South Korea extends range of cruise missile

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135205§ionid=351020405


South Korea has reportedly developed a long-range cruise missile capable of hitting North Korean positions and plans to deploy it along the border with the North.

An unconfirmed report by a defense source said the new the ground-to-ground Hyunmu-3C missile has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (937 miles), the state-run Yonhap news agency said on Saturday.

Under an agreement with the United States, South Korea can increase the range of its cruise missiles to counter the 1,000 ballistic missiles the North is believed to have deployed at the border — as long as their payload does not exceed 500 kilograms.

Improving upon a previous version with a range of only 1,000 kilometers, the new Hyunmu missile will enable South Korea to target nuclear or military sites in the North.

Ongoing tensions between the two Koreas — technically at war since their 1950-1953 war ended without a peace treaty — have been on the rise since a South Korean warship sank near the tense sea border in March. Forty-six South Korea sailors died in the incident.

South Korea and the United States accused North Korea of torpedoing the vessel, citing the findings of a multinational investigation into the incident.

However, Pyongyang has rejected the charges and says a July 9 statement by the UN Security Council proves its point since it does not identify North Korea as the culprit.

After the UN statement, the North reiterated its conditional willingness to return to the stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks it withdrew from last year.

After the UN statement, the North announced that it was still conditionally ready to return to the stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks it withdrew from last year.

But South Korea has demanded an apology for the attack on the ship and says it will not return to the negotiation table until those responsible are punished.

North Korea meets UN Command on Thursday

North Korea is scheduled to hold talks Thursday with the US-led United Nations Command about the sinking of a South Korean ship back in March.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134711§ionid=351020405


The US-led United Nations Command (UNC) says talks with North Korea over the March sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan have been reset for Thursday.

The much-anticipated meeting was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but North Korea unexpectedly asked for a delay, just hours before it was due to begin, citing "administrative reasons."

The colonel-level talks are now scheduled to begin at 10 am Thursday at the border village of Panmunjom, according to a statement on Wednesday by the UNC, South Korean Yonhap news agency said.

The rescheduled meeting on Thursday, if held, will be the first between North Korea and the UNC since the Cheonan sank in March near the inter-Korean western maritime border, dramatically increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea and the United States accuse the communist state of torpedoing the corvette Cheonan and killing 46 sailors, an accusation Pyongyang strongly denies.

Sixteen rounds of general officer talks have been held at Panmunjom since 1998 about reducing tensions on the peninsula. The most recent took place in March 2009 at North Korea's request

North Korea offers to resume talks

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/07/201071042951838719.html


North Korea has said it is willing to return to the nuclear disarmament talks it abandoned 18 months ago, saying it will make "consistent efforts" for a peace treaty.

Pyongyang's about-turn on Saturday came after the UN Security Council condemned an attack on a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors, which Seoul has blamed on the North.

The Security Council, however, did not directly state that North Korea was responsible for sinking the 1,200-ton Cheonan, prompting Sin Son Ho, North Korea ambassador to the UN, to call it "our great diplomatic victory".

The ambassador's comments were followed by a statement from North Korea's foreign ministry calling for a resumption of the talks.

"The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] will make consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing," the ministry's spokesman said.

"We take note of the ... statement saying that 'the Security Council encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean Peninsula by peaceful means to resume direct dialogue and negotiation through appropriate channels'."

'Flip the page'

The disarmament talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have been in limbo since December 2008.

But China, which had been the host of the six-way talks that began in 2003, on Saturday urged regional powers to "flip the page of the Cheonan incident" and quickly resume the talks.

"We call for an early resumption of the six-party talks and joint efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," Qin Gang, the foreign ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.


The US did not immediately respond to the North's offer for new talks.

"At this point we want to let North Korea absorb the fact that the international community has condemned the Cheonan incident," Mark Toner, a US state department spokesman, said.

A South Korean-led international investigation concluded in May that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan.

But North Korea has called for a new joint investigation by both Koreas and demanded that its inspectors be allowed to visit the site of the sinking near the tense Korean sea border.

Ambassador Sin again pledged that his government will "do our utmost to dig out the truth behind this incident".

The South's defense ministry, meanwhile, said there was no change to its plan to carry out a joint naval exercise with the US in the Yellow Sea, despite objections from China, Pyongyang's main ally.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it welcomed the UN's stance.


"The Security Council's statement is greatly significant as the international community condemned North Korea's attack on the Cheonan with one voice and emphasized the importance of preventing further provocations," it said.


"The government urges the North to respect the spirit of the statement, clearly accept its responsibility and apologize."

UNSC to discuss sunken South Korean ship

South Korean warship, which allegedly was sunk by North Korea in March


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134028§ionid=351020405


The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet to discuss a draft declaration on the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship.

The UNSC was to meet late on Thursday to discuss the alleged sinking of the Cheonan by North Korea and issue a statement on the event, AFP reported.

After a weeks-long investigation, Seoul announced that North Korea was responsible for the sinking, while Pyongyang has strongly denied any involvement.

North Korea has called for a new joint probe by both Koreas "to verify objectively the truth of the incident," warning that its military forces will respond, should the Security Council question or condemn the country over the incident.

The sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 sailors near the North Korean maritime border, has intensified tension in the Korean Peninsula.

The sinking marked the worst naval disaster in South Korea's history since the Korean War (1950-53) -- which ended in an armistice signed on 27 July 1953.

The five permanent members of UNSC are divided in the issue of Korean warship.

While South Korea and the US are trying to draw a strongly worded statement from the Council, China and Russia have been reluctant to identify North Korea as the offender.

China, the North's closest ally, has opposed harsh sanctions and direct condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident and has recently urged the US and South Korea to scrap their plans to hold drills in the Yellow Sea in a show of force against the North.

North Korea warns UN over ship sinking

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/201061651735694339.html


North Korea has said that any action against the country by the UN Security Council over the sinking of a South Korean warship will be met by a military "follow-up".

The comments came by Sin Son-ho, the country's ambassador, come after South Korean officials presented evidence to the Security Council on Tuesday, claiming the North torpedoed and sank the Cheonan in March.

Forty-six sailors were killed in the attack, for which the North has denied responsibility.

Sin said that "if the Security Council release any documents against us condemning or questioning us in any document, then myself, a diplomat, I can do nothing, but the follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces".

Sin, speaking at a rare news conference in New York on Wednesday, was asked if he meant that North Korea would take military action in response to the adoption of any resolution or statement by the council.

"I told you that if any action is taken by Security Council against us, I lose my job," he said.

"Military will have its own job, I mean follow-up. I gave you the answer. You can prejudge what is the meaning I have told you."

'Reckless manoeuvres'

Sin also cautioned that the situation on the Korean peninsula remained tense due to what he called the "reckless manoeuvres" of the South.

He said it was "a touch-and-go situation that war may break out at any time", saying that "our people and our army will smash our aggressors".

Delegations from the South and North presented the Security Council on Monday with their positions on the events of March 26.

Claude Heller, the Security Cuncil's president and Mexican ambassador, said after the two separate informal meetings that council members were gravely concerned about the incident and urged both sides to "refrain from any act that could escalate tensions in the region".

He did not say who was to blame.

According to council diplomats, South Korea is hoping the 15-nation body will rebuke the North.

But China, the North's sole major ally, has a veto on the council and is reluctant to support anything that would upset Pyongyang.

Sin reiterated Pyongyang's position that the South's allegations about March 26 are a "complete fabrication" and demanded that the North be allowed to send its own investigation crew to the site of the incident.

"This is indeed a funny story," he said of South Korea's investigation of the sinking. "Some kind of fiction."

"If the South Koreans have nothing to hide, there is no reason for them not to accept our inspection group."

Sin presented a lengthy rebuttal of the South Korean evidence that Seoul says proved the North's military torpedoed the Cheonan.

He suggested that the actual cause of the sinking may have been rocks in the water.

"I am not here to blame anyone but to clarify what happened," he said.

Lengthy rebuttal

Sin also dismissed the idea that the investigation of the incident was international, saying that the foreign participants played no more than a symbolic role in what was essentially a South Korean investigation.

According to Sin, the evidence against Pyongyang was "fabricated in pursuit of political objectives".

Those objectives included influencing South Korea's recent elections and poisoning North Korea's good ties with China, he said.

The US, Sin said, also benefited politically from the incident, as it helped force Japan to back down from previous demands that the US close a military base on the island of Okinawa.

PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, dismissed Sin's comments about a possible military response as "the same kind of provocative behaviour typical of North Korea".

South Korea vows to boost military

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/20106145186986902.html

South Korea's president has ordered a strengthening of the country's armed forces in response to the sinking of one of its warships in March.

In a speech on Monday, Lee Myung-bak said the country needed to raise its military readiness and respond sternly to the sinking of the Cheonan patrol ship or risk another provocation from North Korea.

"If we fail to sternly respond to North Korea's wrongdoing in cooperation with the international community and build up solid military readiness, a second and third provocation like the Cheonan incident can occur anytime," he said.

Last month an international investigation concluded that the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

North Korea has flatly denied the allegation and warned that any retaliation by the South would trigger war on the peninsula.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet in New York later on Monday to discuss a South Korean request for further sanctions against the North over the sinking.

According to the foreign ministry in Seoul, North Korea also planned to address the council about the sinking.

Relations between North and South Korea have plunged to their lowest level in years following the incident.

South Korea has already taken a number of punitive measures against North Korea, including resuming cross-border propaganda broadcasts that were suspended in 2004.

North Korea has said it will blow up banks of loudspeakers being built by South Korean soldiers along the heavily-fortified frontier.

At the weekend a statement from North Korea's military command threatened to turn the South Korean capital into a "sea of flame".

In his speech on Monday Lee also said he would hold some South Korean naval officers responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, although he not specify who.

His comments came a day after South Korea's top military officer offered to retire amid criticism over alleged negligence ahead of the sinking.