China, Taiwan, or Korea In The NEWS!

[Soldier4Christ]

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."

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

Ref. the electrocutions in Iraq, I'm confused. I thought we had our own electricians in all branches of Service. By the way, it's my understanding they are as good as or better than any civilian contractors, so why aren't we using them? It's very sad to know that lives were lost because of someone saving a few cents with sub-standard Chinese electrical components. As we all know, there is a pattern emerging on all kinds of deadly or dangerous products from China. We need to open all kinds of factories for first-class and safe products - AND MAKE A TON OF JOBS AT THE SAME TIME.

[Soldier4Christ]

Many of our overseas jobs for our Military is being outsourced to civilian contractors. It is claimed that it is to keep from having more Military there, to fill a void in the numbers of those enlisted. It is also true that even when we do our own work when overseas that frequently we use equipment from local sources. I know for a fact when I was in Desert Storm that we did get some of our unexpected supplies that we needed immediately from local sources. It saved a lot of wait time in comparison to ordering supplies from home.

[Soldier4Christ]

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.

[Shammu]

China, Taiwan sign formal agreement on charter flights, tourism

Jun. 13, 2008
THE JERUSALEM POST

Negotiators from Taiwan and China have signed a formal agreement to expand charter flights and increase tourism.

Representatives from the two sides signed the agreement Friday, during their first formal talks in almost a decade. The accord was a step toward restoring transport links severed 59 years ago.

The agreement came on the second day of talks between Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart, the first formal talks between the sides since 1999. It lends strong momentum to efforts to build confidence and spur cooperation between the rivals, which divided amid civil war in 1949 and whose relationship has veered from strained to outright hostile.

China, Taiwan sign formal agreement on charter flights, tourism

[Shammu]

 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'

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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'

[Shammu]

Let me guess,  Kim Jong Il, is going to say, "We support Obama for President."

It seems everyone overseas wants him to be the American President according to news reports. I myself am praying Obama-nation doesn't get ¹/₄^th of the vote for POTUS.

[Shammu]

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'

[nChrist]

We must remember that even a tiny amount of TRUTH filtering into a Communist country is a very dangerous thing. It poses the possibility of disrupting or undoing BRAIN-WASHING. After all, they don't know that things are different in FREE countries. They may actually be BRAIN-WASHED to believe that they have the best of everything, and that everyone else in the world is in absolute misery.

For a similar reason, GOD'S WORD AND THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD is still the most powerful weapon and TRUTH in the world. It will endure forever because GOD said it would. ONLY JESUS CHRIST can free the lost and miserable slaves of the devil. It's no wonder that the devil doesn't like GOD'S WORD, and the devil hates THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD. Above all, the devil hates JESUS CHRIST and what HE did at the CROSS! The devil doesn't want anyone to be rescued from the CURSE OF SIN AND DEATH. WHY? - the devil is already condemned to the everlasting fires of hell, and he wants all the company he can get to come with him. This short life is NOT THE END! We were not designed for this mortal world - RATHER for an immortal life in either the fires of hell or the joys of HEAVEN. As Christians, HEAVEN is our HOME and our place of CITIZENSHIP!

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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