North Korea Puts Two U.S. Journalists On Trial
North Korea put two U.S. journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of illegally entering the state with “hostile intent”, in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang’s nuclear test last week.
The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the U.S. media outlet Current TV, were taken into custody in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
North Korea’s KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that the trial would begin at 0600 GMT (3 p.m. local time) at one of the country’s highest courts.
Experts say the pair could face a sentence of 10 years or more of hard labour in the reclusive state. They add a guilty verdict is almost certain in a North Korean justice system that protects the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il.
via North Korea puts two U.S. journalists on trial | Reuters.
Fears Mount North Korea Preparing To Attack The South
June 2, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
It was obvious that something was up when the Chinese scarpered. One day there were scores of their fishing boats hoovering up the valuable crabs from the richest of the fishing grounds in the Yellow Sea.
Overnight all but a handful were gone.
Anywhere else the locals would have been glad to have the crabs to themselves but this is no ordinary fishing ground. A few yards from here is the maritime boundary between South and North Korea. “The Chinese fish here because the North Koreans allow them,” a coastguard official said. “If they’ve gone it’s because they’ve had some kind of warning.”
An imminent missile launch into the sea? An armed incursion of North Korean ships? A full-scale invasion of Yeonpyeong, the small South Korean island hard up against the maritime boundary? Too much blood has already been shed in these waters for anyone to risk taking any chances, and for the past week South Korea has been dispatching reinforcements.
No one will discuss numbers for security reasons but sailors and marines, as well as members of the Sea Special Attack Team, the coastguard’s commando force, have been arriving to join the several hundred troops already on Yeonpyeong.
These waters, around the Northern Limit Line, have become the most tense and dangerous patch of sea in Asia.
The rest of the world is pondering what to do about North Korea’s underground test of a nuclear bomb eight days ago. Yesterday fresh reports emerged that the nation was transporting its most advanced missile, capable of reaching Alaska, to a launch site. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that Britain and other members of the UN Security Council were drafting new sanctions against Pyongyang.
In South Korea the most pressing question is: what next? The nuclear test was just the most alarming in a series of growing North Korean provocations. In April the North launched a long-range rocket over the Pacific, and last week half-a-dozen short-range missiles were fired from launch sites across the country.
North Korea Preparing For Test Of Long Range ICBM Missile ?
May 31, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
North Korea appears to be preparing for a long-range missile test, defying the U.N. Security Council whose members are negotiating a resolution to punish it for its recent nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday, quoting an informed intelligence source.
The source, asking not to be identified, said an object that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM was recently spotted on a cargo train at an artillery research center near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
“We believe that the object is certainly an ICBM,” said the official, adding that its size is somewhat similar to the one the North fired into the Pacific on April 5.
North Korea is believed to have started moving the object to a missile launch pad in Musudan-ri on the country’s east coast, according to the official.
“The missile may be a modified version of a Taepodong-2 missile, which can travel over 4,000 km,” the official said. A Taepodong-2 missile is theoretically capable of reaching the western U.S.
“It usually takes about two months to set up a launch pad, but the process could be done in as little as two weeks, which means the North could launch a long-range missile as early as mid-June,” the source said.
The developments of what appears to be preparations for a missile launch follow Monday’s nuclear test, which drew the international community’s condemnation against North Korea. The test came less than two months after it fired a rocket that the U.S. and its allies say was a disguised form of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The remarks came shortly after a South Korean defense source in Singapore said some activities were spotted at a North Korean munitions factory used to build long-range missiles.
Some watchers speculate that North Korea may launch a missile at a time close to a summit set for June 16 between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama.
“There is a possibility that North Korea may push the ‘fire’ button right before or after the South Korea-U.S. summit,” said a key diplomatic official at the presidential office, requesting to be unnamed.
Russia Fears Korea Conflict Could Go Nuclear
May 27, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Russia is taking precautionary security measures, including military ones, because it fears tensions over North Korea’s atomic test could descend into nuclear war, news agencies quoted an official as saying on Wednesday.
Interfax quoted an unnamed security source as saying that a stand-off triggered by Pyongyang’s nuclear test on Monday could affect the security of Russia’s far eastern regions, which border North Korea.
Provocation
Reports: N. Korea tests missiles, starts nuke plant / Associated Press
S. Korean newspaper says steam detected coming from nuclear facility at Pyongyang’s main plant, indicating North is reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to harvest weapons-grade plutonium; country also test-fires another missile. Meanwhile, N. Korea warns of military action against South
Full story
“The need has emerged for an appropriate package of precautionary measures,” the source said.
“We are not talking about stepping up military efforts but rather about measures in case a military conflict, perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons, flares up on the Korean Peninsula,” he added.
North Korea Threatens Military Action Against South Korea
North Korea threatened military action in response to South Korea joining an anti-proliferation program and said it’s no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.
South Korea’s actions are tantamount to a “declaration of war,” the North’s official said in a statement today. North Korea said it can’t guarantee the safety of ships passing through its western waters near the maritime border with the South.
[...]
“We will regard any intervention, searches or other minor hostile acts against our peaceful ships as an intolerable violation of our sovereign rights and will counter with an immediate and forceful military strike,” the KCNA statement said.
North Korea Test-Fires 2 Short-Range Missiles Off East Coast
May 26, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
A South Korean news agency is reporting that North Korea has test-fired two short-range missiles from an east coast launch pad.
The Yonhap news agency cites an unnamed government sources as saying the missiles have a range of about 80 miles (130 kilometers).
The reports says one was a surface-to-air missile and the other was a ground-to-ship missile. Both were fired Tuesday afternoon.
North Korea Conducts Underground Nuclear Bomb Test
May 24, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
North Korea Conducts Underground Nuclear Bomb Test
Tremors from a 4.7 magnitude artificial earthquake were detected just before ten o’clock local time, after North Korea detonated a bomb in a bunker six miles underground.
The rogue state, which had previously tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006, boasted that its latest test was more powerful “in terms of its explosive power” and more technologically-advanced.
“We successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of measures aimed at strengthening our self-defence nuclear deterrent in every way,” said the state-run North Korean news wire.
The test will “contribute to safeguarding our sovereignty and socialism and guaranteeing peace and safety on the Korean peninsula and the surrounding region,” it added.
The test site was around 230 miles north east of Pyongyang, according to the United States Geological Survey. The location is just a few miles from where North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006.
Yonhap, the South Korean news wire, also reported that a single ground-to-air missile, with a range of 80 miles, was fired from a launch site nearby just a few hours later. The rogue state is not thought to have yet developed a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, experts said.
Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, said he would set up a task force to handle the situation and seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss a plan of action.
The US, meanwhile, said it was not able to confirm the reports of a test, and was seeking “more information from its allies” before making a statement.
Report: Pyongyang also test-fires short-range missile…
Korea military forms crisis team…
Japan says test ‘unacceptable’…
Britain: ‘Breach’ of UN resolutions…
Iranian Nuke Scientist: Weekend Quake was a Nuclear Test
October 30, 2008 by national
Filed under World Report
A weekend 5.0 Richter earthquake in Iran was actually a nuclear bomb test, says an Iranian nuclear scientist claiming to be working on the project.
This past Saturday night, southern Iran experienced what was reported as a significant earthquake – a seismic event measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale. Its epicenter was just north of the strategic Straits of Hormuz, which separates Iran from Abu Dhabi and Oman and which is the gateway to the Persian Gulf. Read more
