, Clinton said, “I think that there is a sense, among many who have studied this, that there may be some program somewhere, but no one can point to any specific location nor can they point to any specific outcome of whatever might have gone on, if anything did.” She added, “I don’t have any doubt that they would try whatever they possibly could. Have they? I don’t know that and nobody else does either.”
  Secretary Clinton has made no secret of her displeasure with the Bush administration’s scrapping of the 1994 Agreed Framework that was formed under her husband’s government, saying that doing so only allowed Pyongyang to produce more plutonium and conduct its first nuclear test in 2006. “She also wants to finish what her husband started, so this is a subtle message to the North that the past should not stand in the way of the future. The HEU program is the past,” said Koh. [HEU] [Agreed Framework] [Disinformation]
• U.S. Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in 1950s South Korea & North Korea's Nuclear Development: Toward Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
  Lee Jae-Bong Abstract: The United States suffered a serious financial deficit as a result of the Korean War in the 1950s. To solve this problem, it moved to reduce the sizes of US forces in Korea and the South Korean military which depended on U.S. financial aid. As President Rhee Syng-man opposed this plan, the U.S. introduced nuclear weapons into South Korea in January 1958. For this purpose, the UN Command removed NNSC personnel from South Korea in June 1956, and nullified part of the Armistice Agreement in June 1957. As nuclear weapons were deployed in South Korea, North Korea began a massive program of underground construction in the 1960s and deployed its conventional forces in forward positions. North Korea asked the Soviet Union in 1963 and China in 1964 for help in developing nuclear weapons of its own, but was rebuffed. South Korea prepared to develop its own nuclear weapons in 1974 and North Korea began to develop its own program in the late 1970s. North Korea seeks, through development of nuclear weapons, to secure international recognition as well as economic aid and national security. Thus for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, provision must be made for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons without a sense of insecurity. In addition, it is unrealistic to urge North Korea to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear weapons without a breakthrough in U.S.-North Korea relations, preparing the withdrawal of US forces in South Korea, eliminating the U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea, and abolishing the U.S.-South Korea Alliance.

• Why the missiles?
  Kang Tae-ho, Senior reporter for inter-Korean affairs [Column] Like two chopsticks, nuclear weapons and missiles must work as a pair to demonstrate might. Nuclear weapons without missiles remain for show only. Pakistan’s decision to conduct a nuclear test a month after the April 1998 launch of its Ghauri missile, with a range of 1,300 kilometers, followed along these lines. In the view of United States intelligence organizations, this Ghauri missile was based on the technology for North Korea’s medium-range Rodong missile, and North Korea had traded for Pakistan’s uranium enrichment technology, including centrifugal separators. This gives some indication of the value of missile technology. North Korea’s missile launch also clearly shows the functional relationship between nuclear development and missiles. The analysis of Joseph Bermudez, an expert on North Korea’s weapons and military system, is that North Korea has conducted a total of three major experimental launches to date.
• Does the Nonproliferation Tail Wag the Deterrence Dog?
  By James L. Schoff James L. Schoff (jschoff@ifpa.org) is associate director of Asia-Pacific studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of the forthcoming report The U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Future of Extended Deterrence. In recent months there have been several U.S. government and private task force reports regarding future U.S. nuclear weapons policies and strategic force posture, all intended to inform the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, which is expected at the end of this year. The studies underscore the important role that U.S. nuclear forces play in reassuring allies and bolstering extended deterrence, but a few foreshadow an emphasis on nuclear nonproliferation to a degree that the credibility of U.S. extended deterrence could be weakened (at least when viewed by allies like Japan or Korea). Devaluing the nuclear component of extended deterrence is feasible, but it must be done carefully and with a compensating effort to boost conventional military cooperation and strengthen other aspects of our alliances. One statement highlighting the priority of nonproliferation [Nuclear weapons] [NPT] [Double standards]
• Problems beset North launch plans
  Diplomatic and technical issues stand between the rocket and orbit February 26, 2009 This week, North Korea declared its plan to launch what it calls a satellite to be used for peaceful purposes, but which South Korea and much of the international community consider a disguised ballistic missile test. In its Tuesday announcement, the North claimed what is currently suspected to be a Taepodong?2 missile is actually a rocket that will carry the Gwangmyongsong?2 satellite into space. It stressed that sending the satellite into orbit falls under the common human right to make use of space. But even if any of the claims are true, Pyongyang will still face mounting problems in getting the satellite into space, according to experts here who raised questions about the technical and diplomatic feasibility of the launch. “Given the size of the rocket, the satellite will likely be a low-orbit device that will circle the Earth about seven to nine times a day, while floating about 600 to 700 kilometers [373 to 435 miles ] above the Earth’s surface,” said a researcher at South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development who declined to be named. [Double standards]
• ‘NK Has Built Uranium Enrichment Facilities’
  FEBRUARY 18, 2009 09:00 South Korean and U.S. intelligence have discovered that North Korea has built facilities that can produce a small amount of highly enriched uranium, a senior Seoul official said yesterday. “Despite North Korea’s denial that it has a uranium enrichment program, (South Korea and the United States) have shared information that North Korea has established uranium enrichment facilities,” the source said. The underground facilities are known to be located in Sowi-ri, North Pyongan Province. Sowi-ri is an administrative district of Yongbyon, North Pyongan Province, where plutonium facilities including a five-megawatt and a 50-megawatt reactor and reprocessing facilities are located. The North is believed to have set up underground facilities to enrich uranium nearby its Yongbyon facilities in Punkang-ri. The official, however, declined to mention details, including North Korea’s technological progress in enriching uranium and its uranium output. [HEU] [Evidence]
• N.Korea Denies Missile Plans
  North Korea on Monday insisted it is preparing to launch a satellite, not a long-range missile as has widely been reported. "It is a naked provocation to make outlandish remarks that we are preparing to fire a long-range missile," the official Korean Central News Agency fulminated on Monday, the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-il. "It is a vicious trick to block even our peaceful scientific research activities." "It will be known soon what will be launched," it added ominously. Commenting on Iran's launch on Feb. 7 of a self-developed satellite, the official Rodong Shinmun daily said, "No force will prevent North Korea from making its peaceful advance into space," adding, "We're pushing forward with a project to use space for peaceful purposes."
• N. Korea likely to launch projectile
  [Analysis] North claims any possible launch would involve its right to “space development,” but many believe it is aiming for leverage in negotiations » High-ranking North Korean officials are seated on the stage during a national meeting held on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 in Pyongyang, North Korea, as part of celebrations on the eve of the 67th birthday of their leader Kim Jong-il. North Korea is ready to improve relations with “friendly” countries, the communist country’s No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam said at the meeting ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Asia. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) “One will come to know later what will be launched” in North Korea. “Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of the developing reality.” These statements were made Feb. 16 in an article carried by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency titled, “It’s an insult and a grave challenge to the DPRK that the anti-DPRK hostile forces are spreading rumors about the DPRK’s ‘preparations for launching a long-distance projectile.’”
• A recipe for survival
  By Mohamed ElBaradei
  Published: February 16, 2009 After two mostly wasted decades since the end of the Cold War, nuclear disarmament is again high on the international agenda. President Obama has pledged to seek a world free of nuclear weapons - a legal commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty - and, as a first step, to negotiate further cuts in nuclear stockpiles with Russia. These two countries combined hold 95 percent of the world's nuclear arsenal. Former statesmen are getting together to demand the scrapping of all nuclear weapons. After eight years in which arms control was not a priority for the United States, the fog has lifted. The challenge now is how to ensure that this new enthusiasm does not fizzle out. The change of heart has been motivated not just by idealism but by a sober realization that the risk of nuclear weapons being used is increasing significantly. Next time, the culprit could well be a terrorist group for whom the concept of deterrence, which helped the world until now to escape a nuclear Armageddon, is irrelevant. The nonproliferation regime is starting to come apart at the seams. Sensitive technology thought to be the preserve of a few advanced countries has recently been acquired with alarming ease by others. Possession of nuclear weapons is still seen as conferring prestige and providing an insurance policy against attack, as Iraq and North Korea seem to demonstrate.
  What compounds the problem is that the nuclear nonproliferation regime has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of Arab public opinion because of the perceived double-standards concerning Israel, the only state in the region outside the NPT and known to possess nuclear weapons. [NPT] [Double standards]
• Living With A Nuclear North Korea
  By Selig S. Harrison Tuesday, February 17, 2009; Page A13 Will North Korea ever give up its nuclear weapons? To test its intentions, I submitted a detailed proposal to Foreign Ministry nuclear negotiator Li Gun for a "grand bargain" in advance of a visit to Pyongyang last month. North Korea, I suggested, would surrender to the International Atomic Energy Agency the 68 pounds of plutonium it has already declared in denuclearization negotiations. In return, the United States would conclude a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War, normalize diplomatic and economic relations, put food and energy aid on a long-term basis, and support large-scale multilateral credits for rehabilitation of North Korea's economic infrastructure. The North's rebuff was categorical and explicit. Its declared plutonium has "already been weaponized," I was told repeatedly during 10 hours of discussions. Pyongyang is ready to rule out the development of additional nuclear weapons in future negotiations, but when, and whether, it will give up its existing arsenal depends on how relations with Washington evolve [NK US policy] [Nuclear weapons]
• Hill Meets Chief S.Korean Nuclear Envoy in Seoul
  The outgoing U.S. top nuclear envoy Christopher Hill met with his South Korean counterpart Kim Sook in Seoul on Sunday. They discussed the North Korean nuclear issue as part of preparations for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Seoul later this week. Hill told reporters he regretted not having been able to achieve North Korean denuclearization during his tenure over the past four years. This is Hill's farewell visit to Seoul in his capacity as chief nuclear negotiator as he has been tapped as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq by the new administration in Washington.
• N.Korea 'Transports Missile to Launch Site'
  North Korea has transported a missile to a launch site in Musudan-ri on the east coast using a special covered cargo carriage to make it difficult to track, intelligence agencies claimed Thursday. This 40m-long special cargo carriage is double the length of an ordinary carriage and said to be capable of carrying the first and second-stage rockets and components of the Taepodong-2. But South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies cannot say how large the missile is.
• Do N. Korea’s actions indicate impending missile test?
  Experts believe North is maneuvering to pressure the U.S. on the nuclear issue [Analysis] South Korea and the United States have stepped up their warnings against North Korea for what appear to have been preparations for a test-launch of its Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, focusing attention on whether the North will go through with the test and the motivations behind such a move.
• Global Economy Top Threat to U.S., Spy Chief Says
  By MARK MAZZETTI Published: February 12, 2009 WASHINGTON — The new director of national intelligence told Congress on Thursday that global economic turmoil and the instability it could ignite had outpaced terrorism as the most urgent threat facing the United States. Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, outlined a variety of security threats during his testimony on Thursday. The assessment underscored concern inside America’s intelligence agencies not only about the fallout from the economic crisis around the globe, but also about long-term harm to America’s reputation. The crisis that began in American markets has already “increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy,” the intelligence chief, Dennis C. Blair, said in prepared testimony.
  Speaking about North Korea, he cited renewed concern among American intelligence officials that the country could be using a covert uranium enrichment (sic) program to produce fissile material that could be used to build nuclear weapons. American intelligence officials have previously estimated that the North has harvested enough plutonium (sic) for six or more bombs, although it has never been clear whether the North built the weapons. Officials in Washington believe that North Korea is preparing for another long-range missile test, in an attempt to demonstrate an ability to threaten cities along the West Coast of the United States. [HEU] [Bizarre]
• Doosan Exports First Nuke Reactor to China
  Doosan Heavy Industries has exported the first nuclear reactor built with its own technology to China. Doosan on Monday said it finished producing a 600 megawatt reactor and exported it to China. It will be installed as the no. 3 reactor at the Qinshan Phase 2 Nuclear Power Station in the Chinese province of Zhejiang. Doosan Heavy has supplied the U.S. and China with other kinds of nuclear facilities such as steam generators or pressure pumps, but this was the first time the company has exported a nuclear reactor. Doosan won the order from China National Nuclear Corporation, China's largest state-run corporation, in August 2005. The reactor is expected to begin operations in early 2011 after a six-month installation process and a test run. [Nuclear energy] [Double standards]
• Let’s not let assessments hinder denuclearization
  [Editorial] Leon Panetta, the nominee for director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, said in a Senate confirmation hearing the day before yesterday that “North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in 2006.” This is a different expression from the “detonation of a nuclear device” that the U.S. government has been talking about thus far. In a separate report published late last year by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the U.S. Defense Department and the National Intelligence Council, North Korea was designated for the first time as a nuclear weapon state, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates subsequently wrote a contribution to Foreign Affairs stating, “North Korea has built several bombs.” It does not appear that this assessment by U.S. military and intelligence organizations is connected with changes in government-level policy toward North Korea’s nuclear program. This is because the framework for U.S. nuclear policy must change completely if North Korea is formally acknowledged as a nuclear weapon state, shaking the foundation of the six-party talks. The currently operating Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty system recognizes only five countries as nuclear weapon states -- the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France -- and gives them privileges such as exemption from inspection
• CIA designate: North tested nuke
  Statement follows others from the U.S. that have worried some February 07, 2009 The new U.S. CIA director-designate said yesterday that North Korea “detonated a nuclear weapon” in a disputed 2006 nuclear test, fanning concerns that Washington may be poised to acknowledge the communist country as a de facto nuclear power. The United States has long downplayed Pyongyang’s October 2006 nuclear test as an explosion of a “nuclear device” and has avoided publicly describing it as a full-fledged nuclear weapon.
• Seoul ambivalent on Pyongyang’s pricey reactor rods
  North revealed cost to senior foreign ministry representative during visit February 06, 2009 Nuclear fuel rods, major components to produce nuclear weapons, lie stacked on a shelf at a storage plant in Yongbyon, North Korea’s main nuclear complex. The North hopes to sell the stockpile to Seoul as part of its denuclearization process. Provided by the Foreign Ministry Seoul is ambivalent about buying spent uranium fuel rods from Pyongyang because of the high price being demanded and the general breakdown in inter-Korean relations, officials here said yesterday. In mid-January Pyongyang told Hwang Joon-gook, a senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official, that it would sell 14,800 rods containing approximately 100 tons of uranium for a price more than 10 times above market value, the officials said. The price was quoted to Hwang as he was visiting the North’s nuclear installations from Jan. 15 to 19 to inspect the fuel rods on offer. “The North has about 2,400 fuel rods for 5 megawatt nuclear reactors and some 12,400 rods for 50 megawatt nuclear reactors,” said an official in Seoul who declined to be named. The official pegged their value at $10 million. As seen in nine photographs of the nuclear fuel rod production plant in the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex taken during Hwang’s visit, the fuel rods are stacked 30 to a shelf. The Foreign Ministry released the photos on Wednesday. Taking the key nuclear weapons out of the North and preventing them from being reassembled has been one of the major objectives in permanently denuclearizing the North, especially after Seoul suggested in 2007 for the first time that it was willing to pay to take the components out of North Korea. The fuel rods, which look like metal bars about 60 centimeters long and each weighing 6.9 kilograms, were taken out of the reactor through the 1990s according to provisions of the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework. According to the agreement struck between Washington and Pyongyang, the North was required to disable its graphite-moderated nuclear reactor while the U.S. was to help the country build light-water nuclear reactors for industrial use. The reactor-building project came to a halt in the early 2000s after George W. Bush took office and labeled the North part of the “axis of evil.” The nuclear fuel rods have so far remained stockpiled in Yongbyon. Spent fuel rods produce plutonium, a main element that can be recovered and used for making nuclear weapons. But it remains unclear whether Seoul is willing to pay the price Pyongyang wants - not only because of the high price, but also because of the constantly eroding inter-Korean relations and the South Korean public skepticism about its northern neighbor. “Maybe the previous administration made public the intention [to buy the fuel rods] too prematurely,” said one unnamed senior official. Another senior Foreign Ministry official said the government has not made a decision on whether or not to start negotiations on the possible purchase, let alone determined what Seoul is willing to pay.
• North Korea must see cost of nuclear ambition: Hill
  Tue Feb 3, 11:40 am ET recruiter of bombers arrested AP NEW YORK (AFP) – North Korea must "understand the true cost" of clinging to nuclear weapons ambitions, but not cut from talks, Washington's top nuclear negotiator with the country said.
  "Some people doubt the point of negotiating. They say, 'how can you talk to these terrible people?'" Christopher Hill said in an address at the Asia Society in New York. "The format, we think, is working. The problem I think remaining is whether North Korea, taking the plutonium they've already produced, are really prepared to give up that plutonium."
  Five states are involved in negotiations with North Korea -- South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Hill, reportedly a leading candidate to be the next US ambassador to Iraq, said North Korea must "understand the true cost" of holding on to the approximately 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of plutonium Pyongyang claims to have ready to use. That cost, he said, includes preventing a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula and blocking access for the impoverished communist state to the global economy and development funds.
  Hill criticized the North Koreans as "complete momentum killers" during six-nation negotiations aimed at dismantling the nuclear program. But he said negotiations should be stepped up, with North Korea reassured that full disablement of its nuclear plans would open the way to bilateral talks "leading to normalization of relations."
  He stressed that firmness is required with North Korea and that the five other six-party partners have a strong hand. "I think we ought to be able to get this done," Hill said. "A country with such belligerent attitudes to its neighbors ... needs to be dealt with firmly with respect to its nuclear weapons. I just can't imagine we'd ever accept it." Hill indicated he also favors the approach by new President Barack Obama on exploring direct talks with Iran, a sharp change of policy from his predecessor George W. Bush. "I have found it is much better to make sure your interlocutor, sometimes your adversary, understands what your views are and I have found the best way to do this is directly," Hill said. "It's much better to have face to face (discussion) and therefore be in their face and make them understand very clearly what you're trying to do." [US NK policy] [Double standards] [Negotiating style] [Sequencing]
• Hill Reminisces About 'Momentum Killer' N.Korea
  "The North Koreans were complete momentum killers," calling a timeout whenever progress seemed within reach, recalls the outgoing chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill. Hill was recounting his experiences of negotiating with North Koreans in a farewell lecture at the Asia Society in New York on Tuesday. Hill has been involved in North Korea issues for the last five years as ambassador to Seoul and assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in which capacity he was chief U.S. negotiator in six-party talks. Despite earlier speculation, Hill will not keep the job under the new U.S. administration. Instead, there were press reports Wednesday that he had been tipped as the next ambassador to Iraq. In the lecture, Hill recalled how frustrating it was that North Korean officials never moved quickly to the next stage. He compared it to a coach called a timeout whenever one of his players is about to jump and shoot the ball. He complained that Pyongyang delayed further talks by equivocating about nuclear sampling as a way of verifying its declaration of programs and stockpiles even after it was removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. [Sequencing]
• Foraging for fuel
  South Korean government officials, including Hwang Joon-Kook, the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s chief nuclear envoy, inspect North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility during a trip from January 15 to 19. The facility’s 5-megawatt reactor contains 2,400 fuel rods and its 50-megawatt reactor contains 12,400 fuel rods. Unused fuel rods are 60 centimeters long and wiegh approximately 6-7 kilograms each.
• N.Korea 'Getting Ready to Test Missiles'
  South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies say they are tracking North Korean preparations to test-fire Taepodong-2 missiles with a range of 6,700 km from a new launch pad in Cholsan-gun, North Pyongan Province. A South Korean government official said a U.S. reconnaissance satellite last week spotted a train carrying large cylindrical objects from a missile arsenal near Pyongyang to the test site in Tongchangri. "Given their size, these objects are presumed to be rockets for Taepodong-2 missiles," the official added. Some experts speculated these could be an improved version of the Taepodong-2 missiles with a range of 10,000 km capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
• US Warns NK Not to Test-Fire Missile
  The United States Tuesday warned North Korea not to test-fire a ballistic missile, saying any such launch would be in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution, Yonhap News reported Wednesday. "I mean, obviously, the testing of missiles by North Korea would be in violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said in a daily news briefing. The spokesperson was responding to reports that North Korea is preparing to test-launch a long-range missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S., in an apparent effort to attract the attention of the new U.S. administration. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in July 2006 soon after North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile, demanding the reclusive communist state halt its missile launches and banning all U.N. member states from selling and purchasing missiles and any other weapons of mass destruction and their technologies to and from Pyongyang. [UNUS] [Double standards]
• North Korean Activity Stirs Fears of a Missile Test
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: February 3, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has been moving what appear to be components of a long-range missile to a launching site, a South Korean official and news reports said Tuesday, raising fears that it might test-fire a missile. The North Korean move, first reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap and the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, came amid concern among political analysts in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, that the North might also try some sort of military provocation to help make its nuclear program a foreign policy priority for the Obama administration.
• N.Korea refuses unilateral nuclear disarmament
  By Jack Kim Reuters Monday, February 2, 2009; 5:34 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday it would never unilaterally dismantle its nuclear weapons and demanded inspectors probe the South to make sure it is not harboring U.S. atomic arms, further stepping up tensions with its neighbor. [Media]
• DPRK's Principled Stand on Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula Reiterated
  Pyongyang, February 2 (KCNA) -- The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors has neither face nor qualification to talk about the nuclear issue of someone. A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said this when answering the question put by KCNA Monday as regards the recent misbehavior of the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors over the issue of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. It is the unshakable stand already clarified by the DPRK that it will never show its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK and the latter is completely free from the former's nuclear threat, he added. [Sequencing]
• Obama Vows Strong Support for 6-Way Talks
  U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday his country will increase support for six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program, saying recent developments suggest the multilateral talks are the only way to denuclearize the communist nation, a spokesman for the South Korean presidential office was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.
• 'N. Korea Set to Fire Taepodong-2 Missile'
  North Korea is moving to test-launch a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Yonhap News reported quoting South Korean officials Tuesday. An intelligence source was quoted as saying a train carrying a long cylinder-shaped object has recently been spotted by U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies, adding it is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile. Taepodong-2 missiles can technically reach Alaska and western parts of the U.S. and carry a payload of up to 500 kilograms, according to defense experts. The preparation to launch the inter-continental ballistic missile is likely to be completed in a month or two, the source said, confirming a report from Japanese media that the launch is imminent.
• NKorea renews vow to keep nuclear arsenal
  (.AP) 2 February 2009 SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea repeated its refusal Monday to give up its atomic arsenal until South Korea and the U.S. prove they do not pose a nuclear threat to the country, warning that continued tensions could lead to a nuclear war. [Media]
• A Conversation with Mohamed ElBaradei
  Sunday, February 1, 2009; Page B03 As director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), did Mohamed ElBaradei soft-pedal Iran's nuclear ambitions to ensure that the Bush administration wouldn't attack that country? That's what many in the former administration, as well as nonproliferation experts of various political backgrounds, assert. Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ElBaradei sat down with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth to defend his record. Excerpts:
  Do you think there's a chance that dialogue will work? You have to try. It might not work, but I know the majority of the Iranian people want to have a normal relationship with the U.S., particularly the young people. They want to be part of the international community. When Bush came to power, the U.S. stopped talking to North Korea. The result was that they developed nuclear weapons. When you stopped talking to the Iranians, they mastered the technology which the policy aimed to prevent them from doing. . . . You need a different approach, and I'm happy that President Obama immediately understood that. I hope that the Iranians will understand that he is extending his hand to them and that they need also to work with the agency to provide maximum transparency. . . . Those in the previous administration, who say that the [IAEA] is protecting Iran, have to look at their own failed policies. You were elected director with the support of the U.S., and later the U.S. treated you quite badly. It was during my third reelection when former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton initiated a campaign to block my reelection. They did not get one single country to stand against me, and in the end, I was elected by consensus, with U.S. support. You can disagree with the head of the international organization -- we are not there to implement the policies of one country. We are supposed to be independent, but we always have to be impartial and objective. If an organization like IAEA is regarded as a broker for one country, it will be killed. Is that what you thought the U.S. wanted you to do? They did not like that we said we haven't seen Iran developing nuclear weapons in 2003. The IAEA said that? We did not see proof that Iran had a nuclear weapon . [IAEA] [UNUS] [Evidence]

• Clinton stresses six-party talks
  January 29, 2009 Hillary Clinton WASHINGTON - The top United States diplomat said yesterday that six-party talks are “essential” to ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions but that North Korea’s nuclear proliferation should be resolved quickly through direct U.S. diplomacy if necessary.
  Clinton, for her part, did not dismiss dealing with the North bilaterally as well as through the six-party talks, saying “We are going to pursue steps that we think are effective. And I think I will leave it at that.”
• Six-party nations jockey for position following Obama inauguration
  Bilateral alliances continue, but N. Korea shows the most action as all wait for U.S. to set its N. Korea policy » The North Korean Embassy in Beijing. North Korea and the other nations involved in the six-party talk have each made a series of strategic moves as they wait to see how the “Obama variable” will effect the six-party talk and the political situation on the Korean Peninsula. Activity on the part of the countries party to the six-party talk on North Korea’s nuclear program is picking up speed in the wake of the inauguration of American President Barack Obama. It is an intense round of wrangling over position so as to not fall behind in the shuffle that is coming with each country’s building of their own strategies to react to the “Obama variable” and in the changing political situation on the Korean Peninsula. There continue to be bilateral contacts, between North Korea and China, North Korea and Russia, and South Korea and Japan, with North Korea engaged in a flurry of activity in recent weeks. An outstanding example would be how North Korean National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il spoke with an unusually clear voice when meeting with Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui on Friday. He made it clear he places importance on the North Korea-China relationship by choosing Wang to be the first person he met in the way of diplomacy since the outbreak last September of rumors Kim was in poor health.
• Six-Party Talks on Peace Regime Due in Moscow
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A new round of six-party working group talks on the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula is expected to be held next month in Moscow, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday. The expectation comes with reports that Russia's chief nuclear negotiator, Alexander Losyukov, is visiting Pyongyang.
• Kim Jong-il’s growing interest in progress at the six-party talks
  [Editorial] North Korean National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il met with Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Friday and expressed interest in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and peace in Northeast Asia. It was the first time he had met with a high-level foreign delegation since rumors that he was in poor health emerged in the fall of last year. It would appear that he is trying to set a new stage for his country on the occasion of the start of the Obama administration in the United States.
  This shift on the part of North Korea provides an opportunity to make advances at the six-party talks and in discussing a peace regime for the Northeast Asian region. It has been confirmed that rumors Kim is in poor health are weak in their basis. The United States and China will make proactive use of this situation. The biggest obstacle for the South to overcome is inter-Korean relations. The relationship is at an impasse right now, giving Seoul increasingly less room in which to maneuver. It also hurts our ability to respond to an outbreak of an undesirable situation. Now is the time for Seoul to wholly review its policies towards Pyongyang.
• U.S. Spent More Than $52 Billion on Nuclear Weapon-Related Programs Last Year
  Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 The United States spent no less than $52.4 billion on nuclear weapon-related activities in fiscal 2008, only one-tenth of which was devoted to nonproliferation and threat reduction programs, according to a report released today by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The rest was spent on U.S. weapon systems, missile defense, managing the environmental and health legacy of U.S. nuclear programs and preparing for nuclear catastrophes. U.S. nuclear spending figures are not routinely assembled by budget makers, said report authors Stephen Schwartz and Deepti Choubey, who urged Congress to require the president to provide such data annually so that lawmakers can better understand the implications of U.S. nuclear costs. The $52.4 billion, for example, surpasses all U.S. spending on diplomacy and international assistance, and the $5.2 billion of nuclear-related outlays that go toward threat reduction programs signals unfortunate U.S. priorities. "This disparity sends a message to the rest of the world that the United States considers preserving and enhancing its nuclear options more important than preventing nuclear proliferation," the report says. Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities says nonproliferation and threat reduction measures should receive more budgetary support. "Such efforts ... are more cost-effective than technology-driven efforts such as missile defenses, and can be implemented quickly and at a relatively modest cost to ensure significant security gains today and in the future," it says (Carnegie Endowment release, Jan. 12). [Nuclear weapons]
• Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities
  Stephen I. Schwartz, Deepti Choubey Carnegie Endowment Report, January 2009 The United States spent over $52 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs in fiscal year 2008, but only 10 percent of that went toward preventing a nuclear attack through slowing and reversing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. That is the main finding of Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities, a new study that uses publicly available documents and extensive interviews with government officials and experts to calculate the U.S. nuclear security "budget." The United States has never tracked nuclear weapons-related spending comprehensively, hindering effective oversight and weighing of priorities in nuclear security policy. [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korea Nuclear Disarmament Deal Could be Done in "Half a Day," Carter Says
  Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said yesterday it would not take long to reach an agreement under which North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 26). (Jan. 27) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that the North Korean nuclear crisis could be resolved quickly (Alex Wong/Getty Images). Pyongyang would want diplomatic relations with the United States and an official end to the Korean War, along with nuclear energy reactors and other energy assistance, Carter told the news service. "It could be worked out, in my opinion, in half a day," he said. Pyongyang in 2007 signed a pledge to dismantle its nuclear sector in exchange for economic, diplomatic and security concessions from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The regime said last week, though, that it would eliminate its nuclear arsenal only after receiving diplomatic recognition from Washington and proof that there are no U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea. Seoul and Washington deny the existence of any such stockpiles. "I went [to North Korea] in 1994 and I worked out a complete agreement with Kim Il Sung to eliminate all nuclear programs, and to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors come in without impediment," Carter said. "President [Bill] Clinton adopted that and put it into effect," Carter said. The Bush administration later rejected the deal after alleging that North Korea was secretly engaging in uranium enrichment activities that could be used for nuclear weapons purposes. "When [President George W.] Bush came in he threw that in the wastebasket, and it started all over with the 'Axis of Evil,' and so therefore they began to reprocess their (nuclear) fuel," Carter said (Peter Spielmann, Associated Press, Jan. 27). Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin today led a group of diplomats in a visit to Pyongyang, Agence France-Presse reported. There was no immediate word regarding a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke in August. Kim since that time had not publicly met with foreign officials before a session last week with visiting Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 27). [US NK policy]
• Seoul rejects NKorea's demand to search SKorea for nukes
  by Staff Writers Seoul (AFP) Jan 15, 2009 Seoul Thursday rejected North Korea's fresh demand for verification that all US nuclear weapons have been withdrawn from South Korea, saying there are no such weapons on its territory. The North made the demand Tuesday in a foreign ministry statement seen as its first message to the incoming US administration of Barack Obama. The communist state, which has committed itself to nuclear disarmament under a February 2007 six-nation pact, called for "free field access" to ensure there are no such weapons in the South. Washington and Seoul say US atomic weapons were withdrawn from South Korea in 1991. The South's foreign ministry accused North Korea of "distorting the substance of the situation." It called for the North's active cooperation to denuclearise the peninsula. In its Tuesday statement the communist state also vowed not to give up its nuclear weapons until the United States drops its "hostile" policy and establishes diplomatic relations. Pyongyang's comments reaffirmed current policy but came just days before the Obama administration takes power. "There will be no such case in 100 years' time that we will hand over our nuclear weapons first without the fundamental settlement of the US hostile policy toward Korea and its nuclear threat," the statement said. [NK US policy] [Verification]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry's Spokesman Dismisses U.S. Wrong Assertion
  Pyongyang, January 13 (KCNA) -- Wrong views and assertions were floated in the United States recently to create the impression that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the issue to be settled only when the DPRK shows nuclear weapons. A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday issued a statement turning down this assertion intended to mislead the public opinion. The statement recalled that at the six party talks held on September 19, 2005, the six parties agreed to denuclearize not only the northern half of the Korean Peninsula but the whole of it and, to this end, the United States committed itself to terminate its hostile relations with the DPRK, assure it of non-use of nuclear weapons and clear south Korea of nukes, etc.
  We will never do such a thing as showing our nuclear weapons first even in 100 years unless the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat to the DPRK are fundamentally terminated. [NK US policy] [Sequencing]
• Bush Says North Korea May Still Be Enriching Uranium for Bomb
  By Roger Runningen Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea may still be enriching uranium and it and Iran remain two of the biggest threats to the United States, President George W. Bush said today. Both countries continue to pursue advanced weapons and North Korea may be continuing to develop nuclear bomb material, Bush said at the last news conference of his presidency. “North Korea’s still a problem,” Bush said. “In order to advance our relations with North Korea, North Korea must honor the commitments it made” to allow verification of steps to disassemble its nuclear weapons program. [HEU] [Bizarre]
• S. Korea’s top nuclear envoy heads North to inspect fuel rods
  First visit since Lee administration’s inauguration to focus on economic and technical aspects of North’s 14,000 unspent fuel rods A South Korean delegation goes to North Korea on Thursday to discuss how to deal with unspent fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the last of the eleven parts of nuclear disablement, which is itself part of the second phase of the denuclearization of North Korea as outlined in the October 3 Agreement.
  The official said he understands the fuel rods to contain one hundred tons (sic see below) of plutonium and be worth US$11 million on the international market.
• Missing Russian Plutonium Could Fuel 25 Nuclear Weapons, Former Air Force Chief Says
  Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 Soviet-era plutonium that was never accounted for after the Cold War could fuel roughly 25 nuclear weapons as powerful as the "Fat Man" atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in World War II, former Air Force Secretary Thomas Reed said Monday (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2008). "In the case of plutonium, how much plutonium did they produce? Well, they produced between 140 and 162 tons. If they can't find a tenth of 1 percent, that means there is 310 to 360 pounds of plutonium lying around somewhere," Reed, co-author of the new book The Nuclear Express: a Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The United States and Russia are "hard at work looking for" the material, said Reed, a former nuclear-weapon designer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California
• Anti-nuclear Nuclearism
  Darwin BondGraham and Will Parrish | January 12, 2009
  (Editor's Note: This is part of a strategic dialogue on U.S. nuclear policy. Please also see Russ Wellen's Abdicating U.S. Nonproliferation Leadership and his response to this piece.) The Obama administration is likely to continue a policy that we call “anti-nuclear nuclearism.” Anti-nuclear nuclearism is a foreign and military policy that relies upon overwhelming U.S. power, including the nuclear arsenal, but makes rhetorical and even some substantive commitments to disarmament, however vaguely defined. Anti-nuclear nuclearism thrives as a school of thought in several think tanks that have long influenced foreign policy choices related to global nuclear forces. Even the national nuclear weapons development labs in New Mexico and California have been avid supporters and crafters of of it. As a policy, anti-nuclear nuclearism is designed to ensure U.S. nuclear and military dominance by rhetorically calling for what has long been derided as a naïve ideal: global nuclear disarmament [Nuclear weapons] [Proliferation]
• Russia to complete fuel supplies to N.Korea in Jan.
  15:24 | 16/ 01/ 2009 MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will complete later in January its fuel shipments to North Korea under international agreements, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Russia is to supply a total of 200,000 metric tons of fuel to North Korea as part of a denuclearization deal. Moscow hopes that in exchange for heating oil deliveries Pyongyang will complete the phasing out of its Yongbyon nuclear complex. "As for the Korean peninsula's nuclear problem, the disablement of nuclear facilities is underway. The majority of participants in the six-nation talks, including Russia, are also providing compensatory supplies. We will complete our supplies later this month. We will honor our commitments," Lavrov said.
• Researcher: North Korea has 'weaponized' plutonium
  The Associated Press Published: January 17, 2009 BEIJING: North Korea has hardened its stance on disarmament, saying it has "weaponized" plutonium into warheads, but hopes for better ties with President-elect Barack Obama, a U.S. researcher who visited the North said Saturday. Officials say the weapons cannot be inspected and Pyongyang might keep them even if it normalizes relations with Washington, said Selig Harrison, director of the Washington-based Center for International Policy's Asia program. Harrison, who has visited the North 11 times since 1972, said he met this week with the North's nuclear envoy, Ri Gun, and other officials. The officials said "North Korea is now a nuclear weapons state and will not commit itself now on when it will give it up as a result of denuclearization negotiations," Harrison told reporters in Beijing. "We are not in a position to say when we will abandon nuclear weapons," he quoted Ri as saying.
  Pyongyang has made normalizing ties with Washington a priority but the United States says it must disarm first. The two governments have never had formal relations. [NK US policy] [Sequencing]
• N.Korean Leader Says Committed to Denuclearization
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right) shakes hands with Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, in Pyongyang on Friday. / AP (Xinhua) Chinese state media say North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting envoy that he is committed to denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The official Xinhua news agency said Mr. Kim made the comment Friday during his first reported contact with a foreign official in more than six months. The report quoted Mr. Kim as saying North Korea is willing to strengthen cooperation with China to push international denuclearization talks forward.
• Obama Can Disarm Nuclear North Korea
  This is the sixth in a series of articles on U.S. President Barack Obama who was sworn in Tuesday. By Tong Kim
  During last week's Senate hearing to confirm Hilary Clinton as secretary of state, the direction and the goal of the new administration's policy on North Korea were unveiled: The Obama administration will pursue direct bilateral and multilateral talks within the six-party process to achieve the complete and verifiable elimination of North Korea's nuclear programs and inventory. In the course of denuclearization, Clinton said, the Obama administration will confirm North Korea's past plutonium production and its uranium enrichment activities and get answers to questions of its involvement in proliferation to Syria. She warned if the North does not live up to its commitment, the Obama administration would quickly re-impose sanctions and consider new restrictions. [US NK policy]

  Kumchangri
  Some archive articles from the NY Times

  • North Korea site an A-Bomb plant, U.S. agencies say
    By DAVID E. SANGER Published: August 17, 1998 United States intelligence agencies have detected a huge secret underground complex in North Korea that they believe is the centerpiece of an effort to revive the country's frozen nuclear weapons program, according to officials who have been briefed on the intelligence information. The finding has alarmed officials at the White House and the Pentagon, who fear that it may be an effort to break out of a four-year-old agreement in which North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for billions of dollars in Western aid. The finding also follows a string of provocations by the North, including missile sales to Pakistan and the incursion of a small North Korean submarine carrying nine commandos off the South Korean coast this year. The North has said in recent months that the United States is reneging on its side of the agreement because Congress has failed to authorize tens of millions of dollars in fuel shipments for the North. The shipments are the main American contribution to a $6 billion program, under which South Korea, Japan and other nations are supposed to finance a major electric energy program as a quid pro quo for the North's abandonment of its ambitions to develop nuclear arms. A senior Administration official said the North had not yet technically violated that accord, called the Agreed Framework, because there is no evidence that Pyongyang has begun pouring cement for a new reactor or a reprocessing plant that would convert nuclear waste into bomb-grade plutonium. The accord explicitly bars that activity.
    When Mr. Kim went to Washington in the spring he urged President Clinton to drop sanctions against the North that date from the end of the Korean War. But the new finding makes it far less likely that the United States will ease up on the North. ''It's a very, very serious development,'' said one American official, who as with the others insisted on anonymity, ''to say nothing of incredibly stupid, because it endangers both the nuclear accord and humanitarian aid.'' [Kumchangri] [Intelligence]
  • North Korea's Hardening Line on U.S. Raises Fear of New Crisis
    By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: January 3, 1999 With warnings like its latest threat to wipe American imperialists ''from this planet for good,'' North Korea seems to have grown more hard-line and militarized in recent months, and some experts fear a major security crisis on the Korean Peninsula later this year. Tensions are rising in particular because of North Korea's missile tests and suspicions that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons in underground complexes around the country. The result is a stalemate between North Korea and the West, on top of what appears to be growing mutual distrust and a disillusionment on each side for the other.
    North Korea has a taste for threats and brinkmanship, so it is entirely possible that last-minute solutions will be found.
    The immediate challenge is the mystery surrounding several North Korean underground complexes burrowed into hillsides. There is no conclusive evidence about precisely what North Korea is doing in those tunnels, near the town of Kumchangri and in several other spots. But some experts say that the appearance and organization of the underground sites, chemical analyses of dirt samples, and signs of testing of the triggers used to detonate nuclear weapons all indicate a strong likelihood that the underground complexes are being used to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea is refusing American demands to inspect the complexes, although it has held out the possibility of a deal in which it would get large amounts of money or food aid in exchange for allowing visits. [Kumchangri] [Intelligence]
  • North Korea And U.S. Meet On Inspection Of Atom Plant
    By Elizabeth Olson Published: January 17, 1999 With tensions rising on the Korean peninsula, the United States and North Korea opened new talks here today on whether North Korea will allow inspections of a suspected underground nuclear facility.
    Since last August, Administration officials have been seeking access to a vast underground installation in North Korea near Kumchangri, 25 miles northeast of Yongbyon. The site, the topic of three previous rounds of talks, is expected to be the prime issue this weekend. During his trip to Asia, Secretary Cohen said there is ''sufficient evidence to be suspicious of that site.'' North Korea's response to demands for access has only added to the anxieties. Initially officials demanded $300 million for a visit, which was rejected. More recently they suggested that food aid could win entry [Kumchangri] [Intelligence]
  • N. Korea consents to U.S. inspection of a suspect site
    By David E. Sanger Published: March 17, 1999 After months of negotiations, North Korea agreed today to allow the United States to inspect a huge underground site that Washington suspects is the beginning of a renewed North Korean effort to build atomic weapons. [Kumchangri] [Oil] [Agreed Framework]
  • Suspected North Korean Atom Site Is Empty, U.S. Finds
    By Philip Shenon May 28, 1999 WASHINGTON -- U.S. investigators in North Korea have discovered that an underground site that Washington suspects could be used to revive that nation's nuclear weapons program is a huge, empty tunnel, the Clinton administration said Thursday. The preliminary report by an inspection team should ease recent tensions between the United States and North Korea that had threatened the collapse of a five-year-old agreement meant to freeze North Korea's nuclear program. The American inspections began last week under an agreement that required modest commitments by the United States to continue food aid to North Korea and to begin a pilot project to help it grow potatoes. [Kumchangri] [Intelligence]
  • U.S. and North Korea Meet on Suspected A-Site
    By Elisabeth Rosenthal Published: June 24, 1999 An American envoy met with high-level North Korean officials here today to report on the United States' recent inspection of a suspected nuclear-weapons complex in North Korea and to lay the ground for more talks later this year. The inspection, which occurred in May, found no evidence that the site was being used to produce weapons. [Kumchangri] [Intelligence]
  • Ferreting Out North Korea's Nuclear Secrets: U.S. Intelligence Experts at Odds
    By James Risen Published: August 5, 2000 Behind the growing debate over whether to build a new national missile defense against countries like North Korea lies an old and bitter dispute over how to interpret the frustratingly limited intelligence data on one of the world's most secretive nations. Witness this incident, not previously disclosed: Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright had just completed an upbeat, top-secret briefing for the House leadership in July 1998 on the Clinton administration's dealings with North Korea when one lawmaker posed the question he had been waiting to ask: What was Dr. Albright's assessment of a recent intelligence report suggesting that North Korea had built a storage installation that housed components for nuclear warheads? And how long had she known about the report?
    The State Department officials said their skepticism about the quality of the Defense Intelligence Agency's work had been deepened by a 1999 incident in which American diplomats pressed the North Koreans to allow inspections of a site the agency had said was part of a nuclear program. Nothing was found. [Intelligence] [Kumchangri] [Dissension]
  • BOOKS OF THE TIMES; What to Do About a Country That Has a Nuclear Threat and No Use for Rules
    By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: May 18, 2005 Rogue Regime Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea By Jasper Becker Illustrated. 300 pages. Oxford University Press. $28. ''Rogue Regime'' begins, appropriately enough, with a nightmare. Dozens of American stealth bombers fly over North Korea and bomb the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the half-finished nuclear reactor at Taechong and chemical factories across the country. By striking quickly and accurately, United States commanders hope to neutralize a Korean nuclear counterattack, but if it should come, a submarine lurking offshore in the Yellow Sea will respond instantly with a barrage of nuclear-tipped missiles.
    His arguments might carry more weight if ''Rogue State'' were not such a slapdash production. It shows every sign of having been thrown together in haste, with a rash of dropped words and verbs that do not agree with their subjects. The same facts, arguments and anecdotes make multiple appearances. But if the history feels thin, the journalism is compelling. The facts almost defy belief.
    After securing loans, food or industrial investment, it has pocketed its gains and reneged on its agreements.
    Often, the North Koreans have redefined the word chutzpah, brazenly violating agreements and then demanding payment to desist. In August 1998, when American intelligence discovered that a large underground facility, capable of housing a nuclear reactor or reprocessing plant, was being built at Kumchangri, officials demanded an inspection, as called for under a 1994 agreement known as the Agreed Framework. The North Koreans agreed only after being promised 600,000 tons of food aid. [Kumchangri]
• U.S. Ratifies the IAEA Additional Protocol
  Media Advisory For Immediate Release: January 6, 2009 Press Contacts: Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association, (202) 463-8270 x107; Peter Crail, Nonproliferation Analyst, (202) 463-8270 x102 Four years after the U.S. Senate issued its advice and consent to ratify an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), President George W. Bush signed the instrument of ratification Dec. 30. The United States is expected to deposit the measure with the agency this week.
  Washington has long insisted that other states, in particular Iran, conclude additional protocols to allow the agency to better detect and deter covert nuclear weapons programs. As a nuclear-weapon state recognized by the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States is not required to conclude a safeguards agreement nor an additional protocol with the IAEA, but it has done so as confidence-building measures. "This is primarily a symbolic gesture and it is unfortunate that it has taken four years to clear the interagency red tape," said the Arms Control Association's (ACA) nonproliferation analyst Peter Crail. "Nonetheless, it removes a somewhat embarrassing contradiction in which the United States promotes universal adherence to a nonproliferation measure it has not been able to ratify itself," Crail said. In order to continue to promote adoption of the protocol, ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball argues that more needs to be done. "Although this ratification sends a positive signal, other countries are not likely to take on additional safeguards commitments just because the United States has agreed to a largely symbolic and voluntary measure," Kimball said. "If Washington really wants to get other countries to sign on, it has to demonstrate a more serious commitment to reducing the role and number of U.S. nuclear weapons and formally ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," he noted. [Double standards] [Proliferation] [Camouflage]
• 2008’s Final Attempt at a Six Party Solution
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org)
  Eyes and ears were on Beijing in early December, as the chief negotiators from China, North Korea, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and the United States met in Beijing for a round of the Six Party Talks. The meeting was aimed at solidifying a protocol to verify North Korea’s nuclear program declarations, determining a timetable for disablement of its nuclear facilities, and setting a schedule for the delivery of the remaining promised energy aid to the impoverished country. After extending a day, the meeting failed to produce a single six-party agreement, and the parties were forced to return home without aid or a verification understanding in hand—perhaps none more disappointed than Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill, the Bush administration’s chief envoy to the talks.
• Evidence is cited linking Koreans to Libya uranium
  By David E. Sanger and William J. Broad;
  Published: May 23, 2004
  International inspectors have discovered evidence that North Korea secretly provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium in early 2001, which if confirmed would be the first known case in which the North Korean government has sold a key ingredient for manufacturing atomic weapons to another country, according to American officials and European diplomats familiar with the intelligence. A giant cask of uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans earlier this year as part of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's agreement to give up his nuclear program, and the Americans identified Pakistan as the likely source. But in recent weeks the International Atomic Energy Agency has found strong evidence that the uranium came from North Korea, basing its conclusion on interviews of members of the secret nuclear supplier network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory. Two years ago, the United States charged that North Korea was working to build its own uranium-based nuclear weapons, which would require the same raw materials. [Evidence] [Disinformation]
• Bush Rebuffs Hard-Liners to Ease North Korean Curbs
  By Helene Cooper
  Published: June 27, 2008
  WASHINGTON — Two days ago, during an off-the-record session with a group of foreign policy experts, Vice President Dick Cheney got a question he did not want to answer. “Mr. Vice President,” asked one of them, “I understand that on Wednesday or Thursday, we are going to de- Mr. Cheney froze, according to four participants at the Old Executive Office Building meeting. For more than 30 minutes he had been taking and answering questions, without missing a beat. But now, for several long seconds, he stared, unsmilingly, at his questioner, Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, a public policy institution. Finally, he spoke:
  “I’m not going to be the one to announce this decision,” the other participants recalled Mr. Cheney saying, pointing at himself. “You need to address your interest in this to the State Department.” He then declared that he was done taking questions, and left the room.
  In the internal Bush administration war between the State Department and Mr. Cheney’s office over North Korea, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top North Korea envoy, Christopher R. Hill, won a major battle against the Cheney camp when President Bush announced Thursday that he was taking the country he once described as part of the “axis of evil” off the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. [Dissension] [Cheney] [Terrorism List]
• In Shift, Accord on North Korea Seems to Be Set
  By Jim Yardley and David E. Sanger
  Published: February 13, 2007
  BEIJING, Tuesday, Feb. 13 — The United States and four other nations reached a tentative agreement to provide North Korea with roughly $400 million in fuel oil and aid, in return for the North’s starting to disable its nuclear facilities and allowing nuclear inspectors back into the country, according to American officials who have reviewed the proposed text. While the accord sets a 60-day deadline for North Korea to accomplish those first steps toward disarmament, it leaves until an undefined moment in the future — and to another negotiation — the actual removal of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the fuel that it has manufactured to produce them. [Agreement070213]
• In a first, denuclearization is included as part of N. Korea’s foreign policy
  New Year’s editorial also indicates Pyongyang will pursue closer relations with Washington while distancing itself from Seoul In a 2009 New Year’s joint editorial printed Thursday in three North Korean newspapers, the Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean People’s Army newspaper and the Vanguard Youth newspaper, North Korea declared that “the validity of our republic’s foreign policy to realize denuclearization of the Chosun (Korean) Peninsula and protect the peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world is being displayed more powerfully each day.” The editorial, which contains North Korea’s domestic and foreign policy keynote for the year, is the first in which the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has been specified. This indirectly revealed to the United States the North’s intent to carry out “negotiations” to resolve the nuclear issue and improve North Korea-U.S. relations in anticipation of the launching of the Barack Obama administration, some are commenting.
• Hill May Keep His Post
  01-01-2009 19:54 By Michael Ha Staff Reporter The top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill may get to keep his job in the new Barack Obama administration. According to reports, U.S. President-elect Obama has expressed his interest in setting up a new ambassadorial post solely responsible for dealing with North Korean denuclearization. Hill, who has been the chief U.S. negotiator in the six-nation talks, is one of the leading candidates for the job in the new administration. In a report this week, Radio Free Asia (RFA) quoted a foreign policy analyst as saying that there are rumors in Washington suggesting Hill could be appointed to a new ambassadorial post to continue the North Korean denuclearization talks. It added that he may even get promoted as the undersecretary for political affairs in the U.S. State Department. Currently, Hill is the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.
• A New Old Nuclear Arsenal
  By Michael O'Hanlon
  Thursday, December 25, 2008; Page A19 For all their agreement on matters such as Afghanistan and defense spending, President-elect Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are on record disagreeing over a central matter for U.S. security: the future of nuclear weapons. The issue is whether the United States should build the "reliable replacement warhead," a matter that has major ramifications for all U.S. nuclear policy, including whether to ratify the comprehensive treaty banning nuclear tests and whether we will be able to work with other countries to stem proliferation.
  Obama's Catch-22 appears to be to either lose the support of his defense secretary and most Republicans on a crucial arms control vote, or to reverse a campaign pledge and pursue what the world is likely to view as a renewed U.S. drive for nuclear modernization while asking others to show restraint. This double standard infuriates nonnuclear states and weakens our ability to gain support for tougher nonproliferation rules and sanctions on proliferating countries such as Iran and North Korea. Thankfully, there is another option. The right strategy has two elements: redefine the RRW program as a remanufacture of an older design, and delay that program to allow Obama to create momentum for arms control. Redefining the RRW might seem like semantics but is, in fact, a reasonable move [Nuclear weapons] [Spin] [Double standards]
• Britain learned of South African nuclear programme from USSR
  Britain learned that apartheid South Africa was preparing to test an atomic bomb only after being alerted by the Russians. By Neil Tweedie Last Updated: 5:15PM GMT 31 Dec 2008
  Previously secret papers released at the National Archives show how James Callaghan, the Labour prime minister, was informed in August 1977 of a secret test site in the Kalahari Desert in a personal letter from Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet president. A Soviet spy satellite had discovered the site at Vastrap, in a remote area south of South Africa's border with Botswana, a week earlier. Two 750-foot shafts had been drilled in preparation for underground explosions. The Americans appear to have possessed similar satellite imagery but failed to inform their closest ally until after the Brezhnev letter.
  Suspicion also fell on Israel as a possible source of assistance. Callaghan was informed of a "heavy load" of materials that had recently arrived in South Africa from Israel.
  It later emerged that South Africa built as many as seven crude Hiroshima-sized bombs to be dropped by British-supplied Buccaneer strike aircraft, should the country be faced with imminent defeat. The South African arsenal was decommissioned by the government of FW de Klerk between 1990 and 1991. Under American pressure the Vastrap shafts were sealed with concrete but that did not stop the programme. An atmospheric test may have taken place in the ocean near the remote Prince Edward Islands in September 1979. A US surveillance satellite detected a double flash similar to that caused by a nuclear burst but its sensors were not fully trained on the alleged detonation point and doubt remains as to its nature. One school of thought is that it represented a secret Israeli-South African test. [Proliferation]