Security Council approves sanctions on N. Korea for nuke test
Yonhap
06/12/2009
NEW YORK -- The United Nations Security Council Friday approved a resolution seeking further financial sanctions and an overall arms embargo on North Korea for its recent nuclear test.
The 15-nation council unanimously passed without amendment the U.S.-written draft resolution banning North Korea from conducting further nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
The adoption comes amid reports that North Korea is preparing to test another nuclear device.
The resolution comes nearly three weeks after North Korea detonated a nuclear device on May 25, almost three years after its first nuclear blast in October 2006.
A breakthrough was made in the time-consuming negotiations among the so-called P-5 plus two -- the five veto-wielding powers of the council, plus South Korea and Japan -- on Tuesday as China accepted the U.S.-written resolution following the decision by the U.S. to change the word "decide" to "call on" in the provisions of the draft.
Critics say China may be lukewarm to implementing the provisions for financial sanctions, cargo inspections and arms embargo, interpreting "call on" as not legally binding.
Speaking at the council meeting, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui urged North Korea to "honor its commitment to denuclearization, stop any moves that may further worsen the situation and return to the six-party talks."
Zhang, however, said, "Under no circumstance should there be the use of force or the threat of use of force" in implementation of the cargo inspection and other sanctions.
The resolution calls on member states to escort any suspicious North Korean cargo ships to nearby ports for mandatory inspections in case the ships resist inspections on the high seas.
However, it is implemented under Chapter VII, Article 41 of the U.N. Charter, which excludes the use of force, thereby lacking the authority for mandatory enforcement, just as in the case of Resolution 1718 and others adopted after North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile tests in the past that have largely been disregarded by China.
China has demanded any inspections be made within the framework of existing international law, which prohibits cargo interdictions in international waters unless approved by the country of the flag carried by the vessel.
Susan Rice, the permanent U.S. representative to the U.N., told a daily White House briefing that she was "very pleased" that the Security Council "passed unanimously a brand-new resolution imposing tough, new, meaningful sanctions on North Korea," which she described as "unprecedented" and "innovative" to "cause the sanctions regime on North Korea to be strengthened."
She did not preclude the possibility of North Korea reacting angrily.
"There's reason to believe that they may respond in an irresponsible fashion to this," she said. "We're not going to jump to their drummer; we're going to implement this sanctions regime to the fullest possible extent, along with others."
South Korea's U.N. ambassador, Park In-kuk, thanked the 15-member council for "showing its concerted and resolute will to check North Korea's nuclear development and proliferation," adding, "We are determined to cooperate with the international community to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
Deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, "North Korea will be facing a sanctions regime unlike any other on Earth. We will implement those sanctions aggressively."
The spokesman said the resolution will "go after one of our primary concerns, since North Korea is a serial proliferator" of weapons technology.
"We're going to continue to look and see how we can tighten, you know, financial sanctions that affect the regime in particular," he said. "But you know, these are carefully tailored. I think there will be more details coming out during the course of the afternoon."
The 34-point resolution calls for an overall arms embargo on North Korea except for light weapons or small arms, and imposes financial sanctions to prevent the flow of funds that could benefit North Korea's missile, nuclear or any other proliferation activities.
U.N. member states are also advised to reduce or refrain from providing any further financial aid to North Korea unless the aid is related to humanitarian activity.
The enhanced financial sanctions by the U.N. come as Washington considers pursuing its own financial sanctions against North Korea.
Washington slapped financial sanctions on a Macau bank in 2005 to freeze US$25 million worth of North Korean assets, effectively cutting off Pyongyang's access to the international financial system. Banco Delta Asia had been accused of helping North Korea launder money from circulating sophisticated counterfeit US$100 bills called "supernotes."
Crowley urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks. "The door is still open to negotiations, and we hope that North Korea will at some point in the future come back to that process."
He was echoing remarks by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, who said Thursday, "We remain willing to engage North Korea to resolve our differences through diplomacy, including bilaterally, within the framework of the six-party process."
Bosworth said that the Obama administration "will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," but added, "The U.S. has no hostile intent towards the people of North Korea. Nor are we threatening to change the North Korean regime through force."
It is not clear whether the sanctions will deter the North from further provocations, with some saying Pyongyang will eventually return to bilateral or multilateral negotiations and others voicing pessimism about Pyongyang's willingness to abandon its nuclear arsenal.
North Korea's recent provocations, including nuclear and missile tests, are widely seen as an attempt by ailing leader Kim Jong Il [Kim Cho'ng-il] to help his son Jong-un consolidate power.
"We know there are questions of succession in North Korea, given the questionable health of Kim Jong Il [Kim Cho'ng-il]," Crowley said. "As far as we know, Kim Jong-il is still the leader of North Korea. I believe he is in firm control of the country. What happens down the road, we don't know. That is up to North Korea."
China plays a key role, as North Korea is heavily dependent on its communist neighbor for energy, food and other necessities. Beijing demanded any sanctions be conducive to coaxing the reclusive North to return to the multilateral nuclear disarmament talks.
China is the key to the implementation of any resolution, as North Korea is heavily dependent on its communist neighbor for energy, food and other necessities.
"Nothing has changed," said Walter Lohman, director of The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center. "The game is still about enforcement. Like the others, it will be ignored."
Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, said, "China fears pushing too hard, as this might either forfeit all Chinese influence or cause a collapse of the regime. Pyongyang will not allow China to dictate policies that undermine the regime's perceived vital interests."
==========
DPRK Foreign Ministry Declares Strong Counter- Measures Against UNSC's 'Resolution 1874
KCNA
06/13/2009
Pyongyang -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following statement Saturday [13 June] in connection with the fact that at the instigation of the U.S., the United Nations Security Council has finally adopted a "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK over its second nuclear test: On June 12, the United Nations Security Council, at the instigation of the U.S., has finally adopted a "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK over its second nuclear test.
This is yet another vile product of the U.S.-led offensive of international pressure aimed at undermining the DPRK's ideology and its system chosen by its people by disarming the DPRK and suffocating its economy.
The U.S. and Japan, not content with this "resolution", are hatching dirty plots to add their own "sanctions" to the existing ones against the DPRK by framing up the fictional issues of "counterfeit money" and "drug trafficking".
The U.S. incited the United Nations Security Council to get more deeply embroiled in its attempt to stifle the DPRK, which resulted in the creation of an unprecedentedly acute tension on the Korean Peninsula.
This confrontation was sparked off by unlawful strong arm actions of the U.S. and its obedient UNSC in denial of the legitimate right of a sovereign state to launch satellites.
The UNSC's April 14th "presidential statement" orchestrated by the U.S. does not hold any ground in view of international law.
What permeates this statement is none other than animosity against and rejection of a country that has a system different from theirs along with an arrogant and arbitrary view that a small country must obey a large one.
The DPRK is a small country, but it is a political, ideological and military power.
If this high-handed act of the U.S. is tolerated, the DPRK will no longer be entitled to launch satellites again --which everyone else does-- but will forever be deprived of its right to use outer space.
The DPRK's second nuclear test is a self-defensive measure as it was conducted to cope with such hostile acts of the U.S. and this does not run counter to any international law.
In essence, this confrontation is an issue related to the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK rather than an issue related to peace and security-- this is the DPRK-U.S. confrontation.
There can be no genuine peace in the absence of independence and equality.
Had any other country found itself in the situation of the DPRK, it would have clearly realized that the DPRK has never chosen but was compelled to go nuclear in the face of the U.S. hostile policy and its nuclear threats.
It has become an absolutely impossible option for the DPRK to even think about giving up its nuclear weapons. It makes no difference to the DPRK whether its nuclear status is recognized or not.
Upon authorization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK strongly condemns and rejects the UNSC "resolution 1874" and declares that it will take the following countermeasures at this early phase of all-out confrontation with the U.S. in order to defend the national dignity and the country's sovereignty.
First: The whole amount of the newly extracted plutonium will be weaponized.
More than one third of the spent fuel rods has been reprocessed to date.
Second: The process of uranium enrichment will be commenced.
Pursuant to the decision to build its own light-water reactor, enough success has been made in developing uranium enrichment technology to provide nuclear fuel to allow the experimental procedure.
Third: An attempted blockade of any kind by the U.S. and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response.
No matter how hard the U.S.-led hostile forces may try all sorts of isolation and blockade, the DPRK, a proud nuclear power, will not flinch from them.
It is the songun [military-first] idea-based mode of counter-action for the DPRK to decisively counter "sanctions" with retaliation and "confrontation" with all-out confrontation.
==========
Exclusive: North Korea to Match U.N. Resolution With New Nuclear Test
Fox News
06/11/2009
By James Rosen
U.S. intelligence officials are warning President Obama that North Korea intends to conduct another nuclear test in response to passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution this week condemning the communist country for its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests, FOX News has learned.
U.S. intelligence officials have warned President Obama and other senior American officials that North Korea intends to respond to the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution this week -- condemning the communist country for its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests -- with another nuclear test, FOX News has learned.
What's more, Pyongyang's next nuclear detonation is but one of four planned actions the Central Intelligence Agency has learned, through sources inside North Korea that the regime of Kim Jong-Il intends to take -- but not announce -- once the Security Council resolution is officially passed, likely on Friday.
The other three actions include the reprocessing of all of the North's spent plutonium fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium; a major escalation in the North's uranium-enrichment program; and the launching of another Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile from the Yunsong military complex on the west coast of North Korea. The North last launched a Taepodong-2 on April 5; it conducted its second nuclear test in the last three years on Memorial Day.
The intelligence community only learned of North Korea's plans this week, prompting CIA to alert senior officials. Asked who would be briefed on this kind of data, a source told FOX News: "The top people: POTUS, DNI." "POTUS" is acronym for the president of the United States; "DNI" refers to the director of the Office of National Intelligence.
FOX News is withholding some details about the sources and methods by which American intelligence agencies learned of the North's plans so as to avoid compromising sensitive overseas operations in a country -- North Korea -- U.S. spymasters regard as one of the world's most difficult to penetrate.
A White House official, contacted by FOX News, declined to comment, saying only that the U.S. government never speaks publicly about intelligence matters.
As top Obama administration officials weigh this prized data and what actions they might take to counter North Korea's plans for a third nuclear test, American intelligence analysts have also encountered setback in their efforts to track developments in the reclusive Stalinist country.
Where U.S. officials had observed the arrival of the first-stage transporter for a Taepodong-2 at Yunsong by June 2, leading to predictions of an imminent launch by officials as high-ranking as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, sources now tell FOX News they see no significant activity consistent with an imminent launch.
"The TD-2 activity has been rather dormant," one source said.
As well, where American intelligence officials on June 9 observed components for the long-range Musudan missile leaving the Wapo-ri installation area, they have now "lost track of them," FOX News has learned.
"We spotted the TELs [Transporter-Erector-Launchers] and then we lost track of them," a source said. "NGA lost track."
NGA refers to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a unit the Defense Department that provides imagery and geospatial information for military and civilian purposes.
"It's disturbing," the source added.
As well, despite multiple tests, U.S. scientists have only reached inconclusive results in their efforts to use air samplings collected over the Korean Peninsula in the days after the Memorial Day detonation to confirm with 100 percent certainty that North Korea conducted a nuclear test, as is still widely believed.
==========
N. Korea to Top Next Week's Summit Agenda: White House
Yonhap
06/13/2009
WASHINGTON -- North Korea will be the primary topic at the summit meeting between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama here next week, the White House said Friday.
"The primary topic will be that of North Korea," spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "The real threat of North Korea, the most forward-leaning threat from North Korea would be any effort to move weapons or weapons of mass destruction from -- or material for weapons -- from North Korea somewhere else."
The 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution earlier in the day calling for an overall arms embargo, cargo inspections and financial sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test on May 25, the second in three years.
"I think today's important and united actions demonstrate the seriousness with which the world takes their provocations, " Gibbs said.
The spokesman would not rule out the possibility of North Korea reacting angrily to the fresh international sanctions.
"I would fully expect, as they have said leading up to the vote in the U.N., just as they have said for many months, that they will continue taking provocative and, in, I think, the eyes of many in the world, irrational actions," he said. "And I don't doubt that they will continue on those steps."
Reports said that North Korea is gearing up for another nuclear test -- timed with the U.N. Security Council's resolution -- to improve its nuclear weapons technology in the face of allegations that Pyongyang cannot yet load nuclear warheads on missiles.
Lee and Obama will also discuss the pending free trade agreement with South Korea, Gibbs said.
"I assume they will continue the conversations that President Obama and President Lee started at the G-20 on this subject," he said. "The president talked about, at that meeting, some of the concerns he had with the agreement. But I assume that conversation will continue."
Lee and Obama agreed in April to "chart a way forward," saying the deal "will enhance prosperity for the peoples of the two countries."
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk last month expressed hope that progress on the deal will be made during the summit. At issue are what Washington has called lopsided auto trade and restricted shipments of U.S. beef.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon has said his government will not revise the text of the deal itself, though some U.S. officials are hoping to address the concerns via side agreements.
In announcing the summit Monday, Gibbs said, "The two leaders will confer on North Korea and will consult on a range of bilateral and other issues."
The summit will be the second, following a bilateral meeting in London in April on the sidelines of the G20 economic summit meeting.
"President Obama extended the invitation at their last meeting in London, on April 2nd, during the G-20 summit," Gibbs said. "The Republic of Korea is a close friend and a key ally of the United States, and the president looks forward to exploring ways in which the two countries can strengthen cooperation on the regional and global challenges of the 21st century."
==========
Kaesong Companies Ask for Help in Pulling Out
Donga Ilbo
06/12/2009
South Korean companies operating in the Kaesong industrial complex are urging the government to prepare to help them pull out of the facility.
A number of South Korean companies have previously withdrawn or considered doing so, but the association of such enterprises has made an official request to Seoul to support their withdrawal.
In a meeting of its 24 member companies at its office in Seoul yesterday, the association in a statement asked for these and other measures from the South Korean government.
"We cannot accept any demand for pay raises that fail to comply with contracts and regulations guaranteed by the South and North Korean governments at the time of our entry into the complex," the statement said.
"We call on our government to come up with measures to provide companies operating in the complex with operational funds and ways to pull out to reduce damage incurred to them."
"Discussion of pay raises should be held only when security of personnel is guaranteed, the business environment is improved, and low labor productivity is increased and within the boundary of the basic conditions."
The association also demanded the construction of dormitories and childcare centers for companies that stay in the complex, as originally agreed upon.
Association chairman Kim Hak-kwon said, "The North's unilateral demand for pay raises violates the provision on a maximum annual pay raise of five percent, and (Seoul) should allow companies to pull out of the complex."
In working-level talks Thursday at the complex, the North demanded that the monthly pay for North Korean workers in the complex be raised to from 75 to 300 U.S. dollars and additional rent of 500 million dollars, or 31 times the original amount.
Many companies operating in the complex are reluctant to withdraw, even if they have incurred losses. An inter-Korean economic cooperation insurance program compensates up to 90 percent of losses under a ceiling of seven billion won (5.582 million dollars) in the event of a crisis.
Premiums can be paid out only if a company suffers business suspension for more than a month due to North Korea's unilateral revocation of an agreement or if the North confiscates the company's assets. No premium is paid if a company voluntarily withdraws.
The association's vice chairman Yoo Chang-geun said, "We applied for business stabilization funds with South Korea's Unification Ministry to support companies operating in the Kaesong complex, but we have received no reply yet."
"Under these circumstances, it is important that the government creates an environment to allow companies on the brink of collapse to pull out from the complex."
==========
S. Korean navy chief calls for harsh retaliation if N. Korea provokes
Yonhap
06/12/2009
SEOUL -- South Korea's top admiral urged his troops Friday to be ready to "chop off the wrist" of the North Korean navy should it provoke even the smallest act of aggression along the western sea border between the divided states.
"Be ready to chop off the wrist of the enemy if it attempts aggression even on the tip of our hand," Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok-keun was quoted as saying in a statement. His comment borrowed from a common Korean expression used when vowing harsh retaliation.
The call for readiness was part of a speech Jung is scheduled to make at a Monday ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of a 1999 naval conflict between the Koreas.
Jung said a similar clash can happen "at any moment" near the Yellow Sea border, as North Korea has repeatedly threatened armed conflict in the area this year.
Pyongyang openly disputes the border -- called the Northern Limit Line, drawn by a U.S. commander at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War -- saying it should be pushed farther south.
The South Korean Navy suffered no casualties in the clash, which scuttled one North Korean ship and wreaked havoc on nine others. It estimates dozens of enemy soldiers were killed.
But six South Korean soldiers were killed when North Korea opened fire first again near the border in 2002.
Jung is one of many high-ranking officers who will attend the Monday ceremony at a naval port in the city of Pyeongtaek, about 100 kilometers west of Seoul.
The ceremony, which will also gather soldiers who fought in the 1999 clash near Yeonpyeong Island, comes as South Korea has bolstered its forces along the Yellow Sea border.
South Korea has sent reinforcement marine troops to the islands and deployed an increased number of advanced battleships. Sources say North Korea has recently stepped up its amphibious assault exercises while its naval and air forces have intensified joint shooting drills.
Calling the 1999 skirmish "an overwhelming victory in the first battle" between regular forces since the Korean War ended in a truce, the Navy said that the ceremony is aimed at "boosting morale needed to counter any possible North Korean aggression."
The guided-missile patrol boat Yun Yeong Ha, named after an officer killed in the 2002 battle, will also be open to the public during the ceremony for the first time since it was built, the Navy said.
