chico cummings
Banned
- 1,843
- 10
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2001
Seriously?
North Korea warns of attack if ships checked
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea,facing international sanction for this week's nuclear test, threatened on Wednesday to attack the South after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction.
A North Korean armyspokesman also said the country was no longer bound by the armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War becauseWashington had ignored its responsibility as a signatory by drawing South Korea intoits naval initiative.
The threat comes after South Koreanmedia reported earlier that Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium.
"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will beconsidered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," the spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.
South Korea announced on Tuesday it was joining the naval exercise, called the Proliferation SecurityInitiative.
Pyongyang also appeared to have fired a third short-range missile late on Tuesday after itadded to tensions with a launch of two others earlier in the day, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted a unnamed government source as saying.
U.S. President Barack Obama isworking to form a united response to Monday's nuclear test, widely denounced as a major threat to stability that violates U.N. resolutions and brings thereclusive North closer to having a reliable nuclear bomb.
The secretive state appears to have made good on a threat issued in April of restarting afacility at its Yongbyon nuclear plant that extracts plutonium, South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported.
"There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation(and) have been detected by U.S. surveillance satellite, and these including steam coming out of the facility," it quoted an unnamed government source assaying.
The Soviet-era Yongbyon plant was being taken apart under a six-country disarmament-for-aiddeal and there were no signs yet that the North, which conducted its only prior nuclear test in October 2006, was again separating plutonium.
Seoul's financial markets,which had fallen in the wake of the nuclear test, rose on Wednesday though traders said investors were still nervous about when the North would try to be moreprovocative and ratchet up tension in the region.
Analysts say Pyongyang's military grandstanding is partly aimed at tightening leaderKim Jong-il's grip on power so he can betterengineer his succession and divert attention from the country's weak economy, which has fallen into near ruin since he took over in 1994.
Many speculate Kim's suspected stroke in August raised concerns about succession and hewants his third son to be the next leader of Asia's only communist dynasty.
MILITARY THREATS
The country, which has a history of using military threats to squeeze concessions out ofglobal powers, may have ramped up its provocations early in Obama's presidency in order to have more cards to play during his time inoffice.
There may be little the international community can do to deter the North, which has beenpunished for years by sanctions and is so poor it relies on aid to feed its 23 million people.
A U.S. Treasury Department official saidit was weighing possible action to isolate the North financially.
A 2005 U.S. clampdown on a Macau bank suspected of laundering money for Pyongyang effectivelycut the country off from the international banking system.
Japan's upper house of parliament denounced the test and said in a resolution thegovernment should step up its sanctions.
North Koreans celebrated, with arally in the capital of top cadres, KCNA said.
"The nuclear test was a grand undertaking to protect the supreme interests of theDPRK (North Korea) and defend the dignity andsovereignty of the country and nation," it quoted a communist party official as saying.
North Korea's meager supply of fissile material is likely down to enough for five to sevenbombs after Monday's test, experts have said. It could probably extract enough plutonium from spent rods at the plant for another bomb's worth ofplutonium by the end of this year.
The North's next step may to be resume operations at all of Yongbyon, with experts sayingit could take the North up to a year to reverse disablement steps. Once running, it can produce enough plutonium for a bomb a year.
The test raised concern about Pyongyang spreading its weapons to other countries and groups.The United States has accused it of trying try to sell nuclear know-how to Syria andothers.
The hermit state has also threatened to launch a long-range ballistic missile if the Security Council does not apologize fortightening sanctions to punish it for an April launch widely seen as a missile test that violated U.N. measures.
North Korea warns of attack if ships checked
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea,facing international sanction for this week's nuclear test, threatened on Wednesday to attack the South after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction.
A North Korean armyspokesman also said the country was no longer bound by the armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War becauseWashington had ignored its responsibility as a signatory by drawing South Korea intoits naval initiative.
The threat comes after South Koreanmedia reported earlier that Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium.
"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will beconsidered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," the spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.
South Korea announced on Tuesday it was joining the naval exercise, called the Proliferation SecurityInitiative.
Pyongyang also appeared to have fired a third short-range missile late on Tuesday after itadded to tensions with a launch of two others earlier in the day, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted a unnamed government source as saying.
U.S. President Barack Obama isworking to form a united response to Monday's nuclear test, widely denounced as a major threat to stability that violates U.N. resolutions and brings thereclusive North closer to having a reliable nuclear bomb.
The secretive state appears to have made good on a threat issued in April of restarting afacility at its Yongbyon nuclear plant that extracts plutonium, South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported.
"There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation(and) have been detected by U.S. surveillance satellite, and these including steam coming out of the facility," it quoted an unnamed government source assaying.
The Soviet-era Yongbyon plant was being taken apart under a six-country disarmament-for-aiddeal and there were no signs yet that the North, which conducted its only prior nuclear test in October 2006, was again separating plutonium.
Seoul's financial markets,which had fallen in the wake of the nuclear test, rose on Wednesday though traders said investors were still nervous about when the North would try to be moreprovocative and ratchet up tension in the region.
Analysts say Pyongyang's military grandstanding is partly aimed at tightening leaderKim Jong-il's grip on power so he can betterengineer his succession and divert attention from the country's weak economy, which has fallen into near ruin since he took over in 1994.
Many speculate Kim's suspected stroke in August raised concerns about succession and hewants his third son to be the next leader of Asia's only communist dynasty.
MILITARY THREATS
The country, which has a history of using military threats to squeeze concessions out ofglobal powers, may have ramped up its provocations early in Obama's presidency in order to have more cards to play during his time inoffice.
There may be little the international community can do to deter the North, which has beenpunished for years by sanctions and is so poor it relies on aid to feed its 23 million people.
A U.S. Treasury Department official saidit was weighing possible action to isolate the North financially.
A 2005 U.S. clampdown on a Macau bank suspected of laundering money for Pyongyang effectivelycut the country off from the international banking system.
Japan's upper house of parliament denounced the test and said in a resolution thegovernment should step up its sanctions.
North Koreans celebrated, with arally in the capital of top cadres, KCNA said.
"The nuclear test was a grand undertaking to protect the supreme interests of theDPRK (North Korea) and defend the dignity andsovereignty of the country and nation," it quoted a communist party official as saying.
North Korea's meager supply of fissile material is likely down to enough for five to sevenbombs after Monday's test, experts have said. It could probably extract enough plutonium from spent rods at the plant for another bomb's worth ofplutonium by the end of this year.
The North's next step may to be resume operations at all of Yongbyon, with experts sayingit could take the North up to a year to reverse disablement steps. Once running, it can produce enough plutonium for a bomb a year.
The test raised concern about Pyongyang spreading its weapons to other countries and groups.The United States has accused it of trying try to sell nuclear know-how to Syria andothers.
The hermit state has also threatened to launch a long-range ballistic missile if the Security Council does not apologize fortightening sanctions to punish it for an April launch widely seen as a missile test that violated U.N. measures.
