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Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea refuses US food aid - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7949785.stm

North Korea South Korea US

shared by Argos Media on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The US says North Korea has refused to accept any further food aid supplies. Five aid groups have been told to leave the North by the end of March, the State Department and aid groups said.
  • Last year, the UN World Food Programme said that almost nine million people - more than a third of the North Korean population - was in need of food aid.
  • "North Korea has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive additional US food assistance at this time," state department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington.
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  • Under a deal reached in June last year, the US agreed to distribute 500,000 metric tonnes of food to North Korea - 400,000 through the UN World Food Programme and the rest through NGOs.
  • The United Nations said on Monday that 6.9 million North Koreans have not received food aid they desperately need. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the reclusive state in a famine in the 1990s, and the North has relied on outside food aid ever since.
  • Pyongyang recently put its military on full combat alert and shut its border with the South, in what it said was retaliation for the recent annual military exercise by US and South Korean forces. In January, the North scrapped a series of peace agreements with the South over Seoul's decision to link bilateral aid to progress on de-nuclearisation.
Argos Media

Divisions emerge in international response to North Korean rocket launch | World news |... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...north-korea-rocket-launch

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation China Russia US Japan

shared by Argos Media on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The Taepodong-2 rocket flew twice as far as any previous North Korean missile.
  • Although Obama described the action as a "provocation", the US and Japan have so far failed to win support from China and Russia for a statement condemning Pyongyang and tightening existing sanctions.
  • The Japanese foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone, today admitted there were divisions in the security council."China and Russia share the concern that this is a threat to the region, but they appear reserved and cautious as of now," he told reporters in Tokyo.
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  • North Korea claimed the Taepodong-2 rocket put an experimental communications satellite into orbit, where it is collecting data and broadcasting the Song of General Kim Il-Sung and the Song of General Kim Jong-il.
  • But US, South Korean and Japanese scientists say the only broadcasts are likely to be from the bottom of the ocean because the satellite failed to reach orbit.
  • The advance in North Korea's ballistic missile technology will raise concerns that the country could one day be capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the US or western Europe.It is likely to interest potential buyers from Pakistan, Iran and Syria, who have sent observers to previous launches.
  • So far, however, the US and its allies have been unable to persuade China and Russia that the act was a breach of UN security council resolution 1718, passed after long-range missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
  • The resolution bans Pyongyang from activities related to a ballistic missile programme and calls on the international community to stop trading weapons and luxury goods with North Korea.
  • China, a historical ally of and food supplier to North Korea, has called on all sides to remain calm."Our position is that all countries concerned should show restraint and refrain from taking action that might lead to increased tension," Zhang Yesui, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, told reporters.
  • Russia described the North Korean rocket launch as "regrettable", but stopped short of confirming whether the launch had violated existing resolutions."Before embarking on any actions, we should understand the character of this launch because, at this particular moment, we do not have a clearcut picture," Igor Scherbak, the deputy Russian permanent UN representative, said.
Pedro Gonçalves

Al Jazeera English - Asia-Pacific - N Korea 'ready to launch missile' - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2009653491731578.html

North Korea South Korea Kaesong

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 05 Jun 09 - No Cached
  • There is growing speculation that North Korea may be preparing to launch another new medium or long-range missile.Satellite images from the GlobalSecurity website show the new Tongchang-ni launch site in the North's west coast near China and is reportedly ready for use after nearly a decade of construction.
  • The news of the suspected launch preparation came as South Korean media reported on Friday of US intentions to implement financial sanctions on Pyongyang in an effort to punish the country over its weapons trading and counterfeit activities.
  • Warning the North that its actions will "no longer be rewarded", James Steinberg, the US deputy secretary of state,  told Lee Myung-bak, the South Korean president, that "North Korea would be mistaken if it thinks it can make provocations and then get what it wants through negotiation as it did in the past. The US won't repeat the same mistake again".
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  • As international pressure heightens, tensions continue to rise on the Korean peninsula, and on Thursday, South Korean officials said a patrol boat from the North  entered its waters around their disputed maritime border, but backed off after nearly an hour following repeated warnings.
Argos Media

Russian FM in North Korea for talks - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

North Korea South Korea

shared by Argos Media on 23 Apr 09 - Cached
  • the first government-to-government talks -- lasting only 22 minutes -- between the two Koreas in more than a year.
  • On Tuesday, the South Korean and North Korean delegations were to discuss business deals tied to the Kaesung Industrial Complex in North Korea, which is run by both nations. The talks broke off after the North Korean delegation refused to discuss the release of a detained South Korean worker, saying he was not on the agenda, according to South Korean officials.
Pedro Gonçalves

Analysis - In death, Kim gives China a dose of dread | Reuters - 0 views

uk.reuters.com/...th-china-idUKTRE7BI0F220111219

North Korea China

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Over the past 18 months, Kim, who in the past rarely travelled abroad, visited China four times and in August made his first trip to Russia in nearly a decade.
  • Kim's visits were mainly aimed at winning economic support, and raised speculation he may finally be opening one of the world's most closed economies.
  • For China, its much smaller and poorer neighbor is both a buffer and a burden.China sees North Korea as a strategic barrier against the United States and its regional allies. But that barrier comes with an economic and diplomatic price.
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  • As the North's ties with South Korea and much of the outside world have soured, Kim has leaned more on ally Beijing for support, which has cost China both in economic aid and in strains with South Korea and other nations alarmed by North Korea's nuclear weapons development and military brinkmanship.China has sought to draw North Korea closer with incentives, and bilateral trade hit $3.1 billion in the first seven months of 2011, an 87 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Chinese customs statistics. Growth was propelled by a 169.2 percent jump in the value of Chinese imports.
Argos Media

US moves warships into position for North Korean missile | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...north-korea-us-japan-missile

North Korea US Japan

shared by Argos Media on 31 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The US and Japan yesterday deployed anti-missile batteries on land and sea to shoot down possible debris from an intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea is expected to test in the next few days.
  • South Korea also planned to dispatch its Aegis-equipped destroyer, according to a Seoul military official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
  • The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said America had no intention of shooting down the missile itself, which satellite photographs show is sitting on a launch-pad in Musudan-ri. Pyongyang says the launch is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but any such ballistic missile testing or development is banned by a 2006 United Nations resolution. Two US warships armed with Aegis anti-ballistic missiles left ports in South Korea yesterday to monitor the launch, which experts say could take place as soon as Saturday.
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  • The North Korean foreign ministry said at the weekend that "even a single word critical of the launch" from the security council would be interpreted as "a hostile act".
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea warning over 'satellite' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7931670.stm

North Korea South Korea US Kim Jong-il

shared by Argos Media on 09 Mar 09 - Cached
  • North Korea says it has put its military on full combat alert as a big military exercise by US and South Korean forces begins.
  • "Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war."
  • The army earlier issued a separate statement saying all military personnel had been ordered "to be fully combat ready" in order to defend the nation.
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  • In protest, it has now severed its remaining military hot lines with the South and ordered its 1.2 million strong army to remain combat ready.
  • The 12-day military exercise involves about 50,000 US and South Korean troops, in what the two allies say is a rehearsal for the defence of the peninsula.
  • n January, Pyongyang scrapped a series of peace agreements with the South over Seoul's decision to link bilateral aid to progress on denuclearisation.
Pedro Gonçalves

The Associated Press: NKorea warns of 'fire shower of nuclear' attack - 0 views

www.google.com/...yWVOA0ytFlaAGuC9F7R9wD991GLI00

North Korea South Korea US Nuclear Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 25 Jun 09 - Cached
  • North Korea condemned a recent U.S. pledge to provide nuclear defense of South Korea, saying Thursday that the move boosts its justification to have atomic bombs and invites a potential "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."
  • The North's newspaper claimed that the "nuclear umbrella" commitment made it more likely for the U.S. to mount a nuclear attack on the communist North, and only "provides us with a stronger justification to have nuclear deterrent."It also amounts to "asking for the calamitous situation of having a fire shower of nuclear retaliation all over South Korea" in case of a conflict, the paper said.
  • In a separate editorial marking the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War, the Rodong said the North "will never give up nuclear deterrent ... and will further strengthen it" as long as Washington remains hostile.
Pedro Gonçalves

Diplomatic Memo - Leadership Mystery Amid N. Korea's Nuclear Work - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...27nuke.html

Bader James James Steinberg Jeffrey Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-un Kurt Campbell North Korea Stephen Bosworth US Wendy Sherman

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 27 May 09 - Cached
  • American officials say they believe that Mr. Kim, in rapidly declining health, is maneuvering to make his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, his successor, perhaps after a period in which his brother-in-law, Jang Seong-taek, would serve as a regent.
  • The nuclear test and the test-firing of six short-range missiles, the American officials said, must be understood within the context of this internal struggle to extend the Kim dynasty’s rule for another generation.
  • “The North Korean leadership cares about internal matters, not external matters,” said Wendy R. Sherman, who coordinated North Korea policy in the Clinton administration. “They care about external matters only insofar as it helps ensure the survival of the regime.”Under those circumstances, she said, North Korea is not likely to be receptive to incentives. And it may have concluded that having nuclear weapons is a necessity for its own preservation.
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  • The special representative for North Korea policy, Stephen W. Bosworth, is a well-regarded diplomat and a former ambassador to South Korea. But he divides his time between this assignment and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he is dean.
  • Kurt M. Campbell, an Asia security expert nominated to become the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is likely to play a significant role. But he has not yet been confirmed.
  • Among the other influential players on North Korea policy, officials said, are James B. Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, and Jeffrey A. Bader, senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea 'places missile on pad' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7964364.stm

North Korea Japan Taepodong-2

shared by Argos Media on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has placed what is thought to be a long-range missile on a launch pad, Japanese and US officials say. North Korea had already said it would send a satellite into orbit in early April, using a long-range missile. The US, Japan and South Korea are concerned Pyongyang will test its Taepodong-2 long-range missile instead of launching a satellite.
  • Japanese PM Taro Aso said plans were being made to shoot down any rocket that threatened to hit the country. North Korea has said it plans to carry out the controversial launch between 4 and 8 April. The Taepodong-2 missile is capable of reaching Alaska from the Musudan-ri base in Hwadae on North Korea's north-east coast. It first tested the missile in July 2006, but it failed less than a minute after launch.
  • A satellite launch and a long-rang missile test would both use the Taepodong 2, analysts say. Pyongyang has already said the rocket taking its satellite into orbit will cross over Japan, dropping booster stages to its east and west.
Pedro Gonçalves

N. Korea to 'wipe out' US from 'globe'? - 0 views

www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx

North Korea Nuclear Weapons South Korea US

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 25 Jun 09 - Cached
  • North Korea warns of "dark clouds of nuclear war" gathering over the peninsula, vowing to boost its atomic arsenal despite international oppositions.
  • "A touch-and-go situation has been created on the Korean peninsula...with dark clouds of a nuclear war gathering as the hours tick by," it said in a lengthy commentary marking the anniversary of the 1950-1953 war.
  • North Korea has threatened a potential "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" should the US start a war, vowing to "wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all."
Pedro Gonçalves

N. Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009060800089.html

North Korea US Laura Ling Euna Lee

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 08 Jun 09 - Cached
  • A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors.
  • Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained in March along North Korea's border with China, received harsher sentences than many outsiders had expected. But several experts in South Korea predicted that talks will begin soon to negotiate their release.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese ships 'quit Korea waters' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8073129.stm

North Korea South Korea China US Robert Gates

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 29 May 09 - Cached
  • Chinese fishing boats are reported to be leaving the tense inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea after North Korea's threat of military action.
  • "Chinese fishing boats operating near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) began withdrawing yesterday," Yonhap quoted a defence source as saying.
  • More than 280 Chinese vessels were fishing near the NLL for crab earlier this week but the number has fallen to about 140, according to the source.
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  • Speaking at the Andersen US Air Force base, Mr Gates said he saw no need to increase troop levels in South Korea from the current total of 28,000. "I am not aware of any military moves in the North, that are out of the ordinary at least," he said.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea 'names Kim's successor' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8078324.stm

North Korea Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-un

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 02 Jun 09 - Cached
  • North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has designated his youngest son to be the country's next leader, according to reports in South Korean media.Two newspapers and an opposition lawmaker said South Korea's spy agency had briefed legislators on the move. North Korean officials were reportedly told to support Kim Jong-un after the North's 25 May nuclear test.
  • Little is known about Kim Jong-il's youngest son, who is thought to have been born in 1983 or early 1984.
  • There is no confirmed photograph of him as an adult. Questions have also been raised over whether his late mother, a Japanese-born professional dancer called Ko Yong-hui, was Kim Jong-il's official wife or mistress.
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  • The youngest Kim has been reported as being the son who most resembles his father. He is also reported to have a ruthless streak and the strongest leadership skills of Kim Jong-il's three sons.
  • There were reports he had been named as his successor in January. In April the South Korean newsagency, Yonhap, said he had joined the North's powerful National Defence Commission. Our correspondent notes that in a society that values seniority his youth could be a problem.
  • Meanwhile, at the end of a two-day summit, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and leaders from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) condemned North Korea's recent nuclear test and missile launches.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea conducts nuclear test - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8066615.stm

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 25 May 09 - Cached
  • North Korea says it has has staged a "successful" underground nuclear test, prompting international condemnation.
  • A number of external agencies have confirmed a powerful explosion took place, suspected to be associated with a nuclear test.
  • The test would "contribute to safeguard the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism", the communique said.
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  • Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying said its systems had detected a blast of "between 10 and 20 kilotons" - making it much bigger than the 2006 test, which the US said was less than a kiloton.
  • Just hours after the test, North Korea appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Pedro Gonçalves

Clinton Seeks 'Amnesty' for 2 Held by North Korea - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...11diplo.html

North Korea US Hillary Clinton

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 11 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the United States was now seeking “amnesty” for two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea, a remark that suggests that the Obama administration was admitting the women’s culpability in a bid to secure their freedom.
  • “The two journalists and their families have expressed great remorse for this incident, and I think everyone is very sorry that it happened,” Mrs. Clinton said Friday morning during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with State Department employees. “What we hope for now is that these two young women would be granted amnesty through the North Korean system and be allowed to return home to their families as soon as possible.”
  • The two journalists, Laura Ling, 36, and Euna Lee, 32, both reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor after a trial in which they were accused of entering the country illegally and committing “hostile acts.”
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  • Mrs. Clinton at first said the charges against the women were “baseless,” while the administration pressed for them to be freed on humanitarian grounds.
  • Her comments on Friday appear to reflect a changing picture that has been complicated by the North’s test of a nuclear missile in May and its decision to fire seven ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on the Fourth of July.
  • A scholar who visited the North said in an interview published Friday in a South Korean daily that the two women were not in a prison camp, but rather in a guest house in Pyongyang, a development that seemed to suggest that the North still wanted talks with Washington on the women’s release.
  • Experts said that Mrs. Clinton appeared to be trying to keep the issue of the journalists separate from the conflict over the North’s nuclear ambitions. “It’s clear to me they don’t want this tail to wag the nuclear dog,” said Michael Green, a top Asia expert for former President George W. Bush. “They are trying to keep it in a separate lane.”
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Defiant N Korea launches rocket - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7982874.stm

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Weapons

shared by Argos Media on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has defied international warnings and gone ahead with a controversial rocket launch. State media said a satellite had been put into orbit and was transmitting data and revolutionary songs. But there has been no independent confirmation so far. The US, Japan and South Korea suspect the launch was a cover for a long-range missile test.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC News - China 'will not protect' Korea ship attackers - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...10181527.stm

china North Korea South Korea

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 28 May 10 - Cached
  • China "will not protect" whoever sank a South Korean warship in March, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said. "China objects to and condemns any act that destroys the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," Mr Wen was quoted as saying after talks in Seoul.
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