North Korea Thought To Have 13 Biological Weapons
As if the nuclear threat from North Korea is not bad enough for it’s neighbors, The Straits Times is reporting that North Korea is thought to have up to 13 types of viruses and germs in their weapons arsenal which can be used in biological weapons, as well as up to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons. This according to South Korea’s defense ministry, says the report.
From The Straits Times
The chemical weapons could be deliverable by artillery or missile to cause massive civilian casualties in South Korea, the Brussels-based think-tank said.
The stockpile includes between 2,500-5,000 tons of mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents, sarin, tabun and persistent nerve agents and can be delivered by long-range artillery, missiles, aircraft and naval vessels, it said.
In a report to parliament, the ministry said the communist North has one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
The list of diseases that could be caused by the biological weapons includes cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, eruptive typhus, typhoid fever and dysentery, it said.
The ministry estimated its neighbour’s stockpile of chemical weapons at between 2,500 to 5,000 tons.
via N.Koreas 13 biological weapons.
AQ Khan Blows The Whistle On Pakistan…In 2003 Letter
September 21, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under World Report
The Times of India is reporting that A.Q.Khan has made public and official what some had long alleged: his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it.
''The [edited] first used us and are now playing dirty games with us,'' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. ''Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand,'' he tells his wife, adding, ''They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.''
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Military Source Warns of North Korea’s EMP Bomb
North Korea is developing a bomb that emits an electromagnetic field upon explosion and damages nearby electronic devices, a South Korean military source has revealed to the JoongAng Ilbo. The source said North Korea has been working on the electromagnetic pulse bomb, or EMP bomb, since the mid-1990s, with help from Russian scientists, adding that the weapon may be near completion.
The EMP bomb produces a short but strong electromagnetic pulse that, if exploded 40 kilometers (25 miles) above ground, would affect equipment within a 700-kilometer radius, including exposed electrical conductors, such as wires.
According to Australia-based defense analyst Carlo Kopp and his paper at the GlobalSecurity.org Web site, the EMP effect can cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices, such as computers, radio and radar. He noted that EMP devices can render many modern military platforms useless because they are packed with electronic equipment. He argued that the damaged inflicted by such a bomb is akin to the harm caused by powerful bolts of lightning. The EMP bomb is not known to cause casualties. The U.S. forces used them at the onset of the war on Iraq in 2003.
The South Korean source said he expects the North to develop EMP bombs as warheads for aircraft bombs and for Scud-B missiles, warning that the North could use the weapons early and often if war broke out on the peninsula. South Korean and U.S. forces are vulnerable to EMP attacks since they rely on a great number of computer systems and their weapons are heavily equipped with electronic devices, the source explained.
UAE Seizes North Korean Weapons Shipment to Iran
August 28, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
The United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean-manufactured munitions, detonators, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades bound for Iran in violation of United Nations sanctions, diplomats said.
The UAE two weeks ago notified the UN Security Council of the seizure, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition they aren’t named because the communication hasn’t been made public. They said the ship, owned by an Australian subsidiary of a French company and sailing under a Bahamian flag, was carrying 10 containers of arms disguised as oil equipment.
The council committee that monitors enforcement of UN sanctions against North Korea wrote letters to Iran and the government in Pyongyang asking for explanations of the violation, and one to the UAE expressing appreciation for the cooperation, the envoys said. No response has been received and the UAE has unloaded the cargo, they said.
The UAE and Iranian missions to the UN didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Financial Times reported the weapons seizure earlier today.
American Journalists Pardoned By North Korea
Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been pardoned by North Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has granted a “special pardon” to two jailed U.S. journalists which releases them from detention, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
“Kim Jong-il issued an order of the chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them,” KCNA said in a statement which carried a Pyongyang dateline.
Congressman Calls For Cyber Reprisals Against North Korea
July 13, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
A Republican congressman has urged the US to unleash a retaliatory cyber-attack against North Korea over DDoS attacks supposedly launched against US and South Korean websites.
Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michagan, the lead Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, urged President Obama to mount a “show of force” against North Korea over its alleged role in cyberattacks last week.
Hoekstra made the call to fire up the cyber-equivalent of B-52 bombers despite absolutely no evidence that the impoverished, hard-line communist state is involved in the assault. This lack of evidence didn’t prevent Hoekstra from warning about possible “cyber-geddon” if the US failed to act on last week’s attacks.
If action is not taken, he said during an appearance on American radio show, “next time they’ll go in and shut down a banking system…or manipulate the electrical grid either here or in South Korea. Or they will try and miscalculate, and people will be killed.”
via Congressman calls for ‘cyber-reprisals’ against North Korea • The Register.
Kim Jong Il – North Korea Leader Has Pancreatic Cancer
July 12, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
A news report says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has pancreatic cancer.
Seoul’s news channel network YTN television reported Monday that Kim, 67, was diagnosed with the cancer around the time he was felled by a stroke last summer.
The report cited unidentified intelligence officials in South Korea and China.
Comments from South Korea’s spy agency were not immediately without naming a successor.
North Korea May Be Behind Wave of Cyberattacks
July 8, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
South Korean intelligence officials believe it was North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces that committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. government Web sites, aides to two lawmakers said Wednesday.
Read the related stories.
Government Agencies, Washington Post Targeted in Cyberattack
Cyber Attack Hits South Korean Web Sites
North Korea Warns Of Fire Shower of Nuclear Retaliation
June 25, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
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 commentary in Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper was the North’s latest reaction to last week’s summit between President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The allies issued a joint statement committing the U.S. to defend the South with nuclear weapons.
It also came as an American destroyer trailed a North Korean ship suspected of shipping weapons in violation of a U.N. resolution punishing Pyongyang’s May 25 nuclear test, and as anticipation mounted that the North might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days.
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.”
North Korea Threatens to Wipe U.S. Off The Globe
North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
Off China’s coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.
The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
“If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
Gates Orders Missile Interceptors To Hawaii
The United States has positioned more missile defenses around Hawaii as a precaution against a possible North Korean launch across the Pacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.
“We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west in the direction of Hawaii,” Gates said.
Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military’s ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. Together the systems theoretically could detect and shoot down a North Korean missile if it came to that.
“Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say … we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,” Gates said.
A Japanese newspaper reported today that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the July 4 Independence Day holiday in the U.S.
A new missile launch – though not expected to reach U.S. territory – would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.
Navy Tracking Possible North Korean Nuke Shipment
June 18, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The Navy is tracking a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying illegal weapons, equipment or nuclear fissile material that North Korea has been prohibited from transporting by the U.N. Security Council, top U.S. defense officials said Thursday.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that “clearly, we intend to vigorously enforce the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874,” although the Navy cannot use force to stop or board the vessel suspected of carrying the contraband.
A U.S. warship could hail the North Korean ship and ask to search it, and if the ship’s crew didn’t comply, the U.S. sailors could order the vessel to sail to the nearest port and request officials in that port to do the search — although the U.S. ship couldn’t use force for that, either.
[..]
Mullen, who briefed reporters with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, gave few details about how the Navy was tracking the North Korean ship — whether U.S. warships or aircraft were shadowing it — and what led U.S. officials to believe it was carrying contraband material.
The U.N. Security Council voted to place additional strictures on North Korea after the country detonated a nuclear bomb May 25 and launched ballistic missiles into the ocean off Southeast Asia. One of the restrictions was that North Korean ships suspected of carrying nuclear material would be interdicted at sea, but the North has said it would consider the boarding of any of its ships as an act of war.
North Korea May Launch Missile Toward Hawaii in July
North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward the U.S. state of Hawaii in early July, Japan’s Yomiuri daily said on Thursday, citing Defense Ministry analysis and U.S. intelligence.
The paper said the Defense Ministry believes the launch is most likely to take place between July 4 and July 8. The ministry has declined to comment on the report.
The paper also said that the missile was likely to fly over Japan’s Aomori Prefecture toward Hawaii, but would not be able to reach the main islands.
The missile, thought to be a long-range Taepodong-2, would be launched from the country’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said Japan’s best-selling newspaper.
North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on May 25, accusing the U.S. and South Korea of aggressive intentions. Pyongyang said on Wednesday that it would meet any attack with “one thousand-fold retaliation.”
Following the underground test, the United Nations widened an arms embargo and authorized ship searches in an attempt to disrupt the communist state’s nuclear and missile programs.
Pentagon: NKorea Missiles Could Threaten US
June 16, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
North Korea’s missiles could hit the United States in as few as three years if the reclusive rogue nation continues to ramp up its weapons system, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
[...]
“We think it ultimately could — if taken to its conclusion — it could present a threat to the homeland,” Lynn told McCain during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
“That’s assuming a lot of luck on their part in moving forward,” Cartwright said during questioning by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
