North Korean Now Wanna Fire Long-Range Missile

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>May 31, 2009
THE SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>US pledges to defend its allies
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>It will 'not accept' a nuclear N. Korea; calls for global community to stay 'tough-minded' </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By William Choong, Senior Writer
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At a forum yesterday, (from left) Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and South Korean Defence Minister Lee Sang Hee 'pledged a common response' to the North Korean threat. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The United States yesterday delivered the harshest warning to North Korea since its nuclear test last week, saying that Washington stood ready to defend its allies in the region if North Korea crossed the line.
'We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia - or on us,' US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said yesterday.
Speaking to a group of defence ministers, military officers and academics at the Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday, Mr Gates said the US would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.
'Our goal is the complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state,' Mr Gates said.
'North Korea's nuclear programme and actions constitute a threat to regional peace and security. We unequivocally reaffirm our commitment to the defence of our allies in the region,' he added.
The challenge posed to the US and other countries in Asia is tough. Last Monday, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test since 2006. The following day, it test-launched six short-range missiles.
It has also announced it would not honour the 1953 armistice signed at the end of the Korean War.
Yesterday, Mr Gates said that the global community had to be very 'tough-minded', given North Korea's well-worn tactic of using its nuclear capability to bargain for more aid and assistance.
'They create a crisis, and then the rest of us pay a price to return to the status quo ante.
'As the expression goes in the US, I'm tired of buying the same horse twice. This notion that we buy ourselves back to the status quo ante is an approach we ought to think very hard about,' said Mr Gates.
Agreeing, the defence ministers of South Korea and Japan also called for tough action on North Korea. Earlier, they had met Mr Gates at a three-way forum and agreed to forge a common position going forward.
'North Korea, perhaps to this point, may have mistakenly believed that it could be rewarded for its wrong behaviour but that is no longer the case,' South Korean Defence Minister Lee Sang Hee said.
Mr Lee said his meeting with Mr Gates and Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada could not have 'come at a better time', and that all three men had 'pledged a common response' to the North Korean threat.
China, a long-standing ally of North Korea, also expressed its 'firm opposition' to the recent nuclear tests.
'Our stance on this issue is consistent. We are resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation,' said Lieutenant-General Ma Xiaotian, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army.
According to a partial draft resolution obtained by the Associated Press, all countries will be called upon to immediately enforce sanctions imposed after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.
Speaking to The Sunday Times in an interview yesterday, Mr James Steinberg, the US Deputy Secretary of State, said that the US still harbours the hope that North Korea will roll back its nuclear programme.
'I think the jury's still out. We should not take it for granted that it is inevitable in the case of North Korea,' he added.
Despite the sombre mood created by the North Korea test, discussions at the high-level Shangri-La Dialogue were largely constructive.
Many countries expressed aspirations for greater multilateral cooperation in areas such as maritime security and disaster relief, and more importantly, a new security architecture for the region.
Asia's ability to rise to pre-eminence depends on its ability to foster cooperation, said Admiral Sureesh Mehta, India Chief of Naval Staff.
'Let me end with words of Benjamin Franklin. If we don't hang together, we will hang separately,' he said.
The Shangri-La Dialogue will hold its third - and last - day of proceedings today. [email protected]

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>North may launch long-range missile
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Seoul - Unfazed by international anger at its second nuclear bomb test, a defiant North Korea was said yesterday to be preparing to launch a long-range missile.
'A train carrying a long-range missile has been spotted at the weapons research centre near Pyongyang,' South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an intelligence source as saying.
The reclusive communist state appears to be moving the missile from its Saneum weapons centre near Pyongyang to its north-eastern Musudan-ri launch pad, a South Korean Defence Ministry official said.
The missile looks to be a modified version of a Taepodong-2, according to Yonhap's source. It was tested in 2006 and again last month, and is theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.
'It usually takes about two months to set up a launch pad, but the process could be done in as little as two weeks, which means the North could launch a long-range missile as early as mid-June,' the source added.
Separately, two defence officials in Washington said US satellite photographs had detected activity at two launch sites in North Korea, one in the west and the other in the east.
Yonhap quoted a presidential official as saying the North may schedule a launch to coincide with a June 16 summit between South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and US President Barack Obama in Washington.
Meanwhile, South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert for any border clashes.
The North Koreans have fuelled tensions in the past week by carrying out a nuclear test, launching six short-range missiles, renouncing the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and threatening possible attacks on South Korea.
The United States has stressed it would not accept the North as a nuclear-armed state and warned that more atomic tests could spark an arms race in East Asia.
Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are discussing a new resolution which could impose new sanctions to punish the North for last Monday's nuclear test - its second since 2006.
Pyongyang said it will take 'additional self-defence measures' in response to any sanctions.
Professor Yang Moo Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said that the North could be planning to launch the missile shortly after the United Nations Security Council adopts its resolution.
Western diplomats said permanent Security Council members Russia and China have agreed in principle that North Korea should be sanctioned for its nuclear test, but it was not clear what kind of penalties they would support. Both are generally reluctant to approve sanctions.
According to parts of a draft resolution obtained by Associated Press, all countries would be called on to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier UN resolution after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.
The sanctions include a partial arms embargo, a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented, with many of the 192 UN member states ignoring them. AP, AFP, Reuters

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>North may launch long-range missile
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Seoul - Unfazed by international anger at its second nuclear bomb test, a defiant North Korea was said yesterday to be preparing to launch a long-range missile.
'A train carrying a long-range missile has been spotted at the weapons research centre near Pyongyang,' South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an intelligence source as saying.
The reclusive communist state appears to be moving the missile from its Saneum weapons centre near Pyongyang to its north-eastern Musudan-ri launch pad, a South Korean Defence Ministry official said.
The missile looks to be a modified version of a Taepodong-2, according to Yonhap's source. It was tested in 2006 and again last month, and is theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.
'It usually takes about two months to set up a launch pad, but the process could be done in as little as two weeks, which means the North could launch a long-range missile as early as mid-June,' the source added.
Separately, two defence officials in Washington said US satellite photographs had detected activity at two launch sites in North Korea, one in the west and the other in the east.
Yonhap quoted a presidential official as saying the North may schedule a launch to coincide with a June 16 summit between South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and US President Barack Obama in Washington.
Meanwhile, South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert for any border clashes.
The North Koreans have fuelled tensions in the past week by carrying out a nuclear test, launching six short-range missiles, renouncing the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and threatening possible attacks on South Korea.
The United States has stressed it would not accept the North as a nuclear-armed state and warned that more atomic tests could spark an arms race in East Asia.
Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are discussing a new resolution which could impose new sanctions to punish the North for last Monday's nuclear test - its second since 2006.
Pyongyang said it will take 'additional self-defence measures' in response to any sanctions.
Professor Yang Moo Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said that the North could be planning to launch the missile shortly after the United Nations Security Council adopts its resolution.
Western diplomats said permanent Security Council members Russia and China have agreed in principle that North Korea should be sanctioned for its nuclear test, but it was not clear what kind of penalties they would support. Both are generally reluctant to approve sanctions.
According to parts of a draft resolution obtained by Associated Press, all countries would be called on to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier UN resolution after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.
The sanctions include a partial arms embargo, a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented, with many of the 192 UN member states ignoring them. AP, AFP, Reuters

 

[Yoshitei]

Now, if North Korea isn't provoked, I'm sure it wouldn't start sending nuclear missiles all over the world.

 

[Sideswipe]

Peoples don't be hypocrites lah?

How many Nuclear missiles and bombs does United States, Russia, Britain, France and China have. They have 98% of all nuclear war weapons in the world and how many nuclear tests are they conducting yearly.

North Korea bad boy so cannot have. United States good guy so can have??

 

[Yoshitei]

Peoples don't be hypocrites lah?

How many Nuclear missiles and bombs does United States, Russia, Britain, France and China have. They have 98% of all nuclear war weapons in the world and how many nuclear tests are they conducting yearly.

North Korea bad boy so cannot have. United States good guy so can have??

North Korea should form an alliance with Iran this should make them stronger.

 

[KuanTi01]

I have said it before and it's worth repeating. North Korea should go ahead and launch more missiles and conduct more nuclear tests. Enough of double standards! North Korea is surrounded by hostile neighbours and the USA. Save for China and Russia, North Korea is at the mercy of these countries with their advanced nuclear capabilities to wipe off North Korea from the face of the Earth in the event of a war.

 

[chingchong]

North Korea's missile is named Nodong. This subtlely implies that they did not pay a single cent to a foreign country to create this weapon, especially Vietnam.

 

[Sideswipe]

UN should propose this deal.

For every nuclear missile North Korea destroy, United States, Russia, Britain, France and China will destroy 100 of their own.

 

[Yoshitei]

UN should propose this deal.

For every nuclear missile North Korea destroy, United States, Russia, Britain, France and China will destroy 100 of their own.

No need for that, a fairer way for is for US and UK to match it by percentage.

If North Korea destroys 10%, US and UK will match it.

 

[mentor_LEE]

I am willing to donate some money to North Korea if they would nuke USA and Japan.

 

[drifter]

its good for the north korean to have nuclear weapon to keep those big bully at bay ..