North Korea Started Uranium Program in 1990s, South Korean Foreign Minister Says

The South Korean Foreign Minister, Yu Myung-hwan, said on Wednesday [January 6] that North Korea apparently began pursuing a uranium enrichment program in 1996 - just two years after the 1994 Agreed Framework between the US and North Korea - in an interview with the Yonhap News Agency. Foreign Minister Yu said, "It appears that North Korea started its uranium enrichment program at least in 1996...What's clear is that the North began the enriched uranium development quite early." Yu did say, however, many things do remain unclear: "how far the program has advanced, how much enriched uranium, and how many nuclear weapons there are."


This being North Korea notwithstanding, this news is not too surprising. If the program indeed began in 1996, that means the planning and foundation work for the program has been on-going long before. It is also logical for a country to negotiate away something that it can afford to lose and have alternatives available to compensate for that loss. Oh, and of course, it should achieve maximum gain by negotiating something away. Given all this, it would only make sense North Korea traded away its nuclear program for international assistance after it already had plans in place to replace the loss internally. After all, no responsible leadership of a country relies strictly on the promise of the international community to guarantee its future.

[This almost makes North Korea seem logical and responsible, doesn't it?]

Well, for all of its faults, no one can argue that the North Korean leadership is definitely an extremely responsible and logical bunch when it comes to regime survival and domestic control.

Did Obama send a personal letter to North Korea's Kim Jong Il?

Christian Science Monitor
12/17/2009 (12/16/2009 EST)
By Peter Grier

Washington - The US envoy who traveled to Pyongyang for the Obama administration’s first high-level talks with North Korea did not get to meet Kim Jong Il, the mercurial North Korean leader.

But he says that he’s not offended. After all, only two American officials have met Kim Jong Il, ever. And those were Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and ex-President Bill Clinton.

“He does not meet with a lot of people. He meets with non-North Koreans very rarely,” said US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth at a Dec. 16 briefing for reporters.

Ambassador Bosworth would not confirm news reports that he carried a personal letter from President Obama to North Korea’s leader.

“I was the message,” said Bosworth.

Glimpse of a better future?

The main point of the message was that the relationship between North Korea and the US, and between North Korea and its East Asian neighbors, could be very different, and more positive, than it is today.

Of course, that is “provided that North Korea proceeds down this road to denuclearization,” said the US envoy.

North Korean officials agreed with him on the need to restart stalled six-party talks involving the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. But they did not set a time when they might return to the negotiating table.

In 2005, North Korea promised to begin dismantling its nuclear efforts in exchange for aid and political concessions. But that was the high point. Negotiations deadlocked shortly thereafter.

US message: don't test again

This June, the UN Security Council tightened sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s second nuclear test. Since then North Korea has refused even to engage in substantive discussions.

Bosworth said that he urged the North Koreans not to set off a third nuclear test. In addition, he told them that their newly revealed uranium enrichment program will have to be included in any future disarmament talks.

North Korea’s existing nuclear devices are thought to be produced with plutonium as their fissile cores. The plutonium came from reprocessing spent fuel rods from a nuclear power reactor.

The US has long suspected that North Korea also had a uranium enrichment program, giving them two ways to produce fissile material. That was confirmed this fall, when Pyongyang announced that it had completed a first phase of uranium enrichment.

“They put it on the agenda,” said Bosworth, by publicly announcing its existence.

Obama sends letter to North Korea's Kim, no moves on talks

Reuters
12/16/2009 EST

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, but Washington's envoy offered no sign of progress in persuading Pyongyang to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

The letter was delivered by U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth during his three-day trip to North Korea last week. A U.S. official confirmed the letter was sent but would not discuss its contents.

Asked about the letter, Bosworth declined to comment, saying only that "I was the message" and that he had carried no letter back from Pyongyang and had not discussed the idea of him meeting with the North Koreans a second time.

"I was conveying very directly to the North Korean leadership a vision for the future which would be a lot different than the present or the past," he told a news conference in Washington.

On offer for North Korea was improved relations with the United States and the North's Asian neighbors if Pyongyang follows through on denuclearization pledges made in earlier rounds of six-party nuclear negotiations.

North Korea hinted on Friday following the talks with Bosworth that it could end its year-long boycott of the six-party nuclear negotiations with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Bosworth told reporters, however, that while North Korea said it recognized the importance of the six-party process, Pyongyang had made no commitment to return to talks and further consultations among the parties would be needed.

It was unclear whether the North had made a decision to shed its nuclear weapons programs, Bosworth said.

"I am unable to say whether they've made that strategic decision or they've not made that strategic decision," he said.

Bosworth's meetings capped months of maneuvering to reduce tensions after North Korea test-fired missiles and set off a nuclear device, triggering U.N. sanctions.

It is relatively rare for a U.S. president to send a personal letter to the North Korean leader, though President George W. Bush sent one to Kim in December 2007. Bush's letter raised the possibility of normalized relations in exchange for North Korea's full disclosure of its nuclear programs.

North Korea says it is time US to decide on nuclear talks

As expected, after having no significant outcome from Ri Gun's visit to the US (and probably sobering meetings for the North Koreans), North Korea has made its next move - openly demand the US agree to a bilateral negotiation, again, and warn that the US will be held responsible for any follow-on action North Korea takes since it is the US who is "refusing" to play ball. Assuming that the US will continue on its current path, it remains to see what compensation the North will demand for agreeing to resume the multilateral talks. The other option? Set an artificial deadline with a threat that it will create another incident to cause "the appearance" of tension.

Here's what the North Korea Foreign Ministry Spokesman said today as carried by the [North] Korean Central News Agency:

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DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Urges U.S. to Sit At Negotiating Table, to Begin With
Korean Central News Agency
11/02/2009

Pyongyang – A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA today [02 November] as regards the ongoing visit to the United States by its delegation: The delegation led by the director general of the U.S. Affairs Department of the Foreign Ministry is staying in the U.S. to attend the 20th Session of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue sponsored by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the exchange of views between the DPRK and the U.S. organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

While staying there the delegation responded to the request made by the ambassador of the U.S. Department of State for contact.

This contact was not a preliminary one for the DPRK-U.S. talks and, accordingly, no discussion has been made there on any substantial issue concerning the bilateral dialogue.

It is the stand of the DPRK already known to the world that it will go out for multilateral talks depending on the outcome of the DPRK-U.S. talks to be kicked off before anything else and the six-party talks are included in the multilateral talks.

This stand of the DPRK proceeded from the principled and reasonable assertion that if the Korean Peninsula is to be denuclearized the hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. should be settled to give priority to the process of totally removing the root source that spawned the DPRK's access to nukes.

The past six year-long course of the six-party talks proved that no matter how frequently the six parties meet, it is nothing but an armchair argument unless the hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. are settled and confidence is built between them. The U.S. pulled up only the DPRK over its satellite launch for peaceful purposes and even brought up the issue for discussion at the UN Security Council, putting into effect sanctions against the latter. This resulted in violating the principles of respecting sovereignty and sovereign equality, the basic spirit of the September 19 joint statement, and reducing it to a dead document.

The political sovereignty of the DPRK was not only violated but it suffered a huge economic loss. The construction of atomic power stations to be operated by graphite-moderated reactors which had been under way with much effort since the 1980s was suspended but the provision of two light water reactors which had been promised as a compensation for them ended in smoke. The DPRK received little economic reward for disabling its nuclear facilities in Nyongbyon.

In the final analysis, only the DPRK plan to develop its own nuclear power industry with a capacity of two million Kw was scuttled.

It is the conclusion drawn by the DPRK that the DPRK and the U.S., the parties concerned, should sit at a negotiating table, to begin with, to seek a reasonable solution.

If the hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. are settled and confidence is built between them, there will be meaningful progress in realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

As the DPRK was magnanimous enough to clarify the stand that it is possible to hold multilateral talks including the six-party talks depending on the talks with the U.S., now is the U.S. turn. If the U.S. is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the DPRK, it will go its own way.

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Also, here are some of the other media reporting on the recent North Korean statement: North Korea says it is time US to decide on nuclear talks (Agence France-Presse); N. Korea Demands Direct Talks With The U.S. (Yonhap News Agency)

Korean Peninsula Today, 15 October 2009

Kurt Campbell stated coordination between the five nations trying to get North Korea back to negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs was better than ever – “virtually unprecedented”.

The US Secretary of State stating the US has absolutely no intention of relaxing sanctions against North Korea.

North Korea stated a peace treaty, instead of an armistice agreement, with the US is necessary as a pre-condition to settle the ongoing nuclear stalemate.

North Korea expressed “regrets” over the deaths of six South Koreans caused by its abrupt discharge of dam water last month during a working-level talks between the two Koreas held in Kaesong, North Korea on 14 October.
As the time of this posting, North Korean media have not been observed to report on the North-South working-level talks and North Korea's expression of regret over recent deaths of South Korean citizens on 06 September.

North Korea stated North Korea will continue to reconciliatory efforts toward the South at a recent UNESCO general meeting.

Korean Peninsula Today, 09 September 2009

Today’s Korean peninsula reporting is highlighted by:

• US State Department's announcement it is blacklisting the General Bureau of Atomic Energy (GBAE) and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp., both of which were designated by the United Nations in July for their involvement in North Korea's WMD programs under Security Council Resolution 1874.

• A meeting between Grigory Longvinov of Russia and Hwang Joon-kook of South Korea, and a meeting between Longvinov and Sung Kim of the US in Seoul to discuss denuclearization of North Korea.

• China and Russia’s call for resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

• Stephen Bosworth’s statement the US will consider over the next few weeks on how to respond to North Korea's eagerness to hold bilateral talks, but the US will not consider any bilateral talks with North Korea to be a substitute for the Six-Party Talks.

• South Korea’s demand for an apology and a further explanation from North Korea over a sudden discharge of dam water that left six people dead or missing, saying the North's response was not satisfactory.

• Israel’s offer to assist South Korea in protecting itself against North Korea’s ballistic missile threat.

Korean Peninsula Today, 12 August 2009

Today’s highlights:

1) The North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il stated, "There will be a major development shortly in the relationship between North Korea and the United States."

2) US State Department spokesman Robert Wood stated that the United States will not reward North Korea for its recent provocations and reiterated calls for Pyongyang to return to the Six-Party Talks

3) US Treasury Department’s designation of Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC) for involvement in WMD related activities under the Executive Order 13382

4) The South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo stated that there were no new developments on the release of the detained South Korean worker

and 5) After a 48-hour probe into the North Korean cargo ship MV Musan's illegal presence in Indian waters, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard Monday [10 August] handed over the 39-member crew to the local police and intelligence agencies.

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High-Ranking North Korean Official; [There Will Be] 'Major Development Shortly' in the US-North Korea Relationship (Kyodo – Original in Japanese)

Ulaanbaatar, Kyodo – North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yo'ng-il, who is visiting Mongolia, held a meeting with high-ranking officials of the Mongolian Foreign Ministry in Ulaanbaatar on 10 August. Kim said, "There will be a major development shortly in the relationship between North Korea and the United States," hinting that there has been a move toward holding talks between the United States and North Korea. A Mongolian diplomatic source has revealed this on 10 August.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim commented on the Six-Party Talks on the North Korea's nuclear issue, reiterating again that North Korea "decided in the end that the country will not return [to the talks]." In addition, he said that his country "has not denied a dialogue, and if good conditions are fulfilled, a door is opened toward holding talks between the United States and North Korea," according to the source.

North Korea and Mongolia have held vice foreign ministerial-level meetings regularly every year since 2006; the recent meeting marks the fourth. Vice Foreign Minister Kim visited Mongolia on 8 August and will depart the country on 11 August. A Vietnamese Government source said that North Korean officials, including Kim, will visit Hanoi on 12-15 August.

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U.S. not to reward N. Korea for recent provocations: State Dept. (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON – The United States Monday said it will not reward North Korea for its recent provocations and reiterated calls for Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear dismantlement.

"They are not going to be rewarded, as the secretary and president said, for their previous behavior," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, referring to the pledge by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not to reward the North just because of its coming back to the multilateral talks without taking substantial measures for its denuclearization.

"It's not going to have that kind of a relationship if it continues along -- the behavior along the lines that it's exhibited in the past," he said. "We want them to come back to the table and negotiate based on the commitments that they've made. And the ball, we believe, right now is in the court of North Korea."

Critics have said North Korea has used the talks since their inception in 2003 to buy time to build a nuclear arsenal. Its first nuclear test in 2006 was followed by a second in May.

"I think the president and Secretary Clinton have spoken very clearly on this that the North cannot be rewarded for its past behavior," Wood said. "Simply, what the North needs to do is to live up to its obligations. If you remember, the North signed on to the joint statement from 2005, committing to a verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

The six-party deal, signed in September 2005 by the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, calls for the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for massive economic aid, diplomatic recognition by the U.S. and Japan and establishment of a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Pyongyang, however, has said it will boycott the multilateral talks for good due to U.N. Security Council sanctions for its recent nuclear and missile tests.

Instead, the North has called for direct talks with the U.S.

Washington declined, and threatened to continue sanctioning Pyongyang until it returns to the multilateral negotiations.

"The international community expects the North to live up to its obligations," Wood said. "These are obligations it took freely. And we want to see them come back to the table."

The spokesman noted the North's expressed willingness to have a dialogue and improve ties with the U.S.

"The North has said it wants dialogue, it wants to have good relations with the United States and other members of the international community," he said.

He was talking about the discussions former President Bill Clinton had for more than three hours with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week when Clinton visited Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists held for illegally entering the North.

National Security Adviser James Jones made a similar point on Sunday.

"The North Koreans have indicated they would like a new relationship, a better relationship with the United States," Jones said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday." "They've always advocated for bilateral engagement. We have put on the table in the context of the talks we would be happy to do that if, in fact, they would rejoin the talks."

Jones also said that Kim is "in full control" despite rumors of his failing health after apparently suffering a stroke last summer.

He expressed optimism last week amid allegations that Kim Jong Il proposed a "grand deal" for a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations and improved ties between the sides.

"We certainly hope it could lead to other good things, but we won't know that for a while," Jones told reporters Thursday. "Who knows where the future will lead."

Former President Clinton will likely meet with Obama in the coming days to brief him about his trip, U.S. officials said.

Meanwhile, South Korean and U.S. officials said they have been discus sing a "comprehensive package," a possible breakaway from a six-party deal on the North's denuclearization that calls for action for action in the North's nuclear dismantlement.

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U.S. sanctions another N. Korean bank for WMD involvement: Treasury Dept. (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON – The United States Tuesday blacklisted another North Korean financial institution for its affiliations with North Korean firms and banks already sanctioned under U.N. resolutions adopted after North Korea's nuclear and missile tests in recent years.

In a statement, the Department of Treasury said it has "designated the Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC) under Executive Order (E.O.) 13382 for providing financial services in support of both Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon) and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation (Hyoksin), a subordinate of the Korea Ryonbong General Corporation (Ryonbong)."

Executive Order 13382 "freezes the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with them, thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems."

Hyoksin is among five North Korean firms blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council in June under Resolution 1874, adopted after North Korea's second nuclear test on May 25.

Ryonbong was among three North Korean firms targeted by the Security Council in 2006 under Resolution 1718, adopted after the North's first nuclear test in 2006.

The additional listing comes amid growing optimism for a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program after the landmark visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton last week to win the release of two American journalists held there for four months for illegally entering the North.

Clinton met with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il [Kim Cho'ng-il] for more than three hours, during which Kim expressed his willingness to have bilateral talks and improve ties with the U.S., according to U.S. officials who debriefed the former president.

U.S. officials dismissed Kim's proposal for bilateral talks, saying those will be possible only within the framework of the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, which Pyongyang refuses to attend, citing punitive U.N. resolutions.

National Security Adviser James Jones, however, was a bit optimistic about the future U.S.-North Korea ties after the Clinton trip.

"We certainly hope it could lead to other good things, but we won't know that for a while," Jones told reporters last week. "Who knows where the future will lead?"

U.S. officials have, meanwhile, dismissed the Clinton trip as a "private mission," warning the U.S. will continue to sanction the North unless Pyongyang returns to the six-party talks.

In blacklisting KKBC, Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said, "North Korea's use of a little-known bank, KKBC, to mask the international financial business of sanctioned proliferators demonstrates the lengths to which the regime will go to continue its proliferation activities and the high risk that any business with North Korea may well be illicit."

KKBC is based in North Korea and has operated at least one overseas branch, in Dandong, China, according to the department.

Tanchon, Ryonbong and Hyoksin have already been listed by the U.N. resolution as well as the Treasury Department for their involvement in the North Korean WMD programs.

The Treasury Department accused Tanchon of utilizing KKBC since 2008 to "facilitate funds transfers likely amounting to millions of dollars, including transfers involving Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID)-related funds from Burma to China in 2009."

KOMID is "North Korea's premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons," and Tanchon "plays a key role in financing KOMID's sales of ballistic missiles," the department said, suspecting Hyoksin "sought to us e KKBC in connection with a purchase of dual-use equipment in 2008."

In a strategic dialogue here last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner agreed with their Chinese counterparts to cooperate closely on implementing U.N. resolutions on sanctioning North Korea.

Any sanctions on North Korea, already one of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world, are seen as ineffective without the full participation of China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally.

China has often been accused of disregarding U.N. resolutions against North Korea, which is heavily dependent on its communist neighbor for food, energy and other necessities.

Beijing is believed to dislike any instability on its border with North Korea as it is gearing up to be an economic power in the coming decades to match the world's superpower, the U.S.

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Hyundai Chief Extends Pyongyang Visit Seeking Worker's Release (Yonhap)

SEOUL – The chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group, visiting North Korea to bring a detained employee home, extended her stay by one day, her company said Tuesday, as progress in the negotiations appeared to have been delayed.

Hyun Jung-eun was scheduled to return home Wednesday after a three-day visit to Pyongyang, during which she was largely expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to win the worker's release.

"We received the message from Hyun's entourage in Pyongyang that her return will be put off until Thursday," a Hyundai spokesman, Kim Ha-young, said over the phone.

The reason for the extension was not immediately known.

It appeared that Hyun has not yet met with the North Korean leader, said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. Hyundai requested government approval for the trip extension Tuesday night, and "there are no particular reasons not to approve," Lee said.

Hyun drove across the inter-Korean land border Monday in the wake of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's trip to Pyongyang last week to win the release of two American journalists. Hyun's visit raised hopes that the Hyundai employee, identified only by his family name of Yu, would be released after a detention of nearly four-and-a-half months.

Yu was detained in late March at a joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong on accusations of criticizing the North's political system and trying to persuade a local woman to defect to the South. The 44-year-old with Hyundai Asan Corp., the group's North Korea business unit, had been working at the joint park for years.

In contrast to the American reporters, who were detained for illegal entry in mid-March, North Korea has not allowed Yu any phone calls to his family or access to Seoul officials, only saying an investigation was underway.

In a positive sign, North Korea gave a hearty welcome to the Hyundai chief, opening the land border for her drive to Pyongyang and sending a high-level official, Ri Jong-hyok, to receive her.

Sources in Seoul said Hyun appeared to be staying at the Paekhwawon State Guest House, North Korea's highest-level guest house reserved for foreign heads of state and top dignitaries, judging from the background of a photograph of her released by state media on Monday. Clinton stayed at the same guest house and dined there with the North Korean leader.

Hyun stayed there during visits in 2005 and 2007, when she was granted a meeting with the leader.

The high-profile trips by Clinton and the Hyundai chief have spurred hopes for progress in political relations in the region. Tensions rose after North Korea's rocket and nuclear tests earlier this year, and the U.N. Security Council adopted resolutions to stem the cash flow used to fund the North's weapons program. Pyongyang withdrew from regional denuclearization talks in protest.

Experts say North Korea's key concern is improving relations with the U.S., and to that end it is necessary to mend ties with Seoul.

Hyundai is deeply involved in inter-Korean relations, with several North Korea ventures initiated by its late founder Chung Ju-yung, born in North Korea. But the ventures hit a snag as political ties unraveled after President Lee Myung-bak took office last year with a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear program and on economic aid.

The South Korean government suspended Hyundai's major tourism program to North Korea's Mount Kumgang in July last year after a female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean solider there.

North Korea closed another Hyundai tour program to the historic border town of Kaesong in December as part of retaliatory steps against the South's hard-line posture.

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Indian Navy, Coast Guards hand over North Korean ship crew to police (PTI News Agency)

New Delhi – After a 48-hour probe into the North Korean cargo ship's illegal presence in Indian waters, the Navy and the Coast Guard Monday [10 August] handed over the 39-member crew to the local police and intelligence agencies.

Navy and Coast Guard sources said here that their investigation did not lead them to any clandestine activities on the part of the crew members and that they had handed over the men to the local police and intelligence agencies for further action.

However, Indian authorities were yet to decide when the cargo vessel, carrying 16,000 tons of sugar, would be allowed to set sail again to its destination in Iraq.

The ship, M V Musan, was found anchored about 65 nautical miles south of Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar, last Wednesday and the Navy and Coast Guard ships carried out an operation, including firing of a round, to force the vessel to accompany the enforcement agencies to the port.

The vessel was on its way to a port in Iraq and had set sail from a Thai port on 27 July. The ship's captain told Indian authorities that the vessel had a mechanical fault, due to which it had to enter Indian waters.

Korean Peninsula Today, 08 - 10 August 2009

Today’s highlights:
1) The US President Obama’s stated that there will be no talks with North Korea unless it gives up its nuclear program
2) The National Security Adviser Jim Jones stated Kim Jong-il appears to be in “full control” of his country, citing first-hand observations gleaned from former President Clinton
3) Anonymous sources well informed about North Korea told the South Korean Yonhap News Agency that North Korea is praising Kim Jong-il's youngest son, Jong-un, for the former US President Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang last week to fetch two American journalists, apparently to build up the achievements of the heir-apparent
4) The Indian Coast Guard authorities detained a North Korean ship after it dropped anchor in Indian waters without permission
and 5) a report that the two US television reporters that were detained by North Korea may have blundered into a trap and their arrests led to a crack-down on refugees.

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Obama Tells NK `No Nuke Dismantlement, No Dialogue`(Dong-A Ilbo)

U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday ruled out talks with North Korea if Pyongyang does not give up its nuclear program despite North Korea’s release of two American journalists.

“We were very clear that this was a humanitarian mission,” he told NBC in an interview. “We have said to the North Koreans there is a path for improved relations, and it involves them no longer developing nuclear weapons and not engaging in the provocative behavior that they’ve been engaging in.”

The Obama administration has apparently put particular emphasis on this principle to prevent sending the wrong message to North Korea or disrupting international efforts for sanctions against the communist country.

On if former President Bill Clinton’s visit to North Korea might lead to a breakthrough in engagement with North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also told NBC, “It’s not something we’re counting on.”

She said she hopes Pyongyang will “make the right choice.”

The White House and the State Department also gave news briefings in the same tone, saying there is no change in the dire situation.

One informed source said, “Sending a special envoy for the journalists’ release had been discussed since before the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum in mid-July. The Obama administration’s position has been consistent since that time.”

Experts, however, say strained Pyongyang-Washington relations could soon see a thaw. Signs have appeared that the North Korean leadership has sought bilateral dialogue for several weeks. Washington also believes that Pyongyang’s typical cycle is to commit provocation after provocation, followed by dialogue and then by further provocations.

What Bill Clinton will bring to Obama is fueling speculation. Administration officials told the Wall Street Journal that Bill Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il discussed many issues, including incentives to get Pyongyang to resolve the fates of South Koreans and Japanese being held in North Korea.

The possibility that Kim suggested a summit with Obama also cannot be ruled out.

Obama also told a news conference that Bill Clinton would have made interesting observations while in Pyongyang.

Administration sources told the Wall Street Journal that while Obama will reject giving compensation to North Korea for belatedly keeping its promises, he can allow high-level direct contact to deal with the nuclear issue.

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Coming to Terms With Containing North Korea (New York Times – by David E. Sanger)

Bill Clinton’s rescue mission to Pyongyang last week may have done more than win the freedom of two young American journalists. To many in Washington, it seemed to reconfirm hints of just how shrunken North Korea’s ambitions (not to mention its leader) have become after years of confrontation with the world.

Desperate for some affirmation of his legacy, this interpretation goes, the ailing Kim Jong Il used the drama to draw a former American president onto his own turf. To North Korea’s hungry populace, it doubtless looked as if the Americans had finally come to pay homage.

But the truth is that North Korea no longer instills fear the way it did even during the Clinton presidency, when it once threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” if it did not get its way. For all the nuclear and missile tests the North has recently staged, such a threat today rings hollow. The North still has well-hidden artillery that could do great harm, but South Korean officials say they know that North Korea’s air force does not have enough fuel to send fighters aloft to practice for long, much less to initiate a war. And South Koreans are so unafraid of a 1950s-style invasion that they have built housing developments to the edge of the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas.

All of which seems to lend weight to the Obama administration’s instinct that this is a moment, in the words of a senior adviser to President Obama, to “break the cycle” set under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush: the North’s serial nuclear provocations lead to a payoff and an agreement that then falls apart, leading to another crisis and another payoff.

So Mr. Obama’s aides say they are accelerating a gradual refocusing of policy away from the receding prospects of all-out war, and onto classic “containment” of the North’s one last big asset: its ability to teach other nations how to put together the building blocks of the bomb.

What seems to be new is the single-minded focus on choking off Pyongyang’s efforts to sell its know-how, rather than pressing for “regime change” as Mr. Bush did in his first term, or trying too hard to lure North Korea with the prospect of full integration with the West, which Mr. Clinton dangled years ago.

“We just want to make sure the government of North Korea is operating within the basic rules of the international community,” Mr. Obama told MSNBC last week.

No one in Washington will admit — at least on the record — that “containment” has become the primary objective; indeed, the government’s official goal is still “complete, verifiable nuclear disarmament,” wording drawn from the Bush era. But few of Mr. Obama’s aides, some of whom have wrestled with North Korea for two decades, believe that the North will ever give up everything in its nuclear panoply — or that the outside world could ever be sure that it had.

The more immediate, and practical, goal, then, is to neutralize Mr. Kim’s ability to reap cash and power from exporting its know-how for building a crude nuclear device.

Mr. Obama won a little-publicized victory in that effort a few weeks ago when the White House used newly granted authority from the United Nations to put a destroyer on the tail of the Kang Nam I, a rusting cargo ship believed to be taking weapons to Myanmar, formerly Burma. No one is sure what the cargo was, and the Navy avoided a direct confrontation. But the Kang Nam finally turned around and went home, its cargo undelivered.

Still, there are reasons to wonder whether containment of North Korea can work. The core idea is that wariness and time are the best instruments with which to let a corrupt, inept government rot from within, as when the Soviet Union collapsed. “I wish they’d conduct a nuclear test every week,” a member of Mr. Obama’s team joked recently, referring to estimates that North Korea has only enough fuel for 8 to 12 weapons.

The problem is that every American president since Harry Truman has underestimated how much rot the North Korean regime could withstand. Each thought the North could fall on his watch. After all, it has been the most sanctioned nation on earth since the early 1950’s, and it has recently cut the few deep economic ties that it made in the past decade with the South.

Some former officials, who have dealt with the North as it veered between wary interaction with its foes and overstated threats, interpreted North Korea’s demand for Mr. Clinton’s appearance in exchange for the journalists’ release as a sign that Mr. Kim might be eager to change course one more time. “They are clearly sending signals that they are ready to engage,” said Wendy Sherman, who guided Korea strategy for Mr. Clinton from the State Department.

Mr. Obama has said that when North Korea is ready to return to six-nation talks, so is he. But several top officials acknowledge being surprised by North Korea’s move early this year to throw out the agreements reached at the end of the Bush era, restart its nuclear plant and test another nuclear weapon. And that has led them to toughen some of the pressure on Pyongyang.

There is new attention, for example, on shutting down North Korean bank accounts and suppliers. There are new sanctions against several firms that have been financing North Korea’s missile trade, including an Iranian company. Under the United Nations resolution, member nations are being pressed to deny North Korean ships fuel and food unless their cargoes are inspected.

Still, intelligence about North Korean activities is notoriously poor, and there are unconfirmed reports that the North is helping the Burmese build a reactor in their country.

But perhaps the greatest risk in a containment strategy is one of inconsistency. Two Bushes, two Clintons and President Obama himself have vowed that the world will never tolerate a nuclear North Korea. If America does end up tolerating it, the Iranians will take notice. Which is why Israeli officials bring up North Korea whenever American officials talk to them about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. You Americans can try containment with North Korea, they say; it’s your problem. But don’t try to extend the concept to Iran.

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Kim Jong Il in 'Full Control' of North Korea, National Security Chief Says (Fox News)

North Korea's Kim Jong Il appears to be in "full control" of his country, National Security Adviser Jim Jones said Sunday, citing first-hand observations gleaned from former President Bill Clinton's rare mission to the communist nation.

Jones said the administration is still debriefing the party that accompanied Clinton to North Korea to bring home two jailed American journalists. But despite reports that Kim is ailing and indications that he is setting up his own succession, Jones told "FOX News Sunday" that he has not lost his grip on power.

"Preliminary reports appear that Kim Jong Il is in full control of his organization, his government," Jones said. "He certainly appears to still be the one who is in charge."

Kim, who may have had a stroke last year, appeared thinner in photos of the visit last week. The photos showed him standing or sitting next to Clinton at several stages of the visit.

Jones said Clinton and Kim talked for three and a half hours, and described the conversations as "respectful and cordial in tone."

He insisted that North Korea got nothing more out of the visit than the photo op, saying with "absolutely a straight face" that the United States granted no secret concessions in exchange for the journalists.

"There was no official message sent via the former president and there were no promises, other than to make sure that the two young girls were reunited with their families," he said.

Jones said the North Koreans have indicated they would like a "better relation" with the United States.

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N. Korea credits heir-apparent for Clinton's trip to Pyongyang (Yonhap)

SEOUL – North Korea is praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son for having former U.S. President Bill Clinton's come to Pyongyang last week to fetch two American journalists, sources well informed about the North said Sunday, apparently to build up the achievements of the heir-apparent.

Clinton traveled to the communist state last week to bring back two female journalists detained for some 140 days after being apprehended near the North Korea-China border. They were charged with illegal entry and unspecified "hostile acts" and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

After hours of talks with Clinton, Kim Jong Il granted them pardon. The journalists returned to the U.S. with the former president on Wednesday.

The North's National Security Agency, a spy agency and powerful organ of the North Korean leadership, claimed in a recent lecture that Clinton had to come and apologize before the North Korean leader because of the "outstanding tactics" of Kim Jong-un, the sources said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, they noted a similar kind of "resume building" took place when Kim Jong Il was picked as the successor to his father, North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Il, 26 years old at the time with very little known about his personal achievements, was given credit for the 1968 seizure of a U.S. military ship, Pueblo.

Jong-un, now 26, is said to have been named the successor to his 67-year-old father who reportedly suffered a stroke last year.

The sources said the North Korean spy agency has also begun referring to Jong-un as a "general."

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North Korea ship crew uncooperative: India investigators (Reuters)

PORT BLAIR – The crew of a North Korean ship carrying a cargo of sugar that was detained off the Andaman and Nicobar islands, was not cooperating with Indian investigators, an official said on Sunday.

The MV Musan dropped anchor off Hut Bay island on Wednesday without permission. When a coastguard vessel approached, the ship tried to escape, and was detained after a more than six-hour chase.

"We are not getting any cooperation from their side," said an official of the Joint Investigating Team, who asked not to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

U.N. member states are authorised to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, and seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of a Security Council resolution in June following the North's nuclear tests.

Indian investigators were awaiting permission from the foreign ministry to berth the ship at a port so that the 39 crew members could be brought ashore for interrogation and the ship completely inspected, the Indian official said.

Investigators were also awaiting the arrival of a Korean interpreter on Sunday, said Superintendent of Police Ashok Chand.

"They are a little hesitant to share information," he said.

"No arrests have been made till now, that would be decided later," he said. It wasn't clear yet where the ship was headed.

Officials from the Indian army, navy and the Intelligence are conducting the investigation.

North Korean sales of missiles and other weapons materials to tense or unstable parts of the world have long been a major concern of the United States and its allies.

The isolated Communist country, which has walked out of six-party talks aimed at reining in its nuclear weapons programme, fired a barrage of short-range missiles in launch tests in May and exploded a nuclear device on May 25, resulting in tougher U.N. sanctions that it has ignored.

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N Korean ship's China trips under lens (Times of India )

08/09/2009

CHENNAI -- North Korean ship MV Mu San, now detained at Port Blair for unauthorized anchoring off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Wednesday, had made several voyages between North Korea and China without maintaining proper records, investigators have found.

Also under investigation is the reason why the ship berthed in Singapore on June 30, though it was not a port of call in the log book. Mu San, which left Laem Chabang port in Thailand on July 27, reached Singapore on July 30 and left for Hut Bay on July 31. But the passports of the crew were not stamped in Singapore.

Meanwhile, the interrogation of the ship's captain, Yon Jung Sun, and 38 crew members is proving to be a daunting task as there is only one member who speaks a little English.

Arrangements are being made to bring in an interpreter. A special team of officials from the Research & Analysis Wing and Army intelligence, which will visit Port Blair in a couple of days to interrogate the crew.

North Korea, now facing sanctions for building nuclear arms, has been a beneficiary of Chinese materials and research.

Given the history of North Korean vessels ferrying fissile material, RAW will take an active part in the investigation. While chief of naval staff Sureesh Mehta on Saturday said the vessel was carrying genuine merchandise, investigators in Port Blair said a complete search of the vessel was yet to be taken up.

Coast Guard, Navy and Intelligence Bureau officials found several inconsistencies in their statements.

"Initially, they said the vessel had developed a mechanical snag. This turned out to be false. Later, they said their destination (Iraq) was changed midway and they were asked to drop anchor somewhere till the new destination was decided. But they had no convincing answers to why they took a diversion towards Hut Bay. Asked why they tried to escape on seeing the Indian Coast Guard vessel, they said they mistook the ship for a pirate vessel. We cannot buy these versions," said K R Nautiyal, DIG, Coast Guard, Andaman and Nicobar region.

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Myanmar's ties to N. Korea escape scrutiny (Washington Times – by Simon Roughneen)

BANGKOK – Governments and international bodies have been slow to act over the possibility that two of the world's most repressive regimes - North Korea and Myanmar - are collaborating on nuclear technology.

A report earlier this month by an Australian newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, said that Myanmar, also known as Burma, is building a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium facility in caves tunneled into a mountain at Naung Laing in the northern part of the country.

The facilities are close to a civilian reactor under construction by Russia that is inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the newspaper said. It cited two Burmese defectors as the source of the information about the secret program.

While the reports have not yet been verified, a Burmese internal military report leaked to Irrawaddy newsmagazine, a Burmese exile publication, said North Korea has been helping the Myanmar junta build a network of tunnels to serve as air-raid shelters in the event of civil unrest or foreign invasion.

Burmese military officials have visited North Korea since the two countries re-established diplomatic relations in 2007. In June, the U.S. Navy trailed the North Korean freighter Kang Nam I, which appeared to be en route to Myanmar. It turned back before reaching its destination, generating speculation that its cargo included sensitive military technology.

"It's frightening to contemplate nuclear cooperation between two military dictatorships, especially when the intentions and capabilities of the recipient ... in this case are so murky," said Sharon Squassoni, senior associate in the nonproliferation program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Asked about Myanmar, the IAEA - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - stated that "Myanmar is a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and thus has concluded a safeguards agreement with the IAEA with a small-quantities protocol, which is designed for states that have little or no nuclear material and no nuclear material in facilities. Based on this agreement, it would be expected to inform the IAEA no later than six months prior to operating a nuclear facility."

Ms. Squassoni said that if Myanmar "truly has peaceful nuclear intentions, it should invite observers in for a full tour, join the Proliferation Security Initiative and sign an Additional Protocol with the IAEA, which would enhance inspections."

The security initiative groups about 100 nations that have agreed to stop and search ships and planes suspected of carrying nuclear materials or missile parts. The Additional Protocol allows the IAEA to conduct short-notice inspections of nuclear facilities.

Myanmar is unlikely to take such steps, however, which means that the issue may be headed to the U.N. Security Council.

Given that China wields a veto on the council - and that China is a major investor in Myanmar - the chances for U.N. action appear slim.

U.S. officials have been circumspect.

At a recent Asian security meeting in Thailand, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology from North Korea to Myanmar."

However, U.S. authorities have not confirmed or denied the reports in the Australian press, which speculated that the junta was trading yellowcake, a type of uranium used in the enrichment process, for North Korean military hardware and technical expertise.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood on Thursday repeated the concerns raised by Mrs. Clinton, but declined to say whether Washington was seriously looking into the Australian report.

Avner Cohen, a nonproliferation specialist and senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, said it makes sense for North Korea to be aiding efforts by other countries, including Myanmar, to develop a nuclear program, because that helps to maintain and improve Pyongyang's own expertise.

"Beyond the financial reasons, what happens to your manpower if you dismantle your own nuclear program?" he said in reference to a process the North Koreans began a couple of years ago as part of an agreement reached in six-nation talks. "You can keep your expertise alive and your people employed in projects abroad. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with Burma."

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, agreed that it "would not be at all surprising if North Korea was in fact involved in a secret nuclear effort," but he said it makes little sense for the Burmese to be developing such a program.

"No one is threatening Burma's security for them to need a deterrent," Mr. Kimball said. "In fact, they would be inviting a threat if they were trying to acquire a nuclear-weapons capability."

Burmese exiles and political dissidents have been remarking on the junta's nuclear ambitions for some time. The Irrawaddy newsmagazine has reported that the civilian government that preceded the junta designated a site for a nuclear-research reactor in the capital, Yangon, but these plans were discarded after the 1962 military coup. Since 2000, Russia has been collaborating with Myanmar on a low-grade, civilian-use reactor, under IAEA auspices.

North Korea, meanwhile, has a track record of illicit nuclear proliferation. In 2007, Israel destroyed what appeared to be the beginnings of a North Korean-built reactor in Syria.

"We do know that North Korea is willing to sell nuclear technology under the table to countries like Syria that skirt the rules on making full declarations to the IAEA," Ms. Squassoni said. "This alone warrants a lot more attention to what the junta might be purchasing or negotiating for, and what they are saying about any future nuclear capabilities."

Andrew Selth, an Australian specialist and author of "Burma and Nuclear Proliferation: Policies and Perceptions," wrote recently on the Lowy Institute for International Policy blog that "there are many unanswered questions about Burma's nuclear aspirations and its ties with North Korea."

"The most pressing question for many analysts, however, is why no government or international organization has made any official statement on this issue," he wrote.

Tim Huxley, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia, speculated that the U.S. was loath to publicize the dispute until the release of two American reporters jailed in North Korea. The two were freed after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang last week.

Myanmar's neighbors also have been slow to react to the reports of illicit nuclear activity. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Washington Times that "the case against Myanmar must be proven, and the IAEA can assess this."

Burmese dissidents are impatient.

Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said: "The world should not wait until they see the solid proof of the relations between North Korea and the Burmese regime and their nuclear conspiracy."

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Pyongyang lured US reporters into trap (Times Online – by Michael Sheridan)

Christian activists who work on the North Korean border believe two American television reporters may have blundered into a trap when they were detained in March and say their arrests led to a crack-down on refugees.

The pair, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were freed last week after Bill Clinton, the former president, flew to Pyongyang to secure a pardon from Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator.

There is still confusion about the exact events on March 17, when soldiers stopped the two women on the frozen Tumen River, which divides North Korea and China.

The reporters, who were sentenced to 12 years’ hard labor, were on assignment for Current TV, a venture set up by Al Gore, Clinton’s former vice-president, which aims to specialize in “cutting edge” news.

Mitchell Koss, 56, a television producer, and Kim Seong-chol, a Chinese-Korean guide, both escaped and were reportedly detained by Chinese police.

“There is a strong suspicion that he [the guide] was heavily involved and it was a trap,” said an experienced activist who has led dozens of refugees to safety. There has been no word of Kim.

Such suspicions are bolstered by a first-hand account given to The Sunday Times by an American missionary who was warned by Chinese police a month earlier that the North Koreans were trying to capture a foreign journalist.

In February a detachment of plainclothes Chinese officers detained the missionary as he took photographs not far from a tourist spot at a bridge across the river at the city of Tumen.

He was held for interrogation for several hours and later released without charge. During his questioning the officers warned him that the North Koreans were known to be hunting for a “foreign prize” along the twisting, narrow course of the river, where the border is erratic as it meanders along sandbanks and shallows. “They were after a journalist,” said the missionary.

Neither the name of the missionary nor that of the activist can be disclosed for their own safety, but both are known to government officials and church organizations in South Korea and in the West.

There appears to be little doubt that the arrest of Ling, a Chinese-American, and the Seoul-born Lee, who moved to the US in 1995, has had severe consequences for North Korean refugees in hiding in China.

“The Chinese police have started pursuing missionaries and NGO [nongovernmental organization] activists helping refugees in China,” reported Lee Song-jin, a writer for the exile website Daily NK, in May.

“Korean-Chinese helpers . . . are going underground. As the network between helpers and refugees has started shaking, the number of refugees isolated from security has increased.”

The activists say there is grave concern about the North Korean claim to have obtained six videotapes and a camera from the women, who had been interviewing refugees in China before their arrest.

North Korean and Chinese security agents are known to have cooperated in a search for refugees and their helpers in the cities of Tumen and Yanji. This led to dozens being sent back across the Tumen.

The North Korean penal code prescribes harsh penalties for citizens found guilty of collaborating with foreigners.

There is also bemusement among other activists who helped the television reporters as to why they risked crossing the border. Chun Ki-won, a South Korean Christian clergyman, said he had warned them not to go.

Ling told a friend the crew’s original plan was to find a “bride market” in China where North Korean women were sold to Chinese men as wives. On finding that no such market exists, the crew may have looked for another way to cover the human trafficking story.

The North Koreans claimed that a videotape from the reporters’ camera showed that they were recording a commentary as they went across the frozen river and entered a farmhouse courtyard. Neither Current TV nor its team has commented.

Last Thursday Lisa Ling told CNN that her sister Laura had crossed into North Korea for a short time and that she would write an article explaining the events. “It’s a very powerful story and she does want to share it,” she said.

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Activists Voice Concern Following N. Korea's Release of US Journalists (Voice of America – by Jason Strother )

American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are safely back home after more than four months imprisonment in North Korea. But human rights activists in South Korea are worried about what they may have left behind.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were apprehended by North Korean border guards along the Chinese border in March. They were reporting on the trafficking of North Korean women who leave their impoverished homeland behind.

Human rights activists who operate in that region are concerned that when the two American journalists were picked up, they had with them the names, contact information and video footage of defectors and aid workers they met along the way.

Tim Pieters is a missionary in Seoul who oversees aid work in northeast China. He says that some journalists put North Korean refugees at risk by interviewing them.

"To tell their story, means that they're documenting that they have knowingly and at great risk to themselves left North Korea," Pieters said. "They are putting on the record that they are against the North Korean regime and let's not forget the fact to leave North Korea without any permission, without a visa, is tantamount to a capital crime."

Most refugees change their names after leaving North Korea and many refuse to have their picture taken. That is to protect family members, who could be punished by the Pyongyang government if it discovers their relative has defected.

China forcibly repatriates North Korea it finds on its territory. According to the testimony of other refugees, they are sent to labor camps as punishment.

Pieters says for now, its unclear if any of the information that Lee and Ling may have had in their possession has been put to use by the North Korean authorities.

Pieters says in the past, both the Chinese and North Korean governments have sought out and arrested aid workers who help defectors travel along the so-called underground railroad to Southeast Asia.

And the detention of Ling and Lee has forced human rights groups to change the way they operate.

"It has raised so many flags in that region, without getting into specifics, it just simply means that security measures have to be redoubled," Pieters said. "This has become such a sensitive issue, that it complicates matters immensely for protecting the refugees. It's even more necessary to take things more underground and more precautions have to be taken."

Lee, Ling and Current TV, the network they report for, have not said whether the North Korean government confiscated any of their notes or video.