Satellite and Nuclear Issues
Includes satellite, missile and rocket issues and Six Party Talks
2012

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Much material on this issue finds its way to the US and other pages, when the emphasis seems to be on state-to-state relations. The exception being the Six-Party Talks which are usually posted here.
for some key documents see 2011 page

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DECEMBER 2012

• S. Korea retrieves 6 items of debris believed to be from N. Korean rocket engine
  South Korea has retrieved half a dozen items of debris believed to be from the engine from North Korea's long-range rocket, a finding that could provide clues to the communist nation's rocket technologies, a defense ministry official said Friday. The debris was pulled from waters about 160 kilometers west of the western port city of Gunsan in a two-day operation since Wednesday, the ministry official said, adding that they appear to have been damaged a lot from the shock at the time of the crash. A Navy salvage ship and five minesweeper vessels were mobilized for the salvage operation. Six deep-sea divers alternately reached the bottom of the sea, about 88 meters from surface, during the operation, the official said. [Satellite]
• Preparations for a Possible Third Nuclear Test Continue; Complications from Water Buildup?
  By 38 North A 38 North exclusive with analysis by Jack Liu, Nick Hansen and Jeffrey Lewis. Summary With North Korea’s long-range rocket test earlier this month and an expected U.S. effort to seek a tough response at the United Nations, concerns have grown that Pyongyang might conduct its third nuclear test. Satellite photos as recent as December 13 show that Pyongyang is determined to maintain a state of readiness at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site where a third test is expected even in the dead of winter. That effort includes a previously unidentified structure that may be intended to protect data gathering equipment from inclement weather. Despite flooding last summer and fall that destroyed key elements of the infrastructure at the site, the North moved quickly to restore their ability to operate the complex. Subsequent images from December show continued activity. While the North may be able to trigger a detonation in as little as two weeks once a political decision is made to move forward, water first spotted streaming out of the suspected test tunnel in a November 19 satellite photo and still present almost a month later, may present a problem for Pyongyang.[1] In order to maintain a high level of readiness, the North Koreans will have to prevent water buildup in the tunnel that could possibly damage the nuclear test device and associated sensors designed to gather data on a detonation. Whether this potential problem is under control or has now been solved remains unclear. [Test]
• China's Beidou system starts service in Asia-Pacific
  Xinhua | 2012-12-27 10:23:06 By Agencies China's indigenous Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Thursday began providing services to users in the Asian-Pacific region, according to a spokesman of the system. The services include positioning, navigation, timing and short messages for China and surrounding areas, said spokesman Ran Chengqi, also director of the China Satellite Navigation Office. Ran further specified that the open service will be provided with positioning accuracy of 10 meters, velocity accuracy of 0.2 meters per second and one-way timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds. [GPS] [China rising]
• A Breakthrough Six-Party Summit in 2013? Why Not?
  By Peter Hayes Efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program and to resolve the outstanding security issues that plague the search for peace on the Korean Peninsula seem intractable. The Six-Party talks appear hopelessly stalled, and yet, among forward-thinking policymakers, the search is under way for how to reign in the North Korean nuclear threat. Nautilus Institute Director Peter Hayes examines one proposal by noted American foreign policy expert Mortin Halperin that may contain just the right ingredients for a comprehensive solution, now that all parties to the Six-Party talks are beginning 2013 with new governments. [Six Party Talks]
• N.Korea's Rocket Launch Is Nothing to Celebrate
  The South Korean Defense Ministry says analysis of debris from the rocket North Korea launched on Dec. 12 shows that the renegade country now has the technology to deliver a 500 kg to 600 kg warhead more than 10,000 km. Debris the military retrieved in the West Sea on Dec. 14 came from the first-stage booster's oxidizing tank, which supplies oxygen to ensure the rocket fuel can keep burning at airless altitudes. Residue of the oxidizing agent was not liquefied oxygen, which more advanced countries might use, but red-fuming nitric acid (RFNA), which is highly toxic and can cause sterility in humans. North Korea's Scud and Rodong missiles also use RFNA as oxidizing agents. The find also revealed that the oxidizing tank resembled those of Iranian missiles. The military here is therefore more convinced than ever that the rocket launch was a cover to test intercontinental ballistic missile technology. That is what North Korea has been so lavishly celebrating. [Satellite] [Logic]
• N.Korea's Rocket Launch Is Nothing to Celebrate
  The South Korean Defense Ministry says analysis of debris from the rocket North Korea launched on Dec. 12 shows that the renegade country now has the technology to deliver a 500 kg to 600 kg warhead more than 10,000 km. Debris the military retrieved in the West Sea on Dec. 14 came from the first-stage booster's oxidizing tank, which supplies oxygen to ensure the rocket fuel can keep burning at airless altitudes. Residue of the oxidizing agent was not liquefied oxygen, which more advanced countries might use, but red-fuming nitric acid (RFNA), which is highly toxic and can cause sterility in humans. North Korea's Scud and Rodong missiles also use RFNA as oxidizing agents. The find also revealed that the oxidizing tank resembled those of Iranian missiles. The military here is therefore more convinced than ever that the rocket launch was a cover to test intercontinental ballistic missile technology. That is what North Korea has been so lavishly celebrating. [Satellite] [Logic]
• Kim Jong-un Calls for More Powerful Missiles
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday called on scientists in the militarist state to develop more powerful rockets, the North's KCNA news agency reported. "You should develop and launch a variety of working satellites... and carrier rockets of bigger capacity," Kim was quoted as saying at a banquet in Pyongyang honoring the scientists who built the rocket launched on Dec. 12. [Satellite] [Media] [Heading]
• S. Korean military retrieves 3 more pieces of NK's rocket debris
  The South Korean Navy has retrieved three more pieces of debris from North Korea's long-range rocket on the west coast, Seoul's defense ministry said Sunday, hoping they would provide more knowledge about the communist nation's missile technology. Pyongyang fired off a three-stage "Unha 3" rocket on Dec. 12, claiming that it has succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit. The first stage of the rocket fell into the Yellow Sea off South Korea's west coast and the second stage in waters near the Philippines. After the Navy collected the upper part of the first stage two days after the firing, it salvaged three more pieces from its lower part, which included a fuel tank inscribed with the number "3," a combustion chamber and an engine connection rod, the ministry said. A minesweeper equipped with the sonar system detected the parts in waters 151 kilometers west of the southwestern city of Gunsan and 85 meters below the sea, it said. [Satellite] [Logic]
• NK leader calls for more satellite, rocket launches
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for more satellites and rockets to be launched following the country's apparent success in sending a satellite into orbit earlier this month, the communist nation's state media said Saturday. Kim made the remarks Friday at a banquet honoring the scientists, technicians and others who contributed to the Dec. 12 launching of a long-range rocket that put the satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 into orbit, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English-language dispatch monitored in Seoul. [Satellite]
• Banquet Given for Scientists, Technicians, Workers and Officials Who Succeeded in Satellite Lift-off
  Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea gave a grand banquet at the Mokran House on Friday in honor of scientists, technicians, workers and officials who made a contribution to the successful lift-off of satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2. The dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un was present at the banquet together with his wife Ri Sol Ju. [Satellite]
• The “Satellite State’s” Ulterior Motive
  By Euan Graham Pyongyang’s decision to launch its Unha-3 rocket and accompanying satellite during the countdown to a tightly poised South Korean presidential election seems odd, on the face of it. North Korea’s preference, it is widely assumed, is for a pro-engagement administration under Moon Jae-in, given his likely resumption of large-scale inter-Korean assistance and joint projects along similar lines to President Roh Moo-hyun, whom Moon served under as chief of staff. Launching immediately after the election would have allowed the political impact to be absorbed during South Korea’s lengthy pre-handover interregnum, and would have been seen more as a parting shot at the departing lame-duck President Lee Myung-bak, the target of so much personalized invective from Pyongyang. [Satellite] [Election] [MISCOM]
• How many nukes does it take to be safe?
  Fotosearch/Getty Images - Image labeled '0.053 Sec' of the first Nuclear Test, codenamed 'Trinity', conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory at Alamogordo, New Mexico circa 1945. By Walter Pincus, Published: December 18 We are rightly mourning the horrific killings in Newtown, Conn.’s Sandy Hook Elementary School and discussing the threats posed by semiautomatic rifles. On another front, the United States is moving ahead with plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on nuclear weapons — an even more destructive force — with no serious public discussion. Twenty years from now, how many nuclear warheads on strategic submarines will the United States need? That’s not an abstract question. The country is engaged in a costly, ambitious modernization of its nuclear weapons complex and development of a new generation of delivery systems — new strategic submarines, bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles that will be operating more than 50 years from now. Start with the Navy’s plan for 12 new SSBN-X strategic submarines to replace the 14 Ohio-class subs now in service. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the program, released Dec. 10, asks whether the Navy can stay within the cost targets for their procurement ($4.9 billion each) and whether each sub should carry 16 or 20 missiles. But shouldn’t the questions be more basic, such as who is the enemy and how many subs would be needed to deter that enemy? [Nuclear weapons] [MISCOM]
• How did North Korea fix its rocket program so quickly?
  Posted by Max Fisher on December 12, 2012 at 10:16 am The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea successfully fired a long-range rocket into orbit for the first time ever late Tuesday, Eastern time. The Post’s Chico Harlan, from Tokyo, explains why this is such a big deal: Though the Unha-3 rocket did not carry a warhead, it relied on technology similar to that of a long-range missile. … [This] would mark a significant breakthrough in its decades-long attempt to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States and would present a new threat for the Obama administration. We’ll have more throughout the day on the larger implications of the launch; Harlan already has a must-read up on the dilemma that North Korean provocation poses for the Obama administration. [Satellite]
• N.Korean Satellite May Be Malfunctioning
  Independent astronomers say North Korea's newly launched satellite may be malfunctioning, tumbling end over end instead of pointing consistently at the Earth. It also is allegedly failing to emit expected ultra high-frequency radio broadcasts. Dr. Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told VOA Monday that optical observers from around the world have been using orbital data to predict the satellite's movements. They also have been measuring its brightness. [Satellite]
• China successfully launches Turkish satellite
  Xinhua | 2012-12-19 10:33:59 By Agencies A Long March carrier rocket carrying Turkish earth observation satellite GK-2 blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, early on December 19, 2012. China successfully sent the satellite GK-2 into orbit with a Long March carrier rocket on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua
• Fewer buyers for North Korea’s long-range missiles despite surprise rocket launch success
  KCNA, File/Associated Press - FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2012 file photo released by Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. By successfully firing a rocket that put a satellite in space, North Korea let the far-flung buyers of its missiles know that it is still open for business. But Pyongyang will find that customers are hard to come by as old friends drift away and international sanctions lock down its sales. By Associated Press, Published: December 18 SEOUL, South Korea — By successfully firing a rocket that put a satellite in space, North Korea let the far-flung buyers of its missiles know that it is still open for business. But Pyongyang will find that customers are hard to come by as old friends drift away and international sanctions lock down its sales. North Korea’s satellite and nuclear programs were masterminded by the late leader Kim Jong Il, who ruled for 17 years under a “military first” policy and died a year ago Monday. An offshoot of the policy was a thriving arms business, including the sale of short and medium-range missiles. The buyers were mostly governments of developing countries — Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Gulf and African nations — looking for bargains. [Satellite] [Arms sales] [Media] [Double standards]
• North Korea’s Missile Launch: What Does it Mean in Practice?
  Andrei AKULOV | 19.12.2012 | 00:00 After several failures, including one this April, North Korea successfully launched a rocket on December 12, 2012 stoking international protests. The Unha-3 (also called Galaxy-3 in the West), which is the same vehicle as its Taepo Dong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), appeared to reach as far as the Philippines, as its first stage appeared to fall into the Yellow Sea and the second stage into the Philippine Sea. It is an apparent success for the country’s new leader, Kim-Jong-un, and a step toward the nation’s goal of mastering the technology needed to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)… [Satellite] [Missile defense] [Russia]
• India successfully test-fires Agni-I ballistic missile
  Agencies : Balasore (Odisha), Wed Dec 12 2012, 10:34 hrs Sharpening its missile prowess, India on Wednesday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-I ballistic missile with a strike range of 700 km from a test range off Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher at about 8.30 am from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, defence sources said. Describing the test as successful, ITR Director MVKV Prasad said, “It was a practice trial conducted by the Strategic Force Command of the Indian Army.” [Missile] [Double standards]
• How S.Korea Dropped the Ball in Space Development
  North Korea has become the 10th country to succeed in putting a satellite into orbit, comfortably pipping South Korea to the post. It follows the U.S., France, Japan, China, the U.K., India, Israel and Iran. Although the satellite aboard the rocket was a rudimentary device, there is no doubt that the North’s ballistic missile technology is now a force to reckon with. Exports believe South Korea is 7 to 10 years behind North Korea in rocket technology. The South failed twice to launch its own rocket, the Naro, and the third attempt has been postponed several times. Even if the South succeeds in launching the Naro next year, the technological gap will not narrow because Seoul has not yet mastered the technology for the first-stage booster and relies on Russia to supply crucial components. [Satellite] [Competition]
• Rocket Backstage: Behind the scenes of North Korea's nuclear deliberations.
  BY ANDREA BERGER | DECEMBER 12, 2012 In its second attempt this year, North Korea has put a satellite into orbit. Pyongyang described it as a "great turn in developing the country's science, technology, and economy by fully exercising the independent right to use space for peaceful purposes." That "right" is limited by resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, which worries that North Korea may be using its space program as a front for ballistic missile development. Only a few weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to engage in nuclear talks with the Korean People's Army at their guest house in Pyongyang. Needless to say, I was ignorant of the fact that the men sitting opposite me may have been contemplating, or even planning, this week's rocket launch. Throughout our stay, my colleagues from the Royal United Services Institute and I were introduced to the endless contradictions that North Korea offers. One minute we were whisked off to see the now missing "imperialist spy ship" USS Pueblo, the next we were strolling through "Little Manhattan" en route to meetings with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korean Worker's Party, and the army. [Satellite] [MISCOM]
• NK announces sucessfull satellite launch
  Series of articles
  NK move shows China’s lack of leverage Pyongyang launch upsets security framework It is time to build trust on Korean Peninsula North Korea hopes for pride, deterrent with new launch Japan frets as satellite attempt sends coded message to US Satellite launch stirs up Peninsula politics Two Koreas not starting a space race [Satellite]
• Gov't Should Be Ashamed After N.Korea's Missile Coup
  North Korea has succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit after all three stages of the rocket it launched Wednesday separated as planned. The first stage fell into the West Sea off the Byeonsan Peninsula, and the second stage off the coast of the Philippines, some 2,600 km away from the launch pad in Tongchang-ri. The satellite was put into orbit with technology that could also be used to deliver nuclear warheads. With the successful launch of the rocket in the fifth attempt since it first fired the Taepodong-1 missile in 1998, North Korea has now acquired the technology to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of more than 10,000 km, placing the continental U.S. within reach. [Satellite] [Media]
• Will Fresh Sanctions Against N.Korea Work?
  The international community is pushing for sanctions against North Korea after the renegade state launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday, but there is skepticism whether they will be effective. The South Korean government on Thursday said it is pushing for tougher financial sanctions on more North Korean entities as well as shipping restrictions. Seoul and Washington are also considering sanctions similar to those imposed on Iran, which ban dollar transactions with any banks that deal with North Korea, or similar to those imposed in 2005 which froze North Korean assets in a Macau bank. [Satellite] [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• 'Over-Reliance on Satellite Pics' Threw Seoul, Washington Off
  Seoul and Washington were apparently outfoxed by North Korea over the renegade country’s rocket launch Wednesday because they relied excessively on satellite images. "We saw the trees but failed to see the forest," said one government official here. "We erred since we were analyzing information based on North Korea's announcement that the launch would be delayed." [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• N.Korean Rocket Launch 'Politically Motivated'
  North Korea on Thursday declared it has "brilliantly accomplished" late leader Kim Jong-il's last wishes with the rocket launch on Wednesday. That confirms suspicions that the launch was chiefly motivated by domestic politics and aimed to boost the regime of new leader Kim Jong-un. The National Intelligence Service added the North could have launched the rocket in a bid to acquire technology to develop a delivery vehicle for nuclear warheads, as well as in order to assert itself domestically or draw attention from the U.S. and China. [Satellite]
• N.Korea's Mighty Arms Industry Dates Back 40 Years
  North Korea's successful rocket launch on Wednesday was the result of 40 years of investment in the arms industry, experts say. The North began pouring its national resources into developing its weapons in 1966 following the second Workers' Party conference, which led to an official decision to pursue defense and economic development in tandem. [Satellite]
• N.Korean Rocket Debris Found in S.Korean Waters
  The South Korean Navy has found a chunk of debris from a rocket North Korea launched Wednesday. The Aegis destroyer King Sejong discovered the debris from the North Korean rocket in waters 160 km west of the Byeonsan Peninsula on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry official here said Thursday. "The object is 10 m long and 1.6 m in diameter and presumed to be the fuel tank of the first-stage booster," he added. It had sunk about 80 m to the bottom of the sea. The Navy sent a salvage unit to the scene to confirm the location. It will dispatch the salvage and rescue ship Cheonghaejin to retrieve it. Military authorities hope the debris will help them figure out the constituent parts of the liquid fuel, the material of the rocket fuselage, and propulsion technology. The Navy believes it can also retrieve the rocket engine and nozzle in nearby waters. /Courtesy of the Ministry of Defense /Courtesy of the Ministry of Defense Meanwhile the Choson Sinbo daily, a North Korean mouthpiece in Japan, on Wednesday admitted, "There is no big technical difference between a space rocket and a ballistic missile.” Seoul's National Intelligence Service has cast doubt on North Korea's claims that the rocket put a functioning satellite into orbit. "The North claims that the a song praising Kim Il-sung is being transmitted from the satellite, but no such transmission has been detected by South Korea and other countries yet," NIS chief Won Sei-hoon told the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee. The satellite has failed to reach the 500 km circular orbit as the North originally planned but is flying in an elliptical orbit 494 km above the earth at perigee and 588 km at apogee. [Satellite] [Intelligence] [Legality]
• N.Korean Rocket Used Cutting-Edge Navigation
  /Yonhap /Yonhap The long-range rocket North Korea launched on Wednesday was apparently equipped with cutting-edge navigational technology. National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon told lawmakers on Thursday that analysis by NASA showed that the satellite mounted on top of the rocket left its trajectory faster than ordinary satellites. Won said the North appears to have acquired "remote-controlled guidance technology" that caused the satellite to shift its path after being separated from the rocket. This means North Korea also tested technology that could increase the accuracy of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The North also apparently used technology from the Rodong-B missile, which has a range of 3,500-4,000 km, to build the first-stage booster. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Beats South in Space Race
  South Korea is suffering some embarrassment after repeatedly failing to put a satellite into orbit with homegrown rocket technology while North Korea succeeded. Some are detecting echoes of the Sputnik crisis in 1957, when the U.S. found itself bested by the Soviet Union's launch of the world's first satellite. Seoul now lags behind Pyongyang in terms of rocket technology by at least six years, experts estimate. The South plans to test-fire a rocket with 75 tons of thrust in 2018. "There's no difference between rockets and missiles in the first- and second-stage performance to be able to fire warheads or satellites," said Prof. Yoon Ung-seop at Yonsei University. "The North has proved its ability." A modified version of the rocket launched in 2009, the latest one is a three-stage liquid-fuel rocket with improved engines and weighs 92 tons, 10 g heavier than its predecessor. [Satellite] [economic comparison]
• DPRK top leader commands satellite launch on-scene
  Xinhua | 2012-12-14 11:04:21 By Agencies Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), personally commanded Wednesday's satellite launch at the Pyongyang General Satellite Control Command Center and observed the whole launching process, the official news agency KCNA reported earlier Friday. Kim issued the final written order on the launch of Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite to the Korean Committee of Space Technology at 8 am Wednesday, gave the launch order at the Command Center at 9 am and observed whole launching process, said the KCNA. Kim said the successful launch of the satellite "served as an occasion showed at home and abroad the unshakable stand of the DPRK to exercise its legitimate right of using space for peaceful purposes and developing the country's science, technology and economy." [Satellite] [Kim Jong Un]
• Satellite adds further tensions to already fraught East Asian relations
  Global Times | 2012-12-13 20:00:09 By Jasper Kim Three-two-one, blast off. This summarizes North Korea's surprise successful ballistic missile and satellite launch this week, a potential game changer for the region. China invented fireworks, but North Korea is reinventing how to use its own grand-scale fireworks - in the form of its ballistic missile and satellite technology - to foster diplomatic controversy outside of the DPRK, and patriotic support inside one of the world's most closed and secretive states. [Satellite]
• North Korea rocket will receive only empty threats
  Global Times | 2012-12-13 19:55:04 By Global Times Editor's Note: North Korea suddenly launched a long-range rocket which successfully placed a satellite into orbit on Wednesday. It has been condemned for violating UN resolutions 1718 and 1874. Will the UN and countries like the US impose stricter sanctions on North Korea? Will North Korea's actions worsen the situation on the Korean Peninsula? Global Times reporter Shu Meng invited two scholars to talk on these topics. Liu Jiangyong, professor of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University North Korea's satellite launch was no big surprise. North Korea had already said that the rocket would be fired during the period from December 10 to 22. Although it also once announced that the launch would be postponed, it never said that it would cancel it altogether. It is also normal for North Korea not to have told the world in detail about the specific timing of the launch. [Satellite] [Chinese IR]
• White House says NK missiles still can’t reach continental US
  Posted on : Dec.15,2012 13:17 KSTModified on : Dec.15,2012 13:25 KST The South Korean navy displays the first stage booster of North Korea’s Eunha-3 rocket in Pyongtaek on Dec. 14. The navy retrieved the rocket from the West (Yellow) Sea after North Korea’s satellite launch on Dec. 12. The Agency for Defense Development will now analyze the rocket’s internal composure. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer) Spokesperson says Washington is hoping for China’s cooperation in condemning North Korean launch By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent The White House has indicated that it still believes that North Korea does not have missile technology capable of threatening the continental US, despite the North’s successful launch of a long-range rocket. At a press conference held on Dec. 13, White House spokesperson Jay Carney was asked whether the US government still held to the view that North Korean missile technology was not capable of reaching the US mainland. [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• North Korea’s rocket launch calls for a new policy approach from the US
  Posted on : Dec.14,2012 14:36 KST Scientists at North Korea’s satellite control summary command post observe the Dec. 12 launch of the Eunha-3 rocket. (Reuters/Yonhap News) After a series of failures, North Korea has now demonstrated the ability to strike the continental US By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer North Korea’s successful placement of a satellite into orbit on Dec. 12 comes 14 years after its launch of the Taepodong-1 (Paekdusan-1) rocket in August 1998. On its fifth test launch since first developing a three-stage rocket, it established that it now has the intercontinental ballistic missile technology to strike the continental United States. Previously, US military expert Joseph Bermudez predicted that North Korea had the technology to mount a rudimentary nuclear warhead onto a ballistic missile. The latest launch now provides Washington with its first confirmation that a rogue state, or one of the so-called “Axis of Evil” has the capability to strike its own mainland with a nuclear weapon. “This is in some sense a game changer,” said a senior South Korean government official. [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• North Korean satellite confirmed to be in orbit
  Posted on : Dec.14,2012 14:34 KSTModified on : Dec.14,2012 14:51 KST Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite While it has reached orbit, South Korean officials still not sure if it is correctly reporting back to Pyongyang By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter The second Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite, launched on Dec. 12 on North Korea’s Eunha-3 rocket, was confirmed to be orbiting Earth as of the following day. But the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said it would take some time to determine if it is functioning properly and communicating back to North Korea. Speaking at a Dec. 13 briefing, ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok confirmed that NORAD data showed the Kwangmyongsong-3 following an elliptical orbit around the Earth at a speed of 7.66 km/second, or 95.4 minutes per orbit. “As to whether it’s functioning properly, we’re going to have to wait and see,” he added. Kim went on to say that no communications with North Korea had yet come from the Kwangmyongsong-3. “But we do anticipate some frequencies will emerge,” he added. “Under these conditions, we’ll view it as a success if it remains in orbit for about two weeks.” [Satellite]
• Kim Jong Un Visits Sohae Space Center to Congratulate Scientists, Technicians
  Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) -- The dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission visited the Sohae Space Center located in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province to congratulate scientists and technicians on their great contribution to the successful launch of the second version of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-3. He, who is also supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, arrived there at dawn by making a long trip along a snow-covered road. He highly praised the scientists and technicians for having performed feats in successfully putting the satellite into orbit by carrier rocket Unha-3, true to the last instructions of leader Kim Jong Il, and had a photo session with them. Then he dropped in at the General Satellite Launch Command Center to watch again a video showing the process of the satellite launch. Noting that the scientists and technicians of the DPRK successfully implemented the last instruction of Kim Jong Il to lift off a scientific and technological satellite in 2012 which marks the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung at a time when the whole country is pervaded with boundless yearning and reverence for Kim Jong Il, he expressed thanks to them in the name of the WPK Central Committee. The successful launch of the satellite is a striking demonstration of the general national power of the DPRK, he noted, inviting the scientists and technicians who have made a great contribution to powerfully demonstrating the scientific and technological might of Juche Korea before the whole world, to visit Pyongyang [Satellite] [Kim Jong Un]
• Pyongyang Army-People Rally Hails Successful Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, December 14 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang army-people rally was held at Kim Il Sung Square Friday to hail the successful launch of the second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3. Present at the rally were Kim Yong Nam, Choe Yong Rim, Choe Ryong Hae and other leading officials of the party, state and army, officials of party, armed forces and power bodies, working people's organizations, ministries and national institutions and men of the Korean People's Army and the Korean People's Internal Security Forces. Officials and working people of institutions, factories and enterprises at all levels and co-operative farms and teachers and students of universities and colleges in Pyongyang, overseas Koreans' delegations and other overseas Koreans and the chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front were also present. [Satellite]
• Launch This!
  By Joel S. Wit and Jenny Town This article, written by 38 North editors Joel S. Wit and Jenny Town, was published on ForeignPolicy.com on 12/13/12. Excerpt: Kim Jong Un may have a few more tricks up his sleeve. In fact, North Korea's successful launch Wednesday of a long-range rocket may be just the first in a series of moves by Pyongyang, demonstrating that it is not only striving to become a nuclear power but also a grave danger to regional security. Whatever drives North Korea -- national security concerns, domestic politics, Kim family prestige -- Washington should treat its success as a wake-up call, realize its policies have failed and explore options for a rebalanced approach that includes more active diplomacy. While the long-range rocket test appears to have brought Pyongyang closer to fielding a viable weapon, the threat to the United States is not going to appear overnight. The Unha cannot reach the continental United States armed with a heavy warhead, nor has the North perfected the technologies needed for such a weapon, such as a re-entry vehicle or heat shield. The situation, however, will likely grow more dangerous from here. In five years, North Korea might have 50 nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them regionally; in a decade it might have the capability to strike the United States. Moreover, as its stockpile of bombs and missiles grows, the North will be looking for export markets, confident that it will be difficult to punish a country armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons... [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• A Pantomime of Aggression and Counter-Aggression on the Korean Peninsula
  Rockets and Pyongyang by BINOY KAMPMARK There is a lot of noise at the moment on the Korean Peninsula. One might argue that there always is, but on this occasion, interest is centred on whether the DPRK will test a new disguised ballistic missile, ostensibly to launch satellite into space sometime this month. Officially, the test has been pushed back to December 29th. South Korean sources claim that the delay was occasioned by a faulty component in the Unha-3 rocket. [Satellite]
• North Korea Announces Successful Satellite Launch
  Paul Liem* | December 12, 2012 Bookmark and Share North Korea's rocket Unha-3 on a screen at a satellite control center on December 12, 2012 GMT. (KCNA/AFP) North Korea announced yesterday that it had successfully placed a satellite into orbit atop its three-stage Unha rocket. "The launch of the second version of our Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite from the Sohae Space Centre ... on December 12 was successful," North Korea's news agency, KCNA, reported. "The satellite has entered the orbit as planned," it added. Efforts to launch a satellite last April failed when the rocket exploded moments after lift-off. This time, however, both South Korea and Japan confirmed that all three stages from today's launch separated successfully, and a U.S. military official acknowledged that "[i]nitial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit." [Satellite]
• North Korea's Successful Rocket Launch
  By Victor Cha Dec 12, 2012 At 9:49 a.m. on December 12 (Seoul Time), North Korea launched its planned long-range Unha-3 rocket amid the heightened international condemnation. The controversial rocket launch came as a bit of a surprise to neighboring countries following North Korea’s state media announcement on Monday (December 10) that it would extend the launch window by one week, until December 29, due to technical problems. [Satellite]
• North Korea rocket launch: 5 reasons it can be considered successful
  Posted by Allen McDuffee on December 12, 2012 at 11:33 am Despite strict international sanctions, North Korea on Wednesday successfully launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite into orbit, marking what seems to be a major advance in the regime’s weapons program. [Satellite]
• N. Korea launches satellite, in defiance of sanctions and pressure from U.S., allies
  Video: North Koreans danced in the streets of their capital Wednesday after the regime of young leader Kim Jong Un successfully fired a long-range rocket, defying international warnings. By Chico Harlan, Updated: Thursday, December 13, 4:03 AM TOKYO — North Korea successfully launched a satellite into orbit on Wednesday, showing off an improving weapons program that Washington and its allies have struggled to curb despite heavy international sanctions. [Satellite
• Pyongyang launch upsets security framework
  Global Times | 2012-12-12 23:20:07 By Ding Gang North Korea once again surprised the world. Media went in a frenzy about the country's dismantling its rocket as late as two days ago. However, its satellite had already been launched into orbit yesterday and rocket debris had reportedly fallen into the waters off the Philippines. North Korea has sufficient reasons to launch its satellite. The peaceful development of outer space should be a fundamental right of every sovereign state. However, North Korea's actions violated UN resolutions which demand a halt to missile and nuclear tests. As a country that always believes it has no guarantee of its national security, North Korea's actions can be understandable. North Korea has to improve its strength to cope with possible threats from its perceived enemies. [Satellite] [Six Party Talks]
• NK move shows China’s lack of leverage
  Global Times | 2012-12-13 0:15:06 By Global Times After announcing that it was postponing the original date for its satellite launch, North Korea carried out a sudden launch of the second version of its satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 by carrier rocket Unha-3 yesterday, which "entered the orbit as planned." The launch has already been deemed "perfect" by Western analysts. The impact of the launch on Northeast Asia is almost the same as that of North Korea's nuclear test. It marks a breakthrough in the country's strategic missile technology, challenging the overall situation in the region and increasing the probability of Japan abandoning its Peace Constitution. [Satellite] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• North Korean rocket launch condemned internationally
  Move by communist regime expected to boost rightwing candidates in forthcoming elections in Japan and South Korea Simon Tisdall, Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Tania Branigan in Beijing The Guardian, Wednesday 12 December 2012 18.33 GMT Chinese TV runs interviews with North Koreans who say they are happy and proud that their nation has successfully launched a rocket sending a satellite into orbit. Source: Reuters & ITN Link to this video Fears about renewed North Korean military aggression sparked by Pyongyang's successful launch of a long-range rocket on Wednesday are likely to boost rightwing and nationalist candidates in crucial elections due in Japan and South Korea within the next week, regional analysts warned. [Satellite] [Election]
• About Yesterday
  Print This Post | Email This Post | By 38 North “If our intelligence systems and all our other channels of information failed to produce an accurate image of Japanese intentions and capabilities, it was not for want of the relevant materials. Never before have we had so complete an intelligence picture of the enemy.” ~ Roberta Wohlstetter, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision These words from Professor Wohlstetter’s classic study of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor describe our feelings here at 38 North in the wake of the article published yesterday just before the North Korean rocket launch. You may have noticed that our piece predicted that, given Pyongyang’s announcement that it had a problem with its rocket, it would take at least until December 21 to fix the problem. Obviously that prediction turned out to be wrong. The fact is we did have enough information to hypothesize that the North could actually launch its rocket very quickly. Contrary to South Korean press reports, including one yesterday morning in Yonhap news that said the rocket had already been removed from the pad, our analysis showed, in fact, that it had not been removed. Looking at the entire Sohae facility, including the instrumentation and observation sites and even the VIP hotel, we concluded that all necessary preparations had been made for a launch. We even spotted new instrumentation near the pad that seemed intended to observe the first stage of the rocket that had helped cause the failure of last April’s launch. In short, leaving aside Pyongyang’s announcement that it had technical problems and that the launch window had been extended, we could have easily concluded that the rocket could be launched at any moment. But unfortunately, we fell into a trap cited by Professor Wohlstetter, “the very human tendency to pay attention to signals that support current expectations about enemy behavior.” [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• North Korea’s missiles: peepholes into alien territory
  Mohammad I. Aslam 12 December 2012 It is here in South Korea where you will find the most prevalent sense of bitterness and anger towards the belligerent communist state. The controversy that surrounded the highly secretive launch of another round of bellicose missile tests by North Korea is yet another potent reminder of the potential for conflict that emanates from inside the atavistic instincts of the last cold-warrior nation. The latest test – which Pyongyang claimed was a three-stage rocket bid to send an observational satellite into space – was widely condemned for blatantly violating UN Security Council resolutions, which ban North Korea from using nuclear and missile technology that can be utilized in the firing of long-range rockets. [Satellite] [Hysteria]
• Ignore North Korea's Temper Tantrums
  Doug Bandow | December 6, 2012 North Korea announced that it plans another rocket launch this month. The South Korean and U.S. governments rushed to denounce Pyongyang. In the future, both should ignore the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The DPRK’s possible motives are many: To reclaim its reputation soiled by the failed rocket launch in April. To pump up nationalistic feelings around the anniversary of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il’s death. To enhance the leadership credentials of “Great Successor” Kim Jong-un. To influence the upcoming presidential election in South Korea. To pressure Washington to offer a deal. [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• N.Korean Satellite Reaches Orbit
  A rocket fired on Wednesday by North Korea successfully put a satellite into orbit. That suggests the North now has the technology to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of more than 10,000 km that could reach most of the U.S. mainland, South Korean authorities speculate. It took the North 14 years since it first tested a long-range missile in 1998. But it remains to be seen whether it will be able to miniaturize nuclear warheads and acquire technology so the missiles can re-enter the atmosphere. [Satellite]
• How N.Korea Fooled the World About Rocket Launch
  South Korea, the U.S. and Japan were apparently taken wholly by surprise when North Korea launched a rocket on Wednesday. The three countries had concluded only on Tuesday that there was no chance that the launch would take place this week or even this month. Only a few days earlier, North Korea announced that a technical glitch had been detected and the launch window would have to be extended until Dec. 29 [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• A surprisingly successful North Korean rocket launch
  Posted on : Dec.12,2012 15:28 KST North Korea‘s April 2009 attempt to launch the Eunha-2 rocket from the Musudan Village launch site. NK rocket reaches orbit; UN Security Council will convene an emergency meeting North Korea’s Dec. 12 attempt to launch a rocket appears to have been successful. The rocket followed its intended trajectory, according to South Korean Ministry of Defense. North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported, “The second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 successfully lifted off from the Sohae Space Center by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday. The satellite entered its preset orbit.” The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) released a statement saying that North Korea appeared to have launched an ‘object’ into orbit. [Satellite]
• Will NK get away with it?
  North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket stands at Sohae Satellite Station in Dongchang-ri in this April 8 file photo. / Yonhap S. Korea, US pressed to confront Pyongyang’s surprise rocket launch By Kim Young-jin North Korea launched a long-range rocket Wednesday allegedly deploying a satellite into orbit, catching South Korea, the United States and Japan unaware. The satellite was later confirmed to be in orbit, qualifying the launch as a success. This means Pyongyang has made significant progress in its intercontinental ballistic missile capability, confronting the international community with the inevitable question ? how to contain a lethal weapon in the hands of a rogue state. [Satellite]
• Successful North Korean missile launch triggers security concerns
  WASHINGTON — Just shy of eight months after a very public and humiliating failure, the successful long-range missile launch Wednesday by Kim Jong Un’s North Korean ballistic-missile program gave the world a reason to re-evaluate the threat from his rogue nation. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/12/177239/successful-north-korean-missile.html#storylink=cpy [Satellite] [Media]
• Stand firm against North Korea
  By Editorial Board, Thursday, December 13, 2:56 PM MOST NORTH Korea watchers believe that Wednesday’s missile launch by the insular dictatorship was prompted by domestic imperatives. The latest Stalinist ruler, 29-year-old Kim Jong Eun, is reportedly struggling to consolidate power; the anniversary of his father’s death is coming up; and something had to be done to deliver on the regime’s promise that 2012 would be a year of “strength and prosperity.” [Satellite] [Hysteria] [Media]
• Countdown to the Rocket Launch
  By 38 North Postscript: Press reports that North Korea launched the Unha rocket this evening were confirmed by US, Japanese and South Korean government sources. At this writing, it is unclear whether the launch was successful although unconfirmed reports have indicated that the rocket flew over Okinawa on its way south. Our analysis stated that the full rocket was on the pad as of December 10 and that all other facilities had completed preparations for the test. But we assumed the Unha first stage would be moved to the assembly building for repairs. That clearly didn’t happen and why remains unclear. More tomorrow. [Satellite]
• U.S. military: N.K. rocket 'appeared to achieve orbit'
  By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. military said Tuesday that North Korea's rocket seems to have reached orbit. "Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit," North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement. The command said its missile warning systems detected and tracked the launch of a North Korea missile at 7:49 p.m. (Washington time). "Initial indications are that the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The second stage was assessed to fall into the Philippine Sea," it added. "At no time was the missile or the resultant debris a threat to North America." [Satellite] [Spin]
• S. Korean defense chief says first, second stages of N. Korean rocket separated successfully
  SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense chief said there was successful separation of the first and second stages of North Korea's long-range rocket that was launched on Wednesday. "South Korea and the U.S. military are checking whether North Korea's rocket accurately entered orbit," Kim Kwan-jin told a Yonhap News reporter on his way back from an emergency national security meeting convened by President Lee Myung-bak. "Our radar has verified that (the rocket's) second stage separated." Kim said his government was waiting for the analysis of the third stage from related organizations to verify Pyongyang's announcement that the rocket successfully put a scientific satellite into orbit.
• N. Korean rocket launch becomes big issue in S. Korean presidential election
  SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- The launch of North Korea's long-range rocket is expected to become a big issue in South Korea's upcoming presidential election, political observers said Wednesday. Observers said the surprise launch coming just seven days ahead of the Dec. 19 poll can raise uncertainty surrounding the Korean Peninsula and fuel concerns about national security. N. Korean rocket launch becomes big issue in S. Korean presidential election SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- The launch of North Korea's long-range rocket is expected to become a big issue in South Korea's upcoming presidential election, political observers said Wednesday. Observers said the surprise launch coming just seven days ahead of the Dec. 19 poll can raise uncertainty surrounding the Korean Peninsula and fuel concerns about national security. [Satellite]
• N. Korea claims success in rocket launch
  SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea announced Wednesday its long-range rocket launch was a success, saying what it claims is a scientific satellite has entered orbit. "The second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 successfully lifted off from the Sohae Space Center by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday," the official Korean Central News Agency said. "The satellite entered its preset orbit." North Korea launched the three-stage rocket at 9:51 a.m., with its first stage falling in the Yellow Sea, and what appears to be its second stage landing in waters near the Philippines, according to South Korean officials. [Satellite]
• DPRK Succeeds in Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, December 12 (KCNA) -- The second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 successfully lifted off from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday. The satellite entered its preset orbit. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Launches Long-Range Rocket
  North Korea unexpectedly fired a long-range rocket from a launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province at 9:51 a.m. on Wednesday, despite announcing earlier that it needed repairs. A government official here said the rocket appeared on a radar screen on a South Korea Aegis destroyer deployed in the West Sea right after the launch. The first-stage rocket dropped west of the Byeonsan Peninsula, and an object presumed to have been the second-stage booster fell in the sea near the Philippines. South Korea and the U.S. are analyzing the trajectory, and a military spokesman here said preliminary analysis "shows that the rocket fell within the target range" and the launch "seems to have succeeded." Meanwhile, the Japanese government said the missile passed over islands near Okinawa and some debris fell off into the sea off the Philippines around 10:05 a.m. The launch came despite Pyongyang's announcement over the weekend that it would extend the launch window by a week until Dec. 29 due to a technical glitch. [Satellite] [Spin] [Media]
• N. Korea's rocket viewed as potential 'game changer'
  By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's apparent success of a multi-stage rocket launch will deal a blow to U.S. President Barack Obama's "strategic patience" of waiting for Pyongyang to change its course first, experts said Wednesday. On the other hand, an emboldened North Korean leader Kim Jong-un now holds more cards, they added. "This success will likely affect the way other countries view the North," said David Wright, co-director and senior scientist for the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. [Satellite]
• North Korea launches long-range rocket into orbit, observers say
  Ahn Young-joon/AP - South Koreans watch a public TV reporting news about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. By Chico Harlan, Wednesday, December 12, 5:14 PM TOKYO — North Korea on Wednesday successfully fired into orbit a long-range rocket carrying a satellite, an outside aerospace monitoring organization said, a major advance in the authoritarian nation’s weapons program. According to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint organization of the United States and Canada, North Korea “deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit” after the first and second stages of the rocket dropped into the sea. Based on that assessment, the third stage of the rocket, as well as the satellite, would have entered orbit, aerospace experts said. [Satellite]
• North Koreans Launch Rocket in Defiant Act
  By CHOE SANG-HUN and DAVID E. SANGER Published: December 11, 2012 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday morning that appeared to reach as far as the Philippines, an apparent success for the country’s young and untested new leader, Kim Jong-un, and a step toward the nation’s goal of mastering the technology needed to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. [Satellite]
• DPRK confirms successful satellite launch
  Xinhua | 2012-12-12 10:29:12 By Agencies The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday it successfully fired off a long-range rocket mounted with a satellite, defying expectations that technical problems might delay or even call off the mission that has drawn international attention. "The second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 successfully lifted off from the Sohae Space Center by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday," the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency said, adding the satellite entered orbit. The launch was the DPRK's second bid of the year and its fifth attempt since 1998 to launch a long-range rocket that Washington and its key Asian allies say is a disguised ballistic missile test and a violation of UN resolutions. Pyongyang, whose previous mission in April ended in failure, has countered that the satellite is for peaceful scientific purposes only and that it would abide by international regulations. [Satellite]
• North Korea sends object into space with surprise launch of multi-stage rocket
  By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers BEIJING — North Korea caught the world by surprise on Wednesday morning with the launch of a long-range rocket that it said had successfully put a satellite in orbit, a move that the West views as part of a military program aimed at one day being able to deliver a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/12/177137/north-korea-sends-object-into.html#storylink=cpy [Satellite]
• Six-Party Talks, anyone?
  December 6th, 2012 Author: Ron Huisken, ANU The DPRK presents itself as a security tangle that needs to be made a top priority, particularly by the states of the Asia Pacific. The mechanism developed to address this issue — the Six-Party Talks — functioned intermittently for five years (2003–08) but has now been in abeyance for four years. No one, it seems, can see how to engineer a circuit-breaker, or else countries see the political risks as too great. But the stakes remain high. The DPRK’s drive for a deliverable nuclear arsenal can still tip elite and/or public opinion in the ROK and Japan in the same direction, a small but enormously consequential risk. Moreover, by dint simply of its surprising durability, the DPRK question has transitioned from a secondary flashpoint in the Cold War to a pivotal dimension of the power transition underway in East Asia, currently centred on China. Particularly over the past two years, as the debate over the modalities of strategic management in greater East Asia has intensified, the DPRK question has hardened into a key test of the real appetite and capacity of the major powers to share responsibility and leadership. [Six Party Talks] [Paradigm]
• DPRK to Extend Satellite Launch Period
  Pyongyang, December 10 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the Korean Committee of Space Technology Monday released the following statement: As already reported, scientists and technicians of the DPRK are pushing forward the preparations for the launch of the second version of Kwangmyongsong-3, a scientific and technological satellite, at a final phase. They, however, found technical deficiency in the first-stage control engine module of the rocket carrying the satellite and decided to extend the satellite launch period up to Dec. 29. [Satellite]
• Countdown to the Rocket Launch: Launch Unlikely Until December 21; Weather Challenges Ahead
  By 38 North A NorthKoreaTech/38 North exclusive, with contributions by Nick Hansen and Michelle Kae New GeoEye satellite imagery from December 10 shows activity at North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-ri) related to the removal of the Unha rocket from the launch pad, a process that is probably still underway and will not be completed before December 12-13 at the earliest. (38 North believes South Korean press reports that the entire rocket had been removed to the assembly building for repairs as of December 11 were wrong.) This conclusion is based on a number of considerations. First, imagery taken on December 8 and 10 shows no tracks in the snow on the road between the missile assembly building and the launch pad that would be used by trailers carrying the missile stages.[1] Second, there is no evidence to suggest that the process of moving the stages from the pad to the building had begun before December 10 when the first signs appear, suggesting new activity. If that is the case, given past North Korean practice, the process of moving the stages to the assembly building likely cannot be completed before December 12-13. A key question is how long it might take for the North Koreans to repair the rocket, move it back to the pad and conduct the test. That effort could take approximately 9-10 days based on what is known about the first stage rocket technology as well as past North Korean behavior. Given that timeline, a launch might take place as early as December 21-22, with added flexibility possible since Pyongyang has extended its launch window until December 29. [Satellite]
• Technical Problem Holds Up N.Korean Rocket Launch
  Technical problems have apparently held up North Korea's planned rocket launch, and a new third-stage booster was delivered to the launch pad on Saturday. Experts believe preparations for the launch, announced for between Dec. 10 and 22, will resume once the new booster has been put in place [Satellite]
• Iranian Experts 'Helping with N.Korean Rocket Launch'
  The U.S. and South Korea believe Iranian missile experts secretly entered North Korea recently and are staying near the North's rocket launch pad in Tongchang-ri. "Identifiable cars have been spotted traveling back and forth from the quarters to the missile launch site," a government source here said. "We believe they're carrying Iranian experts." North Korea apparently invited Iranian missile experts to help with technical problems after the previous rocket launch in April failed.
• Two more US destroyers repositioned to monitor North Korean rocket
  Posted on : Dec.8,2012 12:17 KSTModified on : Dec.8,2012 14:29 KST Japan and the US both positioning themselves to shoot down the rocket if it enters their airspace By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent and Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent In advance of North Korea’s expected launch of a long-range rocket, the US is hurrying to reposition two destroyers equipped with advanced radar capabilities and capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. At a news conference on the topic of “Asia-Pacific Security Concerns and Rebalance” held at the Pentagon on Dec. 6 (local time), Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US forces in the Pacific, said that the navy was relocating important assets “to ensure that we have properly reassured our allies and that we have properly defended our own homeland.” He added that the warships will have “the best situational awareness” and will be positioned so that they are “capable of participating in ballistic missile defense.” [Satellite] [Hysteria]
• North Korea’s rocket costs as much as a year’s worth of food
  Posted on : Dec.8,2012 10:28 KSTModified on : Dec.8,2012 12:40 KST North Korea has invited foreign media to Dongchang-ri, the site where the Gwangmyungsung 3 satellite is scheduled to be launched this week. The Eunha 3 rocket is in position. (Reuters/Newsis) South Korean ministry estimates the total cost of the launch, including propaganda and site construction By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter The Ministry of Unification estimated the cost of North Korea's two rocket launches this year to be nearly equivalent to a year's worth of food for the country. An official with the ministry told reporters on Dec. 6 that North Korea had spent a total of US$1.34 billion on rocket launches since the Kim Jong-un regime took power this in April of this year. "This is enough money to buy a year's worth of food for North Korea [5.3 million tons of corn], and we hope North Korea will put it toward solving its peoples’ food shortage," the official said. The official broke down the costs into US$400 million for building the launch site in Dongchang Village, US$600 million for the two launches, US$300 million to build rocket equipment and facilities, and US$42 million for propaganda idolization of the Kim dynasty. [Satellite]
• Countdown to the Rocket Launch: Staging of Rocket Proceeding More Slowly than Reported; Winter Weather a New Factor?
  A joint NorthKoreaTech/38 North exclusive, with analysis by Nick Hansen. Summary North Korean preparations for a new rocket launch later this month appear to be proceeding more slowly than previously reported in the press according to analysis of commercial satellite imagery from December 4 and past DPRK test practices. Moreover, since this is Pyongyang’s first attempt to launch a long-range rocket in winter, weather may be a new factor that has already slowed the launch preparations. Contrary to press reports that the three-stage Unha rocket had already been erected at the launch pad by December 5, the North may have had insufficient time to complete that task by then. Satellite imagery showed no activity at the launch pad on December 1. By December 4, work was underway hidden under a dark canvas, however, this was less than the four days Pyongyang needed to erect the Unha-3 rocket before last spring’s test. Moreover, work at the site may have been temporarily halted by snowfall on December 3, further delaying completion of the task. Imagery from December 4 of trailers used to move the rocket stages from the assembly building to the pad shows no tracks in the snow around them or on the road from the assembly building to the pad. Tracks would have been present if the trailers had continued operations. [Satellite]
• S.Korea, U.S. Boost Alert Level Ahead of N.Korean Rocket Launch
  The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command raised the alert level on the peninsula from Watchcon 3 to Watchcon 2 on Thursday as North Korea's rocket launch approaches. "North Korea is believed to have completed mounting the rocket on a launch pad in Tongchang-ri" on its western coast, a military source here said. "As such we have raised the alert level." Under Watchcon 2, which is issued when there is concern of a "vital threat" to the nation, South Korean and U.S. forces double their spy satellite and surveillance aircraft activity and call in more intelligence experts. [Satellite] [Hysteria]
• N.Korea 'to Launch Rocket Next Week'
  North Korea is believed to have finished assembling a rocket on the launch pad on Wednesday, making a launch early next week the likeliest scenario. The North announced it will launch the rocket between Dec. 10 and 22 to put a satellite into orbit. A South Korean military source said satellite images suggest that the assembly of the first, second and third-stage boosters at the launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province was completed on Wednesday morning. Workers were reportedly seen leaving the launch pad.
• NK must pay price for launch: Seoul
  Global Times | 2012-12-6 0:55:06 By Xu Tianran South Korea has warned that the North must pay a price if it moves ahead with its plan to fire a long-range rocket, which has been reported to be in the final stages of preparation and is expected to launch early next week. "If the North pushes ahead with the launch, it will have to some degree pay a price," South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan was quoted by Yonhap as saying on Wednesday, adding it has been looking into sanctions to punish the North. According to the latest satellite images, all three stages of the Unha-3 rocket have been assembled on the launch pad at the Dongchang-ri base bordering China, a South Korean official told the Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity Wednesday, noting that some workers were pulling out of the site. [Satellite] [Chinese IR]
• North Korean rocket could reach the continental U.S.
  Posted on : Dec.6,2012 15:16 KST With Los Angeles in range, South Korea, U.S. and Japan seeking responses to launch if it goes ahead By Ha Eo-young, staff reporter and Park Hyun, Washington correspondent On Dec. 5, North Korea finished setting up the 3-stage rocket on the launch pad. The rocket is believed to have a range of 10,000km, which would allow it to reach Los Angeles on the west coast of the U.S. “Analysts believe that North Korea has placed all three stages of the Eunha-3 rocket on the launch pad at the Dongchang Village missile launch site in Cheolsan County,” said a South Korean government official. It is believed that, after it finishes installing radars and optical cameras to track the course of the rocket after launch, along with other observation and measurement equipment, the North will begin testing the rocket’s equipment. Since the North has said they will launch the Eunha-3 rocket between the 10th and the 22nd of this month, it appears that the fueling of the rocket will start on the 8th or 9th. “Even if they fuel the rocket before the 10th, the first day of the announced launch period, waiting ten days before the launch won’t be a problem,” said a source in the military. “Since the North has installed anti-heat and anti-humidity systems, we don’t think there will be any problems with the launch despite the fact it is taking place in the winter.”
• Are two Koreas in space race?
  By Kim Young-jin While pundits speculate over North Korea’s motivation for a long-range rocket planned launch for this month, one factor has been largely overlooked: a competition with the South to become the first to put a satellite in orbit. Security analysts point out that Pyongyang’s announcement on Dec. 1 of the launch came just two days after Seoul had planned to put a satellite into space with its Naro-1 Space Launch Vehicle, suggesting an inter-Korean space race. Due to technical problems, Seoul’s bid to join an elite club of satellite capable nations has been pushed back and the attempt will likely happen under the next administration [Satellite]
• Responses being prepared for NK’s expected rocket launch
  Posted on : Dec.5,2012 14:06 KST Modified on : Dec.5,2012 15:04 KST Relevant countries still discouraging North Korea from launch, and considering sanctions if it goes ahead By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent, Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent, Park Min-hee, Beijing correspondent and Park Byong-soo, staff reporter Lim Sung-nam, chief South Korean negotiator for the six-party talks, leaves for Washington from Incheon International Airport on Dec. 4. (Yonhap News) As of Dec. 4, North Korea had assembled a two-stage rocket on the launch pad and is pushing forward with final preparations for a rocket launch. South Korea, the US and Japan are rushing to ready their response to the imminent launch. [Satellite]
• North Korea’s Satellite Program
  By Nick Hansen North Korea’s Kwangmyongsong[1] satellites have progressed from a simple Chinese design launched in 1998, to a larger, more advanced version in 2009 and the latest model, the Kwangmyongsong-3 that it attempted to launch in April 2012. Since none of these satellites achieved orbit how they would perform remains just speculation. This article will assess the images and data that are available on all three of these satellites, including the Kwangmyongsong-3, which was shown to international media on April 8, 2012. Two main conclusions resulted from this analysis. First, the Kwangmyongsong-3 model provides important information that furthers our understanding of the DPRK’s program, but also appears to have been an engineering prototype since the actual satellite was likely already mounted on the Unha-3 satellite launch vehicle. Analysis of the media photos of the displayed satellite shows workmanship as would be expected of an engineering prototype, functionally like the flight version of Kwangmyongsong-3. However, no images were released of the installation of the actual satellite into the Unha-3, so this cannot be confirmed. Second, North Korea’s satellite program has progressed with each mission becoming more complex, but Pyongyang is constrained to the Kwangmyongsong-3 size, weight and shape, and to a low earth orbit because of the limitations of the current Unha launcher. A much larger space launch vehicle is in development that, if successful, will greatly expand the possible missions of the DPRK satellite program. [Satellite]
• No Great Fanfare About Rocket Launch in N.Korean Media
  The North Korean regime seems intent on downplaying an impending rocket launch domestically, perhaps because it is wary of the disappointment another failure could bring. The North's official KCNA news agency and other state media only briefly announced the plan to the international community in the form of a statement from the country's space committee, but official newspapers and TV kept quiet [Satellite]
• N.Korea Tried to Import Foreign Missile Technology
  The rocket that North Korea launched on April 13 this year /AP-Yonhap The rocket that North Korea launched on April 13 this year /AP-Yonhap North Korea has tried to import missile technology from Ukraine and other countries, the government here believes. A senior South Korean official said after failing four times so far to launch a rocket into space, the North turned to foreign technology and experts. "It appears that a missile expert of unclear nationality recently made a secret visit to the North," the official added on condition of anonymity. The South Korean government believes North Korea used foreign help to solve problems like weak engine thrust, and that there is a significant chance that the upcoming missile launch scheduled for sometime this month will be successful. [Satellite] [Media]
• Naro Launch Postponed Until Next Year
  Korea's third and final attempt at launching a homegrown space rocket has been postponed until next year. The scheduled liftoff last Thursday was suspended when a glitch was found in the second-stage booster. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said it decided not to push ahead unreasonably with the launch this year since the overhaul will take more than a month. Engineers will overhaul the entire second-stage booster, not just the faulty component, and replace parts where necessary since it has nearly been five years since the second-stage rocket was manufactured in April 2008. The technology guarantees only a five-year lifespan. The ministry said a fresh launch date can only be decided once the overhaul is complete, but January seems a likely timeframe. A spokesman for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said, "There is a slim chance that the launch will be delayed until after the inauguration of the next government." [Satellite]
• North Korea rocket launch speculation overshadows cancelled South Korean satellite launch
  By Associated Press, Published: November 29 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Thursday scrapped an attempt to fire its first satellite into orbit from its own soil amid speculation that North Korea was preparing to fire its own long-range rocket. [Satellite] [Media]
• U.S. “Rebalancing” as an Opportunity for a NWFZ in Northeast Asia
  by Noboru Yamaguchi December 4, 2012 Lieutenant General (Ret.) Noboru Yamaguchi states that U.S. “rebalancing” toward the Asia-Pacific region, if properly implemented, “could provide a tremendous opportunity for allied deterrence and defense to become less reliant on nuclear weapons”. To achieve this Yamaguchi suggests that ““rebalancing” should strengthen U.S. conventional deterrence while the defense posture maintained by its allies should be consonant with such US efforts. This convergence will result in a more reliable allied deterrence posture. and thus U.S. extended deterrence may not have to rely much, if at all, on nuclear weapons to dissuade possible opponents in the region from being aggressive.” [US Japan alliance] [NWFZ]
• McCully seriously concerned by launch plan
  Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully today expressed serious concerns about North Korea’s plans to launch a satellite this month using a long-range ballistic missile (sic). “This latest announcement from North Korea is extremely disappointing and potentially destabilising. New Zealand considers the use of ballistic missile technology to conduct the proposed launch to be inconsistent with UN Security Council resolutions," Mr McCully says. "To conduct a launch will be highly detrimental to the re-engagement of North Korea with the international community. "The government strongly urges North Korea to abandon its launch plan, work constructively with its neighbours and the international community, and stop its nuclear weapons programme." [Satellite]
• North Korea urged to drop rocket launch plan
  MOSCOW/BEIJING | Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:52am EST (Reuters) - Russia and China urged North Korea on Monday not to go ahead with a plan for its second rocket launch of 2012, with Moscow saying any such move would violate restrictions imposed by the U.N. Security Council. North Korea's state news agency on Saturday announced the decision to launch another space satellite and reportedly told neighbors it would take a similar path to that planned for a failed rocket launch in April. "We urgently appeal to the government (of North Korea) to reconsider the decision to launch a rocket," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. [Satellite]
• N. Korea’s rocket launch plans boost tensions
  By Chico Harlan, Published: December 1 | Updated: Sunday, December 2, 5:43 AM SEOUL — North Korea said Saturday that it intends to use a three-stage rocket to launch a satellite into orbit later this month, a move that the United States and its allies describe as a de facto long-range missile test that violates Pyongyang’s international commitments. In an announcement carried by its state-run news agency, the North said that the launch would take place between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22, with the rocket traveling south between the Korean Peninsula and China on a “safe flight path.” [Satellite] [Media]

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NOVEMBER 2012

• Homegrown Rocket Ready for Launch Thursday Afternoon
  The third and final launch attempt of a homegrown space rocket goes ahead Thursday afternoon. The rocket is set for liftoff at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province around 4 p.m. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute on Wednesday conducted a six-hour dress rehearsal for the launch by checking the Russian-made first-stage booster, the homegrown second-stage booster, the launch pad, and the rocket tracking system. [Satellite]
• Naro rocket launch may be delayed to next year
  The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, known colloquially as Naro, is removed from the pad after a glitch in the second stage led to its launch being aborted just 16 minutes and 52 seconds before liftoff. / Yonhap By Cho Mu-hyun GOHEUNG, South Jeolla Province - The nation’s third attempt to launch the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) was again aborted Thursday, due to problems in the second-stage of the rocket, colloquially known as Naro. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said that it will determine the next launch date after a thorough inspection of the KSLV-1, but it is unlikely that the liftoff will take place this year as the current launch deadline is scheduled to end on Dec. 5. Engineers say it will take at least four to five days to figure out what went wrong and fix it. [KSLV] [Satellite]
• N.Korea 'to Launch Rocket Next Month'
  A North Korean rocket sits on its launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province in April this year. /AP-Yonhap A North Korean rocket sits on its launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province in April this year. /AP-Yonhap There is a chance that North Korea will announce the test-launch of a space rocket as early as next month, a senior South Korean government official claimed Tuesday. "The North will likely notify the International Maritime Organization of the scheduled launch date" once South Korea attempts another launch of its own homegrown space rocket, he added. [Satellite]
• North Korea apparently preparing missile launch
  Posted on : Nov.24,2012 13:19 KST In this June 3, 2009 image provided by DigitalGlobe, North Korea’s sophisticated new missile base at Dongchang-ri is seen. The base is ready for use, according to an independent imagery analyst. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe) Technical hurdles remain to launch that would take place at a time of political change on the Korean peninsula By Ha Eo-young, staff reporter Military authorities are analyzing data from what appear to be North Korean preparations for a long-range ballistic missile launch.? A Ministry of National Defense official said on Nov. 23 that a shipment believed to be missile parts was apparently brought to the assembly block at North Korea's missile launch base in the village of Dongchang, in Cheolsan County, North Pyongan Province, 200km northwest of Pyongyang and 70km west of main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.? Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported in its Nov. 23 edition that satellite photos of the shipment appeared to match the long-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea in April. The report quoted officials from the South Korean, US, and Japanese governments.? [Satellite] [North Wind]
• Nuclear Proliferation Concerns- The North Korea Case
  Op-Ed November 2, 2012 Author: Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs The genesis of DPRK’s nuclear aspirations could be traced to the aftermath of the Korean war. To develop its own nuclear capability, North Korea initiated building of a strong national cadre of nuclear technicians and scientists, which were trained mainly in the former Soviet Union. In 1955, North Korea founded Atomic Energy Research Institute. The Soviets also helped the North Koreans establish a nuclear research center and built a 2 MWth IRT nuclear research reactor at Yongbyon, which began operation in 1969. [MISCOM] [Proliferation] [Shill]

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OCTOBER 2012

• PAC-2 Missiles Flunk Intercept Test
  South Korea's PAC-2 ballistic missiles have an intercept rate of less than 40 percent, according to joint South Korean-U.S. research released Sunday. The military is looking at buying PAC-3 missiles from the U.S. to make up for the deficiency. The PAC-2 missile was developed as an anti-aircraft missile in the U.S. in 1990. It can approach targets at an altitude lower than 15 km and destroy them by detonating sub-missiles. Its poor accuracy has been a source of grief since the first Gulf War in 1991. [Arms sales] [Missiles] [Military balance]
• It Is Legitimate Right of Sovereign State to Develop Space: DPRK Delegate
  Pyongyang, October 26 (KCNA) -- Space development has become an international trend as a work for the promotion of welfare and civilization of mankind. Many countries are taking an active part in this work. A DPRK delegate said this in a speech made during the discussion of the agenda item "Peaceful Use of Space" at the meeting of the Forth Committee of the 67th UN General Assembly on Oct. 19. The DPRK has steadily studied and developed the work for satellite launch according to its program for space development, launching satellites manufactured by its own efforts and with indigenous technology. In this course it brought the country's space science and technology to a high level and took a giant stride forward toward an economic power. [Satellite] [Legality]
• Technical Glitch Halts Rocket Launch
  The planned launch of a homegrown space rocket has been put on hold at the last minute when a technical fault was detected. The rocket, dubbed Naro, was scheduled for the third and final launch attempt at a space center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, between 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday. An official of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology told reporters, "The launch has been postponed as a leak was found in the part connecting the rocket and launch pad while injecting Helium gas this morning." According to the ministry, the rocket has to be removed from the launch pad because the leakage occurred inside the first stage of the rocket, which was built in Russia. If the problem can be fixed, it will take at least three more days to ready it for launch again. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Vows to Continue Satellite Launches
  A North Korean delegate to the UN General Assembly has said his country will "keep launching working satellites needed to build a powerful nation, while squarely exercising its sovereign right to space development," the North's state TV said Thursday. It seems to be a response to South Korea's launch attempt of a homegrown space rocket on Friday. According to the broadcasting, the delegate was speaking during a discussion on the peaceful use of space at a UN committee on Oct. 19. "Our efforts for space development are the exercise of our sovereign right, as well as the lawful exercise of our right as guaranteed by international law," the delegate added. [Satellite]
• Space dream put on hold
  By Cho Mu-hyun Will it lift off successfully next time? The launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1), colloquially known as Naro was called off Friday due to a leak in a pressurizing container. Staff, engineers and others showed a collective sense of disappointment but maybe they also felt a sense of relief because the KSLV-1’s previous two launches were unsuccessful. It was one and half years ago when the second rocket blew up. [Satellite]
• Australia’s Uranium Bonanza: Making the World a More Dangerous Place
  The Eager Role of Julia Gillard By John Pilger Global Research, October 24, 2012 The Australian parliament building reeks of floor polish. The wooden floors shine so virtuously they reflect the cartoon-like portraits of prime ministers, bewigged judges and viceroys. Along the gleaming white, hushed corridors, the walls are hung with Aboriginal art: one painting after another as in a monolithic gallery, divorced from their origins, the irony brutal. The poorest, sickest, most incarcerated people on earth provide a façade for those who oversee the theft of their land and its plunder. Australia has 40% of the world’s uranium, all of it on indigenous land. [Uranium] [NPT]
• Challenges Posed by North Korea’s Weapon-Grade Uranium and Weapon-Grade Plutonium: Current and Projected Stocks
  By David Albright Co-authored by Christina Walrond North Korea may be moving to increase the size and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. This escalation follows the demise of the February 29, 2012 reciprocal arrangement between Pyongyang and Washington, and North Korean statements that it will bolster its nuclear deterrent. Although uncertainty surrounds the North’s decisions, it is important to scrutinize Pyongyang’s current and projected capability to make weapon-grade uranium (WGU) and weapon-grade plutonium, the two key materials in building nuclear weapons. Despite the uncertainties, such an assessment contributes to better formulating how the United States should respond to North Korea’s nuclear programs, in particular its uranium enrichment program (UEP). For years, great controversy has surrounded North Korea’s uranium enrichment program. How large is it? Has it made weapon-grade uranium? How much could it make in the future? But there are also other questions. What is the role of the UEP in North Korea’s overall nuclear effort? Is the UEP oriented to make 3.5 percent low-enriched uranium (LEU) for a civilian light water reactor (LWR) under construction at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, as North Korea claims? Or does North Korea intend to enrich uranium to a higher level for use in the LWR to make weapon-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons? Although LWRs are not typically used to make weapon-grade plutonium, they can do so efficiently through what is called a target/driver system if the reactor core is specially designed with uranium enriched to a level greater than 3.5 percent. To address these questions, we surveyed available information about North Korea’s UEP and LWR. Faced with significant uncertainties, we evaluated a range of plausible scenarios about the past and possible future operation of the centrifuge program. [HEU] [Intelligence] [MISCOM]
• 3rd and Last Rocket Launch Attempt Friday Afternoon
  Korea will have a third and last go at launching a homegrown space rocket, dubbed Naro, on Friday. After checking weather forecasts and launch preparations, the launch management committee scheduled the launch for Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Monday. Minister Lee Ju-ho said, "According to weather forecasts, rain is expected Friday, but that will present no technical problems for the launch because it's expected after the 3:30-7:00 p.m. launch window, and no lightning is forecast during that time." If it does rain the launch could be postponed, he added. "Technically, wind is a more decisive factor than rain," said Kim Seung-jo of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. "The rocket could be in danger of veering off the course in the initial stage after liftoff if the maximum wind speed exceeds 15 m/s on the ground and 100 m/s in the sky." The final decision will be made Friday morning, and the exact time will be announced at 1:30 p.m. /Yonhap According to the Korea Meteorological Administration's weather forecast, rain is expected at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province from late Friday afternoon until Sunday. The first- and second-stage rocket boosters have been connected and are ready to be transported to the launch pad. All preparations at the launch pad are also finished. If this launch also fails there will be no further attempt and the Naro project will come to an end. The government has already started developing a launch vehicle capable of sending a 1.5 ton satellite into orbit. The goal is to produce a completely homegrown space rocket by 2021. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• The B61 bomb: A case study in costs and needs
  View Photo Gallery — An aging arsenal:?Federal officials and many outside analysts are convinced that the government must invest huge sums if it is to maintain the air, sea and land nuclear triad on which the country has relied since the start of the Cold War. By Dana Priest, Published: September 17The Washington Post ALBUQUERQUE — On the outskirts of New Mexico’s largest city, a team of engineers at Sandia National Laboratories is engaged in a long-running treasure hunt to make sure the oldest weapon in America’s nuclear arsenal, the B61 bomb, remains safe for deployment. They cannibalize spare B61s for parts, such as the vacuum tubes needed to keep the radars working on active bombs. If they don’t have spares, they track down outdated machines to manufacture the components themselves, as they did when they bought a machine to produce integrated circuits. [Nuclear weapons]
• A Steal at $10 Billion
  The United States is building a nuclear bomb that costs more than its weight in solid gold. Why? BY JEFFREY LEWIS |SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 The Bomb. You know exactly what I mean, right? Funny thing is, most of them aren't "bombs" at all. Of the 5,000 or so nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile as of 2010, probably less than a third are "bombs" in the sense of things one might drop from an airplane. The United States has just two "bomb" designs in the arsenal: the B83 and B61. There is now a furious debate about whether the United States needs to modernize the B61, which dates to Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, making it the oldest design left in the stockpile. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, recently revealed that the cost of the program to extend the bomb's life has more than doubled: Modernizing the approximately 400 B61 gravity bombs in the stockpile will cost $10 billion. That is billions with a "B." In case you were wondering, it would be less expensive to build solid-gold replicas of each of the 700-pound B61s, even at near-record gold prices. In the current budgetary environment, costing more than your weight in gold is not a happy place. How did this happen? [Nuclear weapons]
• Standing upright there: the New Zealand path to a nuclear-free world
  by Richard Tanter October 4, 2012 Richard Tanter writes that the recent rapprochement between New Zealand and the United States is born of both shared concerns about the rise of China and American recognition “that the Lange Labour Government’s 1984 policy of banning the entry of nuclear-armed ships is not incompatible with an alliance with the United States.” Tanter concludes that the morale of the story remains that “passage to a nuclear free world will require surely require more New Zealands.
• Tactical Employment of Atomic Weapons
  Author/Editor: L. H. Rumbaugh, J. B. Green, S. H. Turkel, H.W. Brackney Publisher/Sponsor: Operations Research Office, Far East Command Supplier: Johns Hopkins University Report Date: March 1st, 1951 Classification: Declassified Click here to read the full report. Description: By 1951 it was apparent that the Soviet nuclear explosion in 1949 had already cut short the era of U.S. nuclear omnipotence and in Korea, the U.S. military’s began to worry about nuclear attack. ”In the problem of defense,” advises this March 1951 Johns Hopkins report by to General MacArthur, “there is the question as to whether one’s own forces and installations are so disposed as to be vulnerable and, if so, what more suitable dispositions and defenses are possible.” To answer this question, the report analyzes whether UN Command field troops, army and air force headquarters at Taegu, and UN airfields would have been lucrative nuclear targets as the situation stood on December 31, 1950; and whether Pusan, the logistical port through which poured 80 percent of the supplies to fight the war, was vulnerable on October 16, 1950. The dates selected were critical junctures in the war for which the researchers had detailed intelligence reports. The report shows that each of these targets was indeed vulnerable. Each target was sufficiently valuable to justify using nuclear weapons; each target could be identified; and none of them could assuredly stop a nuclear attack. [Tactical Nuclear weapons]
• Iranian and North Korean Nuclear Programs in the Spotlight
  Alexander VORONTSOV | 01.10.2012 | 09:28 In many regards, the September, 2012 Nonproliferation Conference which convened in Moscow proved to be a remarkable event. Importantly, it combined plenary sessions and talks by invited speakers with six sections on the nuclear themes centered around North Korea and Iran. The conference is a unique forum drawing staunch opponents – representatives of both Koreas, of Israel and Iran – into intense dialog. Scholars from the DPRK have visited every Moscow Nonproliferation Conference since it was held for the first time in 2010. As of today, broad inclusiveness is the forum's established tradition. [pipeline]

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AUGUST 2012

• Rocket launch may be rushed to score political points
  Posted on : Aug.21,2012 14:18 KST Naro II lifts off at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla, June 10,2010, but failed to reach orbit. Observers questioning safety of rushing Naro launch before December’s election By Song Chae Kyung-hwa, staff reporter Is the third launch attempt for the Naro space rocket this October being pushed too hard before the upcoming presidential election? Observers are suggesting so. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) submitted a report on delays in the third launch of the Korean Space Launch Vehicle to the office of Democratic United Party lawmaker Park Hong-keun. The report states that the first stage of the Naro, which was to be produced by Russia, has yet to be sent to South Korea. [Satellite] [KSLV] [Election]
• N.Korea 'Will Have 48 Nuclear Weapons by 2016'
  North Korea could have up to 48 nuclear weapons by the end of 2016, a U.S. think tank claims. The latest report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security made such an estimate after reviewing the North's centrifuge program and light-water reactors. The amount of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium Pyongyang can make depends on the level at which it uses its centrifuge plants. The report added that multi-pronged international efforts, such as the resumption of the stalled six-party talks, are the best way to respond to the country's nuclear threat.
• N.Korea 'Building New Nuclear Reactor'
  North Korea is close to completing a nuclear reactor, a private U.S. think tank claimed Tuesday. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security published satellite images of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility taken in May and June this year which it said show a crane and a steel beam. ISIS claimed major external work on the reactor appears to be complete, even though the building itself still lacks a dome. The reactor measures around 30 m in diameter and approximately 40 m in height. Construction progressed rapidly since 2010 but was halted temporary between December of 2011 and February this year. The institute believes this is a light-water reactor, and expert opinions are split whether it would be capable of any significant contribution to the North's nuclear weapons program. A satellite image (right) of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility taken on June 24 shows new structures added to the compound, compared to a picture taken on May 3 (left). /From the website of ISIS North Korea watchers here are at any rate skeptical whether the North will be able to complete the reactor. "It is not easy to operate a light-water nuclear reactor," said one South Korean intelligence official. "We believe that North Korea does not have the capability to complete the plant on its own." Other experts said the North could use the reactor as leverage to extract more concessions from the international community. In the late 1990s, North Korea dug a huge cave complex in Kumchangri, 160 km north of Pyongyang. The U.S. was suspicious it was an underground nuclear test facility, and North Korea walked away from talks in February 1999 with hundreds of thousands of tons of food and medical supplies. A U.S. fact-finding team searched through Kumchangri in May of that year but found only an empty cave. [LWR] [Kumchangri]
• Chinese Perspectives: Third North Korean Nuclear Test Unlikely (For Now)
  By Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga As the summer weather heats up in Beijing, Chinese experts are turning cold on their predictions for a North Korean nuclear test anytime soon. Recent interviews by the author with leading Chinese experts on North Korea reveal that the majority do not believe Kim Jong Un and the North Korean government will conduct a third nuclear test in the near future. Chinese experts are historically divided on their opinions regarding North Korea’s nuclear program. Most notably, after the DPRK’s second test in 2009, the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times surveyed 20 North Korea experts in China and found 10 supported harsher sanctions while 10 opposed harsher sanctions.[1] However, there is now a general consensus that the current political climate and North Korea’s internal problems suggest the DPRK will wait to conduct a third nuclear test, if it ever does. Peking University Professor Zhu Feng believes that North Korea will not test because they are “weaker than before, know China will be very upset and Kim Jong-un wants to focus on domestic issues.” Renmin University Professor Shi Yinhong stated that even though North Korea is volatile, the test is less necessary the longer they wait. Nevertheless, he added that “they love the bombs” so the North will test eventually. A former Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official noted that since North Korea’s nuclear weapon design has yet to be perfected, the North must keep testing or else their efforts will have been for nothing. Thus, this former official stated that a future test is an issue of timing, not an issue of desire, but this year’s political climate isn’t favorable for a nuclear test. [test] [Chinese IR]
• Hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight
  By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES | Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:52pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An unmanned experimental aircraft designed to fly six times the speed of sound broke apart over the Pacific Ocean seconds into a military test flight due to a faulty control fin, the U.S. Air Force said on Wednesday. The problem with the fin on the craft known as the Waverider or X-51A was identified in a test flight on Tuesday, 16 seconds after a rocket booster on the remotely monitored craft was ignited to propel it forward, the Air Force said in a statement. Fifteen seconds later, when the X-51A separated from the rocket booster, it lost control due to a "faulty control fin," the statement said. The 31 seconds of flight fell far short of the military's goal for the X-51A to fly for five minutes.
• N. Korea expected to complete new reactor in 2013: report
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea seems to be on course to complete the construction of a new light-water reactor in its main nuclear complex in 2013, a U.S. think tank said Tuesday after analysis of satellite imagery. A set of photos taken in May and June by commercial satellite shows cranes, a rectangular steel structure of considerable height and two metal beams, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), based in Washington. [LWR]
• N.Korea 'Could Conduct Fresh Nuke Test in 2 Weeks'
  North Korea has the capability to conduct a third nuclear test within two weeks, U.S. nuclear experts claimed Monday. "North Korea appears to have an underground tunnel ready for testing," write Siegfried Hecker, the director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and Frank Pabian, a senior nonproliferation analyst at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [Test]
• Contemplating a third nuclear test in North Korea
  By Frank V. Pabian and Siegfried S. Hecker | 6 August 2012 A new analysis using seismic information, previous reporting, commercial satellite imagery, and Google Earth tools and geo-positioning refines the locations of North Korea's two nuclear tests and provides an improved basis for estimating their explosion yields. A recently completed tunnel in the vicinity is judged to be capable of accommodating another test in as little as two weeks, based on comparisons with features of the two test tunnels previously used by North Korea and publicly available data on the Pakistani test program. Similarities in publicized North Korean and Pakistani testing practices lead to speculation that Pyongyang may decide to test both plutonium and highly enriched uranium devices simultaneously. Although there are strong technical and military forces driving Pyongyang to conduct additional tests, so far it appears to have concluded that the political price of another test is too high. Washington and Beijing should make sure that it stays high. [Test]
• North Korea capable of new nuclear test 'within two weeks'
  New study says test tunnel is ready and there is military pressure to go ahead, but Kim Jong-un regime is weighing political costs Share1 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a report on the likelihood of a new North Korean nuclear test, which argues that the Pyongyang regime has its ducks in a row technically to pull off a third test, motivated in part by the need to make amends for the humiliating failure of a space rocket launch in April . [Test]
• North Korea hints at nuclear test
  Posted on : Aug.9,2012 13:52 KST In message to Washington, Pyongyang defends its nuclear program By Park Byong-su, staff reporter Pyongyang reportedly sent a strongly worded message to Washington recently concerning its nuclear program. North Korean officials said during a meeting with former US State Department official Joel Wit that the country would only consider denuclearization once Washington completely ended its hostile policies toward Pyongyang, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on August 7. Among the officials was Choe Son-hui, deputy chief of the North American affairs bureau in the North Korean foreign ministry. [Test] [media]
• Korea to Launch Mini-Satellite in U.S.
  A team led by Prof. Jin Ho at Kyunghee University will launch a miniature satellite jointly developed with scientists at University of California, Berkeley. The satellite dubbed CINEMA and weighing just 10 kg, will be launched into space aboard the Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thursday, the researchers said Wednesday. CINEMA is 30 cm long and 10 cm wide and high. Its mission is to fly 800 km above the Earth and detect electrically charged particles in space and gauge changes in the earth's magnetic field. /Courtesy of Kyunghee University "We plan to launch two more CINEMA satellites in November aboard a Russian rocket and test them," Jin said. "In 2016, we're going to embark the first lunar exploration using mini satellites." The Atlas 5 rocket will be launched on Thursday carrying 11 scientific, military and commercial satellites. [Satellite]

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JULY 2012

• 38 North Video: “Reflections on KEDO: Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, Joel Wit and Robert Carlin”
  | | | By 38 North When the South Korean fast ferry Hankyoreh sailed out of North Korean waters into the cold wind and waves of the East Sea on the morning of 8 January 2006, it carried a sad and somber group of South Korean workers, ROK officials, and personnel from the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). These were all that remained of a decade long multinational effort transforming what in 1994 had been only a paper notion into a modern construction complex of steel and concrete. KEDO’s profile on the North Korean landscape was unmistakable, its impact on Pyongyang profound. Yet, real knowledge and understanding about the organization in public and official circles in South Korea, Japan, and the United States was terribly thin at the beginning, and remains so to this day.[1] In a new 38 North interview, “Reflections on KEDO,” Joel Wit (38 North founder and Visiting Scholar at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS), hosts a conversation with Ambassador Stephen Bosworth (former US Special Representative for North Korea Policy and current Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University) and Robert Carlin (CISAC Visiting Scholar), about their experiences with KEDO. All three were involved with KEDO at different times in its ten year history and provide insights into what it was like on the ground building this multilateral organization. They discuss some of the major challenges in dealing with the North Koreans, as well as the cultural learning curve faced by KEDO’s multicultural staff. From the perspective of direct experience, they examine both KEDO’s accomplishments and the opportunities missed by the organization’s abrupt termination. In the final segment, Ambassador Bosworth also reflects on the Obama administration’s North Korea policy and provides his views on how to improve relations with the North in the future. My personal conclusion was they [North Koreans] were very serious about what they were doing—the enterprise that we were involved in. This was not something just being done for show. For them, it was not just KEDO and the Agreed Framework and light water reactors, but it was clear for many of them this was important because it was setting a series of precedents for how North Korea could begin to engage with rest of the world in a more direct and active fashion. ~ Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, “Reflections on KEDO,” a 38 North interview Part I: Establishing KEDO Part II: Dealing with the DPRK Part III: Final Assessment Part IV: The Obama Years and Beyond [KEDO]
• U.S. Unlikely to Yield Over Nuclear Deal with Korea
  The White House point man for arms control on Monday expressed confidence that Korea and the U.S. will find a solution in talks to allow Korea to reprocess its own spent nuclear fuel rods. Gary Samore made the remarks at a seminar hosted by the Korean Embassy in Washington. Korea has been urging the U.S. to revise a 1974 agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy that prohibits Seoul from reprocessing. But Samore set his face against allowing Korea to enrich uranium as well, saying enriched uranium can be bought from other countries like the U.S. or France. The U.S. has signed bilateral nuclear agreements with a number of countries including Korea, usually preventing them from running their own uranium enrichment program. But Japan signed an agreement with the U.S. in 1955 allowing supply of nuclear reactors and enriched uranium for research purposes. It started reprocessing as far back as 1977, although it still needed consent from the U.S. on a case-by-case basis. When the agreement was amended in 1988, Japan became the only country without nuclear arms to have nearly full permission to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel. India also won the right to reprocessing in its 2007 agreement with the U.S. India developed nuclear weapons without joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It carried out nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 but was exempt from stringent controls for strategic reasons, chiefly because the U.S. wanted to keep China in check and embrace a huge emerging market. The Korean nuclear power industry is critical of what it says are the double standards employed by the U.S., which prevent one of its closest allies from uranium enrichment and reprocessing while Japan and India enjoy such exceptional rights. [US dominance] [Double standards] [Sidelined]
• US opposes South Korea’s attempts to use pyro-processing for nuclear power
  Posted on : Jul.25,2012 12:13 KST Gary Saymore, White House National Security Council coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction policy Seoul seeking to reprocess spent fuel to solve storage dilemma By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington correspondent South Korea is currently claiming the right to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel to solve the problem of storing spent fuel, but the US is opposed, saying this could hurt international nuclear non-proliferation. White House National Security Council coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction policy Gary Saymore mentioned Seoul’s interest in pyro-processing while meeting journalists after a bilateral meeting to discuss the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and future steps. Saymore noted South Korea’s highly developed nuclear power industry, but also said it could purchase enriched uranium from the United States or France. [US dominance]
• S.Korea Needs to Consider Acquiring Nuclear Weapons
  Kim Dae-joong Any map of Northeast Asia shows that three countries surrounding South Korea -- North Korea, China and Russia -- have nuclear weapons, and now there are signs that even Japan is inching toward arming itself with the bomb. A look at the countries involved in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program shows that five of them, except South Korea, are either nuclear armed or potentially armed. The nuclear map of Northeast Asia is changing now that Japan has revised laws in late June that suggest it wants to develop nuclear weapons too. South Korea alone in the region has no prospect of acquiring them. Why does Seoul continue to adhere to what looks like an increasingly outdated peace and denuclearization policy? The goal of denuclearization in Northeast Asia has become unattainable. North Korea is not going to abandon its nuclear weapons even at the cost of its own collapse, since the regime saw clearly what happened to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi when he gave them up. [Nuclear weapons] [logic]
• Nuclear Armament: Scandalous Hypocrisies
  by Immanue l Wallerstein Commentary No. 332, July 1, 2011 The world has been worried about a nuclear Armageddon ever since the United States dropped two nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945. These were, be it said, the only two bombs ever used in actual warfare. U.S. possession of the atomic bomb gave it, of course, an enormous military advantage. It followed that the United States wanted to keep a monopoly on the weapon, and other countries wanted to break the monopoly. First and foremost, the Soviet Union wanted to do this, and succeeded in 1949. Feared as a great catastrophe, this turned out to be a marvelous boon. From that point on, the two "superpowers" were locked in a mutual unspoken agreement not to be the "first" user of the bomb. Despite the constant suspicions of each other, the tacit accord held fast - to this day. There were others, however, who thought they deserved to be part of the club. Great Britain was invited in by the United States. And both France and China ignored all the pleas and pressures to remain non-nuclear. So, by the 1970s, all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were nuclear powers. [Proliferation]

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JUNE 2012

• DPRK Calls for Worldwide Efforts for Nuclear Disarmament
  Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- Nuclear disarmament is a top-priority task directly linked with world peace and security and the existence of mankind and the existing institutional mechanism is not enough to provide a guarantee for the realization of true nuclear disarmament. The DPRK delegate said this at a plenary session of the Geneva Disarmament Conference on June 19. [Nuclear weapon] [Nuclear umbrella]
• Mind the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality
  by Roger Cavazos June 26, 2012 This report was originally presented at the East Asia Nuclear Security workshop held on November 11, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan. All of the papers and presentations given at the workshop are available here, along with the full agenda, participant list and a workshop photo gallery. I. Introduction In the following report Roger Cavazos considers two bounded cases of an artillery attack on Seoul. The question is pertinent since it bears on whether there is conventional stability on the Korean Peninsula. If there is a conventional military stability, that is neither South Korea nor North Korea have the military capacity to successfully invade, then both parties have an interest in cutting the Gordian knot of present relations. Legal frameworks such as a Korea Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone are far cheaper, less resource intensive yet still confrontational enough to relieve some pressure of an antagonistic relationship. The conclusion is that there is a conventional military stability which allows for the time and effort to seek alternative resolutions such as a Korea Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone which allows the DPRK to trade an almost no cost legal framework for a tangible security guarantee. [Context] [MISCOM] [NWFZ]
• Loose Lips Sink Ships
  By Peter Hayes June 19, 2012 An abbreviated version of this essay was published by the East Asia Foundation, in the summer 2012 edition of Global Asia. Peter Hayes evaluates the plausibility South Korea attaining nuclear weapons, either through the development of a domestic nuclear program or though the deployment of weapons from the United States. Hayes reviews recent calls from US Representative Trent Franks and the Saenuri Party’s Chung Mong-joon to arm South Korea with nuclear weapons and concludes that, “Indeed, to the extent that they inflame an already tense situation in Korea, these statements recall an old adage with particular resonance to South Koreans still living with the loss of the ship Cheonan and its crew, viz: “Loose Lips Sink Ships.”” [Tactical nuclear weapons]
• Fukushima Daiichi: From Nuclear Power Plant to Nuclear Weapon
  by Prof. Anthony Hall Global Research, June 13, 2012 “Our world is faced with a crisis that has never before been envisaged in its whole existence… The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Albert Einstein, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May, 1946 Albert Einstein’s Warning and the Ominous Fate of Fukushima Daiichi As the bad news gradually spreads that the debacle at Fukushima nuclear power plant #1 is becoming more perilous rather than less so, the words of Albert Einstein come to mind. Recall that the legendary physicist, Einstein, helped to set in motion the Manhattan Project whose personnel designed and built the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In his letter to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939 Einstein warned that if the United States did not enter and win the race to harness the destructive potential of atomic weaponry, Germany would almost certainly do so. The Manhattan Project became a primary prototype for the Research and Development–R and D– partnerships linking the US government and for-profit corporations in what a Dwight D. Eisenhower would later describe as “the military-industrial complex.” Einstein himself did not directly participate in this huge initiative aimed at defeating the Axis powers linking Japan with Germany and Italy. One of the twentieth century’s most iconographic thinkers watched from the sidelines as other physicists and technologists applied many of Einstein’s theories to the building of atomic weaponry.
• North Korea says no nuclear test is in the works
  Posted on : Jun.11,2012 15:46 KST Foreign ministry statement denies to be planning any provocative measures By Park Byong-su, staff reporter North Korea released a foreign ministry spokesperson’s statement on June 9 saying the country has no current plans to conduct a nuclear test. The statement said the South Korean government was “desperately trying to provoke us into currently unplanned hard-line retaliatory measures such as a nuclear test or artillery battle on Yeonpyeong Island. The US is making us out to be the belligerent ones, thus fomenting tensions in our relationship with surrounding countries and creating an atmosphere of pressure toward anti-republic sanctions.” The remarks came amid criticisms of what the statement described as antagonistic policies by Seoul, including its denunciation of an event celebrating the 66th anniversary of the Youth League. Analysts said the statement more clearly stated the country’s lack of plans to conduct a nuclear test than a previous foreign ministry spokesperson’s statement on May 22. That statement indirectly suggested the country did not have any such plans. The statement read, “We had always planned the peaceful launch of a science satellite, so there was never any prediction of military measures such as a nuclear test.” [Test]
• N. Korea again rules out nuclear test
  North Korea said Saturday that it has no immediate plan to conduct a third nuclear test. The North's latest announcement made through a statement issued by its foreign ministry spokesman came amid growing international concern about its possible nuclear test following April's failed rocket launch. "(South Korea) seeks to rattle the nerves of the DPRK (North Korea) in a bid to cause it to conduct a nuclear test, though such a thing is not under plan at present, and take such strong retaliatory measures as Yeonpyeong Island shelling incident," the statement said. "This scenario is aimed to strain the relations between the DPRK and the countries around it and create an atmosphere of putting pressure and sanctions on it," the statement said, accusing the South of "defaming" the celebrations of the Day of the Sun, the anniversary of the Korean Children's Union and other auspicious events in the North. [Test] [Buildup] [Psychwar] [North wind]
• North Korea says it has no current plans for 3rd nuclear test, despite Seoul’s provocations
  By Associated Press, Sunday, June 10, 2:59 AM PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea says it has no current plans to conduct a nuclear test despite what it calls South Korean provocation. The statement Saturday from an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman comes amid worry that a third test could follow North Korea’s long-range rocket launch in April. South Korean intelligence officials have said satellite images suggested the North was making nuclear test preparations. But the North’s statement says Seoul’s recent criticism of a children’s festival and other important events is meant to rattle North Korea into a nuclear test or military action so Seoul and others can increase sanctions. Seoul called a North Korean threat Monday against specific news agencies critical of the festival a “grave provocation.” [Test] [North wind]
• N. Koreans convicted of trying to steal rocket technology from Ukraine
  MOSCOW (Yonhap) -- Two North Korean nationals were sentenced to eight year prison terms after being caught trying to steal secret rocket technology from the Ukraine, local sources said Saturday. Sources said the North Koreans identified as Ryu Song-chul and Lee Tae-kil were arrested for spying in July after they tried to steal classified technology from the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk. The sentence was handed down by a Ukrainian court late last month. Yuzhnoye's Dnipropetrovsk bureau is in charge of rocket and satellite development and was responsible for making the 11,000-kilometer range R-36M multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile during the Soviet era. Security Service of Ukraine, which carried out the arrest, said the two worked at North Korea's trade representative office in Minsk, Belarus, but had made contact with a researcher at Yuzhnoye. [Espionage] Rocketry]
• IAEA chief says nuke agency has ‘no immediate prospect’ of monitoring mission to North Korea
  By Associated Press, Published: June 5 VIENNA — The head of the U.N. nuclear agency says his organization does not plan to send a mission to North Korea any time soon, despite an invitation from Pyongyang. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano is invoking the North’s mid- April launch of a satellite as negating any “immediate prospect of an agency mission taking place.” Because of similar technologies, the statellite launch was widely interpreted internationally as a test of North Korean missile capabilities. Pyongyang is prohibited from missile tests by the U.N. Security Council. The North issued the invitation to the IAEA on March 13. Amano said it became obvious that it could not send a mission to Pyongyang in the near future after recent contacts with North Korean officials. [IAEA] [UNUS] [Rebuff] [Renege]
• South Korea should get nuclear weapons: Rep. Chung
  JUNE 04, 2012 00:09 Leading ruling Saenuri Party Rep. Chung Mong-joon said Sunday that South Korea should have the capability to possess nuclear weapons in going beyond a nuclear strategy of dependence on the U.S. In a news conference, the former party chairman said, "North Korea’s declaration as a nuclear power in its constitution means that the North no longer intends to consider the dismantlement of nuclear weapons as a subject for negotiations. We need a comprehensive reexamination of our security policy.” [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korea calls itself a nuclear power
  Posted on : Jun.1,2012 14:46 KST Modified on : Jun.2,2012 09:21 KST Seoul and Washington both refrain from recognizing Pyongyang’s claim By Park Byung-soo, Kwon Tae-ho and Jung Nam-ku, staff reporters Seoul and Washington responded sensitively to news of North Korea listing itself as a nuclear state in its amended Constitution in April. Both governments immediately said that they would not recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear power. North Korea openly sought nuclear capability since first declaring in a Feb. 2005 foreign ministry statement that it had succeeded in developing nuclear weapons. But South Korea, the US, and other countries disputed this, arguing that Pyongyang was attempting to gain recognition as a nuclear state outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) like India, Pakistan, or Israel. Pyongyang’s decision to list itself as a nuclear state indicates that it has no intention of giving up its nuclear program
• Russia to ship main stage Naro-1 rocket to Korea by August
  MOSCOW (Yonhap) --Russia plans to ship a main stage rocket for Korea's Naro-1 space vehicle before the end of August so it can be readied for its planned launch, a senior official said Friday. In a meeting with Korean reporters in the Russian capital, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Lee Ju-ho said he had visited the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and was able to confirm that delivery of the rocket should take place in time for the October launch. [Satellite]
• Nuclear weapons just don’t make sense
  By Walter Pincus, Published: May 24 Nuclear weapons are terror weapons, and basically unusable. That’s one reason why no rational strategy, other than deterrence, has ever been developed to justify them. Events in the past 10 days make my case. On Tuesday, the British government — in the midst of an austerity program that includes cutting education, health and retirement programs — announced contract awards of $595 millon to begin design of replacements for its four nuclear submarines that carry Trident sub-launched ballistic missiles. Currently, these submarines each have 16 missiles, each with three, independently guided warheads whose power is roughly eight times that of the Hiroshima bomb. Based in Scotland, one is on patrol at all times. Where are they aimed? The British once had a “Moscow criterion,” enough nuclear warheads to wipe out the former Soviet Union’s capital or a similarly sized city. Since Britain got rid of its nuclear bombs in the 1990s, and the Cold War has ended, targeting has become more abstract. Conservative Party Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement Tuesday that the first nuclear sub contracts “symbolise an important step towards renewing our nation’s nuclear deterrent into the 2060s.” No mention of who would be deterred after 2060. [Nuclear weapons]
• The IAEA and Parchin: do the claims add up?
  by Robert Kelley "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has an extremely difficult time in evaluating alleged nuclear weapons studies in Iran. While it has done an excellent job in verifying the nuclear material production activities in Iran’s uranium enrichment plants, the IAEA also appears to be willing to risk its technical credibility by insisting on visiting a military site called Parchin, near Tehran. The IAEA renewed its call to be granted access to Parchin during the past week’s negotiations with Iran on a new framework agreement for resuming its investigation of suspected military nuclear activities in the country. For its part, Iran has dismissed the IAEA’s concerns about the Parchin site, claiming that it was sufficiently inspected by the agency in 2005. [IAEA] [UNUS]
• New Launch Facilities Under Construction at Musudan-ri, Possible Iranian Connection
  By 38 North New satellite photos from April 29, 2012 indicate that a major upgrade of North Korea’s Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground—more commonly referred to as Musudan-ri—underway since summer 2011, is making rapid progress. The new construction is intended to support future launches of rockets larger than the recently tested Unha—more capable liquid fueled space launch vehicles or missiles with intercontinental ranges—that will also overfly Japan, further aggravating regional tensions. In addition to a new launch pad under construction, much of the nearby village of Taepodong has been razed to clear the way for what appears to be a new building designed to assemble larger rockets. The high bay portion of that building—the area where rockets are assembled—may have twice as much floor space as similar facilities at Musudan-ri and the new Sohae Satellite Launching Station (commonly referred to as Tongchang-ri). At the current pace of construction, the facilities should be operational by 2016-17.

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MAY 2012

• Korea's Own Space Rocket a Distant Dream
  Korea's goal of developing its own space rocket by 2018 looks ever more likely to come true. At a seminar on May 28, 2009 just three months before Korea attempted the first launch of the Naro space rocket, Park Jeong-joo, the then head of the space rocket program at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said, "We will begin developing a Korean-made space launch vehicle and launch it in 2018." The rocket would be 45 m long, weigh 200 tons and carry a 1.5-ton satellite. It was to consist of three stages with a booster twice as strong as the Naro's, whose cargo was a 100 kg science satellite. The developmental budget was set at W1.55 trillion (US$1=W1,180), or about three times more what was spent to develop the Naro. [Satellite] [KSLV]
• North sends mixed messages on nuke issue
  This April 30, 2012 satellite image provided by GeoEye shows the area around the Yongbyon nuclear facility in Yongbyon, North Korea. / Korea Times file By Chung Hee-hyung North Korea declared Monday that it had no intention of renouncing its nuclear development program should the United States continue to take “hostile actions.” “We have no choice but to take countermeasures for self- defense as long as the United States persists in ratcheting up sanctions against us,” said an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman in an interview with the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The isolated state, however, also left some room for negotiation. The spokesman stated that the country had only been preparing for a “peaceful” satellite launch for scientific purposes, and therefore never planned for “military measures,” including nuclear tests. The mixed message has puzzled experts who were forced to decipher the North’s coded language and figure out what precisely the isolated country had in mind. Experts have widely expected the Stalinist state to conduct a third nuclear test shortly after it lost face following its failed rocket launch last month. The country already conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The confusion was evident when news agencies across the world gave widely different interpretations to the statement.
  Reuters reported that North Korea was to “boost its nuclear deterrent,” while the Chinese Xinhua agency’s headline read “North says it has no intention of holding nuclear tests.” [Media] [Heading] [Inversion]
• N.Korea Denies Imminent Nuclear Test
  North Korea on Tuesday claimed it never planned to conduct a nuclear test and its missile tests were purely for scientific research. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the regime "from the beginning" never envisaged "such a military measure as a nuclear test," and the aim of a failed rocket launch last month was to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes. The North was responding to a statement on Saturday from the G8 nations condemning the April 13 rocket launch and pledging tougher UN sanctions against the Stalinist country in response to any further provocations or a nuclear test [Overture]
• Declaration of G8 Summit Pulling up DPRK over Satellite Launch Refuted
  Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA slamming the declaration of the G8 Summit for finding fault with the DPRK: We decisively denounce and totally reject the declaration of the summit held in the U.S. recently which unreasonably pulled up the DPRK over its satellite launch for peaceful purposes and nuclear deterrence for self-defence. Absolutely intolerable is G8's reckless political provocation to violate the sacred sovereignty of the DPRK steeped in the bad habit of supporting the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK in disregard of justice and truth. [Satellite]
• NK's new rocket assembly building similar to Iran's
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A new building apparently designed to assemble large rockets at North Korea's launch site is similar to the one at Iran's launch complex, a U.S. institute's Web site reported Wednesday, in what could be the latest sign of bilateral missile cooperation. North Korea began to upgrade its Musudan-ri site in the country's northeast to support future launches of larger rockets, liquid-fueled space launch vehicles or intercontinental missiles, said 38 North, a project of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies dedicated to analysis of the North.
• Japan Launches S.Korean Satellite into Orbit
  Early Friday, Japan successfully launched a South Korean satellite. The historical accomplishment puts the Japanese in the same arena as European and Russian entities in the lucrative commercial space launch business. The roar of the H-2A launch vehicle shattered the early morning silence On the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima. The space center was illuminated as the liquid-fueled 57-m high two-stage rocket rose off the pad with four satellites on board. Sixteen minutes after launch, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced the first payload had successfully separated. [Satellite]
• G-8 leaders warn of tougher actions against N. Korea
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Leaders of the world's eight advanced nations wrapped up their summit in the U.S. Saturday with a warning that North Korea will face stronger punishment in case of further provocations [Satellite] [Double standards]
• US House passes bill recommending tactical nukes in Korea
  WASHINGTON(Yonhap) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed the 2013 national defense authorization bill that recommends the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. The non-binding amendment approved by the House reflects the Republican Party's push to get the incumbent Obama administration to take a firmer stance against North Korea's nuclear weapons threat. The Republicans who control the House have also hinted that the redeployment of short-range, low yield nukes in South Korea and other parts of Northeast Asia could help nudge China into pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. Conservative lawmakers in Washington have been frustrated by China's reluctance to push North Korea on the nuclear issue. Despite the passage of the amendment, both the U.S. State and Defense departments said Washington is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
• Korean satellite successfully reaches earth's orbit
  Korea's multipurpose satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera successfully reached the earth's orbit after blasting off from a Japanese space center, the government said Friday. The Arirang 3 satellite, which lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan at 1:39 a.m., made contact with ground stations indicating that it has entered a correct trajectory, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The Arirang was placed in orbit by Japan's H-2A rocket, which also carried three other satellites [Satellite]
• Korea set to launch multipurpose satellite
  Korea is set to launch a multipurpose satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera from a Japanese space center as planned, the government said Thursday. The Arirang 3 satellite is scheduled to lift off at 1:39 a.m. Friday from the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center located south of Kyushu Island, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. "All pre-launch preparations have moved forward as planned with the blastoff to take place as scheduled," it said. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• House Panel Calls for Study of Refielding Tactical Nukes in Western Pacific
  May 11, 2012 A House of Representatives committee has approved a measure that directs the Obama administration to explore the possibility of refielding U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons in the Asia-Pacific region as a response to North Korea's continued work on ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, Foreign Policy reported on Thursday (see GSN, May 10). The amendment to the Fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act passed in a 32-26 vote that fell largely along party lines, with support from all but one of the Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee and two Democrats. The measure backs "steps to deploy additional conventional forces of the United States and redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to the Western Pacific region," and requires the Defense and State departments to inform Congress of the viability of refielding nonstrategic nuclear arms in the area. [Nuclear weapons] [Buildup]
• US nuke upgrade to trigger new arms race with Russia?
  By F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com LONDON - Plans to upgrade the estimated 180 American tactical nuclear weapons in western Europe are expensive, dangerous and likely to trigger a dangerous reaction from Russia, according to a new report. "Modernization ... will be a form of expensive nuclear escalation by default which can be expected to draw a hostile reaction from Moscow," said the study by the European Leadership Network (ELN) think tank, which was released on Thursday. NATO is preparing to replace aging aircraft and antiquated free-fall nuclear bombs with precision-guided warheads carried by modern U.S. aircraft, according to the report by Edmond Seay, a former arms control adviser to NATO's U.S. mission. The weapons to be replaced were "originally deployed to help NATO counter massive Soviet conventional force superiority in central Europe" and are now "widely seen to have no real military purpose or value," according to a summary of the report. [Nuclear weapons] [Buildup]
• Korea set to launch multipurpose satellite next week
  Korea will launch a multipurpose satellite equipped with a high-resolution camera that can provide detailed meteorological observations of the earth from a Japanese space center next week, the government said Tuesday. The Arirang 3 satellite is scheduled to lift off at 1:39 a.m. on May 18 from the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center located south of Kyushu Island, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. [Satellite]
• NK vows to push forward with nuclear, rocket programs
  North Korea vowed Sunday to continue to push strongly forward with its nuclear and rocket programs, rejecting an appeal from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members that Pyongyang refrain from any acts escalating tensions. The council members -- the United States, Britain, China, Russia and France -- issued the joint statement during a nuclear meeting in Vienna last week, urging Pyongyang to "refrain from further actions which may cause grave security concerns in the region, including any nuclear tests." They also expressed "serious concern" over the North's rocket launch last month. On Sunday, the North's Foreign Ministry rejected the statement as "a grave illegal action of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK and its right to use space and nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, pursuant to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK." [Spin] [Double standards] [Media]
• North Korea’s New Long-Range Missile: Fact or Fiction?
  By Nick Hansen Introduction North Korea’s unveiling of a new long-range missile in its April 15 parade, designated the KN-08 by Western experts, has caused a great deal of speculation. Some analysts have even concluded that the weapons on display were not real.[1] The paraded missiles are certainly not weapons ready for launching. But I believe they are probably part of a developmental process that will culminate in either a new North Korean intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) or, depending on the weight of its warhead, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Moreover, the missile’s transporter-erector-launcher (TEL), probably manufactured in China in 2010, was purchased and extensively modified specifically for the new missile, not just for show. The KN-08 Missile The big surprise coming out of the centennial parade was the display of six road mobile missiles, designated the KN-08. These missiles were unlike any of the DPRK’s three other mobile ballistic missile systems. Moreover, they did not resemble the recently launched Unha rocket or the reported large rocket seen at a North Korean research and development facility a week earlier. [Missile] [Intelligence]
• Questions about the Unha-3 Failure
  By David Wright Three weeks have passed since the North Korean failed satellite launch and we’re still waiting for more information to accurately assess what happened. The United States, as well as Japan and South Korea, deployed many sensors in the region to watch the launch, and should have gathered very good data on what happened. However, it is unclear how much of that information will ever be made public, since countries tend to be very careful about releasing anything that might provide information about “sources and methods” of gathering information. However, I expect the basics of the event will eventually come out. In the meantime, here is what we know: [Satellite]
• N.Korea 'Spent Enough on Nukes to Buy Food for 8 Years'
  Chronically hard-up North Korea has spent a total of US$6.58 billion on nuclear weapons development and now has a dozen bombs, including three uranium weapons, a South Korean expert claims. The expert, who requested anonymity, said the money would have been enough to buy 1,940 tons of corn from China or eight year's worth of rations for the North Korean people. Since the 1980s, North Korea spent $2.01 billion on building nuclear facilities including those in Yongbyon, $310 million on related research, $2.72 billion to operate the facilities, $1.34 billion to develop nuclear weapons, and $200 million on nuclear tests, he claimed. North Korea says it operates 2,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges. If that is true, it would be able to produce 40 kg of highly enriched uranium per year. Since it takes 15 to 25 kg of uranium to produce one nuclear weapon, North Korea may have developed one to two uranium bombs a year, the expert explained. [HEU][Guns_butter]
• 3,000 experts run N. Korean nuclear program
  By Lee Tae-hoon North Korea employees some 3,000 experts in pursuit of becoming a nuclear power, a nuclear expert said Wednesday. He added that the reclusive nation would have spent at least $6.58 billion or several years’ worth of food supplies for its impoverished people. “North Korea has some 3,000 nuclear-related experts,” he said on condition of anonymity. North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan also mentioned the figure during talks with South Korean negotiators over food aid in return for suspending its nuclear program, according to a defense source.
• China launches two navigation satellites
  Xinhua | April 30, 2012 09:54 By Agencies The Long March-3B rocket carrying two satellites blasts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on April 30, 2012. China successfully launched two satellites into space Monday morning, the 12th and 13th of its indigenous global navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, or Compass system, the launch center said. Photo: Xinhua [Satellite]
• Uranium Boom and Plutonium Bust: Russia, Japan, China and the World
  Peter Lee Over the last decade, the world of fissionable material has experienced a quiet revolution. Plutonium, once the lethal darling of nations seeking a secure source of fuel for their nuclear reactors (and their nuclear weapons) has fallen from favor. Uranium has replaced plutonium as the feedstock of choice for the world’s nuclear haves. And business is booming. Asian powers like China and India, concerned about energy security and environmental degradation—and despite the disaster at Fukushima—are turning to nuclear power. The demand for uranium is expected to grow by over 40% over the next five years. The Australian - Global Uranium Demand Expected To Skyrocket In an unexpected but, in retrospect, logical development, Russia is emerging as the dominant global player in the nuclear fuel industry, with the apparent acquiescence of the United States. [Uranium] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• International eyes peeled for a North Korea nuke test
  Analysts suspect North Korea will follow failed rocket launch with test » A satellite photo of the North Korean nuclear test site in Pungye Village rele ased by the US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University. (photo taken from the US-Korea Institute website) By Park Byung-soo, staff writer A recent flurry of reports predicting a North Korean nuclear test has observers questioning whether it will happen and, if so, when. The Associated Press reported Saturday that a line of mining carts and an 8,000 cubic meter pile of earth have been detected at the North Korean nuclear test site in the Punggye Village of Kilju County, North Hamgyong province. The report cited the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University as a source. [Test]
• N.Korean Nuclear Test 'Within 2 Weeks'
  North Korea could conduct a nuclear test within the next two weeks, experts warn. "The preparations are done and all it needs to do is to push the button," a government source here said. "There is a strong chance that the North will spend some time considering the timing and conduct the test in early to mid-May." NBC News last week also cited a U.S. government official as saying the North is likely to conduct a nuclear test in the next two weeks. AP cited experts at Johns Hopkins University as saying that mining boxcars were spotted moving and piles of soil building up at the North's nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province. This April 18, 2012 satellite image provided by GeoEye appears to show a train of mining carts, at the lower center of the frame, and other preparations underway at North Koreas Punggye-ri nuclear test site, according to analysis by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. /Courtesy of 38north.org This April 18, 2012 satellite image provided by GeoEye appears to show a train of mining carts, at the lower center of the frame, and other preparations underway at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site, according to analysis by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. /Courtesy of 38north.org Experts offered similar guesses at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies’ Asan Plenum last week, where participants included former nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and former deputy secretary to the U.S. State Department James Steinberg. Meanwhile, the ex-IAEA secretary general Olli-Pekka Jalonen [Olli Heinonen?] said there is a strong possibility that North Korea will test a uranium rather than a plutonium bomb this time. According to Reuters, Jalonen said if North Korea has succeeded in building a uranium enrichment facility, it could have around 3.5 tons of highly enriched uranium. [Test] [MISCOM] [HEU] [UNUS]

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APRIL 2012

• North Korea's 100th – Celebrations Gone Awry
  Gavan McCormack This revised and updated version of the author’s earlier “North Korea's 100th – To Celebrate or To Surrender?” was prepared for the Korean journal Changbi. Given strong interest in the issues, The Asia-Pacific Journal is publishing the updated version. Spring always brings reminders of the abiding insecurity that stems from the continuing division and confrontation of two states and systems on the Korean peninsula. On the one side, South Korea and the United States conduct large-scale military exercises, involving land, sea and air forces, (Operations Key Resolve and Foal Eagle) designed to rehearse a reopening of war. North Korea inevitably raises its levels of alert and readiness and its tone of belligerence, and in such climate the Cheonan incident occurred in March 2010. Eighth Army trains with its South Korean allies during Exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle. In 2012, however, as the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises mobilized a massive multinational, joint service force of destroyers, submarines, fighter jets and hundreds of thousands of soldiers to carry out live shooting from islands within North Korean-claimed zones of the West Sea and to rehearse, among other things, landings behind North Korean lines, global attention focussed almost exclusively on the plan announced by North Korea on 16 March to launch an earth observation satellite, Kwangmyongsong 3. [Satellite] [Joint US military] [Japanese remilitarisation] [US NK negotiations]
• US Nuclear Weapons Upgrades: Experts Report Massive Cost Increase
  05/16/2012 05:58 PM By Markus Becker By Markus Becker The cost of modernizing US nuclear weapons, including those stationed in Germany, has risen sharply, according to estimates. Several independent experts told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the bill for renewing the B61 atomic bomb will rise to $6 billion. The project will also upset Russia, they say. The B61 is the last remnant of the Cold War in Germany. An estimated 10 to 20 of the atomic bombs are thought to remain in storage at a German Air Force base in Büchel, a village in the Eifel mountains of western Germany. Should war break out, the Tornado aircraft belonging to the German Air Force could immediately be armed with the weapons for sorties under US control. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• North Korea Resumes Construction of Light Water Reactor: Completion of Buildings May Be Near
  By 38 North After months of inactivity, North Korea has resumed work on its new experimental light water reactor (ELWR), which the DPRK claims is intended to help solve domestic energy shortages, but is also an important component in its effort to build nuclear weapons. Commercial satellite photography from April 30, 2012 reveals that Pyongyang is now close to completion of the reactor containment building. The next major step in construction will be loading the heavy components, such as the pressure vessel, steam generator, and pressurizer, likely through the cylindrical opening in the roof of the reactor containment building. That process could take 6-12 months to complete. Overall, it may take another 1-2 years before the new facility becomes operational. [LWR]
• NWFZS and Extended Nuclear Deterrence: Squaring the Circle?
  By Jayantha Dhanapala May 1st, 2012 Jayantha Dhanapala states that a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZ) in Northeast Asia could prove to be a reasonable solution to the complex issues in the region, but that the exceptions and ambiguities that have been allowed during past negotiations of NWFZs must be avoided. Dhanapala argues that compromising on fundamental NWFZ principles—namely that all parties must verifiably dismantle any nuclear weapons and rescind extended nuclear deterrence agreements with Nuclear Weapons States (NWS)—will only exacerbate security concerns. Jayantha Dhanapala is a former Ambassador of Sri Lanka and a former UN Under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs. [NWFS]
• China wants "drastic" U.S., Russia nuclear arms cuts
  Published: Monday, 30 Apr 2012 | 8:55 AM ET VIENNA (Reuters) - China called on the United States and Russia on Monday to make further "drastic" cuts in their nuclear arsenals and said all states with atomic arms should undertake not to be the first to use them. The development of missile defense systems which "disrupt" the global strategic balance should be abandoned, a senior Chinese diplomat also told a nuclear meeting in Vienna in a possible reference to U.S. plans that have angered Russia. Under a treaty that entered into force in February 2011, Washington and Moscow are to limit the number of operationally deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 - 30 percent lower than the ceiling a 2002 pact established. But they still hold most of the world's nuclear arms - a fact underlined by the Chinese representative on the opening day of a two-week meeting in Vienna to discuss the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a 1970 pact. China, Britain and France are the other three recognized nuclear weapons states in the world. Ambassador Cheng Jingye, head of the Chinese delegation, said all nuclear weapons states should publicly undertake "not to seek permanent possession" of atomic bombs. "As countries with (the) largest nuclear arsenals, U.S. and Russia should continue to make drastic reductions in their nuclear arsenals in a verifiable and irreversible manner," he said, according to a copy of his statement. "Other nuclear weapon states, when conditions are ripe, should also join the multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament." [Nuclear weapons]
• North Korean Nuclear Test Preparations: An Update
  By 38 North Recent press reports on the impending North Korean nuclear test have been ambiguous. Some have quoted reliable sources that a test is imminent. Others have stated that there are no obvious signs that a test will happen soon. The most recent commercial satellite imagery available of the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test facility supports the contention that preparations are continuing and that the North Koreans are preceding as if the test go-ahead decision has already been made. The imagery does not, however, give any indication of when that detonation may take place. [Test]
• S.Korea Pushes for Bigger Missile Payload
  The government is seeking to persuade the U.S. not only to extend the range of South Korea's missiles but to increase the size of the warheads it is allowed to mount on them. Existing missile guidelines signed by South Korea and the U.S. in 1979 and revised in 2001, limit the range of Seoul's ballistic missiles to 300 km and their payload to 500 kg, and any longer range would require their payloads to be reduced. That way South Korea has been effectively prohibited from developing solid fuel-powered rockets that can be turned into mid to long-range ballistic missiles. But now Seoul feels the threat from North Korea and the regional arms race make these restrictions dangerous and obsolete. In the next round of talks with Washington to revise the missile guidelines, it plans to raise both the issues of boosting the range and scrapping limits on payloads, a government source said Wednesday. Military officials recently unveiled the Hyunmu-3 cruise missile with a maximum range of between 500 and 1,500 km, whose payload must under the existing missile guidelines be reduced if the range is extended. {military balance] [Missiles] [US dominance]
• Forecasts conflicting on N. Korean nuclear test
  By Kim Young-jin Concern soared Wednesday over a possible third nuclear test by North Korea after a report said the isolated state was virtually ready for such provocation. With tensions soaring over Pyongyang’s failed rocket launch on April 13, Seoul submitted a request to a U.N. Security Council committee that in retaliation the assets of more than a dozen North Korean entities be frozen. Japan’s Kyodo News quoted a Seoul military official as saying “substantial preparations” for a nuclear test had been made at the Punggye-ri site in the northeastern part of the peninsula and that the test hinged on a “political choice” by the North. [Test] [Intelligence] [Media]
• Analysts say new missiles displayed by N. Korea are sloppy fakes, show no sign of advancement
  By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, April 26, 7:46 PM TOKYO — Analysts who have studied photos of a half-dozen ominous new North Korean missiles showcased recently at a lavish military parade say they were fakes, and not very convincing ones, casting further doubt on the country’s claims of military prowess. Since its recent rocket launch failure, Pyongyang’s top military leaders have made several boastful statements about its weapons capabilities. On Wednesday, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho claimed his country is capable of defeating the United States “at a single blow.” And on Monday, North Korea promises “special actions” that would reduce Seoul’s government to ashes within minutes. But the weapons displayed April 15 appear to be a mishmash of liquid-fuel and solid-fuel components that could never fly together. Undulating casings on the missiles suggest the metal is too thin to withstand flight. Each missile was slightly different from the others, even though all were supposedly the same make. They don’t even fit the launchers they were carried on. [Missiles] [Military balance] [Disinformation]
• Pakistan tests nuclear-capable missile days after launch by archenemy India
  By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, April 25, 7:54 PM ISLAMABAD — Pakistan successfully launched an upgraded ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead Wednesday, days after its neighbor and archenemy India conducted its own missile test, the Pakistani military said. The Hatf IV Shaheen-1A missile was launched into the sea, the military said in a written statement. [Missiles] [Double standards]
• N.Korea 'to Launch Another Rocket'
  North Korea will launch another rocket after a launch failed on April 13, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin claimed Friday. "It is hard to predict" when, Kim told reporters, but "we've detected signs" of another rocket launch. After the failed launch, the North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement on April 17 vowed to "continue to launch peaceful satellites essential to the country's economic development." The North's Outer Space Technology Committee last Thursday claimed to have found a "detailed scientific reason" for the failure of the last launch [Satellite]
• A Tale of Two Rocket Launches
  Posted in India, north Korea, Nuclear proliferation, United Nations Security Council by gowans on April 22, 2012 By Stephen Gowans North Korea launched a rocket on April 13 to loft a satellite into space–part of the country’s civilian space program. The rocket, based on ballistic missile technology, broke up only minutes after launch. Western state officials and media rebuked Pyongyang for directing part of its strained budget to a rocket launch when it depends on outside food aid. Along with other countries, India “voiced deep concern.” [1] Six days later, India launched Agni-V, a ballistic missile capable of delivering a 1.5 ton nuclear warhead to any point in China. India–which the American Federation of Scientists estimates has an arsenal of 80 to 100 nuclear weapons—boasted that the launch represented “another milestone” in its “quest to add to the credibility” of its “security and preparedness.” [2] Both launches violated UN Security Council resolutions. Security Council Resolution 1172 (1998) calls upon India “to cease development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” [3] Security Council Resolutions 1718 (2006) [4] and 1874 (2009) [5] direct North Korea to do the same. On April 16, North Korea was censured by the Security Council for violating resolutions 1718 and 1874. [6] India has not been censured for violating resolution 1172. Indeed, that a Security Council resolution exists which prohibits India’s ballistic missile program has been almost completely ignored. What’s more, while North Korea was savagely attacked in the Western media for its satellite launch, the same media treated India’s long-range ballistic missile test with either indifference or approval. India’s massive poverty was not juxtaposed against its decision to allocate resources to building nuclear warheads and the missiles to carry them. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• S.Korea Unveils New Missiles The Hyunmu-3 cruise missile and Hyunmu-2 ballistic missile
  South Korea on Thursday unveiled two new missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in North Korea. The Hyunmu-3 cruise missile has a range of 1,500 km and is capable of precision attacks on key North Korean facilities, including nuclear and missile installations, while the Hyunmu-2 ballistic missile has a 300 km range and can destroy a target the size of scores of a soccer field. [Missiles] [Military balance] [WMD] [Double standards]
• N.Korea Vows to Continue Missile Tests
  North Korea said Thursday it will continue to test new missiles despite the failed launch of what it claims was a space rocket earlier this month. A spokesman for the North's Outer Space Technology Committee in a statement said the agency found a "detailed scientific reason" behind the failure of the latest rocket launch and vowed to continue sending "peaceful satellites" into space. "The world will clearly see us emerge victorious in our struggle for justice and truth to protect our sovereignty as they observe our majestic satellites flying ceaselessly into infinite space," the statement said [Satellite] [Media] [Spin]
• IAEA Unlikely to Send Delegation to N.Korea
  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says the world body stands ready to take further action against North Korea if that country continues to pursue missile launches or nuclear tests. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Susan Rice said the United Nations' recent statement condemning North Korea's failed missile launch attempt is a "strong and united determination" that further acts will not be tolerated. "One would hope against past precedent that the leadership in North Korea will see the wisdom of not pursuing further provocations and will recognize that the history of their pursuit of these further provocations is North Korea's increasing isolation and increasing pressure from the international community," Rice said. Her comments follow an announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is unlikely to send a delegation to North Korea, after Pyongyang stated it is no longer bound by an agreement with the United States not to test missiles and nuclear devices. [UNUS] [IAEA]
• What’s North Korea’s next move- a nuke test or another missile launch?
  Analysts have conflicting interpretations of satellite images in testing area By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington correspondent US experts are making mixed predictions about North Korean plans for a third nuclear test, a subject of growing concern after its recent long-range rocket launch attempt. Speaking at a North Korea-related hearing in the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Central Intelligence Agency intelligence analyst Frederick Fleitz said there was a “less than 50-50” chance North Korea would conduct a nuclear test in the short term. [Liberal] [Satellite]
• Defense ministry shows off powerful new missiles
  Display of new weapon believed to be response to recent provocations by North Korea » The Ministry of National Defense released the videos and photoes showing ballistic missile (left) and cruise missile developed by South Korean defense industries, April 19. (provided by Ministry of National Defense) By Lee Soon-hyuk, staff writer Missiles capable of striking anywhere in North Korea were unveiled Thursday by the Ministry of National Defense. The showing of the missile represents the South Korean military’s response to North Korea’s recent unveiling of new missiles and acts of provocation. The ministry screened a 40-second video of the missiles’ the launch, flight, and interception procedure. A ministry spokesperson said, “ballistic and cruise missiles developed with independent technology and equipped with the world’s best firepower and positioned for combat”. [Missiles] [Military balance]
• DPRK's Satellites for Peaceful Purposes to Continue Orbiting Space: KCST Spokesman
  Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology (KCST) Thursday released the following statement: Since the KCST's announcement of the planned launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 on March 16, the issue of the DPRK's satellite launch has become topic of debate in the world. Those who sympathize with truth and love justice were unanimous in praising the plan with much expectation. But, the unjust and ill-tempered hostile forces have worked hard to mislead public opinion with groundless assertions and sophism. [Satellite]
• New paint job, same old problems: North Korea’s rockets, missiles show little progress
  By Associated Press, Published: April 17 SEOUL, South Korea — Analysts sifting through information on North Korea’s failed rocket launch say Pyongyang appears to have learned little about spaceflight since its last flubbed attempt three years ago, and that the country is a long way from being able to threaten the United States with a long-range missile. The experts also said an apparently new missile North Korea showed off at a military parade Sunday did not seem to present any major leaps forward. Some were more interested in the truck it was carried on. Analysts sifting through information on North Korea’s failed rocket launch say it suggests Pyongyang has learned little about spaceflight since its last flubbed attempt three years ago, and that it’s a long way from being able to threaten the United States with a long-range missile. . North Korea had touted the Unha-3 rocket that broke apart Friday as its most ambitious effort yet to join the exclusive club of space-faring nations. It said the rocket carried an Earth observation satellite, though many nations say the launch was a cover for testing long-range missile technology. [Satellite]
• Search for N.Korean Rocket Continues But Yields No Result
  The South Korean Navy has deployed more than 10 vessels since Friday to search for the debris of a failed North Korean rocket, but so far little progress has been made, the military said. The rocket broke up within minutes of its take-off and fell into waters 100 km to 150 km west of Pyeongtaek and Gunsan on the peninsula's west coast. A military official said on Sunday, "We haven't recovered anything that looks like rocket debris, despite dispatching the Cheonghaejin, a 4,300-ton submarine rescue ship, and four minesweepers." [Satellite]
• Experts Ponder Cause of N.Korean Rocket Failure
  North Korea's rocket exploded two minutes and 15 seconds after launch, disintegrated into some 20 fragments and fell into the West Sea. The North unusually admitted the failure. Rocket experts attribute it to a problem with the first-stage booster, failed separation of boosters or a rushed launch schedule. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Rocket 'Could Fly 10,000 km'
  Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin on Sunday claimed North Korea's failed rocket would, if successful, have a range of 10,000 km, which would make it capable of reaching the west coast of the U.S. Kim told the National Assembly's Defense Committee, "We have discussed that this one was probably upgraded to fly about 10,000 km." The rocket is 30 m long and has a diameter of 2.5 m, similar to a rocket launched in April 2009, which was 32 m long and had a 2.2 m diameter. But the new rocket is 13 tons heavier at 92 tons.
• Foreign Correspondents Kept in Dark Over Rocket Launch
  Some 70 foreign journalists who went to North Korea between April 6 and 7 in the hope of witnessing the scheduled rocket launch left disappointed and were not even at the launch site on Friday morning. News of the failed launch reached South Korea at 8:25 a.m., but the reporters in Pyongyang were left in ignorance. The regime pretended that it knew nothing when the journalists complained and told them to report to the Yanggakdo Hotel, where it would make an official announcement before 9 a.m. But they were offered no explanation. The official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported the failure at 12:03 p.m., and the press conference was finally held at 1:40 p.m. The reporters had to settle for the unveiling of gigantic statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in Mansudae at 6 p.m. on Friday.
• A North Korean nuclear test could be next
  Pyongyang has established a pattern of following rocket launches with nuke tests By Park Byung-soo, staff writer and Kwon Tae-ho, Washington correspondent Since North Korea failed in its attempt to launch a rocket on April 13, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been alert to the possibility that it may conduct a nuclear test. [Satellite] [Test] [Inversion]
• N. Korea to continue space program despite setback: report
  North Korea plans to begin the development of a geostationary satellite and a large space launch vehicle in five years despite a recent setback in its space program, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The move came three days after the North failed to put an earth observation satellite into orbit when its three-stage Unha-3 rocket exploded soon after lift-off and crashed into the sea off South Korea's west coast. The failed rocket launch was the first part of the country's five-year space program that began this year for economic development, the Choson Sinbo said in a dispatch from Pyongyang. North Korea will "embark on the development of a geostationary satellite in five years," the newspaper said, citing an unidentified North Korean space official. The newspaper, widely seen as a propaganda mouthpiece for Pyongyang, also said the North will develop a space launch vehicle larger than the Unha-3 rocket. North Korea will steadily push for a space program as satellite launches are needed to build a prosperous and powerful nation, on the instructions of its late leader Kim Jong-il, the newspaper said. On Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to uphold the instructions of his father, Kim Jong-il, in his first public speech since he took over the country following the December death of his father. (Yonhap) [Satellite]
• Iranian officials observed NK's rocket launch: source
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A dozen Iranian officials, responsible for the country's ballistic missile program, visited North Korea last week to observe its latest rocket launch, which ended in failure, a diplomatic source here said Sunday. "On March 31, 12 Iranians of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) arrived in North Korea. The Iranians undoubtedly were there to observe the missile launch and receive test data from North Korea," the source told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity. South Korean government officials neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, citing a practice of not commenting on intelligence-related matter. [Satellite] [Iran]
• NK takes domestic and international losses with launch
  Satellite attempt was poor even by Pyongyang’s meager standards By Park Byung-soo, staff writer North Korea’s defiant rocket launch on April 13, and its failure, have left the country a loser on all fronts. The North went ahead with the launch because of the domestic political need to provide stability to the Kim Jong-un regime in its early days. The rocket‘s explosion just two minutes after launch, however, has left the North facing increased isolation and the possibility of extra sanctions on the international front, and a credibility crisis, rather than political success, at home. The North’s unprecedented admission of its failure, made four hours after the launch, appeared to be a desperate measure aimed at dealing, in any way possible, with its pitiful situation. “The fact that the failure was too obvious to be disguised as a success, as in the past, appears to be because internal control of information is not as easy for the North as it used to be,” said one South Korean government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But it seems to be trying to leave some extra margin for the easing of sanctions and further negotiations with the international community by admitting its failure.” [Satellite]
• Surprisingly, Pyongyang admits its failure
  Rocket’s miserable performance leaves North Korea no choice but to hang its head » North Korean state broadcaster Chosun Central TV announces the failure of the of Kwangmyungsung satellite to reach orbit, April 13. The uncharacteristic announcement was made 4 hours and 25 minutes after the launch. By Kim Kyu-won, staff writer North Korea admitted Friday that the Unha-3 rocket failed to enter orbit four hours and 25 minutes after its launch. North Korea had apparently advanced its technology since the failures of the first and second Unha rockets, which North Korea did not acknowledge. But yesterday’s launch also ended in embarrassment. The Korean Central News Agency reported at 12:03 pm on Friday that “the launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, Choson’s [North Korea’s] first applications satellite, took place at the Yellow Sea satellite launch site in Cholsan County, North Pyongyang, at 7:38:55 am Friday,” but that the Earth observation satellite “did not succeed in entering orbit.” [Satellite]
• Remnants of failed rocket lie in murky legal waters
  North and South likely to joust over rocket remains By Lee Soon-hyuk, staff writer The Unha-3 rocket broke apart into more than 20 pieces after a series of explosions and fell into the Yellow Sea, prompting South Korean military authorities to begin an immediate search for the debris. The recovery effort should be feasible as the waters in the Yellow Sea are fairly shallow, with an average depth of roughly 30 meters. Regardless, experts expect the effort to use a considerable amount of manpower and equipment. Also, the situation could cause controversy in terms of international law, since the waters the debris fell into are part of a South Korean exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but are not territorial waters. South Korean military authorities immediately sent in the submarine rescue ship Cheonghaejin, which had been on standby. A minesweeper and agents from the Ship Salvage Unit were dispatched to the waters 100 to 150 kilometers west of Pyeongtaek and the Byeonsan Peninsula. The Cheonghaejin ship has a deep submergence rescue vehicle capable of carrying people and observing the ocean floor. The side scan sonar on the minesweeper is also to be used in searching for debris. [Satellite] [Legality]
• Search is on to find the cause of NK’s rocket flop
  Military experts are considering a range of possible causes » A resident of Pyongyang walks past a poster depicting the Unha-3 rocket. The poster reads, “With a belief in victory, we will become a strong and prosperous country!” The rocket fell into the Yellow Sea a few minutes after being launched. (AP Newsis) By Lee Geun-young, science correspondent Observers are now seeking cause of the Kwangmyongsong-3 rocket’s failure, in which the Unha-3 rocket used by North Korea exploded roughly two minutes after the launch and sank into the West Sea. Analysts said it was more of a “beginner’s level mistake” compared to the Unha-2 rocket launch in 2009, which succeeded as far as the third-stage separation. Ministry of National Defense policy planning director Shin Won-sik said in a briefing Friday morning that the cause of the explosion had not yet been determined, and that a careful analysis was being conducted by South Korean and US military authorities. But observers in and around the military tentatively ventured that the second-stage booster may have ignited prematurely. A Defense Ministry official said, “The explosion took place before the first-stage booster separation, which leads us to suspect it resulted from the second-stage booster igniting prior to the first-stage separation.” [Satellite]
• [Editorial] NK rocket launch a pointless blow to chances for peace
  North Korea carried out its long-range rocket launch yesterday. The attempt was a big enough failure that even the country’s own authorities had to acknowledge it, which is unusual for them. But that does not seem likely to do much in offsetting the ramifications of the launch. Its negative effects on the security situation in East Asia are now unavoidable, with major nations unanimously denouncing the launch and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) calling it a violation of UNSC Resolutions 1718 and 1874. [North Wind]
• N. Korea shows off new missile at military parade
  PYONGYANG (AP) ? North Korea on Sunday unveiled what appeared to be a new missile at a military parade in Pyongyang. The missile, displayed during celebrations for the centennial of the birth of late North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, appears to add to an arsenal that has raised international worries heightened by the country's simultaneous development of nuclear weapons. The celebrations come two days after North Korea fired a rocket widely viewed abroad as a provocative test of missile technology. The rocket failed about a minute after liftoff. [Missile] [Satellite]
• Early admission sounds odd
  North Korea's state broadcaster KRT announcer speaks on the failure on Friday of the country's planned rocket launch, North Korea. AP-Yonhap By Kang Hyun-kyung North Korea admitted Friday that the rocket it launched in the early morning from the Sohae Space Launching Station in Tongchang-ri on the west coast failed to reach orbit. The announcement came hours after the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that the Unha-3 launch vehicle carrying the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite disintegrated into some 20 pieces between one and two minutes after launch. The debris fell into the West Sea but caused no damage, according to the defense ministry. North Korea’s acknowledgement of the failure came as a surprise because in the past it kept tight control over information. In 1998 and 2009 when the North attempted to put its first and second satellites into orbit on Unha-2 and Unha-3 rockets, respectively, South Korea and the United States claimed the launches failed based on satellite images. But North Korea insisted they were successful and the satellites went into orbit as planned. [Satellite]
• DPRK's Satellite Fails to Enter Its Orbit
  Pyongyang, April 13 (KCNA) -- The DPRK launched its first application satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province at 07:38:55 a.m. on Friday. The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit. Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure. [Satellite]
• Warships search for N. Korean rocket debris
  South Korean warships scoured the Yellow Sea on Saturday in search of debris from a failed North Korean rocket launch that has heightened tensions in the region and brought international condemnation on the country's new leader amid a week of lavish celebrations to mark the centenary of the nation's founder. South Korea's navy has deployed about 10 ships, including a corvette with sonar radar, to search for rocket debris, a Defense Ministry official said Saturday. He refused to provide further details and asked not to be named because the sensitive mission was still under way. U.S. Navy minesweepers and other ships were also believed to be in the area and were expected to join the search, which could offer evidence of what went wrong and what rocket technology North Korea has. Japan's Defense Ministry said it is not participating in the search because none of the debris is believed to have fallen in Japanese waters. [Satellite] [Legality]
• N.Korea Admits Rocket Failed Shortly After Launch
  North Korea has acknowledged a multi-stage rocket it launched early Friday failed to reach orbit. An announcer on North Korean television -- interrupting programming four hours after the launch, which was not broadcast -- says the Kwangmyongsong-3 earth observation satellite did not succeed in reaching orbit and scientific experts are investigating the cause of the failure. Officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington say North Korea's rocket indeed blasted off from the launch pad but failed to get very far. U.S. military officials called it a Taepodong-2 missile. They say it was tracked by satellite on a southern trajectory where the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the other two stages failed to continue in flight and never posed a threat. South Korean army major general Shin Won-sik, speaking to reporters at the defense ministry, says the missile began tumbling back to Earth at an altitude of 151 kilometers, separating into about 20 pieces and harmlessly falling into the Yellow Sea 100 to 150 kilometers offshore. [Satellite]
• NK rocket crashes into West Sea
  This April 8 photo shows North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket stands at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri. North Korea fired the longrange rocket early Friday, defying international warnings against moving forward with a launch seen as a provocation. AP-Yonhap UN Security Council convenes, military surveillance level raised By Lee Tae-hoon North Korea’s multi-stage rocket exploded shortly after liftoff, breaking up into 20 pieces and raining debris into waters 100km to 150 km off the west coast of South Korea, officials said Friday. While the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) convened in New York to deal with the latest North Korean provocation, the South Korean Armed Forces heightened their level of surveillance. Observers predict the Stalinist North may unleash a military attack to strengthen internal solidarity. Senior defense officials said Pyongyang launched the 100-ton Unha-3 rocket, which it claimed carried a satellite payload, from the Tongchang-ri launch site in the North’s northwest at 7:38:55 a.m. North Korea also admitted that the much-hyped rocket launch failed to put a satellite into orbit [Satellite]
• South Korea’s Defense Ministry says North Korea has fired a long-range rocket
  By Associated Press, Published: April 12 | Updated: Friday, April 13, 11:20 AMAP SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Defense Ministry says North Korea has fired a long-range rocket. Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters in a nationally televised news conference that the rocket was fired at 7:39 a.m. .North Korea had announced it was planning the launch of an observation satellite to celebrate Sunday’s centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder. There was no word from Pyongyang about the launch.
• N.Korean Rocket Launch Fails
  North Korea launched a three-stage rocket at 7:39 a.m Friday, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. North Korea claims the rocket is a mere propellant for placing a satellite into orbit, but other countries including South Korea, Japan and the U.S. urged it to call off the launch, which they believe is a cover for a long-range missile test. The South Korean government evacuated residents of Baeknyeong island right after the launch. But a military spokesman said the rocket seems to have failed to reach its planned orbit and likely fell into international waters. Reports say that the first and second-stage boosters failed to separate. [Satellite]
• North Korea rocket launch is a failure
  US and South Korea condemn launch, which is expected to follow 2009’s sequence North Korea defiantly launched its third long-range rocket Friday, but apparently failed to place a satellite in orbit. Debris of the three-stage rocket dropped into the sea shortly after takeoff. The Unha-3 rocket took off from the Dongchang-ri launch site at 7:39 a.m., and appears to have separated into several pieces due to unconfirmed technical faults, South Korea Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. U.S. defense authorities also confirmed North Korea’s multistage rocket launch as a failure. “U.S. systems detected and tracked the launch of the North Korean Taepo Dong-2 missile at 6:39 p.m. EDT (eastern daylight time). The missile was tracked on a southerly launch over the Yellow Sea,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) said. Initial indications are that the first stage of the missile fell into the sea 165 kilometers west of Seoul, they added. South Korean Military sources said the rocket appears to have dropped into the Yellow Sea about 190 to 200 kilometers off South Korea’s western port city of Gunsan, without the separation of its first and second stages, according to tracking of the rocket’s trajectory by the South Korean military. U.S. news cable channel CNN also reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials, that the launch appeared to have ended in failure. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, citing a Japanese Ministry of Defense official, the rocket was broken up into four pieces and fell into Yellow Sea. [Satellite]
• North Korea admits the failure of its rocket launch
  UN Security Council emergency session to condemn, which is expected to follow 2009’s sequence North Korea defiantly launched its third long-range rocket Friday, but acknowledged failure to place a satellite in orbit. Debris of the three-stage rocket dropped into the sea shortly after takeoff. The official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said in a brief dispatch, “The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit.” Adding that technicians and experts were looking into the cause of the failure. [Satellite] [UNUS]
• NK says its satellite failed to enter orbit
  North Korea said Friday its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite failed to enter orbit after its launch aboard a long-range rocket. The North said its "scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch, without elaborating. Seoul's defense ministry said the Unha-3 rocket took off from the Dongchang-ri launch site in the North's northwest at 7:39 a.m., but burst into 20 pieces after flying about one or two minutes. The North's official admission of a failed rocket launch came more than four hours after the launch. South Korea and the U.S. condemned the rocket launch as a provocative threat to peace and stability in Northeast Asia and pressed the North to take full responsibility for any repercussions. The South Korean defense ministry said its military was searching the area to try to recover rocket fragments. The North has threatened to immediately and mercilessly retaliate against any country that intercepts a North Korean rocket booster or collects the rocket debris. [Satellite] [Legality]
• North Korean Rocket Said to Fail Moments After Liftoff
  David Guttenfelder/Associated Press A news conference on the rocket launching in Pyongyang, North Korea. By CHOE SANG-HUN and RICK GLADSTONE Published: April 12, 2012 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea defied international warnings of censure and further isolation on Friday, launching a rocket that the United States and its allies called a provocative pretext for developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that might one day carry a nuclear warhead. But in what was a major embarrassment to the North and its young new leader, the rocket disintegrated moments after the launching, and American and Japanese officials said its remnants fell harmlessly into the sea. [Satellite]
• N. Korean rocket breaks up on launch
  View Photo Gallery — Ignoring repeated international protests, Pyongyang launches three-stage rocket that failed to reach orbit, breaking apart soon after the blast-off, Japan’s Kyodo news reported. By Chico Harlan and and William Wan, Published: April 12 The Washington Post SEOUL — North Korea launched a long-range rocket Friday morning in defiance of repeated international protests, but it failed to reach orbit, breaking apart soon after the blastoff, U.S. and South Korean officials said. The three-stage rocket — carrying a satellite that Pyongyang said was intended for weather observation — was fired from a launch pad in North Korea’s northwest at 7:39 a.m., but it quickly separated into several pieces and fell into the sea, South Korean officials said. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the rocket broke up about 11 / 2 minutes into the flight. [Satellite]
• A Space Launch without a Space Program
  By Scott Pace The DPRK has sparked another diplomatic confrontation with its announcement that it intends to place a satellite in orbit as part of a peaceful space program. Often overlooked is the fact that while the DPRK has missiles, it does not yet have a recognizable space program. Missiles are in the news again with North Korea’s announcement that it would attempt a space launch between April 12th and 16th to mark the 100th birthday of the “Eternal President” Kim Il Sung. As with the space launch attempt in 2009, the DPRK transmitted notices to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The IMO and ICAO notices warned of falling rocket bodies, with the first stage projected to come down off the western coast of South Korea and the second stage impacting just north of the Philippines. Unlike its two prior launch attempts, the trajectory would be due south from a launch site near the village of Tongchang-ri in the northwest part of the country. [Satellite]
• GoogleEarth 3D Model of the Unha-3 Flight Path
  By 38 North DPRK Study Team members, Lew Franklin and Dick Donald, at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) have developed a GoogleEarth model of the Unha-3 trajectory. This model is based on Unha-2 physical measurement estimates by MIT’s Theodore Postol,[1] but with flight parameters significantly modified by new data not available at the time of his publications. This includes: a precise Latitude/Longitude/Altitude location of the Unha2 at 77.3 seconds after launch resulting in a modification of the first-stage pitch program; addition of 100 Latitude/Longitude/Altitude data points derived from a DRPK video of the large computer screen shown during simulated third-stage flight, which failed during the actual launch; and iterative modeling with an accurate oblate rotating earth to match the DPRK-announced Kwangmyongsong-3 polar orbit. [Satellite]
• Will Kim Jong Un Visit the Rocket Launch?
  By 38 North North Korea appears to have been conducting a beautification effort at the Sohae launch center before its upcoming rocket launch. Whether that effort is related to the visit of foreign press on April 8, of foreign observers, or of government dignitaries remains unclear. But it is worth noting that Kim Jong Il observed the April 5, 2009 launch of the Unha-2 at the Tonghae facility. And while there has been some question as to whether or not Kim Jong Un was at the Tonghae launch, there is video evidence to suggest he was also present. This leads us to ask: will Kim Jong Un attend the upcoming launch of the Unha-3 from Sohae? A short clip of video released by the DPRK in 2009 showed Kim Jong Un congratulating the same group of rocket scientists and engineers that a few minutes earlier were seen standing at attention with his father Kim Jong Il. The video was shot in front of the entrance of the Tonghae headquarters building on either April 5 or 6, 2009. The picture in Figure 1 was taken on the steps of the Tonghae headquarters building with Kim Jong Il. Based on the shadows, the picture could not have been taken in the afternoon after the launch. Since Kim reportedly spent the night of April 5 at Tonghae, the photo was probably taken on the morning of the 6th or possibly the morning before the launch. [Satellite] [Kim Jong Un]
• North Korea unlikely to make friends with rockets
  Pyongyang expected to lean on China in blowback from rocket launch By Kim Kyu-won, staff writer Pyongyang is expected to launch its rocket between today and April 16. If the launch goes ahead, there will surely be international condemnation. It remains to be seen how North Korea will handle any disapproval. The most immediate question is whether the launch will garner a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution. Inje University professor Kim Yeon-chul said, “If the UNSC doesn’t adopt a resolution because of objections from Beijing, Pyongyang will have some freedom to respond. But if a resolution is adopted there’s a strong chance it will go the hard-line route.” The same is true for relations with Washington. Analysts said a harsh response from the US is likely to increase the likelihood North Korea will conduct another nuclear test instead of pursuing dialogue. [Satellite] [Inversion]
• Success of N.Korean Rocket Launch 'Clear in 10 Minutes'
  It will take only 10 minutes to determine whether North Korea's rocket has succeeded in its mission to put a satellite into orbit, experts said Tuesday. The rocket probably has a more advanced propulsion system than the one launched in 2009, "and at this point it is difficult to predict the trajectory," said one rocket expert. But he added success or failure will be determined in 10 minutes. [Satellite]
• Precautions Taken for N.Korea's Rocket Launch
  The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs will step up safety precautions for ships and airplanes in preparation for North Korea's rocket launch between Thursday and next Monday, a spokesman said Tuesday. The first-stage booster rocket is expected to fall in waters 170 km west of Gunsan, North Jeolla Province and the second into the ocean 140 km east of the Philippines [Satellite]
• International community prepares condemnation for NK rocket launch
  China is increasingly lonely in its reluctance to criticize Pyongyang » A North Korean soldier stands guard at the launch pad for the Eunha-3 rocket in Dongchang-ri, April 8. (Reuters/Newis) By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington correspondent and Park Min-hee, Beijing correspondent The United States appears ready to immediately convene the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and further tighten sanctions against North Korea if Pyongyang launches a rocket carrying its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite. US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice said that if the North went ahead with the launch, it would only deepen its own isolation, and that she expected the UNSC to convene and discuss the issue, according to CNN. This implies that the US expects the launch to be carried out and is preparing its response. [Satellite]
• North Korea ready to launch rocket
  Kim Kwan-jin Defense Minister Seoul, Washington label move as ‘grave act of provocation’ By Kim Young-jin Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta labeled North Korea’s rocket launch as a “grave act of provocation” Tuesday as the Stalinist country completed its preparation for what it claims is an effort to send its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite into orbit. According to Seoul officials, the two agreed that it would be tantamount to a long-distance missile test and would be subject to sanctions for a violation of U.N Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and related international agreements. [Satellite]
• DANGEROUS CROSSROADS: US-JAPAN CONFRONT NORTH KOREA: Tension ahead of Pyongyang Missile Test
  by Nile Bowie Global Research, April 7, 2012 nilebowie.blogspot.ca As China declares fresh warnings of retaliation against any strike on Iran [1], the regime in Pyongyang shows no signs of aborting its upcoming controversial satellite launch, scheduled to take place on April 12th through to April 16th. The Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite will be launched southward from the Sohae satellite launch station in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, using a long-range Unha-3 rocket; North Korean officials assured the international community that it would "strictly abide by relevant international regulations and usage concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes." [2] As Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak insinuate that Pyongyang’s upcoming satellite launch is a pretext to expand a program of nuclear terrorism [3], North Korea has invited the space agencies of eight countries, including Japan, the United States, China and Russia, and the European Space Agency to observe the launch [4]. While North Korea attempts to assure the transparency of its space program to the international community, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have both declined the invitation from Pyongyang [5]. Additionally, Japan has announced the extension of unilateral sanctions on North Korea for another year [6], including a trade freeze and visa ban, while the US has announced a suspension of 240,000 tones of food aid to North Korea, reportedly allocated for children and pregnant women [7]. While the feasibility of the proposed $850 million satellite launch is questionable given North Korea’s economic instability in recent times [8], the Washington consensus has used UN Resolution 1874 to impede what may rightfully be a peaceful technological investment to monitor the country's crops and natural resources, in a move to prevent further food insecurity. [Satellite]
• Foreign Press Gets Glimpse of N.Korean Rocket
  North Korea on Sunday gave foreign journalists a rare glimpse of what it claims is a space rocket sitting on its launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. Experts here said the latest rocket appears to be the same as a long-range missile that was launched in April of 2009, which had a range of at least 6,700 km, but a more advanced version. In 2009, the North also claimed the missile was a space rocket designed to put a science satellite into orbit. It consisted of three stages: a primary booster made of four Rodong missile boosters, a second stage using a remodeled Rodong missile, and a third stage solid-fuel booster. An official at the South's Korea Aerospace Research Institute said, "Although it appears to be the same length or slightly shorter than the one launched in 2009 and the diameter is wider, it is definitely the same type of long-range missile." North Korea did not reveal data about the rocket in 2009, but South Korean authorities estimated that it was 32 m long and between 2.0 and 2.2 m in diameter. North Korea said the rocket it plans to launch this time is 30 m long and 2.5 m in diameter. This means the booster may have been slightly improved. [Satellite] [Spin]
• UN Security Council Could Warn N.Korea Against Nuke Test
  The UN Security Council may issue a warning in the form of a president's statement to North Korea against conducting another nuclear test, a South Korean government official said Monday. The North plans to launch a long-range missile between Thursday and next Monday, and there are signs that it is preparing for a third nuclear test this month. [Test] [North Wind]
• Preparations for launch appear to be nearly completed
  Foreign media observes NK launch facilities » A North Korean scientist explains a model of the Gwangmyungsung 3 satellite, which will be loaded on the Eunha 3 rocket, to foreign journalists and experts at the Dongchang-ri launch site, April 8. (Reuter/Newsis) By Park Byung-soo and Kim Gyu-won, staff writers North Korea’s rocket have been moved to their launch pad, effectively beginning the countdown until the rocket is launched. “Given that North Korea has installed a three-stage rocket on the launch pad, we believe fuelling will soon begin,” said one South Korean government official. “Fuelling began three to four days before the launch in April 2009, but it may be quicker this time due to technological advances.” The Dongchang-ri launch site that is being used this time, unlike 2009’s Musudan-ri, is believed to be equipped with an underground automatic fuelling system, making it hard to confirm by satellite photograph whether fuelling has started. North Korea has invited foreign reporters and experts to observe the launch this time. Starting on April 6, North Korea admitted reporters from 10 countries and more than ten media outlets, from the US, China, Japan, the UK, France, Germany and Vietnam to observe and report on the long-range rocket launch. It also opened a press center on April 7 at the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang. [Satellite]
• North’s new rocket ‘virtually identical’ to 2009
  Technology appears to be the same, but Pyongyang’s motives are still unclear » The Eunha 3 rocket (right) is revealed to foreign media by North Korea. It apparently resembles with the Eunha 2 (left) which was launched 2009. By Lee Soon-hyuk, staff writer and Jung Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent Experts generally agree that the Unha-3 rocket revealed by North Korea is much like the Unha-2 launched in 2009. Speaking in an interview with the NHK network, former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force rear admiral Tsutomu Taguchi said the rocket was “virtually identical” in form and size to the Taepodong-2 launched three years ago. “It looks like this launch is intended to see whether the missile will fly and the boosters separate as programmed,” Taguchi added. Noting the confirmed presence of four engine jets beneath the first-stage rocket, Taguchi said, “It had been suspected that the Taepodong-2 involved binding together four mid-range ‘Rodong’ ballistic missiles, but this is the first time we‘ve had video confirmation.” [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• Firsthand look at NKorea launch pad: Rocket in place for controversial send-off
  Video: Thousands of people gathered in the North Korean capital Pyongyang on Monday to witness the unveiling of a new portrait of Kim Jong Il. It sits alongside a portrait of the late leader's father Kim Il Sung. By Associated Press, Published: April 9 | Updated: Tuesday, April 10, 12:40 AMAP TONGCHANG-RI, North Korea — North Korean space officials have moved all three stages of a long-range rocket into position for a controversial launch, vowing to push ahead with their plan in defiance of international warnings against violating a ban on missile activity. The Associated Press was among foreign news agencies allowed a firsthand look Sunday at preparations under way at the coastal Sohae Satellite Station in northwestern North [Media]
• N.Korea prepares for rocket launch
  Global Times | April 10, 2012 01:15 By Xu Ming A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile launcher is set at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo, April 9, 2012. Japan completed deployment of interceptor missiles Monday ahead of the planned satellite launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Defence Ministry said. Photo: Xinhua North Korea appears ready to go ahead with its launch plan of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite with the three-stage rocket on the launch platform amid international concerns and warnings, Reuters reported Monday. "Our country has the right and also the obligation to develop satellites and launch vehicles," Jang Myong-jin, general manager of the launch facility, was quoted by the AP as saying. North Korea invited more than 70 foreign reporters to cover the launch on Sunday at the new Sohae launch station in northwestern North Korea, where they were allowed a look at the preparation work for the 30-meter high Unha-3 rocket and its satellite. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Completes Assembling Rocket
  North Korea's rocket, slated for liftoff between April 12-16, stands in Tongchang-ri, North Korea on Sunday. /AP-Yonhap North Korea has apparently finished assembling a three-stage rocket at its launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongyang Province and there are signs that it is preparing for another nuclear test. A government source here said, "North Korea appears to have completed assembling the second and third stages of the rocket at the launch pad on Saturday after setting up the first stage on Friday." The source added, "A payload believed to be a small satellite has also been mounted. The launch is expected around Saturday after liquid fuel is injected this week." [Satellite] [Buildup] [test] [North Wind]
• S.Korea, China, Japan Want Firm Response to N.Korean Rocket Launch
  Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Sunday called for a "firm response" from the international community if North Korea goes ahead with the launch of what it claims is a space rocket. "North Korea's missile launch will be a clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. We made it clear to China and Japan that the international community needs to respond firmly to North Korea's breach of its responsibility as a member of the international community."
• SK, Japan and China united in opposition to NK rocket
  Along with US, three East Asian powers are coordinating critical response in the event of a launch By Park Byung-soo, staff writer and Jung Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have expressed concern at North Korea’s coming rocket launch and urged the North to abandon its plans. Meeting Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday in Ningbo, China, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Sung-hwan said that the launch of the Kwangmyonsong-3 would be a clear violation of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution and emphasized the need to convey a strong message to the North Korean leadership, diplomatic sources reported. Kim added that he hoped that China would play a role in responding to the launch. He also expressed to his Chinese counterpart his belief that sanctions in accordance with the violation of a UNSC resolution would be needed if North Korea went ahead forcibly with the launch. [Satellite]
• Foreign Media Persons and Experts on Space Science and Technology Visit Sohae Satellite Launching Station
  Pyongyang, April 8 (KCNA) -- Foreign media persons and experts on space science and technology Sunday toured the Sohae Satellite Launching Station situated in Cholsan County of North Phyongan Province. The DPRK announced its plan to launch the first working satellite on the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung. Scientists and technicians of the DPRK are set to launch Kwangmyongsong-3, the earth observation satellite, manufactured by their own efforts and with indigenous technology in the wake of its successful launch of two experimental satellites pursuant to the DPRK government's policy on space development and peaceful use. This is an inspiring deed and an event of historic significance of the nation as it demonstrates the leaping development of space science and technology of the country. [Satellite]
• North Korea rocket installed on launch pad (AFP)
  8 April 2012TONGCHANG-RI SPACE CENTRE, North Korea - North Korea’s long-range rocket is on its launch platform, AFP reporters said Sunday, as the regime again insisted it was to send a peaceful satellite and not a missile. The usually secretive North organised an unprecedented visit for foreign reporters to Tongchang-ri space centre in an effort to show its Unha-3 rocket is not a disguised ballistic missile, as claimed by the US and its allies. Communist North Korea says it will launch the satellite for peaceful scientific research between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung. His birthday was on April 15. “To say this is a missile test is really nonsense,” said Jang Myong-Jin, head of the space centre. “This launch was planned long ago, on the occasion of the 100th birthday of (late) president Kim Il-Sung. We are not doing it for provocative purposes.” [Satellite]
• Is the Rocket on the Sohae Launch Pad? A 38 North Exclusive
  By 38 North This was originally a Geoeye satellite image from April 4, but the image has since been recalled and not approved for publishing. So, you'll just have to "trust us" on this one. Analysis of commercial satellite photographs taken on April 4 of North Korea’s Sohae Launch Center indicates some evidence to suggest that the first stage of the Unha-3 rocket, while not visible, may be stacked in the gantry.[*] If Pyongyang is following the timeline previously published by 38 North (based on the experience of past rocket launches in 2006 and 2009), the first stage of the Unha-3 should have been stacked on the mobile launch stand on April 1 or 2, followed by the 2nd and 3rd stages the next two days. Unfortunately, cloud cover over the launch site from April 1-3 made it impossible to observe the stacking process if it did occur. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Has Nothing to Gain from Rocket Launch
  Han Sung-joo Despite efforts by the international community to dissuade North Korea from launching what it claims is a space rocket, Pyongyang appears to be pushing ahead with the launch scheduled for the middle of this month. The North claims it wants to put a satellite into orbit for scientific research, which was the will of late leader Kim Jong-il to mark the centenary of nation founder Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang claims it informed the U.S. of the rocket launch when it agreed with Washington on Feb. 29 to halt its uranium enrichment activities in return for food aid. [Satellite] [Double standards] [SK NK policy]
• Foreign journalists arrive in N. Korea to cover rocket launch
  Foreign media reporters have arrived in Pyongyang to cover North Korea's planned rocket launch, the country's official news agency reported. The North has said it will invite foreign reporters and experts to observe the rocket launch, set for sometime between April 12-16, in an effort to bolster its case that the launch is part of a peaceful space program aimed at putting a satellite into orbit. South Korea, the United States, and other regional powers have urged Pyongyang to scrap the launch plan, accusing the communist nation of trying to test its ballistic missile technology, which is banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch Saturday that reporters from more than 20 media firms, including the Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, AFP, BBC, Kyodo News and NHK, arrived in Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday. The North says its Unha-3 rocket will blast off from a launch site in the country's northwest. (Yonhap) [Satellite]
• NK says interception of its satellite is an act of war
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ratcheted up his regime's militaristic rhetoric as Pyongyang threatened to retaliate against any country that intercepts a North Korean rocket booster or collects the rocket debris. The North has vowed to launch a rocket sometime between April 12 and 16 to put an earth observation satellite into orbit, a move widely seen as a pretext to disguise a banned test of its ballistic missile technology. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in Pyongyang warned that interception of the satellite would be "an act of war" and would cause a tremendous catastrophe. [Satellite] [Spin] [Inversion]
• N.Korea Gets Rocket Ready for Launch
  North Korea has apparently begun readying what it says is a space rocket for launch and taking it to the launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, a government source here said Thursday. The source added the rocket is likely to be placed on the launch pad on Friday or Saturday. An underground tank near the launch pad has already been filled with liquid fuel, and the three stages of the rocket have been fully assembled. It will take one or two days to put the missile together on the launch pad, where it is fueled one or two days before the launch. South Korean officials believe the North will launch the rocket on any clear day between April 12 and 16. [Satellite]
• Kim Jong un Looks Up at the Sky: Another North Korean Threat or a Sunshine from the Milky Way?
  By Pier Luigi Zanatta Mar 22, 2012 In the last two decades the West has learned only too well that dealing with North Korea is no trifle. But 2012 could be the year for a crucial divide; it marks not only the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, but also the 20th anniversary of the first joint North-South declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The two events seem somehow in contrast since Pyongyang preannounced in mid-March the launch of a satellite next month to commemorate the founder of the ruling communist dynasty, the grandfather of the newly enthroned Kim Jong Un.
• Along with security threat, North Korea rocket launch presents potential intelligence bonanza
  By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, April 5, 6:59 PMAP TOKYO — As the U.S. and its allies decry North Korea’s planned rocket launch, they’re also rushing to capitalize on the rare opportunity it presents to assess the secretive nation’s ability to strike beyond its shores. If North Korea goes ahead with the launch, expected to take place sometime between April 12-16, the United States, Japan and South Korea will have more military assets on hand than ever to track the rocket and — if necessary — shoot it out of the sky. As the U.S. and its allies decry North Korea’s planned rocket launch, they’re also rushing to capitalize on the rare opportunity it presents to assess the secretive nation’s ability to strike beyond its shores. .Behind the scenes, they will be analyzing everything from where the rocket’s booster stages fall to the shape of its nose cone. The information they gather could deeply impact regional defense planning and future arms talks. Military planners want to know how much progress North Korea has made since its last attempt to launch a satellite three years ago. Arms negotiators will be looking for signs of how much the rocket, a modified ballistic missile launcher, depends on foreign technology. [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• Philippines Warns Ships, Airlines Over N.Korean Rocket Launch
  Philippine authorities have ordered ships and planes to avoid eastern parts of the country during North Korea's rocket launch, which is expected in the morning of April 12 to 16, the country's Civil Aviation Authority said on Tuesday. Around 20 flights connecting South Korea, the U.S., Japan and the Philippines are apparently affected.
• Does Seoul lag behind Pyongyang in orbital launches?
  The (North) Korean Committee for Space Technology said on March 28 that a satellite North Korea plans to launch into orbit by a rocket this month is an observatory satellite to take images of the Earth, weighs 100 kilograms and has a lifespan of two years. If that launch is successful, North Korea will become the 10th member to join the “international space club.” The space club refers to countries capable of sending objects carrying a satellite into orbit using their own launch vehicles. They are countries which have developed technology on satellites and rockets. Nine countries have developed the capability to send objects into orbit using their own launch vehicles since the former Soviet Union blasted off the world’s first satellite, Sputnik-1, in 1957. They are the United States, Russian, France, Japan, China, Britain, India, Israel and Iran. South Korea failed to launch of its Naro satellite into orbit on Aug. 25 2009. The second launch also failed within 137 seconds when it lost contact with ground control on June 10, 2010. The third launch is slated for October this year. [Satellite]
• New Evidence of Advanced Preparations for DPRK Rocket Launch: 38 North Exclusive
  By 38 North Satellite photography of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-dong Space Launch Center) reveals that North Korea has undertaken more extensive preparations for its planned April rocket launch than previously understood. Figure 1: The Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-dong Space Launch Center) (Image date: March 28, 2012) Image © 2012 DigitalGlobe, Inc. 38 North has now identified a mobile radar trailer, not previously present, essential for a launch. A March 28 satellite picture of the entire site appears to show a trailer with a dish antenna—probably a radar tracking system—mounted on top of a ridge mid-way between the launch pad and the rocket engine test stand. It is located at the end of a new dirt road that runs generally west from the entrance. [Satellite]
• North Korean satellites and missiles: advantage hardliners
  March 30th, 2012 Author: Andray Abrahamian, Choson Exchange and University of Ulsan North Korea’s announcement of a satellite test planned for April has kicked up quite a fuss as governments try to decide how to respond. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it would be a ‘grave provocation’, while Japan’s cabinet secretary urged North Korea not to carry out the test, saying it was a violation of UN sanctions. [Satellite]
• North Korea Begins Launch Pad Preparations for April Rocket Launch: A 38 North Exclusive
  By 38 North As of March 29, 2012, preparations seem to be underway at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-dong Space Center) for the DPRK's April rocket launch. Image © 2012 DigitalGlobe, Inc. Satellite imagery from March 28 shows the beginning of North Korean preparations at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station (more commonly known as Tongchang-dong Space Launch Center) for its planned April rocket launch. Work to prepare the launch pad for stacking the Unha-3 satellite launch vehicle (SLV) appears to be underway. The mobile launch pad is seen sitting on tracks next to the gantry tower. All the work platforms have been folded back and the crane on top is at a 45 degree angle relative to the pad, indicating that equipment is being loaded onto the gantry. At the base of the gantry there are numerous small objects on the pad and several people. There is also a plate under the mobile launch stand to cover the entrance into the flame trench that is still in place and will be removed prior to launch. A crew appears to be cutting brush away from the concrete in the brown dirt area that extends from in front of the pad up the right side. This activity has been ongoing since March 20 when previous imagery was available. The North Koreans may be concerned that a fire after the launch could spread to propellant storage buildings. [Satellite]
• Preparing for the April DPRK Rocket Launch: A Timeline for the Next Three Weeks
  By Nick Hansen Introduction It is no secret that North Korea plans to launch a satellite in a window between April 12-16, 2012 to coincide with the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the country. It also plans to use an Unha-3 booster rocket launched from a new space port (Sohae Satellite Launching Station, a.k.a. Tongchang-dong Space Launch Center). The real secret is how North Korea plans to accomplish this task in the nearly three weeks left before the announced launch window. To provide some context on a probable timeline, this article briefly discusses the observed activities leading up to the Unha launch on July 4, 2006 and the Unha-2 launch on April 5, 2009, both from its old Tonghae Test Center. [Satellite]
• Getting North Korea’s Rocket to the Launch Pad
  By David Wright I have been looking at options for how North Korea could get its rocket to the launch pad and ready for launch at the Tongchang-dong site. My conclusion is that the stages of the rocket will likely be transported separately and assembled on the pad, as North Korea apparently did in preparation for its April 2009 launch at the Musudan-ri launch site. However, Pyongyang may be planning for a different process in the future. Tim Brown at globalsecurity.org has identified a building 1,000 meters north of the launch pad at Tongchang-dong as the “missile assembly building.” This building is shown in figure 1 below in a 2009 image from Google Earth. The main part of the building is about 55 meters long, and would therefore be large enough to assemble the full Unha launcher, which is approximately 30 meters long. [Satellite]
• N.Korea 'Building Even Bigger Missile'
  North Korea is building a missile that is even bigger than the long-range missile it is preparing to launch this month, sources claimed Monday. South Korean and U.S. officials believe the North will unveil the missile at a military parade on April 15, nation founder Kim Il-sung's centenary, or on April 25, which marks the founding day of the North's Army. A government source here said U.S. reconnaissance satellites recently spotted a 40-m missile at a research and development facility in Pyongyang that is larger than the existing Taepodong-2 missile. "It remains uncertain whether this missile is functional or is just a life-sized mock-up," the official added. The rocket North Korea is preparing to launch soon is apparently 32 m long, the same as the Taepodong-2 that was launched in April 2009 with a maximum range of 6,700 km. The new missile is believed to be larger and equipped with a bigger booster that gives it a maximum range of more than 10,000 km, making it capable of reaching the continental U.S.
• N.Korea 'Has 10,000 Missile Experts'
  There are about 10,000 people working on missiles in North Korea, three times more than in the South, a high-ranking South Korean military officer said Monday. He added they have "considerable research skills." North Korea started developing ballistic missiles in the mid-1970s. It produced Scud-Bs with a range of 300 km and Scud-Cs with a range of 500 km and deployed them along the frontline in the 1980s. [Buildup] [MISCOM]
• NK rocket launch to coincide with general election
  Timing is curious, but launch likely motivated by domestic concerns By Kim Gyu-won, staff writer North Korea has announced that it will hold its fourth Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) representatives’ meaning in Pyongyang on Apr. 11, the day of South Korea‘s general election. The Korean Central News Agency announced the decision Monday, reporting that “comrade Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of our party and country, was selected for the great role of fourth party representatives’ meeting chair by the People’s Army and the provincial party representative councils.” Analysts are predicting the meeting will see personnel and organization changes and amendment of regulations to consolidate Kim Jong-un’s leadership. A particular focus of attention is whether Kim will assume the post of general party secretary. The general party secretary not only controls the party but also automatically takes on the post of chairman of the Central Commission for Military Affairs in the Chosun Workers’ Party. Kim Jong-il held the posts of supreme People’s Army commander (1991) and National Defense Commission chairman (1993) prior to the death of his father Kim Il-sung. He became general secretary in 1997, three years after Kim Il-sung’s death. He is believed to have spent the three years governing in line with his father’s teachings, and he did not accede to the position of premier as his father had. [Media] [Bizarre]
• North Korea's 100th – To Celebrate or To Surrender?
  Gavan McCormack On 16 March 2012, North Korea announced that it would launch an earth observation satellite named Kwangmyongsong (Lodestar) 3, aboard an Unha carrier rocket sometime between the hours of 7 am and noon on a day between 12 and 16 April, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of its state founder, Kim Il Sung, and the attainment of "strong and prosperous" status by the country. The launch from a base in the north of the country close to the border with China would be pointed south, dropping off its first phase rocket into the Yellow Sea about 160 kms to the southwest of South Korea's Byeonsan peninsula and the second into the ocean about 140 kilometres east of Luzon in the Philippines. Due notice of the impending launch was issued to the appropriate international maritime, aviation and telecommunication bodies (IMO, ICAO and ITU) and, to mark the occasion, North Korea announced that it would welcome scientific observers and journalists. The 15 April date, in the 100th year according to the calendar of North Korea, has long been declared a landmark in the history of the state, and the launch seems designed to be its climactic event. [Satellite]
• U.S. Sends Radar System Ahead of N.Korean Rocket Launch
  The U.S. has sent its most advanced mobile radar system from the Pearl Harbor naval base to the Pacific ahead of North Korea's expected rocket launch in mid-April, CNN reported last Friday. The Sea Based X-Band Radar-1, which sits atop a floating platform, has the ability to search or track targets up to 2,000 km away and is capable of monitoring the North's missile launch without having to come near the Korean Peninsula. [Satellite]
• Philippines Protest Against N.Korean Rocket Launch
  The Philippines wrote to North Korea through the UN, China and ASEAN on Sunday to protest against Pyongyang's plan to launch what it claims is a space rocket, AFP reported. Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the Philippines' diplomatic missions in the UN and China lodged a protest letter with the North Korean missions. "Del Rosario said protest letters were also sent to North Korea's diplomatic posts in ASEAN, of which the Philippines is part, ahead of a meeting this week," AFP said. Del Rosario pointed out that the rocket launch will be a clear violation of the UN resolutions, and added, "I will look for an opportunity to raise our position" at the ASEAN meet that takes place in Cambodia on Tuesday. On March 13, North Korea declared that it will launch a "satellite" between April 12 and 16, and notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization that the two-tier propulsion rocket will fall in the sea 190 km east of the Philippines. The launch is widely believed to be a cover-up for a long-range missile test. [Satellite] [Subordinate]
• AP Exclusive: Satellite reveals mobile radar trailer, empty fuel tanks at NKorea launch site
  Text Size PrintE-mailReprintsBy Associated Press, Monday, April 2, 11:31 AMAP SEOUL, South Korea — New satellite images of a North Korean rocket launch site show a mobile radar trailer and rows of what appear to be empty fuel and oxidizer tanks, evidence of ramped-up preparation for what Washington calls a cover for a long-range missile test. An analysis of images provided Monday to The Associated Press by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies shows Pyongyang “has undertaken more extensive preparations for its planned April rocket launch than previously understood.” The images were taken Wednesday. A mobile radar trailer essential for any launch stands at the end of a new dirt road running from the entrance of the Tongchang-ri site; it has a dish antenna that’s probably a radar tracking system, according to the institute’s analysis. Radar tracking during a launch gives engineers crucial real-time information on the performance of the rocket’s engines, guidance system and other details. [Satellite]
• North Korea’s rocket launch plans moving forward
  Despite invitation, US officials saying no teams will be sent to observe the launch Despite invitation, US officials saying no teams will be sent to observe the launch By Park Byung-soo, senior staff writer North Korea is going ahead with preparations for its scheduled satellite launch despite objections from the international community. A South Korean government official said Thursday that while no unusual signs had yet been detected, assembly work on the first and second stage rockets and satellite was believed to be moving along following the transport of parts to the launch site in North Korea’s Dongchang-ri, located 70km north of Youngbyun nuclear facilities and 200km from Pyongyang missile factory. [Satellite] [Overtures] [US NK policy]

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MARCH 2012

• Official of KCST Interviewed by KCNA
  Pyongyang, March 28 (KCNA) -- A vice director of the Space Development Department of the Korean Committee for Space Technology (KCST) was interviewed by KCNA Wednesday as regards the planned launch of the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-3. There were questions about the data of the working satellite to be launched on the occasion of the significant Day of the Sun and the visits by foreign experts and reporters. Question: What is the mission of Kwangmyongsong-3, first working satellite in the DPRK? Answer: Kwangmyongsong-3 as an earth observation satellite will assess the distribution of forests and natural resources of the DPRK, the level of natural disaster, the crop estimate, etc. and collect data necessary for weather forecast, natural resources prospecting and others. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Unveils Details of Satellite
  North Korea on Wednesday revealed details of a satellite it says it is preparing to launch into space next month. An unnamed official was quoted by the official KCNA news agency as saying that the satellite, which is to be carried into orbit by a rocket, weighs 100 kg and has a lifespan of two years. It is equipped with a camera enabling it to send back pictures and other observational data, the official claimed. Experts say a proper working satellite would weigh 500 kg and have a lifespan of at least five years. A satellite expert at a state-run research institute here said a satellite weighing 100 kg would be an experimental satellite and really the earliest stage of satellite development, equivalent to the South Korea's first series of satellites Uribyeol 2 and 3 launched in the 1990s. [Satellite]
• N.Korea Moves Rocket to Launch Pad
  North Korea has moved what it says is a satellite-carrying rocket by train to the launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday said Seoul and Washington are aware of the fact that North Korea moved what they believe is a long-range missile to the test site and is preparing for launch. North Korea moved the three-stage missile by specially equipped train from the factory in Pyongyang to Tongchang-ri, where it has been assembled.
• Nuclear Security Summit opens today
  ‘Nuclear terrorism is not impossible’ By Park Si-soo The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit will start today for a two-day run, during which leaders from 58 countries and international organizations will adopt concrete measures to prevent any weapons-use nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists.
• ‘N. Korea transports rocket to launch site’
  By Lee Tae-hoon North Korea has brought the main body of a long-range rocket to a launch pad in the northwestern part of the country ahead of its planned launch next month, defense official said Sunday. “South Korean and U.S. military authorities are aware that North Korea has moved the main body of a long-range rocket to a launch site in Dongchang-ri and has been assembling it in preparation for a launch,” a spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said asking for anonymity. [Satellite]
• Picture of N.Korea's Rocket Launch Pad Released
  A satellite picture of a missile launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, North Korea /RFA-Yonhap Radio Free Asia on Thursday unveiled a satellite picture of North Korea's missile launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. The radio station and website got the picture from commercial satellite imagery company GeoEye. [Satellite]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Launch of Working Satellite
  Pyongyang, March 23 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry released the following statement Friday: The DPRK's preparations for launching Kwangmyongsong-3, an earth observation satellite, by its own efforts and with its indigenous technology have entered a full-fledged stage of action. The projected launch of the working satellite is a gift to be presented by the Korean people to the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung while entering the gate to a thriving nation and a work for implementing the behest of leader Kim Jong Il. [Satellite]
• N.Korean Rocket Launch 'Long and Carefully Planned'
  /Reuters-Newsis South Korean and U.S. officials now believe that North Korea has set its sights since last year on test firing a long-range missile on the centenary of nation founder Kim Il-sung on April 15, and that its pledge of a moratorium on missile launches in an agreement with Washington in February was a cynical ploy to extract aid. [Satellite]
• The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit: New Thinking in Northeast Asia?
  By James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen March 20, 2012 James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen write “that the time for a more active diplomacy in the Korean Peninsula is approaching. And that refers not only to solving the North Korean nuclear issue but also to several legacies dating from World War II and the Korean War. The ultimate goal should be to sign a peace treaty to end formally the Korean War, which concluded only with an armistice agreement in 1953, and to reunify Korea in one way or another. There is some well-founded hope that the year 2012 could open a new era in multilateral efforts to finally construct a new post-Cold War political and security architecture in Northeast Asia.” [US NK policy]
• N.Korea Tells Int'l Agency of Rocket Launch Plan
  North Korea has told the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization that its first stage of a rocket it is to fire next month will land in waters 140 km west of Byeonsan Peninsula and the second 190 km east of the Philippines. The rocket is ostensibly to carry a satellite into orbit to mark the centenary of nation founder Kim Il-sung in a plan that has drawn condemnation from the international community because it violates restrictions of North Korean missile activity. The first stage of the rocket will drop around 450 km from a launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, and the second one will drop somewhere about 3,000 km away. [Satellite]
• How Can N.Korean Rocket Debris Be Retrieved?
  The first stage of a North Korean three-stage rocket to be launched next month is expected to land around 140 km off the coast of Byeonsan in the West Sea, raising the question how it is to be retrieved. The first stage will likely separate at an altitude of 250 to 300 km and fall at a site around 450 km from the launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. "The first stage will drop faster than the speed of sound, and most of it will burn up during the descent, but some debris could fall into the ocean," a government source here said. He added the South "would be able to gain detailed information about North Korea's long-range missile by analyzing the debris." [Satellite] [Intelligence]
• Questions abound ahead of expected North Korean rocket launch
  Pyongyang’s scientists may have learned from 2009’s failed launch attempt » Kwangmyungsung-2 rocket blasts off on April 5, 2009 at the Musudanri launching site, North Hamgyeong province, North Korea. This photo was distributed by the Korea Central News Agency three days after the launch. (Shinhwa Newsis) By Park Byung-soo, senior staff writer Will North Korea’s planned satellite launch next month come off? The country’s Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite failed to enter orbit after its April 2009 launch. But experts say North Korean technology may have advanced since then. Analysts said that while the first and second stage boosters, which used liquid fuel, functioned normally in the 2009 Kwangmyongsong-2 launch, the third stage booster, which used solid fuel, malfunctioned. For this reason, North Korea apparently worked over the past few years to improve that third stage rocket. [Satellite]
• North Korea’s rocket to be discussed at Seoul Nuclear Summit
  South Korean leaders will seek experts’ input on how to handle North’s provocation By Kim Kyu-won, staff writer The South Korean government called North Korea’s announcement of a planned satellite launch in April to be a “grave provocation” and made plans to discuss a response with other countries involved at next week‘s Nuclear Security Summit. [Satellite]
• Launch of Satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 Is Legitimate Right of DPRK: KCNA
  Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- Some forces are letting loose a spate of gossip as regards the launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, an earth observation satellite manufactured by the DPRK by its own efforts and with its indigenous technology. The hostile forces including the U.S., Japan and south Korea let loose outbursts that it will be a "missile launch", "a serious provocative act of threatening the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia" and "a violation of the UNSC 'resolution'." This is, in a nutshell, a base move to deny the DPRK's right to use space for peaceful purposes and encroach upon its sovereignty as it is typical of the hostile policy toward it. [Satellite] [Legality] [Double standards]
• North Korea’s New Launch Site
  By David Wright This article was originally published on 38 North on February 23, 2011. It has been reposted in light of DPRK’s announced intention to launch a satellite in April 2012. Find more articles by David Wright here. Last week press stories announced that North Korea had completed a second launch site for long-range rockets, which is bigger and more sophisticated than its original site. Tim Brown and Joseph Bermudez of globalsecurity.org found the new site, called Tongch’ang-dong after a nearby town, using satellite images in 2008 and has been following its progress since then. Previously, North Korea launched its multi-stage rockets from a site in Musudan-ri on the east coast of the country, near the Sea of Japan. The most recent launch from that site was in April 2009 when the Unha-2 launcher failed to place a small satellite into orbit. [Satellite]
• Nuclear Security Governance for the 21st Century: Assessment and Action Plan
  by Kenneth Luongo The upcoming Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Seoul, South Korea, will raise the international profile of the threat of nuclear terrorism and focus attention on the need to better secure weapons-usable nuclear materials in all corners of the globe. It follows the first NSS held in March 2010 in Washington, DC. Another summit will be held in the Netherlands in 2014. This sequencing of biennial, high-level international political summits has underscored the global importance of addressing the threat of nuclear terrorism. As a result, the NSS has the potential to become the preeminent international forum where the state of global nuclear material security is evaluated and where new commitments are made to improve the world’s defenses against nuclear terrorism. But, to fully realize its potential, the NSS process will need to evolve and participating countries must be willing to accept changes that will strengthen the nuclear material security regime.
• A Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone with a Three-plus-Three Arrangement
  By Hiromichi Umebayashi March 13, 2012 This report is from the East Asia Nuclear Security workshop held on November 11, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan. The workshop aimed to evaluate the robustness of proposals to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in Northeast Asia (NEA-NWFZ) and to identify pathways leading to its creation. The workshop was organized by the Nautilus Institute, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and Nautilus Australia – RMIT Global Studies, and co-hosted by the Asia Pacific Leadership Network. [NFZ]
• The Nuclear ‘Implementation Study’
  March 11, 2012 President Obama and his advisers are in the middle of a once-in-a-decade study of the nuclear arsenal and nuclear war plans. For strategic and budgetary reasons, they need to further reduce the number of deployed weapons and the number kept in reserve. If this country can wean itself from its own dependence, it will be safer and will have more credibility in its efforts to contain the nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea and others.
• Sellafield: 'It was all contaminated: milk, chickens, the golf course'
  Six decades after Britain's worst nuclear accident, an oral history of Sellafield reveals what it felt like to live near the plant John Vidal, the Guardian, The Observer, Sunday 11 March 2012 I t says something for how Britain's nuclear establishment worked from the start that when Windscale No1 Pile caught fire in October 1957, it was hushed up so well that even with 11 tons of uranium ablaze for three days, the reactor close to collapse and radioactive material spreading across the Lake District, the people who worked there were expected to keep quiet and carry on making plutonium for the bomb.
• Long Range Missiles Of Any Kind
  By Jeffrey Lewis This commentary was originally posted on Arms Control Wonk on March 16, 2012 and has been reposted on 38 North with permission from the author. The original post can be found here. I have previously noted the importance of reading very, very closely the utterances of the Great Fitzpatrick. Another case in point: On March 15, Mark gave a talk at the Daiwa Foundation Japan House in which he “predicted trouble” over the DPRK moratorium on long-range missiles launches “because North Korea does not consider space-launch rockets to be missiles.” [Satellite]
• N.Korea Plans April 'Space' Launch
  In what is likely to be widely considered a violation of its recent agreement to halt ballistic-missile tests, North Korea has made a surprise announcement that it intends to conduct a satellite launch next month. The North Korean announcement first came during Friday's noon radio newscast from Pyongyang. It quotes an unnamed spokesman of the country's Outer Space Technology Committee saying an earth observatory satellite will be launched between April 12 and 16.
• NK rejects calls to stop satellite launch plan
  By Park Si-soo North Korea is going ahead with its plan to launch what it has described as “an observation satellite” next month despite international condemnation. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Sunday the launch, announced Friday, was a “materialization of our sovereign right to peaceful development in space,” refuting accusations by South Korea, the United States and China who view the move as a disguised test of a long-range missile in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution. The North said such criticism was a “sinister” provocation by “hostile forces,” which would be “sadly mistaken” if they thought it would cancel the launch. Amid escalating criticism, Pyongyang said it will invite experts and journalists from other countries to view the liftoff. [Satellite]
• North Korean Announcement of Missile Launch
  Press Statement Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC March 16, 2012 North Korea’s announcement that it plans to conduct a missile launch in direct violation of its international obligations is highly provocative. UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 clearly and unequivocally prohibit North Korea from conducting launches that use ballistic missile technology. Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea’s recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches. We call on North Korea to adhere to its international obligations, including all relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. We are consulting closely with our international partners on next steps. PRN: 2012/392 [Disinformation] [Satellite]
• North Korea rejects criticism of rocket launch, vows to go ahead with plan
  By Associated Press, Published: March 18AP PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea vowed Sunday to go ahead with plans to launch a long-range rocket, rejecting criticism in the West that it would scuttle recent diplomacy. North Korea said Friday that it would fire an observation satellite into space on a new rocket as part of celebrations next month of the 100th anniversary of late President Kim Il Sung’s birth. The announcement came about two weeks after the North agreed to suspend long-range missile tests and make nuclear concessions in exchange for much-needed food aid from the United States. The agreement was seen as a promising step toward improved relations between the two wartime enemies. [Satellite]
• Chronology of North Korea’s missile program
  By Associated Press, Published: March 16AP Developments in North Korea’s missile program: — Aug. 31, 1998: North Korea fires suspected missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, calling it a satellite.
• North Korea to launch long-range rocket
  Agencies | March 17, 2012 00:00 By Agencies 0 E-mail Print North Korea announced Friday it would launch a long-range rocket carrying a satellite next month. The blastoff will be between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding leader Kim Il-sung, Pyongyang's official news agency said, insisting that the expected launch is in line with the government's policy for space development and peaceful use. "North Korea will strictly abide by relevant international regulations and practices concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes and ensure maximum transparency, thereby contributing to promoting international trust and cooperation in the field of space scientific research and satellite launches," a spokesman for the North Korean Committee for Space Technology said in a statement. [Satellite]
• North Korea getting set to blast off
  Pyongyang already misbehaving on terms of Feb. 29 deal with US North Korea announced plans to launch the Earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 between Apr. 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung‘s birth. Analyst said the move was intended to herald the beginning of the Kim Jong-un regime and demonstrate its stability. But black clouds are gathering for the peninsula, with South Korea, Japan, and the US either already objecting or expected to raise objections. A spokesperson for the [North] Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST) said Friday that the country would be launching an applications satellite for the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth, according to the Korean Central news Agency. The spokesperson said the Kwangmyongsong-3 was an applications satellite that would follow a polar orbit and be launched southward between Apr. 12 and 16 from the West Sea satellite launch pad in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, with the carrier rocket Unha-3. [Satellite]
• [Editorial] North Korea should cancel rocket launch while it still can
  Yesterday, North Korea suddenly announced it would launch a long-range rocket in April. This announcement comes just a few weeks after Pyongyang reached an agreement with Washington to temporarily halt its nuclear program and long-range missile launches. One has to wonder just what its reasoning is. It is a reckless move, given the negative impact it is sure to have on relations with Seoul and Washington. [Satellite]
• DPRK to Launch Application Satellite
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The DPRK is to launch a working satellite, Kwangmyongsong-3, manufactured by itself with indigenous technology to mark the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung. A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said this in a statement Friday. [Satellite]
• Korean People Confident of Successful Satellite Launch
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology made public a statement at noon Friday that the DPRK will launch an application satellite, Kwangmyongsong-3, manufactured by local scientists and technicians. Upon hearing the news on TV and radio, professors of Kim Chaek University of Technology have been gripped by a great joy, considering it an auspicious event of the nation. [Satellite]
• Satellite Launch to Display National Strength of Korea
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology announced at noon Friday that the DPRK is to launch Kwangmyongsong-3, a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite, in mid-April. The announcement delights servicepersons and people of the country. So Yong Il, an officer of the Korean People's Army, told KCNA: "The news makes me feel like moving round the earth aboard the satellite. [Satellite]
• U.S. and others condemn North Korea’s planned rocket launch
  AP - In this April 5, 2009 image, a rocket is lifted off from its launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Korea. North Korea announced Friday it plans to launch a long-range rocket mounted with a satellite next month. By Chico Harlan and William Wan, Published: March 16The Washington Post SEOUL — The United States and other countries condemned North Korea on Friday after it announced that it intends to use a rocket to blast a satellite into space, seemingly violating Pyongyang’s recent promise to halt weapons tests in exchange for food. U.S. officials called the planned launch a “direct violation” of international commitments that could bring to a halt almost every aspect of a deal hammered out two weeks ago that included food aid for the impoverished and isolated country. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the rocket test was a “grave provocative act against peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.” North Korea says it will launch a satellite into space next month using a long-range rocket. Pyongyang argues it's part of a peaceful space program, exempt from disarmament agreements, but the U.S. called the plan "highly provocative." .Although the move follows decades of broken promises by the reclusive North Korean government, it surprised leaders in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul because of the progress in recent weeks after years of stalled talks. The United States was finalizing details for 240,000 metric tons of food North Korea had desperately sought for more than a year. [Satellite] [Aid weapon] [Media] [Spin]

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FEBRUARY 2012

• Iran Starts Fueling Tehran Research Reactor with Fuel Rods
  Teheran, February 18 (KCNA) -- The first home-made nuclear fuel rods were to be placed into Tehran research reactor, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday. "We have started enriching uranium to 20 percent to build nuclear fuel rods since Western countries are reluctant to provide us with assistance", Iranian deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri was quoted as saying. "In the presence of the president, some new and worthwhile achievements of the country's nuclear scientists in the field of atomic energy will be unveiled" on Wednesday, Iran's presidential website announced on Tuesday.
• East Asia Nuclear Security Workshop Summary Report
  January 18, 2012 International House of Japan, Tokyo Co-Hosted by the Nautilus Institute, Mansfield Foundation, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network and Nautilus Australia – RMIT Global Studies Prepared by Binoy Kampmark, Peter Hayes and Richard Tanter [NWFZ]

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JANUARY 2012

• The 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit and HEU Minimization
  by Miles A. Pomper Share| | Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is one of the most dangerous materials in the world, thanks to the ease with which it can be utilized in a nuclear explosive device. Unlike plutonium, highly enriched uranium is suitable for use in the simplest kind of nuclear weapon, a so-called gun-type bomb. In addition, HEU’s weak radioactivity makes it relatively easy to handle and hard to detect. Terrorists who acquire a sufficient quantity of HEU would not need to be backed by the scientific and financial resources of a state to construct a nuclear device. [HEU]
• The Fukushima Disaster Opens New Prospects for Cooperation in Northeast Asia
  Northeast Asia, Nuclear Energy, Japan, Japan in Crisis, Asia James E. Goodby, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies Markku Heiskanen, Senior Associate, The Asia Institute June 28, 2011 — The nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has dramatically demonstrated the interdependence between the countries of Northeast Asia. This crisis poses a palpable threat to Northeast Asia, and is not an issue of military conflict, but rather of environmental pollution as radioactive materials spread across national frontiers. It is an example of a number of transnational issues that can be addressed effectively only through cooperative actions. It is hard to find any positive thing to be said about this disaster except to express the hope that this common threat can rally Northeast Asia to recognize that degradation of the environment is an immediate threat. If it can lead the nations of Northeast Asia to divert more of their budgets to non-traditional threats, it could be a unique gift presented by this crisis. [NWFZ] [Fukushima]
• New index ranks countries on nuclear security
  Posted at 12:39 PM ET, 01/11/2012 By Jason Ukman More than 10 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, the possibility that terrorist groups could obtain nuclear materials seems no less real to security experts, even as the threat posed by al-Qaeda recedes. Former Sen. Sam Nunn is co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. (Getty Images) On Wednesday, a Washington-based group that seeks to reduce global threats from nuclear weapons released a first-ever scorecard on the security of nuclear materials worldwide, ranking 32 countries on criteria such as their commitments to global norms, known security measures and other factors including corruption and government instability. The least-secure nations with “weapons-usable” nuclear materials: North Korea, Pakistan and Iran. The most secure: Australia, Hungary and the Czech Republic [Nuclear terrorism] [Intelligence] [MISCOM]
• A Proposal for a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone in Northeast Asia
  By Morton H. Halperin January 3, 2011 A version of this essay was originally presented at the East Asia Nuclear Security Workshop in Tokyo, Japan, on Nov. 11, 2011 convened by Nautilus Institute, Mansfield Foundation, and the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network. The workshop addressed the robustness of proposals to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Northeast Asia region. Specialists from Japan, Korea, China, Australia, and the United States explored in depth the current status of nuclear extended deterrence in East Asia, the plausibility of substituting conventional for nuclear extended deterrence in US alliance relationships, the cooperative security relationships that are needed to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone, and the thorny issues of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the Taiwan Straits conflict. Morton H. Halperin served four US presidents and is currently a Senior Adviser at the Open Society Foundation. Halperin notes that, as the Six-Party talks aimed at eliminating North Korea’s nuclear program remain stalled, a fresh approach incorporating the concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone in Northeast Asia should be considered as a way of ensuring peace and security in the region. [NWFZ] [US NK policy]

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