Alles omtrent Noord-Korea

Gestart door Cobra4, 16/02/2009 | 09:55 uur

Elzenga

'Hereniging Korea's voor China acceptabel'
Uitgegeven:    30 november 2010 06:59
Laatst gewijzigd:    30 november 2010 09:20
WASHINGTON - Een jongere generatie Chinese leiders zou bereid zijn een herenigd Korea te accepteren dat geleid zou worden door Seoul en gelieerd zou zijn aan de Verenigde Staten.

Dat verklaarde de voormalige Zuid-Koreaanse onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Chun Yung-woo, begin dit jaar tegen de Amerikaanse ambassadeur in de Zuid-Koreaanse hoofdstad, Kathleen Stephens.

Hoge Chinese functionarissen zouden dat hebben gezegd tegen de oud-minister, aldus Amerikaanse overheidsdocumenten die de klokkenluiderssite WikiLeaks openbaar heeft gemaakt.

Voedsel

China is de belangrijkste bondgenoot van Noord-Korea en voorziet het land van voedsel en brandstof. Maar de relatie zou niet meer zo innig zijn.

De Chinese onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken, He Yafei, zou Noord-Korea verweten hebben ''zich als een verwend kind te gedragen'' om de aandacht van de VS te krijgen.

De nieuwe Chinese leiders zouden Pyongyang niet langer beschouwen als een betrouwbare en bruikbare bondgenoot.

Nieuwe realiteit

Volgens Chun, die op dit moment de nationale veiligheidsadviseur van Zuid-Korea is, zijn Chinese functionarissen bereid ''een nieuwe realiteit onder ogen te zien'' dat Noord-Korea nog weinig waarde heeft voor China als 'bufferstaat'.

In het herenigde Korea zouden volgens Peking dan geen Amerikaanse militairen in de voormalige noordelijke staat mogen worden gestationeerd.

Klagen

Maar in andere Amerikaanse ambassadeberichten wordt ook melding gemaakt van Zuid-Koreaanse functionarissen die klagen dat de Chinese autoriteiten tevreden zijn met de huidige status quo van een nucleair Noord-Korea.

De Chinezen zouden bang zijn dat de ineenstorting van Noord-Korea een vloedgolf aan vluchtelingen zou kunnen veroorzaken.

Nucleaire ontwikkelingen

Uit de stukken, gepubliceerd in The New York Times, blijkt ook dat China regelmatig in het duister tast over de nucleaire ontwikkelingen in Noord-Korea.

Toen Amerikaanse satellieten in mei 2009 ongebruikelijke activiteiten registreerden op het nucleaire testterrein van Noord-Korea, meldden Chinese functionarissen dat ze ''onzeker'' waren of ze dreigementen van Pyongyang over een nieuwe kernproef ''serieus'' moesten nemen. Enkele dagen later voerde Noord-Korea een kernproef uit.
© ANP

onderofficier

Citaat van: Nikehercules op 27/10/2010 | 12:17 uur
De regering van Noord-Korea eist dat Zuid-Korea de structurele noodhulp aan het land hervat.

In ruil is Noord-Korea bereid vaker herenigingen tussen families toe te staan.

Die Noord-Koreanen durven wel: om iets te eisen om dan ergens bereid toe te zijn

Ik ga dat morgen ook eens proberen:
Ik eis een salarisverhoging:  dan ben ik bereid om mijn vaker werk te doen   :hrmph:
Tegenslag is de beste gelegenheid om te tonen dat je karakter hebt; vele tonen (helaas) aan dat ze weinig karakter hebben.

Nikehercules

Noord-Korea wil voedselhulp van zuiden

De regering van Noord-Korea eist dat Zuid-Korea de structurele noodhulp aan het land hervat. Het communistische land heeft vooral behoefte aan rijst en kunstmest.

In ruil is Noord-Korea bereid vaker herenigingen tussen families toe te staan. Sinds de Korea-oorlog in de jaren vijftig hebben duizenden mensen elkaar niet meer gezien, omdat sommigen in het noorden en anderen in het zuiden wonen.

De twee landen hebben de afgelopen twee dagen in de Noord-Koreaanse grensstad Kaesong gesprekken gevoerd over mogelijke familieherenigingen. Wat daar is besloten, is nog niet bekend.
Schip

Na het aantreden van een nieuwe, conservatieve regering stopte Zuid-Korea in 2008 met het regelmatig doneren van voedsel aan het stalinistische Noord-Korea.

Gisteren stuurde Zuid-Korea wel een schip met 5000 ton rijst naar de Chinese kustplaats Dandong, vanwaar de rijst met vrachtwagens naar Noord-Korea wordt vervoerd. Vanuit Zuid-Korea is ook een schip met noedels onderweg naar het communistische buurland.

Bron: NOS

Lex

S. Korea Draws Plan to Inspect N. Korean Ships

SEOUL, South Korea —
South Korea's coast guard said Monday it is drawing up guidelines on how to inspect North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned items — a move expected to enrage Pyongyang, which has warned it would consider such inspections a declaration of war.
The move came as a senior U.S. diplomat met with South Korea's nuclear envoy about implementing U.N. sanctions punishing Pyongyang for its latest nuclear test and getting the communist regime to return to talks on its nuclear program.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, also held talks in Japan and goes Monday to Thailand for Asia's main security conference, where North Korea should be a key topic.
"We need to make sure that we're extremely closely coordinated in a very critical period ahead," Campbell said at the start of a meeting with Seoul's nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac.
Wi said the two allies should work closely together to implement the U.N. sanctions, which include ship searches, and resume stalled nuclear talks.
North Korea quit the talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions in April in anger over a U.N. rebuke after it launched a long-range rocket. It also conducted a nuclear test in May and a series of banned ballistic missile tests early this month.
Campbell said Saturday there should be consequences for North Korea's provocations, but said the U.S. and its partners would be prepared to offer attractive incentives if Pyongyang returned to the talks and took "serious and irreversible steps" to disarm.
The stalled talks involved China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.
Pyongyang's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, said last week that the talks are permanently over because the U.S. and its allies do not respect North Korea's sovereignty.
South Korea's move to draw up the ship inspection guidelines is in line with latest U.N. sanctions that clamp down on North Korea's alleged trading of banned arms and weapons-related material, a key source of hard currency for the impoverished nation.
A coast guard official said the guidelines would call for inspecting North Korean ships traveling in South Korean waters if there is concrete evidence they carry banned items. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the issue's sensitivity, did not give details.
A North Korea ship suspected of heading toward Myanmar with a cargo of banned items turned back home earlier this month after surveillance by the U.S. Navy as part of the U.N. resolution.
The latest resolution toughened sanctions called for in a 2006 resolution adopted after the North's first nuclear test. That resolution bans countries from exporting luxury goods to North Korea — a clause targeting the regime's ruling elite.
Under the ban, Italian police have seized two luxury yachts that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered from an Italian shipbuilder, the daily Libero reported Friday. The paper said European financial authorities also confiscated in early April millions of dollars in deposits for the yachts.
The security conference opening Wednesday in Thailand brings together foreign ministers and senior diplomats from 27 countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. North Korea is sending a lower-level official, instead of the foreign minister, to the meeting.

AP, Monday , July 20, 2009

Lex

Missile firing a sign of N. Korean defiance
   
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired what were believed to be four short-range cruise missiles, will likely further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the latest U.N. Security Council resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles.

"Our military is fully ready to counter any North Korean threats and provocations based on strong South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile. North Korea's Scuds are considered short-range, the South's military said.

But Yonhap also said it is possible they could have been longer-range Rodong missiles fired a shorter distance.

Scud missiles have a range of up to 300 miles, which could hit most of South Korea. The Rodong has a range of up to 800 miles, putting most parts of Japan within striking distance.

North Korea is not allowed to fire Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. They are banned under U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 1874 passed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, that prohibit any launch using ballistic missile technology.

Thursday's launches, on the other hand, did not violate the resolution, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry. Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said it was believed North Korea launched cruise missiles Thursday.

Ballistic missiles are guided during their ascent out of the atmosphere but fall freely when they descend. Cruise missiles fly low and straight to their target.

The North has a record of timing missile tests for the U.S. national day, which fell Saturday.

"The missiles were seen as part of military exercises, but North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S. through the missile launches," a senior official in South Korea's presidential office said, without elaborating.

The official told The Associated Press that North Korea could fire more missiles in coming days, but said there was little possibility it could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it threatened in April.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said both political and military reasons were behind the launches.

"I think it's a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries," Pinkston said.

He also pointed out that July 4 is not only U.S. Independence Day but also the anniversary of a 1972 joint communique in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula.

During the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2006, Pyongyang fired a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff. Those launches, which occurred on July 5 in North Korea, also came amid tensions with the U.S. over North Korea's nuclear program.

North Korea's state news agency carried no reports on the launches. But the North had warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10 for military exercises — an indication it was planning launches.

The chief of U.S. naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, said Saturday the American military was ready for any North Korean missile tests.

"Our ships and forces here are prepared for the tracking of the missiles and observing the activities that are going on," Roughead said after meeting Japanese military officials in Tokyo before news of the launches.

South Korea and Japan, which are within easy range of North Korean missiles, condemned the launches as a "provocative" act that violates the U.N. resolution.

South Korea "expressed deep regret over the North's continuous behavior that escalates tensions in Northeast Asia by repeatedly defying" the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement that the launch of missiles "is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N Security Council."

In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had no immediate comment. China is the North's closest ally.

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jul 4, 2009 11:06:03 EDT

Lex

'Noord-Korea vuurt twee raketten af'

PYONGYANG - 
Noord-Korea heeft donderdag vanaf de oostkust twee raketten voor de korte afstand afgevuurd. Dat heeft het Zuid-Koreaanse ministerie van Defensie laten weten, aldus het Zuid-Koreaanse persbureau Yonhap.

De spanningen op het Koreaanse schiereiland zijn de laatste tijd opgelopen, nadat Noord-Korea een langeafstandsraket en enkele andere raketten voor de korte afstand had afgeschoten. Internationaal ontstond er veel ophef door een nucleaire proef door Noord-Korea.

ANP | Gepubliceerd op 02 juli 2009, 11:52

Lex

N. Korea Threatens to Shoot Down Japanese Planes

SEOUL - North Korea warned June 27 that any Japanese plane entering its airspace would be shot down for spying, as recent surveillance suggests Pyongyang may be preparing to fire more missiles.
"The air force of the Korean People's Army will not tolerate even a bit the aerial espionage by the warmongers of the Japanese aggression forces but mercilessly shoot down any plane intruding into the territorial air of the DPRK [North Korea] even 0.001 millimeter," the North Korean Air Force said in a statement.
It said a Japanese AWACS aircraft made a long shuttle flight into airspace between the cities of Wonsan and Musudan-ri on June 26.
Similar aerial espionage was committed June 25, it said.
The North used Musudan-ri for its three previous long-range missile launches, in 1998, 2006 and April 5.
North Korea will likely fire short- or mid-range missiles in waters off its east coast from which it has banned shipping, a senior South Korean government official said June 24.
The North has warned foreign ships to stay clear of an extensive area for 16 days starting June 25 because of unspecified military exercises.
Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said the communist state would probably fire Scuds with a range of up to 500 kilometers (312 miles) or ground-to-ship missiles with a 160-kilometer range into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.
Washington has said it is prepared for the possibility that the North could also fire a long-range missile toward Hawaii, perhaps July 4, which is U.S. Independence Day.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 27 Jun 2009 12:07



Elzenga

Burma denies link to N Korea ship

By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Bangkok

Burma has denied any link with a North Korean ship in the South China Sea.

US officials have said they believe the Kang Nam 1 could be heading to Burma, carrying weapons in defiance of a United Nations embargo.

Burma and North Korea ended diplomatic relations in 1983 after a bungled assassination attempt by North Korean agents killed 20 people in Burma.

But in recent years they are believed to be co-operating in a number of areas, including weapons supplies.

Singapore's dilemma

For the past week the Kang Nam 1 has made steady progress down the coast of China, closely shadowed by a US Navy destroyer.

Now the Burmese government has issued a statement denying that the Kang Nam 1 is heading there, although it also said it was expecting another North Korean ship to arrive with a cargo of rice this weekend.

Burma is believed to have bought significant quantities of conventional weapons from North Korea in the past few years.

Burma is also to believed be getting help in building a sophisticated complex of tunnels and bunkers for its military rulers.

A new UN resolution passed in the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear test empowers member states to inspect any North Korean ships - but the US Navy has so far not attempted to intercept the Kang Nam 1 on the high seas.

However the ship may be forced to refuel in Singapore - in which case the Singaporean authorities would face a dilemma over whether to try to inspect its cargo - a move North Korea has warned it would view as an act of war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8118647.stm

Lex

North Korea Threatens to 'Wipe Out' U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea —
North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Burma in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.
The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Burma, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.
Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.
Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.
North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.
A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.
Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.
Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.
In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.
South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

AP, Wednesday, June 24, 2009


Lex

N. Korea ship suspected of carrying missiles

U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing the vessel, which is heading toward Myanmar

SEOUL, South Korea - A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday.
The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the U.S. suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
YTN said the U.S. has deployed a destroyer and is using satellites to track the ship, which was expected to travel to Myanmar via Singapore.
South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. Calls to the U.S. military command in Seoul were not answered late Sunday.

Ship tracked under new sanctions
The ship is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the new U.N. sanctions.
Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, which left a North Korean port Wednesday and was traveling off the coast of China.
One of the officials said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but that it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked since North Korea defiantly conducted its second nuclear explosion on May 25. It later declared it would expand its atomic bomb program and threatened war to protest the U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear test.
The sanctions toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

Obama pledges enforcement
If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."
President Barack Obama said the sanctions will be aggressively enforced after talks Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington. Obama also reaffirmed the U.S. security commitment to South Korea, including nuclear protection.
In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said Obama's comments revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.
"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," it said in a commentary published Saturday.
North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons there.

AP, updated 1:58 p.m. ET June 21, 2009

Lex

Officials: Hawaii anti-missile move a backstop

WASHINGTON — A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials said Friday.
The U.S. has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.
The North's Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or not demonstrated anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.
A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Korean missiles but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.

JULY 4 LAUNCH?
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan's Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea's west coast on May 30.
U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out, but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.
"I don't see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.
It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.
If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.
However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of American islands.
The North Korea missile launched in April traveled a little less than 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.

Posted : Friday Jun 19, 2009 17:21:16 EDT





noorman

ben benieuwd hoe ze die 'vreedzaam' en zonder gebruik van 'geweld' gaan enteren...mocht het zover komen
dat was een extra eis van china die is opgenomen in de VN-resolutie
"Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" - Proverbs 11 verse 14

-KMA -back as soon as possible-

Lex

U.S. Military Set to Intercept North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes

The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official.

The U.S. military is planning to intercept a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday, FOX News has learned.
The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The order to inderdict has not been given yet, but the ship is getting into position.
The ship left a port in North Korea Wednesday and appears to be heading toward Singapore, according to a senior U.S. military source. The vessel, which the military has been tracking since its departure, could be carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear materials, a violation of U.N. Resolution 1874, which put sanctions in place against Pyongyang.
The USS McCain was involved in an incident with a Chinese sub last Friday - near Subic Bay off the Philippines.
The Chinese sub was shadowing the destroyer when it hit the underwater sonar array that the USS McCain was towing behind it.
That same navy destroyer that was being shadowed by the Chinese is now positioning itself for a possible interdiction of the North Korean vessel.
This is the first suspected "proliferator" that the U.S. and its allies have tracked from North Korea since the United Nations authorized the world's navies to enforce compliance with a variety of U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its recent nuclear test.
The ship is currently along the coast of China and being monitored around-the-clock by air.
The apparent violation raises the question of how the United States and its allies will respond, particularly since the U.N. resolution does not have a lot of teeth to it.
The resolution would not allow the United States to board the ship forcibly. Rather, U.S. military would have to request permission to board -- a request North Korea is unlikely to grant.
North Korea has said that any attempt to board its ships would be viewed as an act of war and promised "100- or 1,000-fold" retaliation if provoked.
The U.S. military may also request that the host country not provide fuel to the ship when it enters its port.
The Kang Nam is known to be a ship that has been involved in proliferation activities in the past -- it is "a repeat offender," according to one military source. The ship was detained in October 2006 by authorities in Hong Kong after the North Koreans tested their first nuclear device and the U.N. imposed a subsequent round of sanctions.
The latest tension follows a Japanese news report that North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the military is "watching" that situation "very closely," and would have "some concerns" if North Korea launched a missile in the direction of Hawaii. But he expressed confidence in U.S. ability to handle such a launch.
Gates said he's directed the deployment of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense, a mobile missile defense system used for knocking down long- and medium-range missiles.
"The ground-based interceptors are clearly in a position to take action. So, without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect the American territory."

FOXNews.com
Friday, June 19, 2009

KapiteinRob

Citaat van: monkie op 19/06/2009 | 01:25 uur
Wat is die Kim Jong-Il toch een boefje.

Ja, een echte kwajongen. Alleen een beetje jammer dat deze despoot bijna de hele bevolking van Noord Korea laat hongeren en met nucleaire speeltjes in de weer is.  >:(

monkie

Wat is die Kim Jong-Il toch een boefje.
People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.