Korean Peninsula Today, 10 July 2009

US Senators push to punish North Korea (AFP)

WASHINGTON – US Senators on Wednesday introduced a bill to impose new economic sanctions on North Korea, return it to a US terrorism blacklist, and expand US military cooperation with South Korea and Japan.

"The North Korean regime, led by Kim Jong Il, for years has brutally oppressed its own citizens and terrorized other nations," said Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, the legislation's lead author.

"The United States must take bold, unequivocal action to hold this regime accountable and to end its reign of terror in North Korea," said Brownback, a frequent and sharp critic of the regime, especially on human rights issues.

The legislation came as US President Barack Obama's administration sought support for tough enforcement of UN sanctions aimed at shutting down Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

The lawmakers cited North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and its detention of two US journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, whom a North Korean court sentence on June 8 to 12 years in prison.

The legislation notably directs the US State Department to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, reactivating sanctions lifted when Washington took Pyongyang off the blacklist in October.

It also directs the US Treasury Department to prohibit any US bank from doing business with a foreign bank seen as engaging in a financial transaction with the government of North Korea or one of its senior officials.

And it calls on the White House to bolster US military cooperation with South Korea and Japan, including by selling advanced US military hardware to Tokyo, listing Aegis radar systems, various missile defenses, and a variant of the F-22 fighter jet.

The new bill "rightly restores an appropriate policy toward an aggressive North Korean regime, especially given its recent nuclear and missile tests, as well as its refusal to participate in the six-party process," said Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate's number two Republican.

"It is critical that North Korea be held accountable for their increasingly hostile and erratic behavior," said Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, another backer of the legislation.

The North test-fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday in an act of defiance amid US efforts to try to tighten financial sanctions on the country.

The tests, apparently timed to coincided with the US Independence Day holiday, were its biggest salvo of ballistic weaponry since the same day in 2006.

Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test on May 25.

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No Evidence Yet of North Korean Uranium Program, South Says (Global Security Newswire)

A South Korean intelligence official said Seoul has not yet discovered any evidence to substantiate North Korea's claim that it is enriching uranium, Kyodo News reported today (see GSN, June 30).

"After North Korean Foreign Ministry's announcement on (the North's) beginning of uranium enrichment on June 13, various suspected places have been under close surveillance, but no evidence has been detected yet," the official told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Pyongyang responded defiantly to international condemnation of its May nuclear test by saying it had begun a program to enrich uranium, apparently for use in a light-water reactor. The North beforehand had publicly denied operating such an effort.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said last month that "it is clear that they are moving forward with" the uranium program, which could provide additional nuclear-weapon material. Pyongyang is believed to have produced enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons, two of which have been tested since 2006

(Kyodo News, July 8).

Meanwhile, the United States is lauding last week's about-face of a North Korean ship believed to have been carrying weapons to Myanmar as proof of the effectiveness of the U.N. Security Council resolution issued after Pyongyang conducted its May 25 nuclear blast, the Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday (see GSN, June 7).

A U.S. naval destroyer was following the Kang Nam 1 before the cargo vessel turned around and apparently returned to port.

"We've already seen a ship of North Korea's turn back because of international effort to implement the sanctions, and I think that is a positive step forward," said U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview with ABC.

The resolution prohibited North Korea from exporting weapons and related material, calling on U.N. states to intercept ships suspected of carrying banned items. Washington and its allies hope the measure would curb Pyongyang's money-making proliferation activities and hobble its nuclear-weapon program.

The U.N. measure also urged international financial institutions to refrain from supporting the North's weapons activities. U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey is in China this week to talk with Chinese financial leaders about cooperating with U.N. efforts to cut off the flow of funds to Pyongyang's arms program (Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, July 7).

In another network interview, Obama said the United States is not on the brink of war with North Korea, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

"I don't think that any war is imminent with North Korea," he said in an interview with CBS. He added, "I think they understand that they would be overwhelmed in a serious military conflict with the United States."

Washington has led the U.N. effort to shut down North Korea's arms trade and nuclear program, while the North has said it will treat any forcible interference as a declaration of war (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 7).

While diplomacy with Pyongyang has been elusive since it withdrew from the six-party denuclearization talks last spring, Thailand is requesting the presence of a North Korean delegation at a regional security conference scheduled for this month, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum on Thai Island is expected to host high-level delegations from the other six-party nations -- Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Thailand, host of ASEAN, wants either the North Korean foreign minister or his deputy to come to Thailand to exchange views and discuss the problem of the Korean Peninsula," Panich Vikitset, an official with the Thai Foreign Ministry, told the Bangkok Post (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/EarthTimes.org, July 8).

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Cash-short North Korea to stage mass games (Reuters)

SEOUL – North Korea will stage its Arirang mass games from August, its state media said on Thursday, likely opening an avenue for foreign tourists and currency to flow into the state hit by U.N. sanctions for its May nuclear test.

Arirang, named after a Korean folk song, is the world's biggest choreographed extravaganza with as many as 100,000 participants, much of it homage to leader Kim Jong-il and his dead father, Kim Il-sung, who founded the communist dynasty.

It is part circus act, part rhythmic gymnastics and features dancing girls, goose-stepping soldiers and a massive flip-card animation section.

Hermit North Korea has opened the games over the past several years to foreign tourists who spend thousands of dollars each for mandatory package tours that include pricey hotel stays. It has even allowed in visitors from its main foe, the United States.

The games will be held from August 10 to late September, the North's KCNA news agency said.

"Arirang ... has demonstrated before the world the invincible might of 'Songun' (military-first) Korea in which the army and people are rallied close around leader Kim Jong-il," KCNA said.

The U.N. sanctions imposed after its May 25 nuclear were aimed at halting the North's arms trade, a vital source of hard currency for the country with a broken economy that produces little else it can export.

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Journalist Held in N. Korea Says She Broke the Law (Associated Press)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The sister of an American journalist jailed in North Korea says the woman acknowledged breaking North Korean law during a recent phone call.

Lisa Ling told KCRA-TV in Sacramento she spoke to her sister, Laura Ling, Tuesday around 10:30 p.m.

Lisa Ling said Laura told her she and the other American journalist being held, Euna Lee, violated North Korean law and need the U.S. government's help in obtaining amnesty.

Laura Ling and Lee were working for San Francisco-based Current TV, which former U.S. Vice President Al Gore helped found, when they were detained. They were sentenced last month to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and "hostile acts."

Laura Ling said her sister, who suffers from an ulcer, said she regularly sees physicians and is OK.

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G8 Leaders Strongly Condemn North Korea Nuclear Test (AFP – North European Service)

L'AQUILA -- Group of Eight leaders meeting at their summit in Italy issued a strong condemnation of North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, calling it a "flagrant violation" of UN resolutions.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear test... which constitutes a flagrant violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions," the world's most powerful nations said, in a declaration released Thursday [ 9 July].

"Such a test undermines peace and stability in the region and beyond," said the text, which added condemnation of a North Korean missile launch in April.

The world leaders meeting in central Italy urged Pyongyang to return to "full compliance" with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency. [passage omitted]

The leaders also voiced "deep concern" over the danger that terrorists may obtain weapons of mass destruction, saing they are "determined to continue working together to ensure that terrorists never have access to those weapons and related materials."

The G8 statement praised "new fields of cooperation in areas where the risks of terrorism and proliferation are greatest."

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Diet Begins Examining N. Korea Inspection Bill, Passage Unclear (Kyodo)

Tokyo -- A House of Representatives panel began deliberating a bill Thursday aimed at enabling inspections of banned cargo to and from North Korea in response to a recent U.N. resolution punishing the country for its May nuclear test.

But it remains unclear whether the legislation can be enacted by the July 28 end of the current legislative session given the possibility that Prime Minister Taro Aso could dissolve the chamber at any time.

The government, and the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, the New Komeito party, eye the bill's passage through the panel on Monday and the lower house the following day, at the earliest, according to government and coalition officials.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which wields significant sway over the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, has expressed willingness to cooperate in deliberating the government-sponsored bill.

''We have a responsibility for swiftly taking appropriate measures to make this resolution effective given that our country proactively took part in the consultations'' with the United States and others to have the U.N. Security Council adopt it, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told the panel in opening remarks.

The bill, now before the lower house Special Committee on Antipiracy, Measures, Prevention of International Terrorism, and Japan's Cooperation and Support, is designed to enable inspections of banned cargo, including ballistic missile-related material, as called for in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, unanimously adopted June 12.

It designates the Japan Coast Guard as the primary agent of such inspections on the high seas and in Japan's territorial waters, while assigning the customs authorities to doing the work at the nation's seaports and airports.

If the Coast Guard cannot handle situations alone because, for example, crew members of a ship under suspicion are heavily armed, the Self-Defense Forces would take necessary action under the maritime police action provision of the SDF law.

Otherwise, the SDF would work on intelligence-gathering and tracking ships suspected of carrying banned cargo, such as arms and material related to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, in accordance with the Ministry of Defense Establishment law.

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US presses HK to help curb NKorea bank access (Associated Press)

HONG KONG - A top U.S. Treasury official met with Hong Kong regulators Thursday as part of an effort to keep North Korea from using the international financial system to fund its nuclear program and other illicit activities.

Stuart Levey, a U.S. Treasury undersecretary who oversees the department's terrorism and financial intelligence section, met with officials from Hong Kong's de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the bank said in a brief statement to The Associated Press.

The authority refused to release details of the talks.

Stuart Levey traveled to China and Hong Kong this week to gain support for U.S. initiatives to curb North Korea's access to banks and businesses to buy and sell missile and nuclear technology.

He arrived Monday in China and was meeting with government officials and private sector executives Wednesday through Friday.

A Treasury spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

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Seoul to enforce new restrictions on goods going into N. Korea (Yonhap)

SEOUL -- Seoul will stiffen control of South Korean goods going into North Korea, mostly banning luxury items such as wine and fur, the Unification Ministry said Thursday.

The restrictions, to take effect as of Friday, are in accordance with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1874 adopted after North Korea's second nuclear test on May 25. The resolution prohibits weapons trade with Pyongyang and calls on member states to tighten the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after its first nuclear test in October 2006. The earlier UNSC resolution bars exports of luxury goods to the North.

The ministry said it will require prior authorization for South Koreans carrying in items from 13 categories including liquor, cosmetics, jewelry, fur products and automobiles.

The government will allow exceptions for South Korean government and business officials who carry in the listed items during travel between the two Koreas on official duty or for personal use during their stay in the North, ministry officials said.

"The government's approval will depend upon whether it believes the goods will be used by South Koreans or given to North Koreans," an official said.

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SKorea to set up cyber command against NKorea (AFP)

South Korea announced it would set up a military command next year to tackle the threat of cyber warfare from North Korea, amid suspicions the North was behind virus attacks earlier this week.

The information security command will be launched on January 1, two years earlier than planned, and become operational in July, said Kim Jae-Min, a defence ministry official in charge of the project.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) warned of a possible third wave of cyber assaults, after identifying the communist North as a suspect in earlier attacks that temporarily crippled South Korean and US websites.

The White House, State Department and Pentagon websites were among those targeted in the initial attack, US experts said separately.

The hacking programme hit 12 South Korean and 14 US organisations early this week.

The NIS said in a statement a second wave of attacks Wednesday was aimed at domestic banks and a security solution provider, and it fears a third round which may target infrastructure such as energy and telecommunications.

The spy agency, which was itself reportedly targeted, said it has urgently distributed "vaccine" programmes to 10 security solution providers.

Its public statement did not suggest the source of the "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) viruses, which invade thousands of personal computers and are programmed to swamp selected websites.

But Park Jie-Won, a member of parliament's intelligence committee, said the NIS told members Wednesday it believed the North or its sympathisers was to blame.

"The NIS claimed the attack was presumed to have been staged by North Korea or followers, without presenting evidence," Park, from the opposition party, told AFP.

The communist state has staged a nuclear test and numerous missile launches in recent weeks, raising regional tensions. A cyber attack, if confirmed, would be a new tactic.

Yonhap news agency quoted a NIS report to the committee as forecasting potential "financial chaos" in the event of a larger cyber attack.

It said the daily value of all online transactions in South Korea -- one of the world's most wired nations -- is six trillion won (4.7 billion dollars).

The NIS said the internal networks of the Seoul government are safe and no information has been leaked.

The government's Korea Information Security Agency said most sites had been restored after the first attacks began in the country late Tuesday -- using 12,000 domestic PCs and 8,000 abroad.

However it said a second round -- using 29,000 hijacked PCs -- was hitting one foreign site and 15 domestic sites, including government agencies and banks and a security solution provider.

Yonhap said victims included the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command, whose server is based in the United States, the National Intelligence Service and South Korea's top security solution provider AhnLab.

AhnLab predicted a third DDoS attack would start at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT) against seven domestic sites.

"This is the worst cyber attack I have seen in my 15-year career," its CEO Hongsun Kim told reporters. "This is an online equivalent of 9/11.

"I don't think an individual hacker can do this. This is an organised attack," he said, adding "very complicated" codes are being planted.

In Washington the Department of Homeland Security confirmed US government and private websites came under attack but declined to identify them.

"It was a pretty massive attack," Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the private US SANS Internet Storm Center, said of the assault which began in the United States last weekend.

He said government sites which were hit included the White House, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, National Security Agency, State Department, US Postal Service, US Treasury Department and Voice of America.

A Pentagon site was also targeted, he said.

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South Korea Hit by More Cyberattacks (Associated Press)

Seven South Korean Web sites are under renewed cyberattack, a government official said Thursday.

Ku Kyo-young from the state-run Korea Communications Commission said the latest assault began around 6:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT, 5:30 a.m. EDT ) Thursday.

He said one of the affected sites belongs to the government, the other six are private. Some are still working normally despite the attacks.

The National Intelligence Service said in a statement earlier Thursday that it was strengthening cybersecurity measures for government computer networks, citing a possible new wave of attacks which could target national infrastructure operators like energy, telecommunications and media companies.

Seoul-based antivirus software developer AhnLab said it has analyzed a virus program that sent a flood of Internet traffic to paralyze Web sites in both South Korea and the United States.

It said seven South Korean sites were likely to be targeted on Thursday, including those of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Kookmin Bank and the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces were behind the cyber attacks in the U.S. over the July 4 U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend and in South Korea since Tuesday.

Some South Korean sites remained inaccessible or unstable on Thursday, including the National Cyber Security Center, affiliated with the main spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service informed members of parliament's intelligence committee of its assessment on Wednesday, according to aides to two of the lawmakers. They spoke on condition of anonymity given the classified nature of the information.

The spy agency declined to confirm the information provided by the aides but said in a statement that the sophistication of the attacks suggested they were carried out at a higher level than rogue or individual hackers.

The agency's new statement Thursday didn't mention suspected North Korean involvement and only repeated it was closely cooperating with the U.S. and other countries to discover the origin of the attacks.

U.S. authorities also eyed North Korea as the origin of the trouble, though they warned it would be difficult to identify the attackers quickly.

Three U.S. officials said that while Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does not necessarily mean the attack involved Kim Jong Il's government in Pyongyang. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

On Thursday, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported that South Korea has detected signs that North Korea or its sympathizers in China or elsewhere committed the cyberattacks.

The paper, citing an unidentified government official, said the assessment was made after an investigation on infected computers' IP addresses — the Internet equivalent of a street address or phone number.

South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyberwarfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.

The communist North has recently engaged in a series of threats and provocative actions widely condemned by the international community including a nuclear test and missile launches, including firing seven ballistic missiles on July 4 in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The cyber outages were caused by so-called denial of service attacks in which floods of computers all try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server that handles the traffic, the state-run Korea Information Security Agency said.

In South Korea, 12 sites were initially attacked Tuesday, followed by attacks Wednesday on 10 others, including those of government offices like the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, banks, vaccine firms and Web portals.

The U.S. targets included the White House, Pentagon, Treasury Department and the New York Stock Exchange.

South Korea issued a cybersecurity alert Wednesday, establishing an ad hoc office to monitor and obstruct cyberattacks on state agencies around the clock.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said in a statement that personal computers of all civic servants are required to undergo an emergency inspection.

The state-run Korea Communications Commission said Thursday it was considering raising the alert level again to "orange," the second highest of four levels of alertness, if more cyber attacks occur and cause serious problems.

The "orange" level requires the government to mobilize more personnel and equipment to cope with cyber attacks, said agency official Ku Kyo-young. The current level is "yellow."

Ku said about 20,000 computers in South Korea had been infected by Wednesday evening and the number could have increased.

There were no immediate reports of financial damage or leaking of confidential national information, according to the Korea Information Security Agency. The attacks appeared aimed only at paralyzing Web sites.

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U.S. officials eye N. Korea in cyber attack (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities say they are eyeing North Korea as the origin of the cyber attack that overwhelmed government websites in the United States and South Korea. But they warned it will be difficult to quickly identify the attackers.

Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, three officials said, but they added that that does not suggest the attack involved the Pyongyang government. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Internet attack, which stretched on for days beginning over the July 4 holiday weekend, targeted dozens of government and private sites and underscored how unevenly prepared the U.S. government is to block such assaults.

Targets of the most widespread cyber offensive of recent years also included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department and State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks.

The cyber assault on the White House site had "absolutely no effect on the White House's day-to-day operations," said spokesman Nick Shapiro.

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Spy Agency Raises Alert Level Against Possible Future Cyber Attacks (Yonhap)

SEOUL -- South Korea's spy agency said Thursday it raised its alert against what could be the third cyber assault on the country's major agencies by hackers possibly linked to North Korea.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said no government documents were retrieved or operations paralyzed by a series of attacks first detected on Tuesday. Two rounds of so-called "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks overwhelmed major Web sites in South Korea and the United States for the past days.

The Web site of South Korea's presidential office and 11 other government bodies were shut down by the cyber attack which, according to initial analysis by the NIS, may be state-sponsored by North Korea.

Ahn Lab Inc., South Korea's largest network security company, said earlier Thursday it expects another round of 24-hour cyber attacks on seven South Korean Web sites from 6 p.m. on the same day. It said a file that includes a list of targets was detected in the virus that triggered the attacks, which has infected at least 29,000 personal computers nationwide.

"The operational networks of the president's office, defense, foreign affairs and other ministries are safe from the DDoS assault as we disconnected them from the Internet in March," The NIS said in a press release.

The agency said it has strengthened its alert for suspicious activities at government-run networks and was running a 24-hour emergency contingency team to deal with any problems from a possible third attack.

The agency said it has distributed vaccine programs to 10 network security companies and was consulting closely with the U.S. and other allies to trace the source of the attacks.

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'N.K. cyber combat unit has 100 hackers' (Korea Herald)

North Korea appears to have masterminded the recent cyber attack that shook dozens of South Korean websites, including that of the presidential office, according to government sources here.

The National Intelligence Service suspects North Korea or its sympathizers may have been behind the Internet attack against major South Korean Web sites of government agencies, banks and Internet portals, which was first detected Tuesday evening, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The spy agency briefed some of the lawmakers on an individual basis or showed written reports that mention North Korea as the suspected source of the attack.

Due to the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, Internet home pages, including foreign and defense ministries, as well as the presidential office, were shut down or slowed down for hours.

Washington officials also said on Wednesday that the DDoS attacks on some 30 South Korean and U.S. websites came from an Internet IP address in North Korea.

The North Korea link, described by three U.S. officials who asked for anonymity, firmly connected the attacks on U.S. government websites to cyber assaults that hit South Korean websites.

The officials said that while the Internet IP addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does not necessarily mean the attack involved the Kim Jong-il government in Pyongyang.

North Korea, which has been shooting missiles and making threats against the United States and the Lee Myung-bak administration, has been suspected to have accumulated enough technological knowhow and brainpower to initiate cyber warfare.

South Korea's defense ministry said yesterday it will set up a military command next year, instead of 2012 as planned earlier, to better protect the nation's systems from possible cyber attacks.

In early May, South Korean intelligence officials said that North Korea has expanded its cyber combat unit in charge of intelligence gathering through the internet and hacking South Korean or U.S. military computer networks.

The General Staff of the North Korean People's Army has for years been running what it calls the "technology reconnaissance team," which consists of about 100 hackers, mostly graduates of a leading military academy in Pyongyang.

"The unit's job is to penetrate military computer networks to withdraw classified information and spread computer viruses to paralyze South Korean or U.S. systems," a South Korean intelligence official said in May.

After years of tracking which countries visited U.S. military websites the most, the U.S. Pentagon found that users from North Korea logged on most frequently.

The North Korean military also developed a variety of war simulation software including one called "100 combat methods" and computer programs that identify gunshots.

Seoul and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding on April 30 to bolster cooperation in fighting cyber terrorism against their defense networks.