Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Beijing

Showing posts with label Beijing. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

N. Korea could soon pose threat to US: Gates

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/N_Korea_could_soon_pose_threat_to_US_Gates_999.html Beijing (AFP) Jan 11, 2011 US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday that North Korea could have long-range ballistic missiles within five years that would pose a direct threat to the United States, reflecting growing concerns over Pyongyang's arsenal. His comments represented a shift in the US view of North Korea's military power, describing the hardline regime in Pyongyang as making headway in its efforts to develop missiles that could potentially carry nuclear warheads.
"I think North Korea will have developed an intercontinental ballistic missile within that timeframe (five years)," Gates told reporters during a visit to Beijing, where he discussed tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Gates, who met Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday, said he had conveyed to the Communist leaders in Beijing that their allies in Pyongyang would soon present a danger to the United States.
"With the North Koreans' continued development of nuclear weapons and their development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the United States and we have to take that into account," he said.
North Korea has test-fired three ICBMs, most recently in April 2009 when one flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
Gates said the North could have a "limited" number of such missiles in five years, placing the US Pacific coast under potential threat.
The Pentagon chief said the United States appreciated the "helpful role" played by Beijing in recent months in containing the Korean crisis, after Pyongyang shelled a South Korean island in November, killing four people.
But he also said there had been a "sea change" in attitudes in South Korea, with the country's population outraged over Pyongyang's recent "provocations."
"Their tolerance for not responding has changed," he said.
Apart from the November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong island, the North stands accused by the South of torpedoing a warship last March with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies the charge.
The angry public reaction in South Korea had changed the "status quo" and it was vital that North Korea took actions to resolve the crisis, he said.
"Rhetoric is not enough at this point. There need to be some concrete actions by the North to demonstrate that they're truly serious about negotiation and engagement," he said.
Positive steps might include the North implementing a freeze on further missile or nuclear tests, he said.
US officials have sometimes expressed impatience with China's approach to North Korea, but Gates made a point of praising Beijing's diplomatic efforts during his visit.
However, his grave assessment of the situation on the divided peninsula and the North's weapons projects amount to renewed US pressure on China to rein in Pyongyang's leadership.
Gates said he expected the issue to come up in meetings later this week in Tokyo and Seoul, and when Hu visits Washington next week.
Pyongyang has expressed conditional willingness to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks that it abandoned in April 2009, a month before staging its second nuclear test.
But it fuelled regional fears in November by disclosing a uranium enrichment plant which could potentially give it a second route to a bomb.
The communist state this week officially proposed "unconditional" dialogue with Seoul, less than two months after the shelling assault.
The South rejected the offer, saying it was willing to hold government-level talks but only if the North admits responsibility for a series of provocations and confirms a commitment to scrapping its nuclear programme.
North Korea on Tuesday criticised South Korea's response, insisting it was sincere in trying to mend relations after months of tensions.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

US lawmakers slam China over North Korea

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_lawmakers_slam_China_over_North_Korea_999.html Washington (AFP) Nov 23, 2010 US lawmakers issued hawkish calls on China to do more to restrain "reckless" North Korea Tuesday, charging the sudden peninsular crisis showed that decades of 'appeasing' Pyongyang had failed. After the nuclear-armed state's deadly artillery barrage on a South Korean island, Republicans demanded more pressure on Beijing from the White House, which has already had limited results in pressing China on its currency.
"Two decades worth of attempts to appease this North Korean regime have failed, and further attempts to do so will meet with the same result," said Senator John McCain, the defeated 2008 Republican presidential candidate.
"The Chinese government has perhaps the most influence on North Korea, and for the sake of regional security and stability, I urge China to play a more direct and responsible role in changing North Korea's reckless behavior."
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the incoming Republican chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee, blasted Obama for being "too weak" on North Korea, and also had harsh words for Beijing.
"China, which wields significant influence over North Korea, must stop enabling the regime and join responsible nations in sending an unequivocal message to Pyongyang: abandon your aggressive agenda now," she said.
The committee's current Democratic chairman also singled out Beijing, which US observers see as negligent in using diplomatic influence on North Korea as one of the isolated state's few economic partners.
"I especially urge China to play a more active role in persuading North Korea to stop its belligerence," congressman Howard Berman said.
"China should immediately suspend economic and energy assistance to show Pyongyang that its aggression has consequences."
Republican Senator Sam Brownback, an outspoken critic of human rights violations in North Korea, was more scathing.
"China should be embarrassed that its policy with North Korea is allowing the east Asian region to become destabilized."
Tuesday's congressional reaction was likely calculated as much to hike pressure on the Obama administration for a robust response to North Korea's behavior as motivated by any expectation that it would mould Chinese policy.
But the administration found itself in a delicate situation, with few obvious options to respond to Pyongyang's assault that would not inflame a highly dangerous situation.
The administration was already under pressure over revelations about Pyongyang's nuclear program, with apparent confirmation at the weekend from a US scientist that it had an advanced uranium enrichment plant.
Any attempt to further isolate and censure North Korea through the UN Security Council would require China's acquiescence as a permanent member, so a sharp administration critique of Beijing may prove counterproductive.
US policymakers must also confront the fact -- as a recent attempt to challenge Chinese currency policy showed at the G20 summit -- that Washington's current diplomatic and political leverage over China is limited.
Also, China's overriding goal may be ensuring stability in the North Korean regime during a leadership transition, rather than sharing US and South Korean concern over Pyongyang's military posture and nuclear program.
Publicly, at least, there was no sign of more US pressure on China over Pyongyang Tuesday, as the administration pledged to work slowly through the six-party process, hosted by Beijing, to tackle the latest "provocation."
"I think that's really, frankly, the best way ... by presenting a unified, coherent front to North Korea, to make them aware of their isolation," said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman.
A senior US official did note that Beijing had a "relationship with North Korea that could be constructive, so we're committed to working with them."
Stephen Bosworth, the US envoy on North Korea in Beijing, said he discussed the assault on the island with Chinese officials and both sides wanted to see "restraint."
The latest North Korean military action follows the sinking of the South Korean navy ship Cheonan in March, which Washington and its allies blamed on Pyongyang.
But Bruce Klingner, a former CIA expert on North Korea now with the conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank, told reporters that China was "part of the problem rather than the solution."
"One of the things that President Obama needs to do is press China to act in a responsible manner ... and to use the leverage that Beijing has with Pyongyang to get them to abide by their denuclearization commitment," he said.

Monday, November 22, 2010

China National Nuclear Starts Building Hainan Reactor

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- China National Nuclear Corp., the country’s biggest operator of nuclear power plants, started construction of a 650-megawatt reactor in the southern island province of Hainan.

The No. 2 reactor, one of two to be built in the first phase, will start commercial operations in 2015, China National Nuclear said in a statement on its website today. Investment in the initial phase of the Changjiang plant will exceed 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), the Beijing-based company said.

China wants at least 15 percent of its energy mix to come from non-fossil fuel by 2020 and is accelerating construction of nuclear plants to help meet that goal. The Hainan facility will join 23 other reactors being built in China, the nation with the biggest nuclear-power capacity under construction, according to the official Xinhua News Agency in May. More at:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-21/china-national-nuclear-starts-building-hainan-reactor.html

Saturday, November 13, 2010

North Korea Is Building Light - Water Reactor: Report

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea is building an experimental light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear facility, Kyodo news reported on Saturday, citing Siegfried Hecker, former chief of the Los Alomos National Laboratory.
Hecker told reporters in Beijing that he was informed of the construction by North Korea and the output of the reactor was on a scale of 25 to 30 megawatts, according to the report.
Hecker recently visited North Korea, the report said.
He also said that the construction has just begun and it would take several years to complete it.
North Korea has tried to secure a light-water reactor for a number of years, claiming such a project would be for peaceful energy purposes.
The type of reactor is considered relatively proliferation-resistant, meaning it is unlikely to be diverted for an arms programme.
A 1994 deal between North Korea and the United States was intended to provide the destitute state with two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors built by an international consortium, but the agreement fell apart in 2006 after the North was accused of pursuing a nuclear arms programme.
Analysts are skeptical of North Korea's ability to build a light-water reactor indigenously, because it requires key components that only advanced nuclear states such as the United States can provide.
North Korea froze its Yongbyon nuclear site under a 2005 deal with five regional powers in return for aid, but is reported to have restarted activities there recently as the six-way disarmament process remains stalled for two years.
A five-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor at Yongbyon has produced arms-grade plutonium that officials and experts believe the North used to build several nuclear bombs.
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/11/13/world/international-us-korea-north-nuclear.html?_r=1&ref=world

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Wind could provide 20 pct of world power by 2030: study

Wind power could meet about a fifth of the world's electricity demand within 20 years, an industry group and environmental watchdog Greenpeace predicted in a new report released Tuesday. The global market for wind power grew 41.7 percent on year in 2009, beating average annual growth of 28.6 percent over the past 13 years, said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, or GWEC.
China ranked second in the world in installed wind generating capacity in 2009 and was the largest buyer of wind technology, Sawyer told reporters at the launch of GWEC and Greenpeace's Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010 report.
"We would expect China to continue to be the largest market and perhaps even be the (overall) largest market in the world by the end of this year," he said.
The report's "advanced scenario" -- its most optimistic outlook -- projects the world's combined installed wind turbines would produce 2,600 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity by 2020 -- equal to 11.5 to 12.3 percent of power demand.
By 2030, wind energy would produce 5,400 TWh -- 18.8 to 21.8 percent of the world's power supply, the report said.
The more conservative "reference" scenario based on figures from the UN's International Energy Agency saw wind power triple in the next decade to cover up to 4.8 percent of electricity -- equal to Europe's current total production.
The "moderate" scenario based on current industry figures would see wind power meet up to 9.5 percent of the world's power demand by 2020, the report said.
"For more than the last 10 years, the actual performance of the wind industry has exceeded our advanced scenario every time," said Sawyer.
Under the advanced forecast, 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions would be saved each year, the report said.
This would increase to 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 saved each year by 2030.
The cumulative amounts of CO2 saved would be 10 billion tonnes by 2020 and 34 billion tonnes by 2030, the report said.
When asked to compare China's wind power industry to the US, Sawyer said Beijing was showing more leadership than Washington in alternative energy.
"At the moment, the Chinese market has most of the advantages in the sense that there's a clear and supportive policy framework and very clear government support for developing a domestic industry," Sawyer said.
"Neither of those have really been the case in the United States."

Friday, October 8, 2010

China-Pakistan Deal Harbinger of Nuclear Exceptionalism? By: Saurav Jha | Briefing

Reports last week suggested that China is considering investing in a large, 1,000-megawatt reactor in Pakistan. If validated, they indicate that Chinese policymakers have given the go-ahead to a nuclear development plan prioritizing early export of indigenous large reactors, while simultaneously underlining Beijing's willingness and ability to pursue a policy of nuclear exceptionalism in the subcontinent.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Medvedev to push modernization, energy goals on China visit

by Staff Writers Moscow (AFP) Sept 24, 2010 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will travel to China on Sunday to expand economic ties with the world's largest energy consumer and try to engage Beijing in a range of business and trade projects. With a large business delegation in tow, Medvedev will travel to China at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, his second trip to the country since assuming office in 2008.
The packed agenda of his three-day trip will include visits to Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian, a port in northeast China which was under Russian control at the turn of the 20th century.
Relations between Moscow and Beijing -- once bitter foes during the Cold War -- have a turbulent history.
The two nations position themselves as counterweights to US global dominance and the Kremlin likes to call its ties with Beijing a "strategic partnership." But Moscow has been watching China's formidable economic might with a mixture of awe and uneasiness.
A key sticking point in ties is that Russian energy supplies still account for the bulk of economic cooperation, analysts say.
The Kremlin, on a mission to modernize Russia's hydrocarbon-dependent economy, wants more Chinese investments and know-how, while Beijing is in no rush to commit, they say.
"Russia has been increasing its energy and materials supply but China bought little else," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib investment bank.
"Medvedev will undoubtedly push for Chinese support for his modernization programme and will try to get a commitment from the government to encourage its major corporations to increase investment in the Russian economy and especially outside of extractive industries."
Russia and China jointly run only three industrial parks, said Sergei Luzyanin, deputy director of the Far East Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"That's a drop in the ocean, of course. It's clear that you need hundreds of them."
"Russia, of course, is trying to entice large investment capital but it is not coming so far."
Energy is also expected to be a major focus of the talks.
"A whole set of documents (to be signed) is related to expanding cooperation in the oil and gas sphere," Medvedev's top foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters.
Russia is keen to diversify its energy supplies and has been in talks with China, the world's largest energy consumer, over gas deliveries.
With pricing remaining a major issue, those talks have dragged on for several years and Russia's powerful prime minister Vladimir Putin travelled to Beijing last October to try to push the talks forward.
Russia's energy czar and Putin's deputy, Igor Sechin, travelled to China earlier this month to lay the groundwork for Medvedev's trip.
During Sechin's visit, Russia and China announced plans to jointly build a 5-billion-dollar oil refinery in the port city of Tianjin and a network of at least 500 petrol stations in the country.
Last year, Moscow and Beijing agreed a 20-year deal to pump Russian oil to China in return for 25 billion dollars in loans.
After talks with top officials in Beijing, Medvedev will travel to Shanghai for Russia Day at World Expo.
Medvedev will kick off his China trip with a visit to Dalian, where he will visit a memorial to Soviet Union war dead.
Known in Russian as "Dalny" (remote), Dalian came under Moscow's control at the turn of the century and was the scene of a major clash between Russian and Japanese forces in the 1904-05 war known as the battle of Port Arthur.
Medvedev will visit the city at a time when China is entangled in a bitter territorial dispute with Japan. Some analysts have said Beijing may try to secure Russia's support in the diplomatic conflict.
Prikhodko said the Dalian trip had been in the works for a year and was intended as a "pro-Russian and not an anti-Japanese gesture."
Top billionaires including Viktor Vekselberg and Oleg Deripaska are set to follow Medvedev to China.

Friday, September 24, 2010

China nuclear firm unveils huge investment plan

Beijing (AFP) Sept 21, 2010 China's main nuclear power company plans to invest nearly 120 billion dollars to expand its business over the next decade, state media said Tuesday, amid efforts to boost renewable energy sources. To fund the 800-billion-yuan spending spree, state-run China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) intends to list its subsidiary, CNNC Nuclear Power Co Ltd, the China Daily said, citing senior officials from both companies.
"We plan to rope in strategic investors by the end of this year," said Chen Hua, president of CNNC Nuclear Power Co Ltd.
"Our company will get ready for listing in the first half of next year," Chen said, without specifying which stock market it was targeting.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

US needs to consider China in New START discussions Discussion of the U.S.-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — aka New START — has so far pretty much skipped one very important consideration: China.

n the run-up to last week's committee vote to send the treaty to the floor for ratification this fall, U.S. senators quite rightly debated whether New START overly restrains U.S. missile-defense options, has weak verification procedures, cuts too many U.S. missiles or warheads (relative to Russian reductions) or might affect nuclear North Korea and near-nuclear Iran.
But lawmakers haven't yet fully faced the problem that, as we build down our strategic nuclear forces (by some 20 percent under New START) in the White House's hopes that others will disarm, China is involved in a strategic buildup.
So, before there's any final vote on an arms-control pact that would endure for the next 10 years, it'd be wise to give some thought to Beijing's burgeoning bevy of bombs.
While the exact shape of China's grand ambitions may not be clear, there's little question they exist. Few would dispute that Beijing wouldn't mind taking the head seat at the table of global powers, now occupied by Washington.
As such, China has been growing all aspects of its national power: political, economic and military. Nor is the last limited to a break-neck conventional buildup; its strategic forces are booming, too.
China long relied on a small, land-based nuclear force of ICBMs in fixed silos and on a limited number of road-mobile missiles, providing for a “sufficient and effective” deterrence in Beijing's eyes.
But the force has started getting bigger, better and badder. For instance, while the U.S. strategic arsenal desperately needs updating, Chinese nuclear forces are being modernized across the board.
And China's warhead numbers are up, by some estimates even doubling in recent years. The Pentagon says Beijing may now be able to put multiple nukes on a single, newly developed, road-mobile missile.
Indeed, if any country can undertake a so-called “rush to [nuclear] parity” with the United States and Russia, it's China, especially considering its aspirations, wealth and willingness to lavish largesse on its armed forces.
Basically, Beijing could become a nuclear peer competitor of Washington and Moscow in the not too distant future, in light of the expected arms cuts under New START.
More at http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/peter-brookes/2010/09/23/273634/US-needs.htm

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

China Goes Public on Pakistani Reactor Plans

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

China yesterday offered the most authoritative confirmation to date of its intention to construct two new atomic reactors in Pakistan, Reuters reported. However, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said she was unaware of discussions to build a fifth power plant in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation (see GSN, Sept. 21).
"This project is based on an agreement signed between the two countries in 2003 about cooperation in the nuclear power field," spokeswoman Jiang Yu said to journalists of a plan by the state-controlled China National Nuclear Corp. to construct a third and fourth reactor at the Chashma nuclear site in Punjab.
Her remarks seemed to indicate China might not feel obligated to bring the project before the Nuclear Suppliers Group for approval. The 46-member group, which Beijing joined in 2004, seeks to limit atomic exports to nations that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Pakistan has not signed the accord and countries such as the United States and India have asserted China would need a waiver from the export group to move forward with the deal.
New Delhi, Islamabad's nuclear-armed rival, received such an exemption allowing it to conduct atomic trade with the United States and other nations (see GSN, Sept. 8).
"China has already notified the International Atomic Energy Agency about the relevant details, and invited the IAEA to exercise safeguards and oversight of this project," Jiang said.
Until now, Beijing officials have disclosed little about plans for the two new 300-megawatt units in Pakistan. Information has been gleaned from Chinese nuclear firms' new contract announcements.
It falls to to Pakistan and not China to invite the international atomic watchdog to monitor the Chashma proceedings, an informed diplomat indicated.
"The IAEA can only place a facility under nuclear safeguards at the request of the country that it is in," the diplomat said. "If a country requests the agency to safeguard a facility then the agency would normally comply."
The U.N. agency's safeguards operations are intended to ensure that resources from civilian atomic operations are not turn to military applications.
China's growing atomic energy collaboration with the South Asian nation has unnerved observers in the United States, India and elsewhere given Pakistan's track record as a nuclear proliferator, mounting extremist activity within the country and the potential for the deal to undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
On the China National Nuclear Corp.'s Monday announcement that it was in discussions to build a one-gigawatt reactor in Pakistan, Jiang said, "We don't understand this matter. You can make further inquiries with the company" (Chris Buckley, Reuters, Sept. 21).
Energy-poor Pakistan has explained its atomic collaboration with China as necessary for economic growth, the Asia Times Online reported today.
"We are facing acute energy shortages and these nuclear power plants are important for us to overcome these," an informed high-level Pakistani government official told Reuters. "We as well as China have said time and again that all this cooperation is under the safeguards of the IAEA and there should not be any worries or concerns about it."
Though Pakistan has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Islamabad and Beijing argue the precedent for the deal was set by the 2008 nuclear trade deal which permitted U.S. nuclear firms to export their products to India in exchange for New Delhi permitting IAEA monitoring of nonmilitary atomic installations.
Pakistan has sought to win a similar atomic trade deal with Washington, which has thus far demurred. The RAND Corp. recently called on the Obama administration to rethink its stance on the matter.
"The deal could be based on an exclusive relationship with the United States, rather than seeking broad accommodation with the Nuclear Suppliers Group," a RAND study stated (Syed Fazl-e-Haider, Asia Times Online, Sept. 22

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Pakistan plans nuclear power surge

The coat of arms of Pakistan displays the nati...

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China plans to help Pakistan build a nuclear power reactor that will dwarf four it has built or has scheduled, adding to Western concerns about the safety of the South Asian country's nuclear material and Beijing's willingness to add fuel to their fears. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider

Monday, September 20, 2010

North Korean Nuke Program a "Serious Concern" for IAEA Head

from GSN Daily News

North Korea's nuclear program is "a matter of serious concern," the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said today (see GSN, Sept. 17).
U.N. nuclear watchdog Director General Yukiya Amano called on "all parties concerned to make concerted efforts for a resumption of the six-party talks at an appropriate time," the Associated Press reported.
The six-party talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. Nuclear negotiations were last held in December 2008. Since then, Pyongyang has carried out missile and nuclear tests and been punished with heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions (Associated Press/New York Times, Sept. 20).
"The agency has had no inspectors in the country since April last year, and I therefore have nothing to report on any activities of the IAEA in relation to the D.P.R.K," Amano said at the beginning of this week's IAEA General Conference. "The D.P.R.K. has not permitted the agency to implement safeguards in the country since December 2002 and it has not implemented the relevant measures called for in Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874" (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Sept. 20).
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to address worries about the North's nuclear-weapon program during meetings with world leaders this week at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
"The president, I think, has a number of important meetings," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "One with China, one with Japan and one with a larger group of Asian nations. I think many of the issues that we talked about last year at the United Nations remain on the docket: concern about Iran, concern about North Korea."
Obama is expected to speak with with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao about the aspiring nuclear power and other matters, U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth said last week while concluding a series of meetings in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. officials would not have direct contact with North Korean officials at the General Assembly meeting. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, though, would be meeting with the foreign ministers of other participants in the six-nation talks, he said (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency, Sept. 17).
China, North Korea's historical ally and international defender, was said to concur with the Obama administration that Pyongyang must demonstrate its commitment to a 2005 denuclearization pledge before multilateral nuclear negotiations can be relaunched, Agence France-Presse reported today.
Following a recent conversation with Beijing's senior envoy to the stalled talks, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said today, "I think that there is a recognition that there is simply little value in moving forward without some very concrete indication that the North Koreans are interested in implementing the 2005 statement."
"And the Chinese were very clear on that. There was no disagreement at all," Steinberg told a Washington audience.
"They realize that given what's happened on a number of fronts -- both with the actions of the North Koreans last year and then following the Cheonan -- that we are not simply going to go back to talking," he continued (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Sept. 20).
Meanwhile, Seoul yesterday offered to hold one-on-one military talks with the North on Sept. 30, but said it wanted only to consider matters related to the March sinking of the South Korean warship. Forty-six South Korean sailors died in the incident that badly damaged relations between the two longtime antagonists, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Pyongyang last week proposed holding military talks with the South this Friday at a village in the border between the nations. Such discussions were last conducted in October 2008.
In its communication to Pyongyang, Seoul said the talks should center on "responsible measures" the North should pursue to improve inter-Korean relations, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced in a release (Xinhua News Agency, Sept. 19).
Elsewhere, a South Korean official yesterday said the North in 2009 increased deployments of armaments along its southern frontier even though the country was dealing with a financial crisis, thus proving "that its intention of military threat to the South remains unchanged," AFP reported.
Roughly 200 extra units of 240-millimeter rocket launchers were fielded near the border. The rocket launcher can fire as many as 22 rounds in a 35-minute period and can hit targets at a distance of 37 miles. It is considered a "core threat" to Seoul and the surrounding area, Yonhap reported.
In a 2008 analysis, the South Korean Defense Ministry said the North had some 3,900 tanks and 8,500 munition guns (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Sept. 19).
In Pyongyang, the North Korean regime might have postponed a key political conference as the result of unresolved concerns over a widely reported plan to transfer power from ailing leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, the Korea Herald reported yesterday.
"There is the possibility that the issues of publicly anointing Kim Jong Un as the heir and personnel appointment for the son

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Burden 'clearly' on N.Korea to kickstart nuclear talks: US

Beijing (AFP) Sept 16, 2010 - North Korea must do more if stalled six-party talks on ending its nuclear drive are to resume, a US envoy said Thursday as he wrapped up an Asia tour aimed at gauging if Pyongyang is ready to negotiate. Stephen Bosworth, Washington's point man on North Korea, was in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Beijing's special Korea envoy Wu Dawe ... more

China Delays Visit by U.S. Arms Control Official

Seal of the United States Department of State.

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China this week postponed a high-level Obama administration official's planned visit for talks on implementing international nuclear penalties against Iran and North Korea, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, Aug. 23).

U.S. State Department special adviser on nonproliferation and arms control Robert Einhorn was set to lead a team to Beijing to "discuss sanctions implementation with regard to both North Korea and Iran," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said (see GSN, July 30).

"The Chinese asked for a delay due to lack of availability of key interlocutors. We are working with them to reschedule," Crowley said.
The U.S. team would call on Chinese officials to execute a "conscientious implementation" of U.N. Security Council sanctions against the two countries, according to a State Department official.
China has not enforced all the penalties against either nation, U.S. officials said. The Asian county has continued to carry out petroleum and other trade with Iran, and Pyongyang enjoys close economic and military ties with Beijing (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Sept. 15).

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

UN official lauds China for climate change role

The United Nations' climate chief has hailed China's efforts to improve the prospects of a climate summit in Mexico later this year by hosting a crucial round of talks in Tianjin next month.

Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"Hosting the negotiations in Tianjin, the last formal stop before Cancun is an important gesture by China," Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told China Daily.

Figueres, who was appointed to the post in May, finalized preparations for the Oct 4-9 meeting in the northern port city of Tianjin during a visit to Beijing last week.

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said China would work with other countries and the UN to push sustainable development when he met Figueres on Friday.

In China, Labor Disputes Overwhelming Courts By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING — Chinese court officials say they are struggling to handle a surging number of labor dispute cases that have arisen in part because of the global financial crisis, according to a report on Wednesday in China Daily, an official English-language newspaper.
The number of labor disputes brought to court also has grown as the Chinese government has generally sought to improve workplace conditions and make workers more aware of their rights. A rash of factory strikes this year, most notably at plants that make parts for Japanese automobile companies, has cast a spotlight on working conditions in manufacturing hubs along the coastal provinces. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/world/asia/16china.html?ref=china

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tokyo Electric Power to Increase Renewables, Expand in Asia

Tokyo Electric Power to Increase Renewables, Expand in Asia

Tokyo Electric Power said it would generate more than half its power from non-fossil sources in 10 years and invest $30 billion in low-carbon projects, Reuters reported. TEPCO's business plan indicated Asia's biggest utility would also invest up to $12 billion in growth areas such as operations in China and India. TEPCO said it would open an office in Beijing by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Japan's power sector is one of the world's biggest buyers of carbon credits, with that trend expected to grow as it works to meet the new goal, said Reuters. Japanese firms have said they intend to look for opportunities to develop nuclear power plants overseas, including Vietnam. Other plans announced by TEPCO include increasing equity share in LNG and uranium projects, restarting operations at a nuclear power plant shut down after an earthquake in northern Japan, and increasing investment in Japan Nuclear Fuel.

Reuters, Sept. 13.