S.Korea must improve offer to win nuke deal: Turkish envoy

Seoul (AFP) Dec 27, 2010 South Korea must make an improved offer if it wants to secure a project to build a Turkish nuclear power plant, the country's ambassador to Seoul said Monday. Erdogan Iscan said negotiations that began in March effectively halted after last month's G20 summit in Seoul, when the two sides failed to settle key differences.
"The plan offered by South Korea did not meet Turkey's expectations," he told Yonhap news agency by phone. The embassy confirmed his comments.
South Korea operates 20 reactors, which generate 30 percent of its electricity needs, and is eager to export its expertise as a new growth engine for the economy.
In December 2009 a South Korean-led consortium won a 20.4 billion dollar contract to build four nuclear plants in the United Arab Emirates, and Seoul hoped to cap this with a deal with Ankara.
But the ambassador told Yonhap the price of electricity was one of three or four major sticking points that held up progress, although he did not elaborate.
Iscan said Turkey has not closed the "Korean file" on the bid to build the Sinop nuclear power plant on the Black Sea coast, but has started formal negotiations with Japan.
He said Turkey cannot delay too long since rapid economic growth is causing energy demand to rise by an average four percent every year.
Turkey wants both the Sinop plant and the Akkuyu plant in the south of the country, that was won by Russia, to go into operation in 2018-2020.
Iscan said that if Seoul decides to improve its offer, Ankara will review it as a competitive bid and consider it along with the proposal made by Tokyo.

N.Korea may stage atom test to boost heir: think-tank

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NKorea_may_stage_atom_test_to_boost_heir_think-tank_999.html Seoul (AFP) Dec 24, 2010 North Korea may carry out another atomic test next year to bolster the status of leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-Un, a Seoul state think-tank said Friday, a day after the North threatened a nuclear attack. Tensions remain high on the peninsula a month after the North bombarded a South Korean border island and killed four people including civilians.
The North may stage a third test "to demonstrate Kim Jong-Un's military prowess, to improve plutonium-based nuclear weapons and ratchet up military tensions", the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said.
A new test is needed to improve its plutonium-based bombs using data from the second test in May 2009, the institute, which is affiliated to the foreign ministry, said in a report.
The North has been working for decades to build plutonium-based weapons and last month also disclosed a new uranium enrichment complex -- a potential new way to make bombs.
The report said the North is likely to build up its atomic arsenal next year and might test a uranium-based weapon "to maximise the shock to the outside world".
While six-party nuclear disarmament talks may well resume next year, chances of any progress are slim, it said.
The North is thought to have enough plutonium for maybe six to eight weapons but it is not known whether it can fit them to missile warheads. Nevertheless, it frequently raises the prospect of nuclear war.
On Thursday the North vowed readiness for a "sacred war" using its nuclear weapons.
"The revolutionary armed forces... are getting fully prepared to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on the nuclear deterrent at any time necessary to cope with the enemies' actions deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," said armed forces minister Kim Yong-Chun.
The North accuses the South of provoking its November 23 bombardment of Yeonpyeong island, near the disputed Yellow Sea border, by holding a firing drill there.
The South Monday staged another drill on Yeonpyeong but the North did not follow through with threats of a new and deadlier attack.
On Thursday Seoul deployed tanks, artillery and jet fighters in a show of force on the mainland.
And the South's defence ministry announced Friday that a giant Christmas tree near the North Korean border would stay lit until January 8.
The move is likely to anger Pyongyang since the date marks the birthday of Jong-Un, youngest son of leader Kim Jong-Il. The communist North sees the tree topped with a glowing cross as a provocative propaganda symbol.
The ministry said it hoped to send "a message of peace to the North" and the timing was just a coincidence.
An international think-tank urged the two Koreas to accept international arbitration to redraw the flashpoint sea border and lessen the possibility of all-out war.
The International Crisis Group, like many other analysts and the Seoul government, said the North's attacks are linked to moves to install Jong-Un as eventual successor.
They are an apparent attempt "to give the inexperienced heir some appearance of military and strategic prowess", the ICG said in a report.
"They also signal to potential rivals among North Korean elites that Kim Jong-Il is willing to take on the South to promote his son and he would therefore have no problem confronting domestic opponents."
There is "a real danger" the North will continue its attacks, it said.
The South's military, accused of a feeble response to last month's attack, has vowed to hit back harder next time by using air power.
The North offered apparent nuclear concessions to US politician Bill Richardson, who ended a visit to Pyongyang this week.
Richardson said it agreed to readmit UN atomic inspectors and negotiate the sale of nuclear fuel rods to a third party.
The New Mexico governor said Thursday a resumption of six-nation talks -- grouping the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- could help prevent a new escalation of tensions.
If "they don't react militarily again to this recent drill, then maybe the time has come for the six-party talks," he told CNN, referring to the South Korean exercise staged Thursday.
The North's news agency blamed the United States for the "alarming developments" on the peninsula this year.
It said Washington had orchestrated clashes to test a new military alliance it was forging with Japan and South Korea "to hold hegemony in the Asia-Pacific".

S. Korea's first nuclear repository goes into operation

Nuclear-waste repository goes online in South Korea
Korea Radioactive Waste Management started up its nuclear-waste repository in Gyeongju, South Korea, by accepting the first load of intermediate-level waste from the Uljin plant. "The waste can be held safely in the temporary holding area until the underground facility is completed in late 2012," the company said. The Korea Herald (Seoul)/Yonhap News Agency (South Korea)

North Korea 'Enriching Weapons-Grade Uranium At A Number Of Sites' -- The Telegraph

North Korea has been enriching potentially weapons-grade uranium at up to four sites outside its main nuclear complex, South Korean intelligence has claimed.

The report of the secret additional enrichment facilities outside its Yongbon complex, first published by a South Korean newspaper, was confirmed by Seoul's foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan on Tuesday.

"It is a report based on what is still intelligence and let me just say that we have been following this issue for some time," Mr Kim said.

Read more ....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8201078/North-Korea-enriching-weapons-grade-uranium-at-a-number-of-sites.html

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S.Korea to build 14 new nuclear reactors by 2024

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/SKorea_to_build_14_new_nuclear_reactors_by_2024_999.html Seoul (AFP) Dec 7, 2010 South Korea said Tuesday it plans to build 14 new nuclear reactors by 2024 to help meet growing energy needs and cut dependence on fossil fuel. South Korea, which currently has 20 operational nuclear reactors, will build 14 new facilities to make atomic power the biggest source of energy by 2024, state-run Korea Power Exchange said.
As a result, nuclear energy will provide 48.5 percent of the nation's energy consumption by the target year from the current 32 percent, KPE said in a long-term national energy development plan.
Coal is currently the biggest source of energy in South Korea that meets 42 percent of the nation's energy needs.
Renewable energy sources like solar and wind power will also provide 8.9 percent of the nation's energy needs by 2024 compared with the current 1.3 percent, it said.
Asia's fourth-largest economy imports 97 percent of its energy needs from overseas and has moved to cut dependence on fossil fuels and to diversify energy sources.
In October Seoul unveiled a five-year plan to spend 36 billion dollars developing renewable energy as its next economic growth engine, with a goal to become one of the world's five top players in the sector.

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Seoul rules out redeployment of US nuclear weapons

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Seoul_rules_out_redeployment_of_US_nuclear_weapons_999.html Seoul (AFP) Nov 23, 2010 South Korea's defence ministry Tuesday ruled out the redeployment of US nuclear weapons on its soil as a deterrent to North Korea, a day after its minister had raised the prospect. "Redeploying US tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea would cross the line set by the policy of denuclearising the Korean peninsula," Deputy Defence Minister Chang Kwang-Il told reporters.
"We've not considered redeploying US tactical nuclear weapons and there has been no consultation with the US over the issue," he was quoted as saying by a ministry spokesman.
The Pentagon also said Monday that the United States has no immediate plans to redeploy the weapons, which were withdrawn in 1991.
Revelations over the weekend about a new uranium enrichment plant in North Korea triggered alarm in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.
Asked in parliament Monday whether the South would consider asking for a redeployment, Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told a lawmaker that the government "will review what you said".
His comment made front-page headlines in most newspapers Tuesday.
Chang said that the minister's comment had been taken out of context and meant that the South could consult with the US on "all possible options".
The United States still stations 28,500 troops in the South, but pulled out the atomic weapons as part of a disarmament initiative.

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A US-South Korea Nuclear Pact from AsiaSentinel

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

 

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

It appears, in the wake of US President Barack Obama's visit to South Korea last week that the US still has reservations about allowing Seoul to reprocess spent plutonium for industrial uses, partly because of Japan's concerns, having been the only country that has had a bomb dropped on it, and because of the dilemma of the outlaw nuclear program in North Korea.

The decades-old atomic agreement between South Korea and the US – signed when South Korea's economy was about the size of North Korea's today – is to expire in March 2014. Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul is barred from reprocessing used plutonium or enriching uranium – two processes that in addition to creating nuclear fuel can be used to produce fissile material for a weapon.

There is a basic perception in Seoul that the ROK-US nuclear energy agreement, outdated as it is, must be revised to embrace industrial demands of nuclear energy as well as an enhanced role for South Korea in the world. The pact was initially signed in 1972 and revised in 1974 in the height of the cold war.

But beyond the idea of increased demands for nuclear power, any consensus is unlikely to be made because of a sharp difference of perspectives over whether it's appropriate to allow Seoul to reprocess and enrich spent fuel which could make the development of nuclear weapons possible, if not impossible in theory. More at:

 

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2826&Itemid=182

Nuclear deal between Russia, Australia goes into force

A nuclear cooperation agreement between Russia and Australia went into force Thursday after their two leaders exchanged notes to ratify the deal. Under the agreement Australia will sell uranium to Russia, against the advice of an Australian parliamentary committee.
Legislators had called for the deal to be blocked unless Russia met a number of conditions, including speeding up reforms to separate civilian and military nuclear plants.
"To open a new page, we have a good event today, an exchange of ratification notes," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at a meeting before the opening of the G20 summit in Seoul.
The agreement, which allows Australian uranium to be enriched in Russia and used in Russian nuclear reactors, was signed in Sydney in 2007 and ratified by the lower house of Russia's parliament this summer.
It last for 30 years but can remain in force indefinitely if there are no objections from either side.
The agreement means uranium supplied to Russia can be used only for peaceful purposes, must meet International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and can be used only in facilities agreed by Australia

.
A previous agreement signed in 1990 specified that Australian uranium supplied to Russia could be enriched for use by third countries only.http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Nuclear_deal_between_Russia_Australia_goes_into_force_999.html

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South Korea, U.S. to Discuss Extended Deterrence from GSN Daily News

http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20101112_4772.php

The United States and South Korea are set to hold talks before year's end on issues tied to extended nuclear deterrence and a ballistic missile shield, the Asahi Shimbun reported today (see GSN, April 21).
The discussions would fall under the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee that Seoul and Washington "agreed to institutionalize" in October, according to a joint statement. Senior-level South Korean and U.S. defense officials are expected to determine the group's format and issues it would address.
South Korean defense insiders said their government would begin by requesting that the two nations swap intelligence tied to North Korea's nuclear arms work (see GSN, Nov. 11). The South would also like to talk about potential North Korean nuclear proliferation and how to react if attacked with various kinds of nuclear strikes, the sources said.
While Washington has stated its nuclear umbrella covers Japan and South Korea, concrete military details about what that would mean in the event of a nuclear assault have not yet been laid out (see GSN, Oct. 12). The United States has held off on providing specifics over worries that such information could anger China and give Pyongyang further grounds to continue its nuclear weapons work.
Seoul, though, has been urging talks about the nuclear umbrella to address public worries regarding the ramifications of future drawdowns of U.S. soldiers stationed on the Korean Peninsula.
The Obama administration might now be willing to provide these deterrence specifics because Washington "may have become worried that if it did not make a virtual guarantee of its nuclear umbrella, (South Korea) might have decided to embark on its own nuclear weapons development," a South Korean source said (Yoshihiro Makino, Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 12).

South Korean Reprocessing Bid Under Discussion from GSN Daily News

The United States and South Korea are in "very technical" discussions on Seoul's bid for authorization under a new nuclear cooperation treaty to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, a senior Obama administration official said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 26).
"Let me just say that that's an issue of ongoing diplomacy between the two sides, very technical," the Yonhap News Agency quoted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell as saying. "We're working closely to ensure that there is an understanding of what expectations are, not only to the United States, but other authorities associated with this going forward."
The two allies' decades-old atomic trade deal, due to expire in March 2014, prohibits South Korea from reprocessing used plutonium or enriching uranium -- two processes that can be used to generate weapon material as well as fuel for civilian use. South Korea has vied for the right under a new agreement to use pyroprocessing techniques -- an experimental system that advocates say is more resistant to proliferation as it keeps the plutonium combined with other materials.
Washington and Seoul "discussed a proposed joint study of nuclear power reactor spent fuel disposition options, including pyroprocessing," the State Department said. "They agreed that technical experts would meet soon to work out the scope of the study and the venue and schedule for completing it.
"Both sides expect the new agreement to ensure the continuance and further development of the robust bilateral cooperation they have enjoyed in atomic energy for more than fifty years, as well as to further contribute to the strengthening of their alliance by enhancing cooperation in nuclear research and development, industry and commerce in the future," the department's statement adds (Hwang Doo-hyong Yonhap News Agency, Oct. 26).
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20101027_9694.php

N.Korea justifies nuclear 'treasured sword'

Seoul (AFP) Oct 24, 2010 North Korea said its nuclear arsenal "serves as a treasured sword", amid reports the secretive state could be preparing for a third nuclear test. The bellicose claim came amid a visit by a Chinese military delegation, as well as intense world interest after Pyongyang lay the ground work for the future succession of ruler Kim Jong-Il's youngest son Kim Jong-Un.
North Korea was "entirely right when it opted for having access to nukes", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary, adding the communist country needed to protect itself.
The North has long justified having the weapons saying they are to counter a similar threat from the United States.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a global nuclear safeguard accord, was not doing its job properly, the official commentary late on Saturday said.
"This compelled (North Korea) to pull out of the NPT and have access to nuclear deterrent legitimately in order to protect the sovereignty and security of the country," it said.
The isolated and impoverished North withdrew from the NPT in 2003.
Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest-selling newspaper, reported Thursday that the North appeared to be preparing for another nuclear test, citing an unidentified government source.
US satellites had detected movements of personnel and vehicles at the site where Pyongyang carried out its first two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, the report said.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that another atomic weapons test would be "provocative" but said he did not have any evidence to support the South Korean report.
Pyongyang said on Saturday it was willing to resume stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks but would not be "hasty" because the United States and some other parties were "not ready".
China, the North's sole major ally and economic lifeline, is pressing to restart the forum, which groups the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, and began in 2003.
But prospects for renewed negotiations have been clouded by South Korean and US accusations that the North torpedoed one of Seoul's warships in March with the loss of 46 lives, a charge Pyongyang denies.
The Chinese military delegation paid tribute to the North's late president Kim Il-Sung Sunday on the second day of a four-day trip to mark the 60th anniversary of Chinese forces' intervention in the Korean War, KCNA said.
After arriving in the capital on Saturday, Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, said close ties between the two countries would be handed down through the generations.
Jong-Un's status as leader-in-waiting was effectively made public after Pyongyang made him a four-star general and gave him key ruling party posts late last month.
Kim Jong-Il has visited China twice this year. The last visit, in August, was seen by many analysts as a bid by the North Korean leader for Chinese support for the dynastic succession.
Beijing fears the collapse of North Korea and resulting instability on its borders and thus provides heavy aid and trade support to its neighbour, experts say.
The South's Yonhap news agency meanwhile reported that Seoul and Washington have shelved a plan to stage a joint exercise involving a US aircraft carrier later this month in the Yellow Sea.
The exercise was cancelled over fears that it could heighten regional tensions ahead of the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul, it said.
China has bristled at the idea of a US aircraft carrier group patrolling waters near its coast.

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The U.S.-Korea Alliance and Arms Race By: J.J. Suh | Foreign Policy in Focus

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has increased its defense budget fourfold in less than twenty years, from 6.6 trillion won in 1990 to 26.6 trillion won in 2008. Last year’s spending represents a twofold increase from ten years ago; and now the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Defense Reform 2020 projects an annual average increase of 7.6 percent to 53.3 trillion won by 2020, another doubling over the next decade. Is Seoul engaged in defense-budget doubling projects every ten years? Why has South Korea’s military spending increased so much in recent years, and especially under the liberal governments of the past ten years? Why does it keep growing? Is there any pattern that we can discern in South Korea’s military spending?  More at:
http://www.fpif.org/articles/allied_to_race_the_us-korea_alliance_and_arms_race

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KEPCO wins power plant deal from UAE

• Korea Electric Power, Sumitomo score $1.5B deal for U.A.E. project
  The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority has awarded Korea Electric Power and Sumitomo a $1.5 billion contract for construction and operation of a nuclear plant in the United Arab Emirates. The facility will be capable of producing 1,600 megawatts when it becomes operational in March 2014, KEPCO said. The Korea Herald (Seoul)http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101018000922

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North Korea Has Large CW Production Capacity, Report Says

from GSN Daily News

A new report says North Korea has the ability to manufacture as much as 12,000 metric tons of chemical warfare materials, which could kill or injure large numbers of civilians if used against South Korea, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, June 18).

Nations Finish WMD Interdiction Drill in South Korea

from GSN Daily News

A large-scale multilateral WMD interdiction exercise concluded today in waters off South Korea, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 13).
The drill marked the first time South Korea had taken part in an exercise under the Proliferation Security Initiative, the U.S.-led program to halt the transfer of weapons of mass destruction. In the past Seoul has solely observed the exercises for fear of aggravating North Korea. However, after Pyongyang detonated its second nuclear test device last year, South Korea decided to become an active member of the initiative, which counts more than 90 member nations. More at:

http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20101014_8170.php

North Korean Uranium Enrichment Progresses, Analysts Say

Friday, Oct. 8, 2010

South Korean activists demonstrate at a rally in Seoul last week against plans for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to pass power to his youngest son. Pyongyang appears to be acquiring new uranium enrichment capabilities, says an independent analysis released today (Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images).

North Korea seems to be making progress in its military uranium enrichment program, which would give the nation another pathway to building nuclear weapons and a valuable technology to sell on the black market, a U.S. think tank said in a report today (see GSN, Oct. 7).
The Institute for Science and International Security report, "Taking Stock: North Korea's Uranium Enrichment Program," asserts that the North "has moved beyond laboratory-scale work" and is equipped to erect a centrifuge "pilot plant" for uranium enrichment. The report relies on information from news reports, the intelligence community and government officials, according to the Washington Post.
Drawing on information about North Korean equipment acquisitions abroad, report co-author and ISIS President David Albright said the Stalinist state might have between 500 and 1,000 centrifuges. Most specialists think the North would require 3,000 centrifuges to enrich enough uranium for one weapon (see GSN, Jan. 6).

See Full Article...

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NKorea Jamming Device A New Security Threat

NKorea Jamming Device A New Security Threat

The North is thought to have been responsible for the intermittent failure of GPS receivers on naval and civilian craft along the west coast from August 23 to 25, Kim said on Monday.

Seoul (AFP) Oct 12, 2010 A North Korean jamming device capable of disrupting guided weapons poses a fresh threat to South Korea's security, the South's defence chief said on Tuesday. Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told parliament that the North had imported Russian equipment to jam South Korea's GPS (Global Positioning System) reception.
"North Korea's GPS jamming is seen as a fresh security threat" as it can disrupt guided weapons, he said.
The North is thought to have been responsible for the intermittent failure of GPS receivers on naval and civilian craft along the west coast from August 23 to 25, Kim said on Monday.
He also said the North was capable of jamming GPS reception over a distance of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles).
"This could impose a serious threat to South Korea's GPS-guided weapons such as missiles and smart weapons," Chae Yeon-Seok, a researcher at the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute, told AFP.

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N.Korea's nuclear threat reaches "alarming level": official

N.Korea's nuclear threat reaches "alarming level": official Seoul (AFP) Oct 6, 2010 North Korea's nuclear programme has reached a "very alarming level" and could cause havoc in South Korea if Pyongyang develops smaller mobile weapons, a senior Seoul presidential aide says. "North Korea's nuclear threat has progressed at a rapid pace and reached a very alarming level, while the nuclear programmes are evolving even now," JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted Kim Tae-Hyo as telling a forum Tuesday. Kim, the president's deputy national security adviser, confirmed the comments to AFP Wednesday. The aide said Pyongyang was believ

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

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

U.S., Partners Prepare New Posture on North Korea

The United States, South Korea and Japan are working to develop a new strategy for engaging with North Korea amid worries that the present program of strong military posturing and economic pressure could result in military conflict with the aspiring nuclear power, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 16).

Washington and its allies are concerned that a policy of "strategic patience" -- waiting for heightened international sanctions to force the North to return to multilateral nuclear negotiations -- could lead to fresh attacks on South Korea or the ratcheting up of Pyongyang's efforts to spread weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. and Asian officials said the basic aspects of a new posture toward the North were coming together with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo in agreement on wanting Pyongyang to issue condolences over the deaths of 46 sailors killed in a March sinking of a South Korean warship. The South had originally demanded that North Korea admit it was behind the sinking of the Cheonan and apologize for the attack.
"This has to be done in a way that addresses the grievances of the South Koreans," a high-level Obama administration official said.
Less certain is whether there will be an allied demand that North Korea take concrete steps to disable its nuclear program prior to returning to the six-party talks which also include China and Russia.
"There are two legs of the stool so far," an informed source said. "Sanctions and military exercises. But [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] views talking with the North as the indispensable third. If you just continue sanctions and exercises, that's a road to war."
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