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North Koreans 'shot at frontier'

North Korea has executed 15 people in public for trying to flee or help others to escape across the border into China, according to an aid group.

Good Friends, based in South Korea, said the 13 women and two men were shot on a bridge in the north-eastern town of Onseong two weeks ago.

The aid group said those executed had been trying to get economic help from relatives already in China.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans are thought to be in hiding in China.

In a newsletter, Good Friends said residents who witnessed the shooting were shocked at the harshness of the punishment. Some were crying at the scene, it reported.

The group quoted a woman as saying: "Everyone is anxious about a lack of food. The shooting has made people angry."

A local North Korean official is also quoted in the newsletter.

"It has become a daily routine for a few residents to disappear and illegally cross the border to visit relatives in China," he is reported as saying.

"We shot them to send a warning to people over this."

There has been no official word from North Korea on the executions and South Korea's Unification Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

Acute food shortages have led to thousands of North Koreans fleeing their homeland through China.

Many hope to make their way to South Korea - the Unification Ministry in Seoul says more than 12,000 North Koreans have fled to the south since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Others cross the border into China with the intention of returning with food supplies.

North Korea received hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food aid last year, more than half of it from Seoul.

An unusually dry and mild winter has raised fears of worse shortages to come.

China to raise military spending

China says it plans to increase military spending by nearly 18% this year, to 417.8bn yuan ($59bn; £30bn).

The figure was revealed ahead of China's annual parliamentary session, which begins on Wednesday.

Just before the announcement, the US released a report criticising China's military spending, and voicing concern over advances in space and cyberspace.

China rejected the Pentagon report as a "serious distortion of facts" that could harm its relations with the US.

"It breaks international norms... We do not pose a threat to any country. The US should drop its Cold War mentality," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the report, Washington claimed that the real Chinese defence budget for 2007 was at least double the stated amount.

And other nations have also expressed concern about China's growing military power, and say Beijing is not open enough about what it is spending its money on.

Most of this year's military increase will be spent on increasing salaries and accommodating higher oil prices, according to Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for China's National People's Congress, which begins its annual meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Jiang said spending on armaments would rise only moderately.

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"China pursues a national defence policy that is defensive in nature," he said.

"China's limited military capability is solely for the purpose of safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and does not pose a threat to any other country."

He added that China spent less on defence, as a proportion of GDP, than the US, UK, France and Russia.

But the international community remains concerned.

This year's rise in military spending "will mark the 20th consecutive year that the Chinese military budget has increased by double digits," Japan's defence ministry said in a statement.

It called on China to "address the concerns of the international community".

US officials are particularly worried that China's growing military might could be aimed at Taiwan, a self-governing island which Beijing sees as part of its territory.

Beijing has threatened military attack if Taiwan declares independence, and the island's 22 March presidential election will be watched closely by the authorities on the mainland.

The US defence department released its annual report on Chinese military power on Monday evening.

The report said China was developing weapons that would disable its enemies' space technology - such as satellites - in the event of a conflict.

It expressed concern about China's decision to shoot down a defunct weather satellite in a test in January 2007.

It also said that "numerous" cyber intrusions into computer networks around the world, including some owned by the US administration, apparently originated in China.

David Sedney, a senior China specialist at the Pentagon, told reporters there was no call for US alarm, but he said that Washington was keen for Beijing to be clearer about the reasons behind its expanding military costs.

"I think the biggest thing for people to be concerned about, really, is the fact that we don't have that kind of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions," he said. "And that leads to uncertainty."

In its report, the Pentagon estimated that China's total military spending in 2007 was between $97bn and $139bn.

Last month, the Bush administration requested $515bn for the next US fiscal year, not including extra spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There has recently been some progress in US-Chinese military relations, including the installation of a joint telephone hotline.

Taiwan warned over independence
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

China has warned that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's government will pay a "dear price" if he continues moves towards independence for the island.

Jiang Enzhu, a parliament spokesman, said Beijing would "repulse" any pro-independence activities.

In a few weeks, Taiwan is due to hold a referendum on whether to apply to join the UN under the name Taiwan.

China considers Taiwan as part of its territory but the island has functioned independently for nearly 60 years.

Mr Jiang made the tough comments on Taiwan at a press conference outlining details for China's forthcoming legislative session.

"The attempts by the Chen Shui-bian authorities to push for a referendum on joining the UN under the name Taiwan is a... move towards 'de jure' independence for Taiwan," he said.

"If the Chen Shui-bian authorities should stubbornly continue down the path, they will surely pay a dear price."

He added that the referendum was tantamount to a referendum on Taiwanese independence.

Mr Jiang said China would pursue peaceful reunification between the two, but warned that there were other options available.

"We are fully prepared to repulse any adventurous activities aimed at Taiwan independence, and prevent anyone from separating Taiwan from China," he said.

China has previously threatened to attack the island - formally, and confusingly, known as the Republic of China - if it declares independence.

Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, when the two sides split following a civil war in China.

But most countries officially recognise China's territorial claims over the island.

As well as holding a referendum later this month, Taiwan will also hold a presidential election.

The current president, independence-leaning Chen Shui-bian, will step down after eight years in office.

China sets Tibet protest deadline

The authorities in Tibet have given anti-Chinese protesters until Monday to surrender, following unrest that officials say left 10 people dead.

"The plot of the separatists will fail," the head of Tibet's government warned as sporadic clashes continued in the main city, Lhasa.

Police used tear gas to disperse groups of protesters in the city centre.

State media said those killed in earlier unrest were mainly business people who had been "burnt to death".

James Miles, a British journalist in the city, said the rioting on Saturday morning was not on the same scale as Friday.

Tibetans were looting the few remaining shops which had not been attacked, and throwing rocks.

Security forces responded with occasional volleys of tear gas, but not a full scale assault, the journalist said.

In a statement quoted by the state-run news agency Xinhua, the Tibetan government urged "the lawbreakers to give themselves in by Monday midnight" and promised that "leniency would be given to those who surrender".

Tibetan government Chairman Qiangba Puncog denounced the "plot of the separatists".

"We will challenge them firmly, according to law," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Police have cordoned off a few central sections of Lhasa and are on the lookout for signs of trouble, state media reported. Witnesses reported seeing tanks on the street.

A regional government official told Xinhua: "The victims [of Friday's violence] are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death."

They included two hotel employees and two shop owners, according to the news agency.

It said electricity and telephone services, which were cut for much of Friday in Lhasa, were being restored.

A Tibetan in Lhasa told Reuters on Saturday: "If there is blood today it will be ours."

Western countries have expressed concern at the clashes, and US officials called on the Chinese to act with restraint.

The violence - the worst in Tibet since 1989 - erupted on the fifth day of largely peaceful protests that began on Monday's anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Fires broke out near the famous Jokhang temple, one of the most sacred sites for Tibetan Buddhists, and Xinhua reported that shops, banks and hotels were destroyed.

News agency pictures aired on Saturday showed young men setting fire to a Chinese flag and throwing rocks, while state media said police had fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

One eyewitness reported seeing people being carried away on stretchers.

The demonstrations - like last those September in Burma - were initially led by Buddhist monks and then attracted crowds of ordinary people.

From exile in India, the Dalai Lama called for an end to the violence and urged China to "address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue".

Chinese officials quoted by Xinhua alleged that the riots had been "organised, premeditated and masterminded by the Dalai clique" - which the spiritual leader denied.

Hollywood star Richard Gere - a strong supporter of the Tibetan cause - told the BBC he would support a boycott of the Beijing Olympics unless China granted basic freedoms to the territory.

BBC China editor Shirong Chen in Beijing says the Chinese government certainly does not want bloodshed five months before staging the Games.

On the other hand, it cannot allow the monks and other Tibetans to vent their anger in case this is seen as a sign of weakness, he says.

Many Tibetans claim their culture has been diluted or even destroyed by Beijing and they resent the local presence of Han Chinese, China's biggest ethnic group.

China says Tibet has always been part of its territory - although Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century. Many Tibetans remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959.

_______________________________________________

US envoy urges N Korea progress

Progress was made at talks between the US and North Korea aimed at reviving the stalled nuclear deal but more headway is needed, the US envoy said.

Christopher Hill described his talks with counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in the Swiss city of Geneva as "substantive".

But he urged the North Korean side to "pick up the pace" of the negotiations.

North Korea agreed last year to end its nuclear activities in return for economic aid, but the deal is currently deadlocked.

The communist nation has closed its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, but it missed a year-end deadline to provide a complete declaration of all of its nuclear activities.

In a late-night news conference, Mr Hill said the two sides had "had good discussions on all substantive issues".

At issue is whether or not Pyongyang has a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons purposes, and whether it has transferred nuclear technology overseas.

North Korea denies both allegations and says it has already given Washington full details of all its nuclear activities.

"We have really had to challenge and to work with them on [the two issues]," Mr Hill said.

"I'm not really in a position to tell whether we've resolved that except to say that I think we've made some progress today."

He also called on North Korea to accelerate the pace of the talks.

"We are already in March and we have some ambitions for trying to get through this in 2008. There is no question we need to move faster," he said.

Mr Kim told reporters he was "satisfied" with the talks.

The two men would now return to their respective capitals to brief top leaders, Mr Hill said.

North Korea carried out a nuclear test in October 2006.

____________________________________

China blankets Tibetan areas with troops

By GREG BAKER, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 20, 3:46 PM ET

ZHONGDIAN, China - China blanketed restive Tibetan areas Thursday with a huge buildup of troops, turning small towns across a wide swath of western China into armed encampments.

Beijing acknowledged that last week's anti-government protests had spread far beyond Tibet's borders and that police opened fire on protesters. It warned foreign tourists and journalists to stay away from a huge expanse of territory across four provinces.

In an overture of peace, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders, reiterating that he was not asking for Tibetan independence.

China has repeatedly ignored calls for dialogue, accusing the exiled Tibetan leader and his supporters of organizing violence in hopes of sabotaging the upcoming Beijing Olympics and promoting Tibetan independence.

Hundreds of paramilitary troops aboard at least 80 trucks were seen traveling along the main road winding through the mountains into southeastern Tibet. Others set up camp and patrolled streets in riot gear, helmets and rifles in the town of Tiger Leaping Gorge, a tourist attraction in Yunnan province bordering Tibet.

Farther north, the largely Tibetan town of Zhongdian, renamed Shangri-la a decade ago, was swarmed by 400 armed police. Many carried rifles and what appeared to be tear gas launchers. Residents walked freely among the military, and there was no sign of a daytime curfew.

The troop mobilization was helping authorities reassert control after the broadest, most sustained protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule in decades. Demonstrations had flared across Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces in support of protests that started in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early last week but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities.

The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China's human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

On Thursday, a group of 26 Nobel laureates said they "deplore and condemn the Chinese government's violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters," calling for Beijing to exercise restraint.

"We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against our fellow Nobel Laureate, his holiness the Dalai Lama," the group said in a statement released by the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

Tibetan exile groups have said 80 people were killed in the protest and its aftermath, while Beijing maintains that 16 died and more than 300 were injured.

Tibetan television in Lhasa showed video Thursday of black-clad police arresting 24 men. Handcuffed against a wall, the men — some young, some old — were charged with "endangering national security, beating, smashing, looting and burning."

The two remaining foreign journalists in Tibet — Georg Blume of Germany and Kristin Kupfer of Austria — were forced to leave Lhasa on Thursday, according to Reporters Without Borders. Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters were forced out.

Speaking from the seat of his government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Hu and other Chinese leaders but said he would not travel to Beijing unless there was a "real concrete development."

"The whole world knows the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence, one hundred times, thousand times I have repeated this. It is my mantra — we are not seeking independence," the 72-year-old Dalai Lama told reporters.

"The Tibet problem must be solved between Tibetan people and Chinese people," he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, expressed "grave concern" over a planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Dalai Lama, telling Brown not to offer support to the Tibetans' exiled spiritual leader.

China says the riots and protests were organized from abroad by the Dalai Lama and his supporters.

Reinforcing that claim, state broadcaster China Central Television aired a 15-minute program Thursday night, showing how Tibetan rioters rampaged through Lhasa last week but none of the ensuing police crackdown.

Video from security cameras showed burned shops, wounded Chinese and a knife-wielding Tibetan standing atop a police car. Buddhist monks were shown throwing sticks and other debris at riot police in a scuffle on March 10, in an attempt to portray the protests as having been started by monks.

But authorities have moved to clamp down on unrest in Tibet and surrounding provinces, where more than half of China's 5.4 million Tibetans live. Moving from town to town, police have set up blockades and checkpoints to keep Tibetans in and reporters out.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China is "suggesting" foreigners stay out of Gansu and Sichuan provinces for safety reasons.

But tour operators in the provinces said foreigners were barred from traveling in those areas and tour groups were banned from Tibet, isolating a region about four times the size of France.

An employee at the Nine Lakes Travel Agency in Lanzhou, Gansu province, said she had heard about recent protests and unrest in many counties around the province.

"Tourists are not allowed to enter the seven counties affected because it considered dangerous at the moment. It is not safe to travel here at this time," she said, refusing to give her name for fear of reprisal.

Despite the massive security, protests have continued to crop up in towns in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces.

The official Xinhua News Agency said police shot and wounded four rioters "in self-defense" during violent protests Sunday in Aba County in Sichuan. It is the first time the government has acknowledged shooting any protesters during the unrest.

A Tibetan resident in Aba County said Thursday she had heard of numerous arrests of protesters.

"There are many, many troops outside. I'm afraid to leave the house," said the woman, who refused to give her name for fear of retaliation by authorities. Police could be heard shouting from loudspeakers for protesters to turn themselves in.

Troops blocked roads in nearby Sertar, also in Sichuan, confining residents to their homes, said a woman reached there by phone. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign reported that troops had been sent to the county after residents blew up a bridge near the village of Gudu.

A hotel worker in central Luqu County, in neighboring Gansu province, said she had not left the hotel in four days because she was afraid.

"On the 16th, hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched in the streets, throwing rocks and breaking windows. The streets are now filled with police officers," she said, refusing to give her name for fear of reprisal. "Our hotel is booked out with tourists, but no one feels safe enough to set foot outside."

China blankets Tibetan areas with troops (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_on_re_as/china_tibet;_ylt=Ar9Pc57mKL1OmMbqQyqOBL1n.3QA)

North Korea fires short-range missiles off western coast
March 28, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea fired short-range missiles off its western coast Friday, a move the United States said was not illegal but a diversion from the work North Korea needs to do to finish a complete declaration of its nuclear program.

The South Korean government, which has been taking a harder line toward the north, dismissed the importance of the firings.

"The government regards North Korea's missile firing as merely a part of its ordinary military training," South Korean presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told the Yonhap news agency.

"The South Korean government will just continue to watch the missile-related situation carefully," he said. "We're convinced that North Korea doesn't want inter-Korean relations to deteriorate."

A U.S. official said any such short-range missile tests do not constitute a violation of the missile moratoriums, and North Korea didn't break any agreements.

However, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said North Korea's time would be better spent finishing a complete declaration of its nuclear program for the United States and its partners, who have been negotiating the nuclear issue with the country.

Pyongyang agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and better relations with the United States. North Korea still must finish the nuclear disablement process for the first phase of the agreement, McCormack told an informal gathering of reporters.

Once that's done, the rest of the parties -- Russia, China, Japan and South Korea -- will fulfill their obligations, he said. North Korea has already made an "incredible amount of progress" on disablement, McCormack said.

The firings came a day after the Seoul government pulled 11 of its diplomats from an industrial park the two countries operate in North Korea.

Their departure followed comments made last week by South Korean Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong. He said it would be hard to expand the industrial complex without North Korean progress on denuclearization.

North Korea cited the minister's remarks as a reason for demanding that the South Korean diplomats leave, Yonhap reported.

North Korea fires short-range missiles off western coast (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/nkorea.missile/index.html)

North Koreans resort to auto batteries, bicycle generators to cope with electricity shortages
March 27, 2008

North Korea continues to face widespread electricity shortages, according to a South Korean newsletter published by defectors from the North.

“These days, those well-to-do in rural areas use an electric generator to power lights and watch TV,” one North Korean visitor with relatives in the north was quoted as saying.

The Daily NK reported last week that visitors to North Korea reported chronic shortages of electrical power.

“People overcome the shortage of electricity on their own. They import a large number of batteries from China. In addition, there are many households that have bicycle generators," he said. "Even though no electricity is provided by the state, people can manage to get by. Indeed, they get used to the shortage of electricity and can solve the problem on their own."

Auto batteries are highly sought after in cities, since the batteries can be recharged.

Cities are powered twice daily from 8 am to 1 pm and from 8 pm to 11 pm, times during which people charge their batteries.

In rural areas, bicycle generators are common sources of electricity. “Many rural villages have received no electricity from the state since the arduous march," or the mass starvation period in the 1990s, the visitor said. "Even if the state does provide electricity, some rural villages would not be able to receive it because electric poles have been uprooted at many places," the visitor said. “So a great number of rural people began to use bicycle generators to generate electricity on their own."

A generator is connected to the rear wheel of the bicycle and peddling produces electricity, although it is unsteady.

Asked if North Koreans complain about the shortages, the visitor said: “Do you think the government has ever provided anything for its people? These days, people have become accustomed to making a living with their own hands even if there is no provision from the government.”

North Koreans resort to auto batteries, bicycle generators to cope with electricity shortages (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/ea_nkorea_03_27.asp)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

International organizations call for religious freedom and global prayer for China

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

ZURICH. SWITZERLAND (ANS) -- Several key organizations that work with the persecuted church around the world have launched a global campaign calling for prayer for China.

In what is called “The Zurich Statement,” the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), with member organizations that include China Aid Association, Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Voice of the Martyrs (Canada), and the Religious Liberty Commission of World Evangelical Alliance, have called the worldwide Christian community to pray for China during this Summer Olympics year.

The Zurich Statement acknowledges some important progress made in China over the past few decades and raises the hope that this will translate into the removal of remaining obstacles to the full expression of faith and an end to serious violations of religious freedom. In addition, the Statement recognizes potential of the Chinese nation as a significant political and economic force for the furtherance of regional and global peace.

“This historic statement reaffirms the solidarity of the international Christian community with the Chinese faithful esp. the persecuted House Church, “ said Bob Fu who represents China Aid at the Zurich meeting, “ We pray the true religious freedom in China will finally be realized soon.”

“The call for prayer is rooted in the fact that the RLP felt it was time to acknowledge some progress in China’s attitude toward religious liberty and also the part Christians play at all levels of Chinese society,” stated Mervyn Thomas, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, UK, and Chairman of the RLP leadership team.

“There is still a very long way to go and religious freedom is something very alien to many Christians in China. However Christians all over the world have been praying for their Chinese family for many years and I believe we are beginning to see the impact of those prayers today."

“What a change we have seen in the nearly 30 years since my first visit to China,” said Johan Compajen of Open Doors International in Holland and a member of the RLP leadership team. “In spite of many obstacles, the Church in China has multiplied. What seemed impossible in the past has happened because around the world we joined the Chinese Christians in prayer and our Chinese brothers and sisters have been willing to pay the price for following Jesus. If we continue to pray, we may be surprised by what God will do in the coming 30 years.”

The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) is a collaborative effort of Christian organizations focused on religious liberty. The RLP seeks to more intentionally work together in addressing advocacy and in raising the awareness of religious persecution globally. The current membership of the RLP is listed on the Zurich Statement.

_________________________________________________

North Korea Threatens South Korea With Destruction Over Comments

Sunday , March 30, 2008

AP
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SEOUL, South Korea —
North Korea threatened South Korea with destruction Sunday after Seoul's top military officer said it would consider attacking the communist nation if it tried to carry out a nuclear attack.

"Our military will not sit idle until warmongers launch a pre-emptive strike," the North's official Korean Central News agency said. "Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins."

The statement, issued by an unidentified military commentator, marked the third straight day of bellicose rhetoric from North Korea, which is angry over the harsher line South Korea's new president has taken against Pyongyang since assuming office last month.

On Friday North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles into the sea and warned that it would "mercilessly wipe out" any South Korean warships that violate its waters near their disputed sea border.

Such rhetoric from North Korea is not rare during times of increased tensions. The latest came just two days before a scheduled visit to South Korea by the chief U.S. negotiator in North Korean nuclear disarmament talks.

The statement Sunday also warned that the North would suspend all scheduled inter-Korean dialogue unless Seoul retracts and apologizes for a remark by its new top military leader.

Kim Tae-young, chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a parliamentary hearing Wednesday that the military would strike a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons site if Pyongyang attempted to attack the South with atomic bombs.

His office later said he was talking about a general military principle dealing with outside threats — not about launching an unprovoked pre-emptive attack on the North.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Sunday that it would decide whether to send a response to the North over its demand for a retraction in a few days.

The North Korean military commentator reaffirmed that Pyongyang was forced to take a firm step: banning South Korean officials, including military officers, from crossing the two countries' border.

Pyongyang did not say when the ban would take effect or how long it would last.

South Korean officials have occasionally traveled across the two countries' heavily fortified border for talks.

North Korea Threatens South Korea With Destruction Over Comments (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,343192,00.html)

The number of religious believers in China could be 3 times higher than official estimates

In a recent survey taken by the Chinese State Media it has been revealed that more than thirty percent of the people of China above the age of sixteen consider themselves as "religious", which could be three times higher than what the Chinese officials had estimated.

This report suggests that three hundred million people nationwide in China could be religious, compared to the official figure of one hundred million, allowing this report to back up suspicions that religion has been enjoying a resurgence in China over the past twenty years and this as the communist party disapproval of the exercise of religion has eased up somewhat.

The recent survey taken in China of the country's religious beliefs revealed that even an atheistic nation is vulnerable to the spread of the truth as will be the case across the entire world in the future days of judgment, that according to Bible prophecy.

Reports in recent years coming out of Communist China indicated there were millions of Christians in the underground church that were being jailed or persecuted for their beliefs. Hundreds of missionaries have worked closely with this underground church to distribute Bibles, to witness to Chinese people in the street, and to otherwise try to spread the message of Christ to a needy people.

Now, the official Chinese media are reporting that the government's estimates may be way off with three times what they had estimated as the number of believers in China. What's unique about this report is that it is similar to the report that will come out of the Tribulation Period, a seven year period of judgment yet in the future, the time between the Rapture of the Church and the return of Jesus Christ to Earth.

The book of Revelation tells of two witnesses, two preachers, that will be located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the first half of the Tribulation Period and they will have a ministry that will turn people to Christianity and Jesus Christ, that's Revelation 11:3-7. Revelation 7:4-9 speaks of one hundred and forty four thousand Jewish men coming to Christ and then they will spread across the world to preach the gospel to everyone on Earth.

In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 that when everyone on Earth had heard the gospel during that seven year Tribulation Period, He would return to the Earth to setup His Kingdom.

Beijing troops on streets of Zimbabwean city
10 Chinese soldiers armed with pistols checked in to Holiday Inn

Chinese troops have been seen on the streets of Zimbabwe's third largest city, Mutare, according to local witnesses. They were seen patrolling with Zimbabwean soldiers before and during Tuesday's ill-fated general strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Earlier, 10 Chinese soldiers armed with pistols checked in at the city's Holiday Inn along with 70 Zimbabwean troops.

One eyewitness, who asked not to be named, said: "We've never seen Chinese soldiers in full regalia on our streets before. The entire delegation took 80 rooms from the hotel, 10 for the Chinese and 70 for Zimbabwean soldiers."

Officially, the Chinese were visiting strategic locations such as border posts, key companies and state institutions, he said. But it is unclear why they were patrolling at such a sensitive time. They were supposed to stay five days, but left after three to travel to Masvingo, in the south.

China's support for President Mugabe's regime has been highlighted by the arrival in South Africa of a ship carrying a large cache of weapons destined for Zimbabwe's armed forces. Dock workers in Durban refused to unload it.

The 300,000-strong South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said it would be "grossly irresponsible" to touch the cargo of ammunition, grenades and mortar rounds on board the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang anchored outside the port.

A Satawu spokesman Randall Howard said: "Our members employed at Durban container terminal will not unload this cargo, neither will any of our members in the truck-driving sector move this cargo by road. South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation between Zanu-PF and the MDC."

Three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes are among the cargo on the Chinese ship, according to copies of the inventory published by a South African newspaper.

According to Beeld, the documentation for the shipment was completed on 1 April, three days after the presidential vote.

Zimbabwe and China have close military ties. Three years ago, Mr Mugabe signed extensive trade pacts with the Chinese as part of the "Look East" policy forced on him by his ostracising by Western governments over human rights abuses. The deal gave the Chinese mineral and trade concessions in exchange for economic help.

The shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague called on David Miliband to demand a cessation of arms shipments.

A South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said it would be difficult to stop the shipment.

China kills 14 U.S. soldiers in Iraq
'It's such a basic thing to ground electricity. It's carelessness, negligence'

Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a "killer of soldiers."

Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body.

His heart stopped.

Maseth's electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why these deaths occurred.

In March, a congressional committee started an investigation into all Iraq electrocutions. A month later, Maseth's parents sued the defense contractor responsible for the Chinese electrical system, alleging it failed to meet U.S. safety standards. And now, families across the country say they want more detailed information about the earlier deaths of loved ones.

"I want answers, not revenge," said Bart Cedergren of South St. Paul, Minn., who suspects his son died of electrocution Sept. 11, 2005, near Iskandariyah, Iraq.

Back then, the Navy said Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, died of natural causes after being found unconscious in a shower stall, he said. Although Cedergren asked for additional information, he said he received only documents with black marks covering specifics of the investigation that the Navy has closed.

"I know for sure that there were problems where he was, near the electric generating station, because there was a history of individuals getting shocked," Cedergren said. "I just want to know what happened. He was strong and healthy."

Hidden danger

No one knows whether everyone serving in Iraq is aware of the potential for electrocution, despite warnings in an October 2004 report by Army safety specialist Brett Blount. He wrote that five soldiers were electrocuted in that fiscal year alone and advised military leaders to get electrical experts to inspect generators and electrical systems.

Frank Trent of the Army Corps of Engineers said in the report that improper grounding was a "factor in nearly every electrocution and is a serious threat for soldiers and civilians there."

"We've had several shocks in showers and near misses here in Baghdad, as well as in other parts of the country," Trent said. "As we install temporary and permanent power on our projects, we must ensure we require our contracts to properly ground electrical systems."

The electric shock that struck Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, of Huntsville, Texas, far exceeded a "near miss."

It was dead on target.

On the evening of Sept. 7, 2005, Everett was electrocuted while power washing sand from a Humvee in a motor pool in Al Taqqadum. It was late, and dark, and no one saw him on the ground until other soldiers noticed water shooting into the air. His mother, Larraine McGee, later learned that they were shocked while trying to help him.

"They couldn't get to him until the power was turned off," McGee said.

She remembers standing at the kitchen sink window facing her front porch as two men in uniform and her priest walked to the front door. She knew then that her son, an outdoorsman who volunteered to go to Iraq, would not come home.

Never, for the rest of her life, will she forget that night.

She said Army officers said they were sorry, and that because of what happened to her son, all of the generators across Iraq would be fixed. She felt comforted, recalling that they gave her the impression that Christopher's case was unique, the first of its kind to strike unsuspecting soldiers.

They didn't tell her about Spc. Marcos O. Nolasco, 34, of Chino, Calif., who was electrocuted while showering at a base in Baiji on May 18, 2004. No one mentioned Spc. Marvin A. Camposiles, 25, of Austell, Ga., who was electrocuted April 17, 2005, while performing routine generator maintenance in Samarra. They said nothing about Spc. Chase R. Whitham, 21, of Harrisburg, Ore., who died May 8, 2005, when an electrical current surged through a Mosul swimming pool.

"That, to me, makes it inexcusable. It's got to stop," McGee said. "Now, I'm angry. It's such a basic thing to ground electricity. It's carelessness, negligence."

Seeking answers

It is unclear whether all electrocution injuries and deaths in Iraq are listed in military casualty reports, because they often are identified as accidents or noncombat-related incidents.

Lt. Col. George Wright, a public affairs officer based at the Pentagon, said the Department of Defense releases names of casualties about 24 hours after notifying relatives. At that point, investigations into noncombat deaths are incomplete.

"That's why we are vague and simply indicate that a death is 'noncombat related,' " Wright said.

A casualty report prepared by the Defense Manpower Data Center listed 14 electrocution deaths in nonhostile situations and two in hostile situations from Oct. 7, 2001, through May 3, 2008. Electrocution injuries totaled 19, according to the report.

About a month after Maseth's death, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, received two e-mails about military casualty reports that disturbed him.

A Feb. 14 e-mail to Altmire from Kelly Widener, director of strategic communications for the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center, reported that 10 fatalities by electrocution were identified only as accidents. The other, sent on Feb. 15 by Sgt. Jennifer Evitts, a Marine liaison, listed two more.

Altmire immediately asked U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California's 30th District and chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to investigate the deaths. Waxman wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, seeking all reports concerning Maseth and the names of all U.S. military or contractor personnel injured or killed by electrocution in Iraq facilities maintained under U.S. government contracts.

Waxman asked for contracts, orders and reports submitted by and issued to Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc., a Texas-based defense contractor whose nearly 18,000 employees in Iraq perform building maintenance and other services for the military at facilities where the electrocutions occurred.

Karen Lightfoot, Waxman's spokeswoman, said the committee received some documents and expects to receive more as the investigation advances.

"We're trying to determine who should be held accountable, and whether this could have been prevented," Altmire said.

Meanwhile, Maseth's parents, Cheryl Harris of Cranberry and Douglas Maseth of Allison Park, turned to the courts for help.

In April, they sued KBR in federal court, alleging the firm inspected the facilities at the Radwaniyah complex where their son died. They claim the contractor knew that hazardous conditions existed from improper grounding of faulty electrical systems manufactured in China for sale only to countries outside the United States because they did not comply with U.S. electrical safety standards.

The wrongful death lawsuit contends that the contractor knew of other electrocutions and failed to repair electrical problems, despite orders to do so from the Defense Contract Management Agency. It adds that KBR did nothing to warn U.S. troops.

Their attorney, Patrick Cavanaugh of Pittsburgh, said the family is seeking accountability from the defense contractor, as well as some answers about how he died.

They view his death as senseless.

"You don't expect your son to step into a shower and get killed," Harris told the Tribune-Review after Maseth's death.

Heather Browne, KBR's director of corporate communications, wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune-Review that the company's "thoughts and prayers remain with Staff Sergeant Maseth's family." She said the company's commitment to safety is unwavering.

"Based on our own current knowledge and the information we have gathered to date, KBR has found no evidence of a link between the work it has been tasked to perform and reported electrocutions," Browne wrote.

Meanwhile, in Salem, Ore., Mark Whitham is not surprised by the number and frequency of electrocutions in Iraq.

During an interview on the fourth anniversary of his son's death in a Mosul swimming pool, Whitham did not blame the military or the defense contractor.

"If anything, it's the Iraqis' fault. Their rules for electrical grounding are not as strict as ours," Whitham said.

"Not that there isn't anger there, but it's not going to bring Chase back. It's not going to change anything. ... We sure miss him."

China quake triggered
by nuclear explosion?
Widespread concrete rubble believed by some
to be from underground military installation

Nuclear Explosion Occurs Near Epicenter of the Sichuan Earthquake, Expert Says

Boxun News, a Chinese-language Web site based outside China, reported that an unnamed expert has claimed that there was a nuclear explosion near the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake, based on witness reports and the discovery of concrete rubble believed to have come from an underground military installation. The news of this nuclear explosion has raised questions about the cause of the earthquake.

Mr. He, a local resident, stated that when the earthquake occurred on May 12, people saw something erupt from the top of a mountain next to the valley, "It looked like toothpaste being squeezed out," said He. "No, it wasn't [magma]. It was these concrete pieces. The eruption lasted about three minutes."

According to a China News Services (CNS) report on May 31, 2008, paramedics from People's Liberation Army (PLA) hospitals and psychologists from Beijing onsite May 23 found concrete debris at the bottom of a valley near the epicenter. The half-mile-wide valley was covered with debris 10 - 20 inches thick, covering the valley floor for almost 1.5 miles.

No major construction was occurring in the area at the time of the earthquake.

The thickness of the concrete pieces seemed to match that used in China's underground military bases, according to Boxun's expert. He explained that while there are documented cases that earthquakes cause volcanic eruptions, there are no accounts of eruptions ejecting concrete.

Based on the CNS report and timing of the eruption at the scene, there seemed to be no evidence of natural volcanic activity. The expert stated he was certain a nuclear explosion shattered the underground concrete structures, hurling debris into the air.

At least one of China's nuclear military bases is located in Mianyang City, Sichuan, near the epicenter.

Chinese Internet surfers commented that right after the quake military Special Forces blocked traffic heading toward the epicenter on the mountain, and men in white chemical protective clothing in military vehicles were also spotted driving toward the mountain. Rescue personnel near the epicenter were all military, according to witnesses.

The expert believes the nuclear explosion was not confined to the underground test area and has caused radiation contamination, stating that in a call to Beijing he recommended authorities accept help from other countries, seal the area, find and provide help to those who had been exposed to contamination during the rescue work, and take emergency measures to prevent water contamination.

The expert believes that the nuclear explosion caused the recent 8.0 magnitude Sichuan earthquake in China. However, other experts referenced by Boxun withheld judgment as to whether the explosion caused the earthquake or the earthquake the explosion.

N Korea 'rebuilds nuclear plant'

North Korea has begun reassembling a nuclear plant, reversing steps taken under an international deal to end its nuclear programme, South Korea says.

Seoul said international envoys were considering their response. The US has expressed scepticism over the claims, but dispatched its negotiator to China.

Pyongyang warned last month that it had stopped disabling the Yongbyon plant.

It accused the US of breaking an agreement to remove it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

The removal from the list was part of the package promised to North Korea but it has not yet been carried out.

The US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said it appeared the North had begun to move previously stored equipment at its Yongbyon plant.

But he added: "To my knowledge, based on what we know from the folks on the ground, you don't have an effort to reconstruct, reintegrate this equipment back into the Yongbyon facility."

He said Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator in six-nation nuclear talks, would leave for Beijing on Thursday.

Verifying the claims

Although the disabling process is well advanced, it is reversible. Experts believe the North's facilities could be back up and running within a year.

Former UN weapons inspector David Albright says the reactor at Yongbyon is mostly intact.

But he said the regime would need to manufacture hundreds - possibly thousands - of fuel rods and rebuild a cooling tower that was blown up in June to get it fully operational.

He believes the North is unlikely to rebuild the plant, but is instead using the threat as a bargaining chip to gain more concessions from the six-party talks, which involve North and South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

In June, North Korea finally submitted a long-delayed account of its nuclear facilities - and was expecting to be removed from the US list almost immediately in return.

But the US said that would not be possible until North Korea agreed to inspections aimed at verifying the details that it had disclosed.

That move has been delayed amid wrangling among the six parties over exactly how these details can be verified.

The North began disabling the Yongbyon plant in November but stopped in late August in protest at the delay.

Seoul confirmed reports earlier on Wednesday from Japan's public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo news agency that the North had started reassembling the facilities.

N Korea 'rebuilds nuclear plant' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7595863.stm)

China's military ambition fuels Asian arms race
China's growing military ambition, matched only by its growing military spending, is fuelling a rapid Asian arms race.
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:10PM BST 13 Sep 2008

Beijing deploys the world's biggest army, its defence spending is rising faster than any other power and, to cap it all, its forces will this month carry out their first spacewalk.

With India, Japan and Russia also investing heavily in defence, a new Asian arms race is under way. According to official figures, Beijing's military budget this year is 418 billion yuan - £35 billion - a rise of 17.8 per cent on 2007. This already exceeds Britain's defence budget of £34 billion and places China's military spending second only to the US.

According to figures from Jane's, the military specialists, it has risen by 178 per cent in the past seven years, even after adjusting for inflation. At this rate, China will spend £180 billion - half of the Pentagon's current budget and five times Britain's - by 2020.

But the greatest change is not in how much China is spending, but where the investment is going. Under Chairman Mao, China regarded the army as a massed revolutionary block whose sheer scale would simply absorb any threat, foreign or domestic.

Only since the first Gulf War in 1991 has China started focusing on the new generation of military hardware it may face in the event of war. Beijing's military planners know they cannot rely on China's size alone as a deterrent.

The result has been a three-pronged strategy. China is upgrading technology while downsizing the army. The first prong is to increase the number of short- and medium-range missiles it has aimed at Taiwan, the future of which is China's number one military priority.

The second is to build a navy capable of projecting power into the Pacific and beyond, both to deter US intervention on Taiwan's side and to guard vital shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean. But this will not be a classic "blue water" navy with a global reach - China still has no aircraft carriers.

The third prong is the outermost line of defence: a space and anti-satellite programme that may one day be strong enough to threaten US weapons and guidance systems. This is asymmetric warfare at its most dramatic.

China's submarine building programme is at last starting to show success after years in which it relied on Russian imports. Beijing is presently building two submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles and another boat designed for attack missions. Once these reach completion, China's navy will have five ballistic missile submarines - compared with Britain's four - and seven other nuclear submarines. Projecting power across thousands of miles of ocean is the only purpose for a fleet of this kind.

This helps explain why India is building a nuclear submarine of its own and leasing another from Russia. India's navy presently enjoys a slender advantage over China in that it possesses one aircraft carrier and is acquiring another two. In practice, however, China's superior submarine fleet probably negates this gain.

In the past, China's alliance with Pakistan worried India most. There are historical tensions too - China and India fought a bloody border war in 1962 over disputed territory in the Himalayas.

But of greatest importance is a long-term rivalry for pre-eminence in Asia between the world's most populous nation and its biggest democracy.

On the other hand, some observers say both countries are too busy with other threats to be too concerned with each other. A study by Jane's Industrial Quarterly concluded that that helping their industrial base was a major reason for the military build-up by both India and China. Their shared aim is to replace Russian military imports and boost their own exports, while gaining knock-on benefits for civilian industry.

To the extent there is an armed race between the two powers, it may be a means of giving weight to their rising international status.

"There is a feeling that China needs to have a modern military to be able to have a seat at the top table internationally,'' said Matthew Smith, a Jane's military economist.

"Both India and China require a huge amount of military modernisation just to bring them up to present-day standards. They are building from a very low base.''

China's military ambition fuels Asian arms race (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2827473/Chinas-military-ambition-fuels-Asian-arms-race.html)

North Korea to Reportedly Make 'Important Announcement'

Sunday , October 19, 2008

TOKYO —
North Korea will make an "important announcement" on Monday amid speculation over the health of its leader Kim Jong Il, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

The 66-year-old North Korean leader disappeared from public view in mid-August and failed to make appearances on two important national holidays, leading to speculation he was seriously ill. U.S. and South Korean officials said he suffered a stroke and had brain surgery, but North Korea has denied he is ailing.

Quoting unidentified sources at Japan's defense ministry, the Sankei said Tokyo had information that "there will be an important announcement on (Oct.) 20th."

The Sankei said there was speculation within the Japanese government that the North's announcement could be about Kim's death or a government change induced by a coup.

North Korea will also ban foreigners from entering the country starting Monday, it said, without giving further details.

Japanese defense and foreign ministry officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The Sankei report came a day after Japan's biggest-selling Yomiuri daily said North Korea had ordered its diplomats abroad to be on standby for an important announcement.

Quoting several unidentified sources, the Yomiuri said Saturday the announcement could be about Kim's health or North Korea's relations with neighboring South Korea.

In Seoul, Kim Ho-nyeon, chief spokesman at the South Korean Unification Ministry, said Sunday the ministry could not confirm the Yomiuri report.

Kim said the ministry had not detected any unusual signs in North Korea.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service said it was trying to verify the Japanese media reports.

The Sankei also said the Chosen Soren, a pro-Pyongyang association of Koreans living in Japan, told its top officials to halt foreign and domestic trips. The Chosen Soren functions as North Korea's de facto embassy in Japan as Pyongyang and Tokyo have no diplomatic ties.

North Korea released photos earlier this month showing Kim inspecting a military unit and appearing healthy. However, it did not say when the pictures were taken. Some analysts said the photos appeared to have been taken earlier because plant foliage was wrong for the time of year.

On Thursday, North Korea threatened to break off all relations with South Korea if its new conservative government continues what the North called a policy of reckless confrontation with the communist nation.

North Korea to Reportedly Make 'Important Announcement' (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,440582,00.html)

North Korea Threatens to Turn South Korea Into 'Debris'

Tuesday , October 28, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea —
North Korea's military warned Tuesday it would attack South Korea and turn it into "debris," in Pyongyang's latest response to what it says are confrontational activities by Seoul against the communist country.

The threat comes a day after military officers from the two Koreas held brief talks at the heavily fortified border, their second official contact since the North broke off inter-Korean relations in February.

The North threatened to cut off all ties if the "confrontational racket" continues, citing a South Korean general's recent threats to launch a pre-emptive strike against its nuclear sites and the refusal of civic activists in the South to heed Pyongyang's demands to cease distribution of propaganda leaflets critical of its leadership.

"The puppet authorities had better remember that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris, not just setting them on fire," the North's military said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Relations between the two Koreas have been tense since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's administration took office earlier this year pledging to get tough with Pyongyang.

Earlier this month, Gen. Kim Tae-young, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a parliamentary committee that his military was prepared to attack suspected nuclear sites in North Korea if the communist country attempts to use its atomic weapons on the South.

North Korea has demanded that South Korea stop activists from sending balloons carrying leaflets critical of the communist regime across the border, saying the flyers violate a 2004 inter-Korean accord banning propaganda warfare.

The South Korean government has stopped official propaganda but says it cannot prohibit activists from sending the leaflets, citing freedom of speech.

Defying Pyongyang's demands, South Korean activists on Monday sent helium balloons carrying 100,000 leaflets to the North. Some noted Kim's reported health troubles and called for the North Korean people to rise up against the authoritarian leader.

The North said it also was offended by recent comments by South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee about leader Kim Jong Il's health.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a news conference in Washington earlier this month that both the U.S. and South Korea believed Kim Jong Il remained in control, adding: "If we show him too much attention, then we might spoil him."

U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in recent months, but the North has denied there is anything wrong with the 66-year-old leader.

The two countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The peninsula is divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders.

North Korea Threatens to Turn South Korea Into 'Debris' (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,444369,00.html)

North Korea warns US of 'thousand-fold' military action
Mike Eckel, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 17, 4:24 pm ET

MOSCOW – Russia and China urged North Korea on Wednesday to return to the negotiating table on the fate of its rogue nuclear programs — an unusual joint appeal from two Security Council members who have resisted more punitive U.S. measures against Pyongyang.

The appeal, which also expressed "serious concern" about tensions on Korean peninsula, came just hours after North Korea warned of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked. The United States, meanwhile, called on Pyongyang to stop its saber-rattling and negotiate.

The fact that the Chinese and Russian leaders used their meetings in Moscow to jointly pressure North Korea appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

And with both Washington and Pyongyang exchanging near daily rhetorical salvos, Russia and China appeared to be positioning themselves as moderators in the dispute.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," the statement said.

The comments — contained in a lengthy statement that discussed a host of other global issues — included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea and Hu did not mention it.

Hours earlier, North Korea reacted angrily to President Barack Obama's declaration that North Korea was a "grave threat" to the world. Obama spoke during a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington.

"If the U.S. and its followers infringe upon our republic's sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a one hundred- or one thousand-fold retaliation with merciless military strike," the government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary.

Both China and Russia long resisted efforts by Washington to impose stricter sanctions or other punitive measures on North Korea. But after North Korea conducted a second nuclear test May 25 in defiance of the United Nations, Beijing and Moscow joined with the United States and other Security Council members in passing new tough sanctions.

Those measures include an expanded arms embargo, authorizing ship searches if there are reasonable grounds to suspect the vessels are carrying banned weapons and material to make nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and urging all countries and financial institutions to stop financing North Korea's nuclear program.

China's enforcement of the sanctions is seen as crucial. Still, critics say the measures will not stop North Korea from trying to trade weapons with rogue nations or bite too deeply into its already crumbling economy.

Moscow was one of North Korea's strongest backers during the Cold War, providing Pyongyang with military and economic aid for years. Those ties withered after the 1991 Soviet collapse, leaving China as the only country with any real clout with Pyongyang.

In recent years, however, Moscow has sought to re-nurture those relations with the reclusive regime.

Russia has said North Korea is not solely to blame for the breakdown of the six-nation talks, suggesting the United States, South Korea and Japan also must share responsibility.

Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea was preparing another site to test-fire a missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States.

In Vienna, senior delegates of the U.S. and other countries discussed the situation Wednesday with the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The lead U.S. envoy, Geoffrey Pyatt, excoriated the North for abandoning the six-party negotiations.

"We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," Pyatt said, according to a statement. "We believe it is in North Korea's own best interests to return to serious negotiations."

Diplomats inside the closed meeting of the IAEA said three of the North's interlocutors — China, Japan, Russia — also criticized Pyongyang's nuclear defiance and urged it to return to talks, along with the European Union and Canada.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. It disclosed last week that it also is producing enriched uranium, the other pathway to the production of fissile material for nuclear warheads.

North Korea warns US of 'thousand-fold' military action (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear;_ylt=Ap8NvO_bzHKE367p._jWQBWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJqOTJzcHFtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNjE3L2FzX2tvcmVhc19udWNsZWFyBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDMTEEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDbmtvcmVhd2FybnN1)

N. Korea May Fire ICBM Toward Hawaii

Thursday , June 18, 2009

TOKYO —
North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, given the North's propensity to launch on U.S. holidays. July 8 is also the anniversary of former leader's Kim Il Sung's death.

As of late Wednesday night, however, there was no satellite imagery suggesting North Korea had yet stacked or staged a Taepodong-2 missile at either the Dongchang-ni site on its northwest coast or at its Musudan-ni facility on its northeast coast.

Trains are regularly running from North Korea's Tongnim missile factory to both the northwest and northeast launch pads, but there is speculation by South Korean officials that some may be empty and designed to confuse foreign intelligence agencies which the North knows are watching from the skies.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country's main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.

The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.

It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.

The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.

The comments — contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues — included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.

"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.

N. Korea May Fire ICBM Toward Hawaii (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,527020,00.html)

Japan warns that North Korea may fire missile at U.S. on Independence Day

By Mail Foreign Service
18th June 2009

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii's main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

Details of the launch came from the Japan's best-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun.

Both Japanese intelligence and U.S. reconnaissance satellites have collated information pointing to the launch, according to the report.

It is understood the communist state is likely to fire the missile between July 4 and 8. A launch on July 4 would coincide with Independence Day in the States.It would also be the 15th anniversary of North Korean president Kim Il-Sung's death.

The Japanese newspaper also noted that North Korea had fired its first Taepodong-2 missile on July 4, 2006.

Officials had initially believed that North Korea might attempt to launch a similar device towards either Japan's Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii.

But the ministry concluded launches toward Okinawa or Guam were 'extremely unlikely' because the first-stage booster could drop into waters off China, agitating Beijing, or hit western Japanese territory.

If the missile were fired in the direction of Hawaii, the booster could drop in the Sea of Japan.

News of the launch would put 'enormous military pressure on the United States,' the Yomiuri said, citing the ministry report.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report.

South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service - the country's main spy agency - said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen markedly since the North, led by Kim Jong-il, conducted two nuclear tests this year in defiance of repeated international warnings

The first rocket, fired in April, was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test. A second launch came on May 25.

U.S. satellite intelligence has shown that a missile launch pad had been erected at Dongchang-ri on North Korea's north-west coast.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

The UN Security Council last week authorised member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions against arms export.

On Saturday, in response to this declaration Pyongyang said it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war.

Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.

The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North's army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.

'If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,' said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG's representative in Seoul.

The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South Korea's 49 million people and via missiles that could hit all of the country.

Japan warns that North Korea may fire missile at U.S. on Independence Day (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1193941/North-Korea-plan-missile-launch-Hawaii-Independence-Day.html)

Gates: US puts more missile defense around Hawaii

By ANNE GEARAN – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 Thursday. "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 Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday.

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.

North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.

The missile now being readied in the North is believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), and would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast sometime around July 4, Independence Day in U.S., the Yomiuri newspaper said.

It cited an analysis by Japan's Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

Gates: US puts more missile defense around Hawaii (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYphBjQpSQaF-1iOItH4PhHufOGwD98T9PVG0)

Report: NKorean leader's son secretly visits China
By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer Shino Yuasa, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 16, 8:24 am ET

TOKYO – The youngest son — and reportedly heir apparent — of North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong Il secretly visited China last week and was urged by President Hu Jintao to have the North halt additional nuclear tests, a top Japanese newspaper said Tuesday.

During the trip around June 10, Kim Jong Un asked China — its key ally and biggest aid donor — to continue its energy and food aid to the North, the Asahi newspaper said, quoting unnamed North Korean sources in Beijing.

It also said that Hu urged the 26-year-old to have Pyongyang refrain from carrying out any further nuclear and missile tests. It did not provide further details.

An aide to Jong Un, who accompanied him on the trip along with senior officials, used the occasion to inform Chinese officials that Jong Un would be inheriting power from his father, the report said.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry and Unification Ministry said they could not confirm the report. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that he had no knowledge of any such meeting.

Little is known about Jong Un, who was born to Kim Jong Il's late wife, Ko Yong Hi. He studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland until 1998 under a pseudonym and learned English, German and French, the Swiss weekly news magazine L'Hebdo reported earlier this year, citing classmates and school officials.

South Korea's largest television network, KBS, reported Monday that Jong Un's supporters tried to assassinate his elder brother Kim Jong Nam, but that China sent agents to Macau to move him to an undisclosed location. The report quoted unidentified government sources in Beijing.

The South's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that North Korea's defense chief Kim Yong Chun secretly visited Beijing Saturday but did not specify his mission. Yonhap quoted an unnamed source privy to the North's affairs.

The South Korean government said it could not confirm the report. Japan's public broadcaster NHK, which carried a similar report, quoted China's Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that "normal exchanges" are continuing between Beijing and Pyongyang, without confirming the visit.

In protest over the North's May 25 nuclear test, Japan said Tuesday it would ban all exports to North Korea. Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet approved the measure to punish Pyongyang for its blast — its second following its first underground nuclear blast in October 2006.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said the export ban "is a message" to the North.

Japan's total ban on exports came on the heels of new U.N. sanctions against North Korea. The U.N. Security Council punished the communist country Friday for the May blast by expanding an arms embargo and authorizing ship searches on the high seas in a bid to derail its nuclear and missile programs.

Japan imposed tight trade sanctions against the North in 2006 after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into waters between the two countries and conducted its first nuclear test.

Since then, bilateral trade has been reduced to minuscule levels. Japan has imported no goods from North Korea since 2007, while its exports to the North totaled just 792.6 million yen ($8.1 million) in 2008, down 26 percent from a year earlier, according to the Finance Ministry.

Japans' current export ban covers only luxury goods such as pricey beef, caviar, alcohol, jewelry and cars. Tuesday's decision expands the ban to Japan's main exports to North Korea, including bicycles, machinery, plastic products and fishing nets.

Report: NKorean leader's son secretly visits China (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_nkorea_4/print;_ylt=AqKmHYM8f8C8qbN8t3G2gDT9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--)

NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile
By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 24, 8:51 am ET

SEOUL, South Korea – 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.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.

Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.

Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.

North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.

A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.

Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.

In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear_91/print;_ylt=AqKmHYM8f8C8qbN8t3G2gDT9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTB1MjgxN2UzBHBvcwMxNARzZWMDdG9vbHMtdG9wBHNsawNwcmludA--)

North Korea Threatens to 'Wipe Out' U.S.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea —
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 Burma 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 Burma, 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.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.

Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.

Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.

North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.

A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.

Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.

In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

North Korea Threatens to 'Wipe Out' U.S. (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,528880,00.html)

Cyber Attack on U.S. Firms, Google Traced to China
March 24, 2010
FOXNews.com

An Obama administration official told The Washington Times the U.S. was able, with some confidence, to link the cyber attack on Google and other U.S. companies, to Chinese government organs.

The cyber attack on Google and other U.S. companies was part of a suspected Chinese government operation launched last year that used human intelligence techniques and high-technology to steal corporate secrets, U.S. government and private-sector cybersecurity specialists told The Washington Times.

More worrying is the likelihood that the cyber attacks that led Google this week to end its cooperation with Beijing-controlled censorship and move its search engine service to Hong Kong included planting undetectable software on American company networks that could allow further clandestine access or even total control of computers in the future.

An Obama administration official said the U.S. government was able, with some confidence, to link the attack, first discovered last summer, to Chinese government organs. However, the official declined to provide details to avoid making future Chinese cyber-attack identification more difficult.

"The attack was very targeted. It targeted engineers and quality assurance developers, people with very high levels of access into the organization," said George Kurtz, chief technology officer for computer security firm McAfee who investigated the attack for several of the affected companies.

"The infections were actually very few," he said. "It wasn't like a mass infection across a large organization. It was very targeted."

Cyber Attack on U.S. Firms, Google Traced to China (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/24/cyber-attack-firms-google-traced-chinese/)

ChristiansUnite Forums

Theology => Prophecy - Current Events => Topic started by: nChrist on March 07, 2008, 01:40:34 AM