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Russia, North Korea to Hold Joint Naval Exercises

September 14, 2011 2 comments

voanews

A Russian military spokesman says Russia and North Korea are to hold unprecedented joint naval exercises in 2012.

Lieutenant Colonel Igor Muginov told Russian media Tuesday that the bilateral maneuvers will take place next year and will focus on search and rescue operations.

The agreement was reached last month during a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Muginov did not give any further details on the drills.

The United Read more…

Categories: military, North Korea, Russia Tags: , , , ,

GPS Jammers In Action

September 13, 2011 1 comment

North Korean mobile jammers

September 13, 2011: The U.S. recently revealed that one of its RC-7C reconnaissance aircraft was forced to land last March 8th, after a North Korean GPS jammer disrupted the aircraft’s navigation system. All that had previously been revealed about this was that, from March 18th onwards, North Korea had been directing a GPS jamming signal across the border, and towards the southern capital, Seoul. The jamming signal could be detected up to a hundred kilometers south of the DMZ. The North Korea GPS jammers are based on Read more…
Categories: North Korea, Technology Tags: , , , , ,

North Korea Gets Military Trucks

August 25, 2011 2 comments

the-diplomat.com

North Korea purchased thousands of military vehicles from China that have been transported into the country over the course of the past month, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

The South Korean paper says that between 3,000 and 4,000 Chinese-made military trucks and jeeps entered North Korea last month, at a rate of about 100 a day, according to video clips obtained by the paper.

‘Analysis of the footage suggests the trucks were 6-ton trucks made by FAW Car Limited Company. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited the headquarters of this firm in Changchun, Jilin, during his visit to China in May,’ it reported. ‘The military jeeps were Read more…

Categories: China, North Korea Tags: , , , ,

Kim Jong-il visits Russia for talks with Dmitry Medvedev

August 24, 2011 Comments off

guardian.co.uk

Kim Jong-il's train in Ulan-Ude

Kim Jong-il’s train in Ulan-Ude. Photograph: Yonhap/EPA

Kim Jong-il has travelled by armoured train to eastern Siberia for a summit with the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.

The North Korean leader arrived in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, Russian news agencies reported. Kim’s motorcade left town in the direction of Turka, a picturesque village on the shores of Baikal.

The Yonhap news agency said the Medvedev-Kim summit was expected to take place on Wednesday.

The talks could focus on a deal for a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North’s territory to the South. South Korean media said the North could earn up to $100m a year.

There were signs that preparations were being made for Read more…

Categories: North Korea, Russia Tags: , , , , , ,

U.S., South Korea Begin Drills; North Warns of War

August 17, 2011 Comments off

defensenews

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea and the United States launched a massive joint military exercise on Aug. 16, prompting the North to condemn the maneuvers as provocative and warn that war could erupt.

The two allies have described the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as defensive and routine, but the North habitually terms such joint drills a rehearsal for invasion and launches its own counter-exercises.

“The exercise started this morning,” a spokesman of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC) told AFP, referring to the annual computer-assisted simulation command-post exercise.

All of CFC’s major units are taking part, involving more than Read more…

Categories: North Korea, South Korea, United States Tags: , , , , ,

North Korea’s New Friend?

August 15, 2011 Comments off

Diplomat

A rare visit by a North Korean official to Cambodia raises the faint prospect of more engagement with Southeast Asia. But ties with Phnom Penh are complicated.

The North Korean mission to Cambodia sits on a major thoroughfare in the capital Phnom Penh, in the shadow of a lavish mansion belonging to the country’s Prime Minister Hun Sen. There are usually few signs of life behind the tinted windows of the pale pink embassy building, which only rarely admits visitors. Last month, however, the mission hosted a delegationfrom Pyongyang led by North Korean Deputy Trade Minister Ri Myong San. The official visit was relatively innocuous – Ri spoke with Cambodian officials about the expansion of economic ties – but the rare public appearance of a North Korean official underscored the curious friendship between Cambodia and the reclusive communist regime.The unique relationship between the two countries dates back to 1965, when Indonesian President Sukarno introduced North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung to Cambodia’s mercurial Prince Norodom Sihanouk at a non-aligned summit in Jakarta. At first glance, the Read more…
Categories: Cambodia, North Korea Tags: , ,

North Korea poised for nuclear weapon test next year

August 15, 2011 Comments off

theaustralian

NORTH Korea will conduct another nuclear weapons test within 12 months, according to senior US sources with access to Washington’s intelligence assessments.

This will bring much closer the day when North Korean nuclear weapons could threaten Australia. And it could trigger explosive reactions in northeast Asia.

The senior US sources believe the test could come sooner rather than later, although next year is regarded as the most likely.

“2012 is an auspicious year from the North Korean point of view,” said one senior American.

“It’s an election year in the US and an election year in in South Korea. And the North Koreans have publicly declared their desire to be a fully functional nuclear weapons state by 2012.”

For most of the past decade, sources say, North Korea has been systematically involved in nuclear proliferation.

At a meeting in 2003, senior North Koreans told representatives of the Read more…

Categories: North Korea, nuclear technology Tags: , , , , , , , ,

China puts pressure on Japan, sends navy fleet to North Korea

August 5, 2011 Comments off

indiatimes

BEIJING: China has put Japan under immense pressure by sending a navy fleet to neighboring North Korea, and accusing Tokyo of issuing misleading statement about Beijing’s military threat.

The fleet includes a missile frigate ” Luoyang“, which landed in Wanson in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea on Thursday. It also includes a training ship. Tokyo has for long been worried about close military relationship between China and North Korea.

The move came immediately after Japan warned that China’s naval forces were likely to increase activities around its waters. The two countries have been involved in bickering over ownership of parts of the East China Sea.

Tokyo’s issued a white paper discussing military threat posed by an increasingly aggressive China. Tokyo is particularly worried because China is close to launching its first aircraft carrier, which might be put afloat in seas close to Japan.

The white paper said China’s defense budget has shot up Read more…

Categories: China, North Korea Tags: , , , ,

North Korea seeks peace treaty with US

July 28, 2011 Comments off

news

NORTH overnight called for a peace treaty with the US to formally close the Korean War.

The call was made as a senior North Korean official arrived in New York for rare discussions with the US on the stalled denuclearisation talks, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The US still has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea, close to six decades after the 1950-1953 war on the peninsular ended in a cease-fire, the report said. A peace treaty is a long-held goal for Pyongyang.

“Concluding a peace agreement may be the first step for settling the Korean issue, including denuclearisation,” the north’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary.

Agreeing a peace accord “will provide an institutional guarantee for wiping out the bilateral distrust and opening the relations of mutual respect and equality”, the commentary said.

The six-party talks – involving North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia – stalled for three years after Pyongyang stormed out in protest over sanctions.

But Pyongyang’s envoy held talks with his Seoul counterpart last week raising the prospect that the dialogue could resume.

Categories: North Korea, United States Tags: , ,

North Korea tested missile rocket: report

July 25, 2011 Comments off

spacewar

North Korea last year tested a rocket to carry long-range missiles in an apparent attempt to showcase its weapons capability to the United States, a report said Sunday.

The communist state conducted the rocket engine test at the new Tongchang-ri missile base on the west coast in October, Yonhap news agency said, citing a senior Seoul official.

“We believed that the test, carried out at an hour when the US military satellite could detect it, was aimed at showcasing its missile threats,” Yonhap quoted the official as saying.

Satellite images taken in January showed that North Korea had completed a launch tower at the Tongchang-ri missile base, which was bigger and more advanced than the older Musudan-ri base on the east coast.

The North launched long-range missiles at Musudan-ri in 1998, 2006 and 2009, sending its Taepodong-2 missile to land some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles) in the Pacific in April 2009.

Analysts said the new base in Tongchang-ri, whose construction was believed to be almost complete, was seen as a key in the North’s quest for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICMB) that could possibly strike the United States.

The North has started to build new railways to transport materials needed to complete the new base, said the official quoted by Yonhap, adding Seoul saw no immediate signs that the North was about to launch long-range missiles at the site.

Seoul intelligence believe that the North’s Taepodong-2 missile, whose maximum range is estimated at 6,700 kilometres, could reach the US west coast within about 20 minutes if successfully launched at the new base, Yonhap said.

Categories: North Korea Tags: , , , , ,