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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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 Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:05 am Post subject: North Korea |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/international/asia/15seoul.html?_r=1&oref=slogin:
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Talks Stalled, U.S. Envoy Matches Insults of North Korea
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: December 15, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 14 - North Korea's state news agency recently proposed a novel punishment for the new United States ambassador here, Alexander Vershbow: South Koreans should force him to stand in the midst of Seoul's notorious downtown traffic, and then "punish him in the name of the nation and immediately expel him from their land."
But as rush hour traffic thickened outside the embassy windows on Tuesday evening, the ambassador was ensconced in his eighth-floor corner office, unruffled by North Korea's verbal fusillade, which included the charge that the Bush administration "is made up of political imbeciles and master hands at faking up lies."
The nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea will continue, the American envoy said with an evenness polished by nearly three decades in the Foreign Service.
"We have been there before, we have seen similar brinkmanship tactics from the North Koreans in the past," said Mr. Vershbow, a Russian expert who arrived here two months ago. "We remain ready to resume the talks."
But lately, both sides seem to be playing at brinkmanship.
In three appearances over the last week, Ambassador Vershbow has seemingly gone out of his way to talk tough to the North Koreans. In a news conference last Wednesday he referred to North Korea's government seven times as "a criminal regime." Noting that North Korea tries to make money by counterfeiting American currency, he said, "North Korea is the first regime that has done that since Adolf Hitler."
On Friday he said: "North Korea's people remain oppressed by a regime whose policies have failed to address even the most basic needs of its citizens. The people of North Korea are unable to enjoy even the simplest freedoms that we in the free world often take for granted."
On Sunday, at an economic conference here, he said: "Despite our best efforts to engage with North Korea, and despite our best intentions, we cannot turn our faces away from the fact that North Korea remains a military threat, with over one million troops, claims to possess nuclear weapons and has near total control of its people."
No one interviewed here this week disagreed with the substance of the statements, but several said they would do nothing to revive talks intended to induce North Korea to give up the nuclear weapons it announced with great fanfare last February. To coax the process along, South Korea proposed that representatives of the six nations involved in the talks meet this month on the South Korean resort island of Cheju. But that proposal died for lack of interest.
"With the six-party talks, we are back to late last winter, when North Korea was saying, 'We are a nuclear power, these have to be disarmament talks,' " said Peter Beck, Korea director for the International Crisis Group. "The Bush administration is willing to get tougher. We are back to the name-calling."
But Michael Horowitz, a Washington-based human rights advocate, said here that Ambassador Vershbow was right to criticize North Korea's leaders. He argued that the pressure would put them on the defensive and force them to reach a deal on nuclear weapons.
"As Ronald Reagan and the pope understood, if you operate from a position of strength on democracy and human rights, they will become desperate to change the subject, and far more accommodating on the weapons issues," Mr. Horowitz said, speaking of the tactics used against the Soviet Union in the 1980's. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:06 am Post subject: |
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/09/116_30984.html:
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North Korean Leader Under the Microscope
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
If North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a chance to watch South Korean television news over the past couple of days, he might well be surprised at just how thoroughly informed his Southern neighbors are about his health. An average South Korean may very well know a lot more about Kim's health news, including reports on his recent stroke, than the average Pyongyang resident.
South Koreans can thank their spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), for that. The agency has been able to provide a highly detailed health status on the North Korean leader. Its ability to glean information on one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive nation has surprised many observers.
How did the agency pull it off? By using what spies call a network of ``human intelligence,'' or ``HUMINT'' for short.
Kim's conspicuous absence Tuesday evening from the Pyongyang military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the state's founding set off a frenzy of speculation by the media and North Korea watchers around the world.
On the very next day, during a briefing session at the National Assembly, National Intelligence Service Director Kim Sung-ho offered a detailed update to lawmakers on the North Korean leader's health. At the session, the spy chief said that Kim Jong-il is recovering after suffering a stroke though it wasn't certain whether he could return to his pre-stroke condition. ``Kim is now able to walk with some assistance,'' the spy chief said, almost as if his agency staff were able to keep a watch on the reclusive leader.
The report quoted a senior government official as saying that the NIS has been aware since mid-August that Kim's health had taken a turn for the worse. And since then, the agency has stepped up its spying efforts.
The NIS suspected that something was afoot when Kim stopped making public appearances beginning early last month. The agency alerted its network of agents in areas with a significant North Korean presence, including Beijing and Dandong, near China's border with North Korea, to help gather information from their contacts. The spy agency questioned businesspeople visiting the Gaeseong Industrial Complex as well as Pyongyang.
It also sought cooperation from the United States for access to U.S. spy satellite images and reconnaissance photographs. But the network of human intelligence gathering turned out to be best when it came to gathering news on Kim's condition.
The NIS was able to find out through its extensive network of informants and North Korean contacts that teams of medical doctors from China and France were dispatched to Pyongyang to diagnose and treat Kim's condition. The agency was reportedly able to verify the information through Chinese sources.
[email protected] |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:07 am Post subject: |
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http://www.kentucky.com/267/story/520118.html:
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New North Korean missile base has long-range capabilities
By Pamela Hess
Associated Press
WASHINGTON � North Korea has quietly built a long-range missile base that is larger and more capable than an older and well-known launch pad for intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to independent analysts relying on new satellite images of the site and other data. Analysts provided images of the previously secret site to The Associated Press.
Construction on the site on North Korea's west coast began at least eight years ago, according to Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., senior analyst with Jane's Information Group, and Tim Brown with Talent-keyhole.com, a private satellite-imagery analysis company. Bermudez found the site in early spring, and they have tracked its construction using commercial and unclassified satellite imagery.
"The primary purpose of the facility is to test," Bermudez told The Associated Press in an interview last week. A base capable of a long-range test could obviously be used in wartime to launch a missile that carried a warhead.
"This is a clear indication North Korea is continuing its ballistic missile development program," Bermudez said.
Bermudez is also unveiling the images on the defense Web site Janes.com and in the Sept. 17 edition of Jane's Defence Weekly.
He said the launch pad has been operational since 2005 but has not yet been used. He thinks North Korea wants to use it to develop longer-range and more accurate ICBMs. It could also launch satellites.
Although North Korea has long been thought to want additional missile capability and test facilities, this is the first public disclosure of the new launch facility, according to Bermudez, Brown and John Pike, an imagery analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who reviewed the information.
Pike said the new facility represents a major step forward for North Korea's long-range missile program as it would allow multiple test flights in a short time, which is difficult at the smaller, original long-range missile launch site known as Musudan-ni.
"This would be a facility to conduct a real flight-test program and develop something that you have some operational confidence in," Pike told the Associated Press. "It would suggest they have the intention to develop the capability to perfect a missile to deliver atomic bombs to the United States."
"At the old facility, (a robust test program) just wasn't going to happen," he said.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said U.S. intelligence has been aware of the North Korean site for several years. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:11 am Post subject: |
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I can't find the article, but NK claimed they resumed nuclear weapons research after America didn't take them off the terrorist watch list. Maybe this occurred because they never stopped developing nuclear weapons.
Here's an interesting wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| Hmmm. The weaking of the "Great Leader" and increased tensions. Could it all be related (yes, this is a rhetorical question). |
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