North Korea (DPRK)- News and Discussions

A.V.

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MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea blasted on Monday media rumors that it was planning to test a long-range missile, describing a possible rocket launch as part of a domestic space program.

Intelligence sources earlier said North Korea was probably preparing to fire a long-range Taepodong-2 missile from the newly constructed Musudan-ri launch pad on the country's northeast coast.

"This is a vicious trick to put a brake on the wheel of not only the DPRK's building of military capability for self-defense, but also scientific research for peaceful purpose," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said as the communist state celebrated the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il.

"Wait and you will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK [North Korea]," it said, adding that North Korea has a sovereign right to space exploration.

Pyongyang has a history of testing long-range missiles under the guise of launching satellites.

It first tested a long-range missile in 1998, when it launched a Taepodong-1 over northern Japan and claimed that it carried a domestically-developed satellite.

In 2002, Pyongyang agreed with Tokyo to a moratorium on missile tests, but the secretive regime has continued research on ballistic missile technology.

In July 2006, North Korea test-launched its Taepodong-2 long-range missile and also staged an underground test of a nuclear device.

The Taepodong-2 reportedly has a maximum range of 6,700 kilometers (4,190 miles), which would make it capable of hitting the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii, as well as South Korea and Japan.

Experts believe the impoverished country is not capable of developing a domestic space program and the planned rocket launch was simply an attempt to draw the Barack Obama administration's attention to the issue of the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's controversial nuclear program.

However, KCNA said: "The DPRK has no need to draw anyone's attention and does not want anybody to interfere or meddle in the issue of the Korean peninsula."

The six-nation talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Under deals reached in 2007, the reclusive communist regime began disabling a nuclear reactor and other facilities at Yongbyon under U.S. supervision in exchange for economic aid and political incentives.

In 2008, the United States removed North Korea from the blacklist of countries supporting international terrorism after Pyongyang gave assurances on verification measures, but made it clear that Iran and North Korea are still considered by Washington as dangerous.




link;-http://en.rian.ru/world/20090216/120154118.html
 

nitesh

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N. korea is a serious pain for US ha ha ha
 

A.V.

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SEOUL: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned North Korea on Friday to stop provocative actions, saying it would not improve relations with the United States by insulting the South and refusing talks.

She said any ballistic missile launch by the communist state would be in breach of UN resolutions, and announced a new representative to oversee North Korea policy for Washington.

Speaking after talks here with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan, Clinton urged North Korea to live up to previous commitments and dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

"We maintain our joint resolve to work together and through the six-party talks to bring about complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," she told a joint press conference in Seoul.

She also announced the appointment of Stephen Bosworth, a career diplomat, as the new US envoy for North Korea, reporting to her and US President Barack Obama.

Clinton, who is on the third stop of a four-nation tour of Asia, said the development of democracy and prosperity in South Korea was "in stark contrast to the tyranny and poverty across the border to the North."

Seoul says that the North is currently preparing to test its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which is theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.

Pyongyang signalled Monday that it would go ahead with the launch despite warnings from the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying it had a right to pursue "peaceful" space research.

Separately, the North's military said Thursday that an armed clash with the South could break out at any time.

Cross-border tensions are high, with North Korea assuming an increasingly belligerent posture towards Seoul's conservative government.

President Lee Myung-Bak has rolled back his predecessors' policy of largely unconditional aid and engagement with the North and has linked major economic aid to progress on denuclearisation.

Clinton reassured Seoul, a key US ally and host to about 28,500 US troops, that "there is no issue on which we are more united than North Korea."

She went on to hail Seoul's "calm resolve and determination in face of the provocative and uphelpful statements and actions by the North."

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea," she added, using the official name for South Korea.

Asked about a possible missile launch by Pyongyang, Clinton said that under UN resolution 1718, "North Korea must stop all activities concerning ballistic missile programmes."

Foreign Minister Yu echoed her comments, saying that "if the North fires a missile -- even if it claims it is a satellite -- it would constitute a clear breach of UN resolution 1718."

North Korea conducted its first ever nuclear weapons test in October 2006. It later agreed to disable its atomic programme in return for energy aid and diplomatic concessions.

However six-nation talks, which group the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, have been stalled for months amid arguments over how to verify the denuclearisation process.

Clinton said the North's behaviour "presents a number of important foreign policy challenges for the US, the region and the world," and that Bosworth was "up to the task."
 
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North Korea threatens full scale war if rocket is intercepted

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-full-scale-war-if-rocket-is-intercepted.html


North Korea threatens full scale war if rocket is intercepted

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 5:17PM GMT 09 Mar 2009

North Korea: North Korea threatens full scale war if rocket is intercepted
It has also cut off its border and telephone links with the South in protest at military exercises by American and South Korean troops which began on Monday.

Plans for a launch were first picked up by satellite imagery, with foreign intelligence agencies saying it was a test of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile with the capacity to hit parts of the United States.

The United States said it would shoot down the missile if it headed towards its territory. Japan has suggested it might try to intercept any launch, even if the payload is a communications satellite as claimed by Pyongyang.

"If the enemies recklessly opt for intercepting our satellite, our revolutionary armed forces will launch without hesitation a just retaliatory strike operation," the general staff of the North Korean army said in a statement on state media. It singled out the United States, Japan and South Korea as targets.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it said.

The North has put its army on full alert in the face of the annual spring military joint exercises begun today by the South Koreans and Americans.

It shut the border point which allows South Koreans to visit a special industrial zone in the city of Kaesong which is funded and run by South Korean companies. The South said 726 people had been turned back.

"It is nonsensical to maintain a normal communications channel at a time when the South Korean puppets are getting frantic with the above-said war exercises, levelling guns at fellow countrymen in league with foreign forces," the North said.

Last week it also said it could not guarantee the safety of civilian aircraft which approached North Korean airspace during the exercises, causing airlines to adjust their routes.

This threat in particular is beyond the standard fare of North Korean rhetoric. It comes after six months of political uncertainty in relations between North Korea and the West, which had been improving slightly in the wake of a deal supposed to bring an end to its nuclear weapons programme.

Most western analysts linked the uncertainty to the stroke believed to have been suffered by the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, last August.

This weekend he emerged to cast his ballot in elections for the country's official parliament, in which he was a candidate.

Turn-out was 99.98 per cent, with every candidate achieving 100 per cent of the vote, according to state media. Only one candidate's name appeared on each constituency ballot, and while it was theoretically possible to cross that candidate's name off, electors had to do so in a special booth, making clear they were dissenters.

The main focus of interest during these elections was rumours that Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-woon, would stand.

There is as yet no clear sign of a succession to the leadership. If the rumours had been confirmed, Jong-woon would be the only one of the three sons to have been appointed to any official position, a clear sign that he was being marked out.

But the full list of names published last night contained no mention of him, consigning at least for the time being yet another of many stories about the secretive Kim and his family to the dust.
 

jayadev

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Two US Aegis Ships Ready to Intercept N. Korean Missile


Two U.S. Aegis-equipped destroyers will detect and trace North Korea's long-range missile to be launched between April 4 and 8, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday.

USS John S. McCain and another U.S. Aegis destroyer that participated in the large-scale South Korea-U.S. Key Resolve exercise remain in the East Sea in response to the North's upcoming missile launch, a military source was quoted as telling Yonhap.

The 12-day command-post exercise, which involved 14,000 U.S. troops stationed outside the peninsula, ended Friday.

The two U.S. warships are ready to intercept what the Stalinist North claims a satellite if it is deemed to pose a threat, the source said.

Korean-American officer Jeffrey Kim commands the USS John S. McCain, whose four radars can detect any object within a radius of 1,000 kilometers, he said.

The 9,200-ton destroyer is also capable of shooting down the North's rocket with its SM-3 interceptor missiles, according to the source.

The SM-3s can fly at a speed of 9,600 kilometers per hour and hit missiles at up to 160 kilometers above the sea level.

Japan has also deployed its two Aegis destroyers equipped with SM-3 missiles in the East Sea ahead of the North's missile launch, sources said.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/03/113_41715.html
 
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NKorea may launch several missiles: US general

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NKorea_may_launch_several_missiles_US_general_999.html

NKorea may launch several missiles: US general

File image - test launch 2006.
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) March 19, 2009
The US military is prepared for the possibility that North Korea may launch several missiles to coincide with its scheduled rocket launch next month, a US general said Thursday.

When the North Korean regime last tried to test a long-range missile in 2006, at "about the same time they also launched six other missiles," said General Walter Sharp, commander of US forces in South Korea.

"And we are watching very closely to see what else they will do between the fourth and the eighth April, and that we're prepared for that," Sharp told a Senate hearing, referring to the scheduled North Korean rocket launch.

His comments came amid growing tension on the Korean peninsula as the Pyongyang regime presses ahead with plans to launch a communications satellite that Washington and its allies suspect is likely a test of a long-range ballistic missile.

Echoing previous comments by top military officers, Sharp and the commander for the Pacific region, Admiral Timothy Keating, said they were confident that any North Korean missile threatening US targets could be shot down with anti-missile weaponry.

Asked by Senator Joe Lieberman what the probability was of shooting down a ballistic missile aimed at the United States, Keating said: "We have a high probability, senator."

North Korea has resisted pressure to call off the launch and warned that any attempt to shoot it down would be regarded as an act of war.

Japan, which has been developing a missile defense system with the United States, has warned it is considering re-positioning land- and sea-based interceptor missiles, ready to shoot down any missile headed for its territory.

The US military commanders said that they had enough missile defense weapons, including Patriot missiles, to defend against the potential North Korean threat but said they could use more.

Pyongyang had more than 800 missiles and the United States had 64 Patriot missiles on the Korean peninsula, while South Korea had just purchased an additional 24 Patriots, Sharp said.

"Could we use more? Yes," he said.

The general added that the military was working to ensure the Patriot missiles were positioned "to be able to defend our most critical war-fighting assets."

"But it does leave other areas uncovered, and we could -- both we and the Republic of Korea -- could use more, and we're working hard at that."

It remained unclear whether North Korea was planning to launch a ballistic missile or a satellite, Keating told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"I don't believe the intelligence community has information that would specifically rule out either option. It is a missile body that could be used for either," the admiral said.

North Korea state media said Friday the national parliament will convene one day after the period set aside for the rocket launch. It is set to re-elect leader Kim Jong-Il to his post as chairman of the National Defense Commission, the country's most powerful body.

North Korea scheduled its 1998 missile launch for five days before the new assembly convened, in an apparent attempt to extract the maximum political mileage from the event.
 
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NKorea vows to attack Japan if rocket intercepted

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NKorea_vows_to_attack_Japan_if_rocket_intercepted_999.html

NKorea vows to attack Japan if rocket intercepted

File image: Map of the 2006 test.
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) April 3, 2009
North Korea's military threatened Thursday to attack "major targets" in Japan if Tokyo tries to shoot down a satellite it intends to launch as soon as this weekend.

"If Japan recklessly 'intercepts' the DPRK's (North's) satellite for peaceful purposes, the KPA will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets," said a statement from the Korean People's Army (KPA).

Japan, South Korea and the United States see the North's plan to launch a communications satellite some time between April 4 and 8 as a disguised test of a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile which could in theory reach Alaska or Hawaii.

US defence officials said Thursday they had detected "propellant activity" at a North Korea rocket, but said it was uncertain that Pyongyang had begun fuelling ahead of its planned launch.

A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP "it's ambiguous" if North Korea has begun fuelling the rocket.

But CNN quoted a senior US military official as saying the North had begun fuelling its rocket in a sign it could launch as early as this weekend.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was later Thursday quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency that it could be on Saturday.

Japan and the United States have deployed anti-missile Aegis destroyers to monitor the launch.

Tokyo has also deployed Patriot guided-missile units on land, and says it will try to bring down the rocket should it start falling toward Japanese territory.

Tokyo may toughen existing bilateral sanctions by halting all exports to Pyongyang and tightening restrictions on financial transactions, said government spokesman Takeo Kawamura.

Japan also said it would call for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council if North Korea went ahead with the launch.

"Japan will request an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss this issue," Yukio Takasu, its ambassador to the UN, told reporters.

Recent satellite photos appear to confirm the North has indeed mounted a satellite atop the missile, US experts say.

But the US and its regional allies say a satellite launch also tests missile technology, and the North would breach a UN resolution passed after its 2006 missile launches and underground nuclear test.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and US President Barack Obama called Thursday for "stern, unified action" by the international community in response to any launch when they met in London on the sidelines of the G20 summit, according to the Seoul presidential office.

South Korea is actively considering playing a full part in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative if the rocket is fired, its foreign ministry said.

The initiative aims to halt ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction and related materials. The North's Minju Joson newspaper responded that any such move would amount to a "declaration of war."

Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said the North has moved a MiG-23 squadron -- between 12 and 24 planes -- to the northeast, where the Musudan-ri launch site is located. On Wednesday Pyongyang threatened to shoot down US spy planes monitoring the site.

Seoul's defence ministry declined comment.

More than 100 people demonstrated in central Seoul, torching North Korean flags and a miniature replica of a missile. "Punish Kim Jong-Il over missile launch," they shouted about the North's leader.

Pyongyang has said that even a UN discussion of its launch -- let alone new sanctions -- would trigger the breakdown of international nuclear disarmament talks.

UN resolutions bar Pyongyang from missile-related activities.

However, the North has signed on to international space treaties and analysts believe China and Russia would block any new sanctions move on the grounds that the resolutions do not cover satellite launches.

Moscow urged North Korea's neighbours on Thursday to hold back from military action over the issue.

Meanwhile Taiwan called on North Korea to exercise restraint in launching the rocket, saying the plan had threatened peace in the region.

"As a member of Northeast Asia, we're very concerned about it," the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.
 

sayareakd

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LF it appears that things are getting hot up in that part of world.

but we need to keep close eye on this

as North Korea has supplied missile tech to Pakistan

therefore it will be quite interesting how Japan depends it self from those missiles.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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IMHO, Korea won't try anything stupid... their future depends on it... One wrong move and everybody in that region will fall on them like a ton of bricks... and, big brother China won't risk protecting them if such a thing happens...
 
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LF it appears that things are getting hot up in that part of world.

but we need to keep close eye on this

as North Korea has supplied missile tech to Pakistan

therefore it will be quite interesting how Japan depends it self from those missiles.

let's see HOW Japan's pacifist constitution takes them and how far USA will stick their neck out, if N. KOREA gets a MRBM or an ICBM Pakistan will get it,but it dosen't mean anything to us it should be the rest of the Kafirs in Europe and USA that will be the target they don't need one for us next door.
 
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IMHO, Korea won't try anything stupid... their future depends on it... One wrong move and everybody in that region will fall on them like a ton of bricks... and, big brother China won't risk protecting them if such a thing happens...
China is the one supplying them the goodies so I don't see too much leverage USA would have, they don't have much of an economy or trade?
 

Pintu

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According to Wikipedia Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution talks about renunciation of war, and even it closed the option of maintaining land, sea and air force and as I am quoting from the Wikipedia as it states :"Renunciation of war: Under Article 9 of the constitution the "Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes". To this end the article provides that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained"." (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan).

Now intercepting North Korean Missile/Rocket which ever thing it may be, shooting down it , I think can be regarded by N. Korea as an Act of War, however on the other hand any unmanned flying object which passes through the Areal border of a sovereign country without the prior permission then the country has the rights to shoot it down , if the Rocket or Missile gets out of the flight path and neither can be self destructed and fells in a civilian area, killing and wounding civilians of that country (Japan) who will be responsible , N.Korea, will they take their responsibility.

Since, I fear a hostility can be born through the test firing of this Rocket / Missile over Japan, and I agree with LF , and also think that N.Korea does not care whether the USA is behind Japan, since in 1950, they did not care.
 
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what are they waiting for? N korea to drop a nuke before they do something?
2 lessons from this:
1. never have a pacifist constitution
2.never be in a position where your survival depends on someone else
 

Pintu

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You are absolutely right LETHALFORCE, even Japanese Army is called as 'JSDF' , Japanese Self Defence Force. This is totally irrelevant in Modern Day Warfare.
 

Pintu

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It is a pity that a nation like Japan is now sit helplessly waiting for help of the USA, to protect its own Areal Boundary.
 
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Japan is the second richest nation in the world there is absolutely no reason for them to be in this mess.
 

Pintu

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True LF, It's a fact , that Japan is one of the Richest nation in the World, but their over-dependence on USA for security and yes sir attitude coupled with the so called 'Pacifist Constitution' make them fell in this mess.
 
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they had plenty of time to prepare but it seems their attitude is since we are pacifist everyone will be peaceful toward us, which north korea is proving wrong also plans to change constitution and build the military would only be playing catch up with N.korea and China. China did a good job of containing them with their proxy n.korea.
 

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