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NUKEWARS
NKorea's Kim visits launch site province
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Feb 25, 2009


NKorea stages live-fire exercises near disputed border
North Korea has staged live-fire artillery exercises near its disputed Yellow Sea border with South Korea amid rising tensions, military officials in Seoul said Wednesday. The Joint Chiefs of Staff office said batteries on the west coast fired dozens of shells into the North's waters on Tuesday. It said the firing came from the regions of Haeju and Ongjin near the Northern Limit Line sea border, where deadly naval clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002. "The shells all landed within the North's waters. We took the firing as part of their routine winter military exercises," a spokesman for the office told AFP. The North has increasingly exposed its once heavily-camouflaged batteries along the west coast to the South's monitoring, he said. Fears of a border clash have grown since the North in late January cancelled all peace accords with the South, including one recognising the sea border as an interim frontier. The North's military announced last week it is "fully ready" for war with the South. Seoul's defence chief last week told parliament his troops would target North Korean launch sites if South Korean ships came under missile attack in the Yellow Sea. But he said Seoul would try to avoid a full-blown war by launching a brief and limited counter-attack. The North is angry at conservative South Korean leader Lee Myung-Bak, who scrapped his predecessors' policy of engagement with Pyongyang and virtually unconditional aid. The communist state said Tuesday it is preparing to launch a satellite, a move the United States and its allies believe is a pretext for a long-range missile test.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has visited several venues in a northeastern province where preparations for a controversial rocket launch are under way, state media reported.

Kim visited the birthplace in Hoeryong town of his mother Kim Jong-Suk, who died in 1949 when he was seven, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday.

The town is in North Hamkyong province, where the coastal missile launch site at Musudan-ri is located. Kim's visit to her birthplace and other venues was the latest in a series in the province to be reported in recent days.

The leader also visited a food processing and cigarette factory, the local branch of the central bank and a middle school, KCNA said in its report.

North Korea announced Tuesday it was preparing to launch an "experimental communications satellite" from its Musudan-ri site.

US and South Korean officials say any such exercise -- whether to launch a satellite or to test a missile -- would violate UN resolutions adopted after the communist state's last missile tests in 2006.

Intelligence reports say the North is readying its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which could theoretically reach Alaska. The North did not say when the launch would take place.

Seoul's Unification Ministry could not say whether Kim's extensive trip was related to the launch or just part of his regular public activities.

earlier related report
Obama, Aso seek restraint from NKorea: official
US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed Tuesday that North Korea should not do anything provocative, amid signs it is preparing a missile launch, an official said.

Aso, who was the first foreign leader to visit the Obama White House, said the two leaders shared concerns over moves by Pyongyang, although he did not elaborate on their exchange.

"Regarding the missile issue, we discussed how the initial reactions are important. After a missile is launched, we discussed that what is important is how other, foreign nations would act," Aso told reporters after the summit.

A senior Japanese official who attended the White House talks said the two leaders did not want North Korea to act provocatively.

Pyongyang said Tuesday it was readying to launch a satellite, a move that the United States and its allies believe could actually be a long-range missile test.

"In light of North Korea's announcement that it was preparing to launch a satellite on a rocket, the two leaders agreed that North Korea should not take actions that may increase tension," the Japanese official said.

A White House statement also said the leaders agreed to work together "to verifiably eliminate North Korea's nuclear program and to deal with the problem of North Korea's missiles."

The State Department repeated its warnings to Pyongyang against any missile launch, recalling such an act was banned under UN resolutions.

"Our view is that the North needs to spend its time working on and focusing on denuclearization," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

"As you know, UN Security Council Resolution 1718 prohibits the North from engaging in ballistic missile-related activities. And whether it's a space-launch vehicle or a missile, some of the building blocks for developing a space-launch vehicle and for producing long-range missiles are similar," he said.

He added: "Intimidation and threats are not helpful to try to bring about regional stability. So the North needs to desist from that type of behavior."

Obama's invitation to Aso was seen as a move to reassure Japan, which is sensitive about its status as the key US ally in Asia.

Japan was upset last year when then US president George W. Bush removed North Korea from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism as part of a denuclearization deal.

Japan has been pressing North Korea to reveal more about the kidnappings of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang's agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Aso said Obama was already familiar with Japan's concerns.

"On that topic, he led our exchange. He had profound knowledge of the issue," Aso told reporters.

"I was left with an impression that he is interested in Asia and closely studies Asia and Japan," Aso said.

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