Obama: N.Korea Nuclear Program Grave Threat
June 16, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs posed a grave threat to the region and to the world and called for a sustained effort to enforce international sanctions.
Obama was speaking at a news conference after meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the White House. North Korea said at the weekend it would start a uranium enrichment program and weaponize all its uranium in response to new U.N. sanctions.
N. Korea Warns of Nuclear War Amid Rising Tensions
North Korea’s communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions.
The North’s defiance presents a growing diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart on the North’s missile and nuclear programs.
A commentary Sunday in the North’s the main state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, claimed the U.S. has 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea. Another commentary published Saturday in the state-run Tongil Sinbo weekly claimed the U.S. has been deploying a vast amount of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan.
North Korea Threatens Response Within 48 Hours
June 12, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Kim Jong-il’s embattled regime is expected to deliver a tough, belligerent response to Friday’s imposition of a raft of new UN sanctions.
North Korea is expected to launch another long-range test missile over the next 48 hours according to US intelligence, as the region is on a heightened state of alert.
Pyongyang is also planning another underground nuclear test according to leaked briefings given to President Obama, US reports say.
North Korea Threatens Merciless Nuclear Offensive
June 9, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.
The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong.
The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.
Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.
“Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means…as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country’s dignity and sovereignty even a bit,” said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as “offensive” in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it.
