Japan launches 4th spy satellite

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan launched its fourth spy satellite Saturday, stepping up its ability to gather intelligence from orbit and to keep a close eye on neighboring North Korea's nuclear program.

The satellite, along with a smaller test prototype, was launched from the country's space center on a remote southern Japan island atop an H-2A rocket, the workhorse of Japan's space program.

Japanese space agency spokesman Satoki Kurokawa described the liftoff -- which had been postponed three times due to poor weather -- as a success. Television footage showed the rocket racing up through cloudy skies.

The launch of the radar satellite enhances a multibillion dollar (euro), decade-old plan for Japan to have round-the-clock surveillance of the secretive North and other areas Japan wants to peer in on.

But weaknesses in the satellites' capabilities have led to criticism that the program is a waste of money and, with better data available on the commercial market, that Japan will continue to be dependent on Washington for its core intelligence.

The launch also comes just a month after China demonstrated its ability to shoot satellites out of orbit with ground-based missiles. Japan and other countries, including the United States, have strongly protested Beijing's anti-satellite test.

China has defended the test as peaceful, and said it presents no country with a threat.

Japanese space officials say the satellites provide an important means for the country to independently collect intelligence, and say improvements in the satellites' capabilities are in the works.

The prototype launched Saturday, for example, features higher-resolution optics that can be used in the future to improve the quality of the satellites' photographs from orbit.

Japan launched its first pair of spy satellites into orbit in March 2003. The program grew out of concern following North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan's main island in 1998.

The government's original plan was to put a total of eight intelligence-gathering satellites into orbit through 2006. However, it suffered a major setback in November 2003, when a rocket carrying the second set of spy satellites malfunctioned and was destroyed in mid-flight.

Officials say they are back on course now.

"Our crisis management has improved substantially," said Yasuhiro Itakura of the Cabinet office in charge of the program.

Though Japan's intelligence-gathering satellites are not under military control, Japan's ruling party proposed late last year that the military be allowed to use the country's space program. The proposal still needs to be approved by Parliament.

Since 1969, Japan's space program has been limited by a parliamentary resolution committed to peaceful uses. The new proposal would restrict military use of the program to self-defense, officials say.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, Nuclear Weapons

- posted by Rosemary Welch@4:50 AM

 

Cheney: Realistic over N. Korea deal

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday said Washington has a realistic view of recent steps in North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and also expressed concern about China's military buildup.

"We go into this deal with our eyes open," Cheney told members of the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue during a Friday speech in Sydney about the recent agreements with Pyongyang.

"In light of North Korea's missile tests last July, its nuclear test in October and its record of proliferation and human rights abuses, the regime in Pyongyang has much to prove. Yet this agreement represents a first hopeful step toward a better future for the North Korean people."

In an agreement that followed three years of talks, North Korea agreed earlier this month that it would halt its production of plutonium and begin closing down its nuclear program in exchange for $300 million in energy and financial aid. (Full story.)

But the former U.S. point man at the United Nations, John Bolton, publicly blasted the deal, saying it would encourage other countries to seek nuclear weapons.

U.S. President George W. Bush said last week that this agreement was different from the 1994 pact that his administration claims Pyongyang violated by trying to develop a uranium enrichment program. In this case, Bush said, North Korea's neighbors -- China, Russia, Japan and South Korea -- are acting in concert with Washington.

Worries about China

Cheney arrived in Australia after talks in Tokyo with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in which China's military rise and its growing clout in the region were high on the agenda.

"Last month's anti-satellite test and China's continued, fast-paced military buildup are less constructive and not consistent with China's stated goal of a peaceful rise," Cheney said. But he said he held out hope China would emerge as "a force for stability and peace in this region."

The Bush administration took office in 2001 with a more confrontational stance toward China than its predecessor, the Clinton administration, had taken. But it relied heavily on Beijing's influence with the Stalinist government in Pyongyang during the North Korean nuclear talks.

Cheney was scheduled to hold talks Friday with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a leading supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The war has been unpopular in Australia, and anti-war demonstrators held protests in Sydney as Cheney spoke. (Full story.)

Australia has more than 1,400 troops in and around Iraq, and Cheney was scheduled to meet with members of the country's military Friday. He said the United States and Australia "are determined to prevail in Iraq, because we understand the consequences of failure."

Australia was one of the first nations to commit to the Iraq war, and despite the relatively small number of troops, Howard has been one of the most vocal supporters of the U.S.-led war.

Cheney praised Australian Prime Minister John Howard's commitment to the war, according to news services. The Australian commitment is being increasingly questioned and likely to become an election issue in the country.

"Prime Minister Howard and the nation he serves has never wavered on the war on terror," Cheney said, according to Reuters news service.

Howard -- whose ruling center-right Liberal Party will face Australian voters in October -- wandered into American electoral politics earlier this month by criticizing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's call for a withdrawal of U.S. combat troops. He told an Australian television interviewer that "If I was running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

Obama, a Democratic presidential hopeful, shot back that if Howard was still "ginned up" about the nearly 4-year-old war, "I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq."

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, Australia, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, USA

- posted by Rosemary Welch@4:43 AM

 

Rice calls North Korean deal 'important first step'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials on Tuesday defended the Bush administration's policy shift on North Korea, which coincided with an agreement by Pyongyang to begin to close down its nuclear program.

North Korea now has 60 days to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex and readmit nuclear inspectors. In return, it will get 50,000 tons of fuel oil or financial aid of an equal amount.

Once Pyongyang takes additional steps to disable its nuclear program, including taking inventory of its plutonium stockpile, it will qualify for another 950,000 tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid, according to the terms of the deal. The aid package is worth $300 million.

North Korean state media reported that the agreement called only for a "temporary suspension" of Pyongyang's nuclear program, according to wire reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice drew a distinction between the first 60-day period, when she said nuclear activities will be suspended, and the later "disablement phase."

"The disabling of these facilities is a sign that the North Koreans may, in fact, be ready to make a strategic choice," she said at a briefing in Washington. "I will not take it as a complete sign until we've seen that disablement, but obviously disablement is an important step forward."

"I am pleased with the agreements reached today at the Six Party Talks in Beijing," President Bush said in a statement. "These talks represent the best opportunity to use diplomacy to address North Korea's nuclear programs. They reflect the common commitment of the participants to a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons."

The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have been holding talks with North Korean officials since 2002 in an effort to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Not addressed in the agreement is what will happen to any nuclear weapons North Korea may have stockpiled. Reports have suggested that Pyongyang already may have as many as a dozen nuclear bombs.

The omission marks a change from the previous statements -- including by Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to the six-party talks, in September 2005 -- that all elements, past and present, of North Korea's nuclear program "will be comprehensively declared and completely, verifiably and irreversibly eliminated" for benefits to accrue.

The Bush administration halted fuel shipments agreed by the Clinton White House after North Korea said it was developing a nuclear weapons program in 2002. Earlier that year President Bush labeled Pyongyang part of the "axis of evil."

Bolton: Agreement sends 'wrong signal'.

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, blasted the new deal Monday in an interview with CNN, saying it would only encourage other countries trying to secure nuclear weapons.

"It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: If you hold out long enough and wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded," said Bolton, who was also involved with North Korea earlier as the State Department's undersecretary for arms control.

"It makes the [Bush] administration look very weak at a time in Iraq and dealing with Iran it needs to look strong," he said.

Hill on Tuesday defended the deal, saying it is different from the policy developed under the Clinton administration because it is a multilateral agreement.

"This is not a bilateral deal between the U.S. and North Korea," Hill said. "This involves six parties, with China in the share. I think the deal here is that North Korea has made certain commitments not only to us, but to all of its neighbors."

Bolton said the six-party deal "contradicts fundamental premises of the president's policy he's been following for the past six years" and could have effects on U.S. relations in other hot spots.

"I'm hoping that the president has not been fully briefed on it and still has time to reject it," he said.

As U.N. ambassador, Bolton helped push through a U.N. resolution last year that led to economic sanctions against North Korea.

Responding to the criticism, Hill pointed out that Bolton is a private citizen and has the right to speak his mind. Hill said he expects further criticism and emphasized that the deal is based on "initial actions" that will "begin a process aimed at complete denuclearization."

In October 2002, North Korea admitted it was developing a nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework reached between the United States and North Korea. The United States then halted fuel oil shipments to Pyongyang called for under the same agreement.

In September 2005, North Korea committed to abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. Pyongyang walked away from the talks weeks later to protest a U.S. crackdown on banks suspected of helping North Korea with illegal financial activities.

This time, an administration official said: "The Koreans faced five other united members, and they realized they were standing alone."

Source: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, John Vause and Susie Xu contributed to this report.

Labels: Asia, USA

- posted by Rosemary Welch@4:16 AM

 

Questions remain on N. Korea disarmament

BEIJING, China (AP) -- A hard-won disarmament pact that the U.S. and four other nations struck with North Korea requires the communist nation to halt its nuclear programs in exchange for oil. But the deal leaves the ultimate abandonment of those weapons projects to a potentially trouble-filled future.

In a sign of potential problems to come, North Korea's state news agency said the country was receiving 1 million tons of oil for a "temporary suspension" of its nuclear facilities -- and failed to mention the full disarmament for which the agreement calls.

It wasn't clear if the report represented an attempt by the government to backtrack on the deal, or was simply a statement of bluster for a deeply impoverished domestic audience that Pyongyang has rallied around the nuclear program as a cause for national pride.

And by tackling so many issues in a process likely to take years, the deal could unravel, pulled apart by differing agendas of its six signers, which also include China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

"We have a lot of work to do," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters Tuesday. "It's certainly not the end of the process, it's really just the end of the beginning of the process." (Details of the deal.)

Nevertheless, the agreement marks a turnabout for North Korea, which rattled the world only four months ago when it tested a nuclear device. If Pyongyang follows through with its promises, they would be the first moves the communist state has made to scale back its atomic development since it kicked out international inspectors and restarted its sole operating nuclear reactor in 2003.

"These talks represent the best opportunity to use diplomacy to address North Korea's nuclear programs," U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement. "They reflect the common commitment of the participants to a Korean peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons."

Robert J. Einhorn, a former State Department official who visited North Korea with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said Americans should applaud the agreement, but he predicted it would come under heavy questioning from both the right and the left.

He said, "I think a number of people are going to ask the question, `Couldn't this deal have been concluded three or four years ago before North Korea conducted its nuclear test and acquired enough additional plutonium to build anywhere from six to 10 nuclear weapons?"'

On the right, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said the agreement rewards North Korea for bad behavior while encouraging Iran to ignore international demands that it roll back its nuclear program and hold out for a better deal.

No timetable set.

In the negotiations, envoys debated who would pay for North Korea's disarmament. China, the U.S., South Korea and Russia agreed to foot the bill though Moscow may contribute in the form of debt relief. Japan has refused to provide aid until Pyongyang fully accounts for the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea.

"We understand it marks the first concrete step by North Korea toward its nuclear dismantlement," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. "But our position that Japan cannot provide support without a resolution of the abduction issue is unchanged."

Disarmament, however, is likely to remain the thorniest problem.

"What if North Korea doesn't show them to inspectors, if they say we've stopped this and shut down that, what if they say you have to trust us?" said Liu Gongliang, a physicist at China's Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics who has followed North Korea's nuclear program for the Chinese government.

Under the deal, the North is required to seal its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, north of the capital, within 60 days and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Senior IAEA figures have met regularly with North Korean diplomats in past months preparing for such a mission, and a diplomat familiar with the status of preparations told The Associated Press that IAEA inspectors could be on site "within days" once given the go-ahead.

But no timetable was set for a final declaration by North Korea of all its nuclear programs and their ultimate dismantling.

North Korea has sidestepped previous agreements. It allegedly operated its uranium-based weapons program even as it froze a plutonium-based one, sparking the latest nuclear crisis in late 2002. The country is believed to have countless mountainside tunnels in which to hide projects.

The uranium program was not explicitly addressed in the agreement. But, Hill said, "I certainly have made very clear repeatedly that we need to ensure that we know precisely the status of that."

The nuclear issue has frequently been ensnarled by lingering frictions between the North and its neighbors, as well as a dispute over U.S. sanctions against the regime for alleged money laundering and counterfeiting activities. Hill said the sanctions issue would be resolved within 30 days, but didn't provide specifics.

The United States will also begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade sanctions, but no deadlines have been was set, according to the agreement. Washington's blacklisting of a Macau bank in September 2005 had led the North to a more-than-yearlong boycott of the six-nation talks during which it tested its first nuclear bomb.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, USA

- posted by Rosemary Welch@9:47 PM

 

NK 'shows willing' in nuke talks

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- North Korea said it was willing to consider first steps to ending its nuclear arms program at six-party talks that opened on Thursday, with China drafting a deal that could mark rare progress in the tortuous negotiations.

The U.S. envoy to the talks, Christopher Hill, said negotiators were looking to end North Korea's production of the plutonium that fed its first nuclear test explosion last year.

"We're interested in addressing problems created by plutonium production in North Korea," Hill told reporters. "We're not interested in just freezing, we are interested in moving toward taking steps toward the abandonment of these nuclear programs."

Russia's RIA news agency quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in the Chinese capital as saying the draft was distributed to national delegations late on Thursday night.

South Korea's envoy, Chun Yung-woo, said the potential deal would spell out parts of a 2005 agreement promising North Korea aid and security assurances in return for nuclear disarmament.

"We have confirmed that there is a consensus among the countries that there must be an agreement on the early steps on implementing the Sept. 19 joint statement at this round," he said after the first day of talks.

Participants have dismissed hopes of an immediate settlement of the long-burning nuclear standoff. But even limited agreement would ease tensions in volatile northeast Asia and would be a diplomatic victory for the beleaguered Bush administration.

Rice optimistic.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a deal could be in sight. "I am cautiously optimistic that we may be able to begin, again, to implement the joint statement of 2005," she told a congressional panel in Washington.

Since 2003, six-party talks have brought together the host China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia in a stop-start effort to curtail Pyongyang's nuclear plans, which took a dramatic step forward with the October nuclear test.

In previous sessions, hopes of progress have foundered over North Korea's distrust of Washington and, since late 2005, the North's objections to a U.S. financial squeeze.

U.S. envoy Hill did not rule out the current talks coming to nothing. But he said North Korea was finally considering specific steps towards curbing its nuclear activities.

"These would be set of actions, and not a set of pledges, but really a set of actions that would have to be taken in a finite amount of time," he told reporters.

"We think if we can get this first good step it will give us some momentum to get to the next step and the step after that."

Hill has avoided specifying what he wants the first act by North Korea to be, but many observers have homed in on the North's Yongbyon nuclear plant, which produces plutonium that can be used in weapons.

Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, echoed that demand.

"North Korea needs to halt and seal its operations of the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and accept verification and monitoring by the IAEA," he told Thursday's meeting, according to a draft of his speech released by Japan's Foreign Ministry.

He was referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which inspects nuclear facilities and oversees disarmament.

"The initial-stage steps must be implemented in a relatively short period of time," Sasae added. Hill said the proposed deal would unfold over a few weeks if agreement was reached.

After the first day of talks, secretive North Korea remained silent about its demands.

In December, Pyongyang's negotiator Kim Kye-kwan stymied hopes of a deal by focusing instead on objections to a U.S. financial crackdown on what Washington said was clear evidence of North Korean counterfeiting of U.S. cash and other misdeeds.

Kim told China's official Xinhua news agency before leaving Pyongyang he did not "expect too much" from the talks and their fate lay in U.S. hands.

"We are prepared to discuss the initial steps, but the judgment (for the talks) should be based on whether the United States will come forward and abandon its hostile policy against us and co-exist peacefully," Kim said on arrival in Beijing.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, Nuclear Weapons, USA

- posted by Rosemary Welch@11:21 PM

 

Report: 120 North Korean political prisoners escape

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Some 120 inmates escaped from a political concentration camp in northeastern North Korea several months ago in an unprecedented prison break, news reports said Tuesday.

The prisoners escaped from Hwasong camp in North Hamgyong, a province close to the Chinese and Russian borders, in December, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday.

Daily NK, a Seoul-based Internet news site focusing on North Korea, also carried a similar report on Tuesday.

Both reports cited multiple unnamed sources in North Korea.

An official at South Korea's Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korean affairs, said he was unable to confirm the reports but questioned their reliability. The official spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

News leaked from the reclusive North, which shuns outside access, is usually hard to confirm.

The Daily NK report said the area was put in a "state of emergency" after the prison break, calling it unprecedented.

North Korean authorities have since tightened inspections at Hwasong and adjacent cities to catch the fugitives, of whom 21 have so far been caught, the report said. So far, 21 prisoners have been caught, most of whom were found in China and sent back to the communist North after failed attempts to defect to South Korea, the report said.

The Hwasong prison camp -- located deep inside a mountain and encircled by high wire fences -- holds about 10,000 prisoners, Daily NK said. The escape seemed to have been carefully planned with outside help since the escapees drove off in a vehicle waiting outside the prison, according to the report.

Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are believed to be held in prison camps in the communist North for political reasons, according to U.S. government data.

Separately, Daily NK reported Sunday that 20 North Korean guards along the border with China had fled the country to avoid arrest for allegedly helping North Korean defectors cross the border.

The guards had fled to China, where the North sent intelligence officials to capture them, the report said, citing a North Korean resident.

Hundreds of North Koreans leave the country every year to escape poverty and political repression, usually through China. Defectors in South Korea say they usually bribe border guards to cross the border.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, Political Prisoners

- posted by Rosemary Welch@10:53 PM

 

Pyongyang's nuke envoy dubbed 'the smiling assassin'

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- For those who have sat across the table from him, North Korean chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan is known simply as "the smiling assassin."

A youthful 64, Kim is the face of Pyongyang's nuclear crisis and the communist state's best-known diplomat.

Disarming and shrewd, he has been at the North Korean nuclear game longer than almost any other diplomat and will almost certainly be leading his country's delegation when six-way nuclear discussions formally resume on Thursday.

"He's always cordial, but he is pretty effective," an official involved in the talks said. "Sometimes you may not realize what's happening, but it's just him getting the job done."

Charles Pritchard, a former U.S. negotiator with North Korea, calls him "the dean" of all the negotiators.

"He can be quick on his feet." said Pritchard, who used to be able to share jokes with Kim as the two grew to know each other.

Recent contact between North Korea and the United States has raised hope for the prospects of the nuclear talks, which also include South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.

According to South Korean government data, Kim's diplomatic career began with a posting to Algeria in 1969, followed by two decades of service that was heavy on developing-world diplomacy.

Then in the early 1990s, he surfaced to the forefront of the North's nuclear diplomacy as part of the Pyongyang delegation which negotiated a now defunct deal with Washington aimed at freezing its nuclear programs in return for energy aid.

Then he appeared a grey cadre spouting communist ideology. Now he is a nattily dressed diplomat who often appears to be a voice of authority from the North.

Jettisoning a communist penchant for harangues, Kim can be startlingly to the point. "Everything can change," he said last month in Beijing when asked if Pyongyang would be more flexible on its longstanding demand for U.S. concessions.

He may be the only North Korean diplomat who will regularly sit down for news conferences with Western media, even answering questions on the fly from reporters not shoved aside by his security detail.

"He's learned the art of negotiation and dropped a lot of the ideologically driven comments when he sits down at the table," said a diplomat who has followed Kim since he first emerged on the international stage.

Kim, dubbed "the smiling assassin" by former South Korean nuclear officials, has been infinitely courteous with reporters, yet unbending in tough negotiating sessions.

"He knows these issues backwards and forwards and up and down, so he's a formidable guy to sit down with," said Thomas Hubbard, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

But officials and experts say his impact on the direction of the negotiations could be limited because he has no family ties with paramount leader Kim Jong-il.

"Like most of the North Korean team, Kim is polished and smooth, but he is not so much a negotiator as a buffer," said a former U.S. official who attended most rounds of the six-way talks but has since left government.

Source: CNN.

Cross-posted at Causes of Interest.

Labels: Asia, Bloggers, News

- posted by Rosemary Welch@5:50 AM

 

Mass defection decimates South Korea's ruling party.

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- A group of lawmakers deserted South Korea's ruling Uri Party on Tuesday, dumping the liberal group into the second-ranked slot in parliament and leaving it in disarray ahead of this year's presidential election.

The defection is likely to scupper attempts at economic and constitutional reform by the country's deeply unpopular president Roh Moo-hyun, and will strengthen the hand of the Grand National Party, which backs a tougher line with North Korea.

Roh wants to change the constitution so that his successors can serve two terms instead of one, which would give the president more sway in forming long-term policies.

The group of 23 defecting lawmakers said Uri -- which has a popular support rate of about 10 percent -- had failed.

"We are giving up on the Uri Party," lawmaker Lee Jong-kul told reporters, saying the party had let voters down.

Roh, increasingly labeled a lame duck in his final year in office by the local media, had appealed for unity. But some Uri members said they had to distance themselves from him to have a chance in December's presidential vote.

With the defection, the conservative Grand National Party has now surpassed Uri to become the largest group in parliament.

The Grand National Party has 127 members in the 299-seat unicameral parliament. Prior to the defection, Uri had 133.

Surveys have indicated some of the biggest concerns of South Korean voters are runaway real estate prices and uncertainty about the job market.

Uri will likely split into two groups, political analysts said.

One group would follow Roh, whose support rate is only slightly higher than Uri's, and his calls for economic reform aimed at narrowing income disparity.

The other group would try to distance itself from Roh's policies and advocate market-based economic reforms, they said.

A trickle of lawmakers had already left Uri -- whose name means "our" in Korean -- in the past few weeks.

Opinion polls show the Grand National Party as the clear frontrunner to provide South Korea's next president.

Previous South Korean presidents, facing falling support rates, have also seen their parties crumble into disarray ahead of a presidential vote.

Source: CNN.

Cross-posted at: Causes of Interest.

Labels: Asia, Bloggers, News, Politics

- posted by Rosemary Welch@5:26 AM

 

NK at impasse, threatens 2nd test

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- North Korea will feel compelled to announce plans for another nuclear test if a financial dispute with Washington is not resolved, a source said on Wednesday, a sign of Pyongyang's impatience with a lack of progress in talks.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser resumed talks with North Korean officials in Beijing on Tuesday over the dispute over currency counterfeiting. He said the talks were inching forward and had "established a framework" for more negotiations.

Glaser also said U.S. Secret Service officials had presented North Korean officials with their findings.

The source with close ties to the North Korean government said the United States lacked evidence of wrongdoing, and that North Korea would likely express its frustration when it comes to six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programs scheduled for February 8 in Beijing.

"If the United States does not resolve it, North Korea will have no choice but to announce at the six-party talks that it plans to conduct another test," the source told Reuters after being briefed by a North Korean official.

The last session of talks grouping the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China was held in December -- two months after Pyongyang dramatically raised the stakes by holding its first nuclear test -- and yielded no breakthrough.

The December session bogged down over Pyongyang's complaints about a U.S. financial crackdown that led to Macau freezing $24 million in North Korean accounts.

The U.S. Treasury has accused Macau's Banco Delta Asia of helping North Korea launder earnings from counterfeit U.S. dollars and drug trafficking.

U.S. officials have held out little hope of a quick resolution to the financial negotiations and South Korea cautioned against hopes for a breakthrough in the six-party talks.

"We hope to adopt a joint document," South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters in Seoul.

"But the substance of the document is such that it's a ridge we have not set foot on. So, despite the strong will of the countries to get there, whether we actually can will depend on a lot of consultations and time."

Song said U.S.-North Korean talks about the financial curbs were key to the success of the six-party negotiations. The Beijing-based source described the curbs as a "huge insult" to a sovereign country.

"If the United States does not resolve it, North Korea would be a 'sinner' taking part in the six-party talks ... North Korea would have no face and could not be on equal footing with the other parties at the six-party talks.

"The United States has no evidence, just like it had no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," the source said.

The North Korean Embassy in Beijing declined to comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

A Japanese newspaper said on Wednesday North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son was in Macau, quoting diplomatic sources in Hong Kong.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said Kim Jong-nam may visit a bank in Hong Kong to give an explanation of his account held there.

The Hong Kong account is not subject to the U.S. crackdown but may have some link to the discussions, the paper said

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, News, Nuclear Weapons, USA

- posted by Rosemary Welch@8:02 PM

 

Missle defense shield test aced as dummy target hit.

KEKAHA, Hawaii (CNN) -- The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency shot down a dummy target missile over the southern Pacific Ocean during a test of the U.S. missile defense shield early Saturday, according to an agency spokeswoman.

First, a dummy ballistic missile was fired from a U.S. mobile launch platform in the Pacific Ocean in a simulated attack.

Moments later, an interceptor missile was fired from the agency's missile range facility on Hawaii's Kauai Island and struck the dummy warhead over the Pacific Ocean, military footage showed.

The mobile, ground-based system is designed to protect the United States from short to intermediate-range high altitude ballistic missile attacks in the North American region, agency spokeswoman Pam Rogers said.

The system "intercepts missiles that are shorter range and at the end of their flight trajectory. It is part of the ballistic missile defense system, a layered system that is designed to intercept all types of missiles in all phases of flights," Rogers said.

This particular short to intermediate-range interceptor system has been tested four times a year since 2005.

"This was our first test since we moved equipment in October from the White Sands missile range in New Mexico ... everything went exceedingly well," Rogers said.

In September, the agency successfully tested its long-range ballistic missile interceptor system, which it said was the most realistic test since the tests started in 2001.

That interceptor system was designed to knock out missiles that could, for instance, be launched in a surprise strike from nations as far away as North Korea.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, Missle Defense

- posted by Rosemary Welch@11:28 PM

 

UN to deny aid to NK until audit.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Development Program agreed Thursday not to approve new projects in North Korea until an external audit addresses U.S. allegations that the agency has funneled millions of dollars to the communist regime in violation of United Nations rules.

UNDP assistant administrator Ad Melkert said the agency also agreed to end cash payments to the North Korean government and local suppliers and to stop hiring staff recruited by Pyongyang. The United States had complained about both practices.

The UNDP also agreed it will be responsible for implementing all North Korean projects, addressing U.S. complaints that authorities in the North were overseeing several initiatives.

The UNDP's decision came a week after U.S. deputy ambassador Mark Wallace alleged the agency's North Korea operation had been run "in blatant violation of U.N. rules" for years. He demanded an outside audit focusing on concerns that development funds had been used by Pyongyang for "its own illicit purposes."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the audit on Monday, a swift response that indicated he was determined to avoid a repetition of the scandal over the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan did not agree to an independent investigation into that scandal until months after it erupted.

The U.S. welcomed the new steps.

"We're pleased with the approach that the UNDP administrator has laid out," acting U.S. Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff told reporters.

The decisions were made by consensus during a regular meeting of the UNDP executive board to approve country programs. North Korea, which sits on the board, said it would accept the steps, though it condemned them as an attempt to "politicize the system" of the UNDP -- a stance echoed by the representatives of Russia and Cuba.

Possible irregularities.

U.S. officials said they first received indications there might be irregularities in UNDP's North Korea program last year. They raised concerns the cash might be misused, possibly for Pyongyang's nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea on October 14 for conducting a nuclear test.

At the board meeting, North Korean delegate Jang Chunsik called the U.S. allegations "nonsense," insisting the UNDP's activities in his country had been "conducted in a transparent way."

The Russian delegate, Dimitry Maksimychev, said that while his country "did not stand in the way of the consensus ... it is an undesirable example of politicization of the work of the executive board."

Japan, however, applauded the agreement and went a step further. It said U.N. should stop providing aid to North Korea except for humanitarian assistance "directly delivered to the people" because Pyongyang had defied Security Council demands that it end its nuclear program.

Asked about that proposal, Wolff said "the Japanese argument is quite compelling. We're going to consider it."

U.S. officials said the United States already withholds its contributions to the UNDP and other U.N. agencies that provide funds to North Korea.

The audit, to be completed in three months, will initially focus on UNDP spending in North Korea and then be expanded to other U.N. agencies. It will be conducted by the U.N.'s Board of Auditors, which is comprised of accountants from eight U.N. members.

Wallace has made several allegations in letters to senior UNDP officials, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. He has said UNDP's local staff is dominated by North Korean government employees who managed the agency's programs and finances in violation of UNDP rules.

The UNDP has spent about $3 million annually in the last 10 years on programs in impoverished North Korea, in addition to about $600,000 in office costs, which include local salaries and supplies. The programs focus on food production, rural and environmental sector management, economic management and social sector management.

The UNDP executive board agreed to delay approval of its 2007-2009 North Korea program until the audit is completed. It also agreed to review the proposed program to ensure it addresses the concerns raised by the United States, Melkert said.

Current projects will continue but must stop cash payments and the hiring of North Korean government recruits by March 1, Melkert said. He also said all projects will be directly implemented by the UNDP.

The agreement came despite the UNDP's ardent denials this week that its North Korea program violated U.N. financial rules.

The agency noted that it already directly manages the vast majority of its projects, with about $337,000 worth of program costs overseen by North Korean authorities. UNDP officials also stressed that it has conducted three internal audit of its North Korean operations in the last eight years, the last in 2004.

Source: CNN.

Labels: Asia, News

- posted by Rosemary Welch@11:22 PM