US soldier sentenced to 10 years in S.Korea rape case

Protesters stage a rally denouncing the crime of US soldiers in Seoul November 1, 2011.

A South Korean court today sentenced a US Army private to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a local teenage girl in one of the heaviest punishments handed to an American serviceman stationed on the divided peninsula.







The case has received active coverage by the local media since the initial news reports and the US military pledged cooperation with South Korean authorities on the investigation.

In 2002, the deaths of two schools girls hit by a US military vehicle conducting exercises and the subsequent acquittal of US soldiers involved in a US court martial led to a massive public outcry and an outpouring of anti-American sentiment in South Korea.

The Uijeongbu District Court said in a sentence that the severity of the crime committed against the victim allowed for the full term as laid out in the sentencing guideline, adding that the status of the defendant did not affect its decision.

The United States has about 28,000 troops in South Korea in the allies’ defence against North Korea, which was accused of mounting two attacks against its southern neighbour last year that killed 50 people. The South has about 650,000 active force soldiers.

The private in the 2nd US Infantry Division had been indicted in September on charges of sexually assaulting the 18-year-old girl in the frontline area about 35km north of Seoul where the US military maintains a heavy presence.

The court declined to release the name of the soldier pending the filing of any appeal by the defendant. A 2nd Infantry Division private affairs officer reached by telephone could not immediately comment whether the soldier would appeal.

Lights go out in Seoul amid energy crunch

The bustling entertainment districts of one of the world’s largest cities, Seoul, were pitched into darkness early today as the government clamped down on energy use to cope with rising oil prices.

Neon signs and outdoor lights were ordered switched off in the business and entertainment districts of the South Korean capital, in a tangible sign of how the oil price rise is hurting the resource-starved country.

President Lee Myung-bak has called for a tighter national energy policy to counter the impact of higher prices stemming from a wave of unrest across the Arab world and North Africa.

South Korea is the world’s No.5 crude oil buyer and No.2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer after Japan, and has boosted spending to acquire assets and develop oil and gas reserves, with a heavy focus so far on the Middle East and the Arctic.

Brent crude hit a high of almost US$120 (RM366) per barrel on February 24, the highest since 2008.



South Koreans have also been hit hard at gas stations, with pump prices jumping around 6 percent along with crude price rallies since December, while the government has been criticising the fat margins of local refiners.

About 92,000 establishments nationwide have been targeted by the government lighting restrictions, local media reports said. Those failing to adhere to the regulations could face up to 3 million won (£1,666.67) in fines.

The government in Asia’s fourth-largest economy wants to curb inflation as it battles rises in crude oil and producer prices and housing rents, and has put a freeze on utility rate increases.

Analysts estimate that every additional 10 per cent rise in annual average prices on international oil markets would lift South Korea’s annual average inflation by around a fifth of a percentage point.

That means if global oil prices rise 10 per cent above initial expectations on average for the year, South Korea’s annual average consumer price inflation will reach 3.7 per cent in 2011, instead of the 3.5 per cent expected by the central bank. Last year’s actual inflation was 2.9 per cent.

Lee’s government has been working on policy measures to stem inflation as campaigning starts for by-elections in April that will be a crucial gauge of support for him and his Grand National Party before parliamentary and presidential votes next year.

Economic policy is likely to figure highly on the political agenda ahead of the elections.

Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said Monday that the government may lower its 3 per cent crude oil import tariff, while it was not considering lowering domestic taxes on oil.

S. Korea spies break into Indonesians’ hotel room: ReportS. Korea spies break into Indonesians’ hotel room: Report

Three agents for South Korea’s spy agency broke into a downtown Seoul hotel room occupied by a delegation of Indonesian presidential envoys last week, apparently seeking secrets about bids for a defence contract, a newspaper said today.

The three left after being confronted by a member of the Indonesian delegation, led by a senior Cabinet minister. They had been discovered looking at files on a laptop computer, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

“National Intelligence Service employees were looking to identify the Indonesian delegation’s negotiating strategy with a view on our national interest,” a senior South Korean official was quoted as saying by the Chosun Ilbo.

The National Intelligence Service denied the report.




South Korea has been bidding for a contract to supply trainer fighter jets to Indonesia, the newspaper said. South Korean firms have also been increasingly eyeing Indonesia’s growing consumer market and natural resources.

Indonesia’s investment chief said last year he expected South Korea to invest up to US$10 billion in the next three to four years, with LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor considering taking part.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that there had been a break-in, leading to a laptop being stolen, but said it was returned 20 minutes later and played down the incident.

“The laptop belonged to a staff member, not a high-ranking official,” spokesman Michael Tene said in Jakarta.

The staff member worked in the trade ministry, a government source told Reuters.

“This has caused uneasiness in the relations of the two countries,” Teguh Juwarno, a member of the Indonesian parliament’s defence and foreign affairs commission, said.

North Korea again calls for end to confrontation with South

South Korean Army soldiers patrol along a seashore at sunset during a photo opportunity in Dangjin, southwest of Seoul.

North Korea called for end to confrontation and emphasised the need for dialogue with the South in a joint editorial published today by official newspapers, repeating the line from a year ago in the wake of clashes in 2010.

“Confrontation between north and south should be defused as early as possible,” said the joint editorial by three main official newspapers, carried by the KCNA news agency.

“Active efforts should be made to create an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation between north and south by placing the common interests of the nation above anything else.”

But North Korea failed to make any detailed offer for talks and the rhetoric was largely along the line from a year ago, when the editorial said: “National reconciliation and cooperation should be promoted actively.”



Tensions between the rival Koreas have reached some of the highest levels since their 1950-53 Korean War in 2010, when the North shelled an island in the South killing four people.

South Korea and its allies also blamed the North for torpedoing one of the South’s navy ships in March, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies the charge.

Train with gifts for N.Korea heir derails

A train packed with birthday gifts for North Korea’s leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un derailed this month in a possible act of sabotage, a Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts across the border reported today.

Open Radio for North Korea, a non-profit station which often cites sources in the reclusive, impoverished North, said the train laden with gifts, including televisions and watches, came off the rails on December 11 near North Korea’s border with China.

“The security service has been in an emergency situation because a train departing Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on December 11,” the radio station quoted a source in the security service in North Phyongan province as saying.




The city of Sinuiju is a North Korean trading gateway.

“The tracks and rail beds are so old it is possible there was decay in the wood or nails that secured the tracks could have been dislodged but the extent of damage to the tracks and the timing of the incident points to a chance that someone intentionally damaged the tracks,” the source said.

“It’s highly likely that it was someone who is opposed to succession to Kim Jong-un,” the source said, according to the radio station.

Very little is known about Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-il. In his mid-20s, he was appointed to key military and government positions this year, suggesting that he is the chosen successor. His birthday is believed to be January 8.

His father appears to have lavish tastes. This month a Viennese court found an Austrian man guilty of selling luxury goods believed to be destined for Kim Jong-il in a yacht deal worth 3.3 million euros (RM13.5 million).

The deal included several top-end Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars and musical instruments such as a Steinway grand piano, the court heard.

The sale of luxury goods to North Korea is banned under a UN resolution in response to the country’s nuclear testing programme but Kim is said to hold opulent receptions where he displays yachts and other expensive items procured abroad.

China urges North Korea to accept nuclear inspectors

North Korean soldiers stand guard yesterday on the banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong


China yesterday urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow United Nations nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with South Korea.

China, North Korea’s only major ally, has continually urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and has been reluctant to blame its neighbour for the shelling of a South Korean island last month, in which two Marines and two civilians were killed.

South Korea held further live-fire drills on the island on Monday, raising fears of all-out war, but the North did not retaliate. Instead, it offered to accept nuclear inspectors it has kicked out of the country previously.

“North Korea has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but also at the same time must allow IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors in,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.




“All parties should realise that artillery fire and military force cannot solve the issues on the peninsula, and dialogue and cooperation are the only correct approaches.”

The United States continued to voice scepticism over North Korea’s intentions, and said it was too early to consider resuming long-stalled six-party talks over its nuclear programme as Beijing and Pyongyang hope.

“Right now the action must come not from their words, but from their deeds,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said on his return from a visit to Pyongyang, where he acted as an unofficial envoy, that North Korea had promised to allow in inspectors to make sure it was not processing highly enriched uranium.

He told reporters North Korea had shown a “pragmatic attitude” in his unofficial talks.

“The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to ensure that they are not processing highly enriched uranium, that they are proceeding with peaceful purposes,” Richardson said in Beijing, referring to North Korea’s main nuclear site.

But analysts said it was unclear how much access IAEA inspectors would get because North Korea had limited their oversight in the past. They also said the worry was whether there were other nuclear sites hidden outside of Yongbyon.

“The question that remains is whether this is the only facility,” said Andrei Lankov at Kookmin University in Seoul. “A uranium enrichment programme is much easier to hide than a plutonium one.”

South Korea and the United States suspect Pyongyang, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and last year, has more sites geared to enriching uranium outside Yongbyon, the complex that is at the heart of the North’s plutonium weapons programme.

It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, construction of which began in 1980, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material is extracted from spent fuel rods.

Lankov said the North’s suggestion of compromise after provocation was a “usual tactic” of the impoverished state that had worked in the past to win aid.

“They create a crisis, they show that they are dangerous and drive tensions high,” he said. “Then they show they could make some concessions.”

If IAEA inspectors were allowed to carry out monitoring, it could help to address a key concern about North Korea’s uranium enrichment work because highly enriched material can be used in atomic weapons.

Seoul shares rose 0.8 per cent, broadly in line with other regional markets, to end at a three-year high yesterday, as anxiety over tension on the Korean peninsula eased, but the won currency remained under pressure.

The mood on Yeonpyeong Island had eased after the previous day’s drill, with military personnel visibly relaxed and preparing to sail back to the mainland.

North Korea, which has refused full IAEA oversight since 2002 and expelled inspectors last April, has said it only wants to enrich uranium to the low level used to make fuel for a civilian atomic power programme.

But in order to check this, the IAEA would need continued, unfettered access to all of North Korea’s uranium enrichment activities. It would usually require frequent inspections, video cameras and special seals to ensure that none of the material is being diverted for military use.

Richardson said of the North’s offer: “I believe that’s an important gesture on their part, but there still has to be a commitment eventually by the North Koreans to denuclearise, to abide by the 2005 agreement that says they will terminate their nuclear weapons activities.”

Richardson suggested the offer might pave the way for the resumption of six-party talks that also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea — although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea, reluctant to reward perceived bad behaviour.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said US officials had not been briefed on Richardson’s trip and said the onus was on Pyongyang to demonstrate its sincerity.

“We and others have had conversations with North Korea before,” he said. “The real issue is what will North Korea do. So we’re not going to judge a moment on a conversation between the governor and officials in North Korea.”

A key South Korean government official said the recent aggression by the North was closely linked to the succession from ailing leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, and was intended for its domestic audience as much as for anybody.

“We don’t want to give them the misperception that their provocations will help their national interest,” he said.

The UN Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea’s refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer made to Richardson offered some breathing space.

But the South Korean government official, who declined to be identified, said Seoul could not take the North Korean offer seriously as it was not official. He said the five parties had to agree first on what to offer the North.

“Then we can pursue six-party talks. But the next six-party talks will be the grand bargain. That means a target year (for dismantlement) and the whole picture in the next round, not partial elements.”

South Korea army to hold huge drill, North silent

A South Korean Army soldier walks up steps of a guard post near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on December 22, 2010.


South Korea announced land and sea military exercises yesterday including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang’s attack on a southern island.

The land drill, involving three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise, will take place on Thursday and is likely irritate the North.

The scale of the drill and the timing, coming right after the tensely staged a live-fire exercise on Monday, indicate South Korea’s conservative President Lee Myung-bak sees more political mileage in taking a tough military stance rather than reverting to dialogue, despite overtures from Pyongyang.




Lee’s government was heavily criticised at home for a perceived weak response to North Korea’s shelling of the southern island of Yeonpyeong last month.

“We’ll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong,” Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea. State news agency KCNA, which regularly denounces the South, United States and Japan, made no mention of the drills, although it carried an article lambasting a US lawmaker critical of Pyongyang as “human scum” and a “political illiterate.”

South Korea is also holding three days of live-firing naval drills off the peninsula’s east coast starting yesterday, a media official at the Defence Ministry said.

He would not provide details. Yonhap news agency said the drills were taking place 100 km south of the maritime border with North Korea and involved at least six naval vessels.

North Korea this week offered to re-admit UN inspectors concerned about its nuclear-weapon programme, leading to speculation of a resumption of six-party disarmament talks and a general sense of relief that the crisis had passed.

“The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back,” said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University.

“Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It’s still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming.”

The South Korean Army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbour.

“Yes, it will be a show of force against that,” an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill’s planning.

He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented.

“The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we’ll have 36. We’ll have the F-15 jets firing. We’ll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition.”

It will take place in the Pocheon region, less than 50 km north of downtown Seoul.

The latest crisis peaked when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong, just south of the disputed maritime border, killing four people — including two civilians — in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the end of the civil war in 1953.

The South carried out live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong on Monday, which provoked only a verbal reaction from the North. It had vowed to strike back if the South went ahead with the drills, prompting fears of all-out war.

China, North Korea’s only major ally, has urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and urged Pyongyang to follow through on its offer to allow UN inspectors into the country.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the planned drill.

Analysts say the North is unlikely to undertake another hostile act like this year’s attack on South Korea’s Cheonan warship, blamed on the North by the United States and the South, and the Yeonpyeong shelling, at least in the near term.

Its most likely next move would be to conduct live-fire artillery drills or possibly a short-range missile test into its waters off the west coast.

Analysts have said they believe its recent military acts were aimed at bolstering the ruling family as ailing leader Kim Jong-il grooms his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor.

“North Korea likes to step towards the brink and then away from it again,” said Brian Myers, an expert on the North at South Korea’s Dongseo University.

“The news from Pyongyang in the past few days indicates that the Kim Jong-il regime is now in the backing-off part of its usual cycle.”

He said the North probably did not expect the South to go through with live-fire exercises on Monday.

“If it had, it would not have made such loud threats of reprisal in its domestic media. After the exercises took place, the Kim regime had to tell its own people that the South’s ‘provocation’ was not worth responding to, a flip-flop it cannot afford to repeat in just a few days. I don’t expect the North to be quite as vocal about the next round of exercises.”

South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, speaking before the announcement of the drill, said domestic financial markets had weathered the crisis and the South Korean economy, Asia’s fourth-largest, stayed on a growth track.

But he warned that the tension could still dent consumer spending with a key sentiment measure due tomorrow.

South Korean markets were unaffected by the tensions with foreign investors buying into stocks and bond futures. Traders said earlier that the won currency was generally being affected more by concern over the euro zone.

Consumers and businesses in South Korea say they have lived with tension on the divided peninsula for years and markets do not always react, although the recent crisis had rattled global markets and remained an underlying risk

North Korea backs down over South Korean drill

Policemen and a soldier lead people to an air raid bunker on Yeonpyeong Island on December 20, 2010. South Korean marines have ordered residents of Yeonpyeong island to move to air raid bunkers in anticipation of a live-fire drill yesterday.


North Korea stepped back from confrontation over “reckless” military drills by the South yesterday and reportedly issued a new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.

Air-raid bunkers on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong shook during South Korea’s live-fire artillery exercise, which went on for more than 90 minutes.

But the North Korean guns that had shelled the island after a similar drill last month stayed silent, bringing a measure of relief in a crisis that raised fears of war along one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers.

“The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation,” the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North’s Korean People’s Army Supreme Command that called the drills a “childish play with fire.”




The UN Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea’s refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer reportedly made to US trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.

Richardson, speaking to CNN from Pyongyang, said he sensed a greater flexibility among North Korean officials.

“Their tone was more positive, as if they realised they’d gone into the precipice with their very negative actions,” said Richardson, who has had extensive past contacts with North Korea.

“They seemed to realise that they had maybe gone too far and now was a time to reach out,” Richardson said, according to a transcript released by CNN.

But others remained worried.

“The situation is very tense,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. “There can be no optimism in this situation.”

The United States said North Korea’s decision not to retaliate simply showed it was behaving “the way countries are supposed to act.” It reacted cautiously to word of the nuclear offer, saying it would wait for concrete evidence of North Korea’s intentions.

“We’ve seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “We’ll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances.”

South Korean financial markets took the day’s events in their stride, recovering from early falls, but international investors remained concerned, with the cost of insuring South Korean sovereign debt for five years rising 10 per cent.

The mercurial North had threatened it would strike back if its neighbour went ahead with the live-fire exercise.

On November 23, North Korean artillery shelled Yeonpyeong, close to the disputed maritime border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, and killed four people in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the Korean war ended in 1953.

“It’s a perfectly natural thing for a sovereign nation and a divided country to conduct military exercises to defend its territory in the face of military conflict,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a statement.

Yesterday’s artillery exercise came hours after a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis ended in an impasse, with Russia and China resisting an explicit condemnation of North Korea for last month’s attack.

Another Security Council meeting planned for yesterday was scrapped as diplomats assessed their positions.

But amid the gloom, New Mexico Governor Richardson, visiting Pyongyang to try to ease tensions, won agreement from North Korea to allow UN nuclear inspectors to return, according to CNN, which has a team travelling with him.

Pyongyang “agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency personnel to return to a nuclear facility in the country and agreed to negotiate the sale of 12,000 ... fuel rods and ship them to an outside country, presumably to South Korea,” CNN said, quoting correspondent Wolf Blitzer in Pyongyang.

Richardson said the offer might pave the way for the resumption of the so-called “6-party” talks on nuclear disarmament which also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea — although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea.

“Maybe now is the time for the six-party countries to reach out to North Korea and say, ‘OK, let’s get down to business,’” he said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” show.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm any agreement and therefore could not evaluate it. The State Department sounded sceptical, underscoring that Richardson was on a private trip and had not formally briefed US officials on what occurred.

“If North Korea wants to re-engage with the IAEA, wants to reintroduce inspectors into its facilities, that certainly would be a positive step,” Crowley said. “The key is following through and implementing that decision.”

Richardson was visiting in an unofficial capacity, the traditional means of communication between the two sides, and it was unclear whether the reported agreement meant real progress, particularly given Pyongyang’s poor record of honouring deals.

North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. It expelled inspectors in April 2009 after ripping up a previous disarmament-for-aid agreement. Last month Pyongyang unveiled major technical progress in uranium enrichment.

“Pyongyang is still using the same playbook: pursue provocative behaviour, threaten the international community and then come up with some conciliatory gesture,” said Nicholas Szechenyi, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said North Korea’s reported advances with uranium could make visits to its existing Yongbyon nuclear facility less informative about the true state of its nuclear programme.

“Returning IAEA inspectors to only Yongbyon really is a case of inspecting the barn after the horses have left,” he said.

Tension ahead of the military drills hit Korean markets when they opened yesterday, but shares recouped most of their losses to close down just 0.3 per cent, while the won ended local trade higher against the dollar.

Both sides have said they will use force to defend what they say is their territory off the west coast, raising fears the standoff could quickly spiral out of control.

Diplomats at the UN Security Council said plans for another session on Korean tensions yesterday had been scrapped with China’s envoys still awaiting word from Beijing.

Russia had called Sunday’s emergency Security Council meeting to try to prevent an escalation, but major powers failed to agree on a draft statement because of differences over whether to lay the blame on Pyongyang.

North Korea threatens to launch two retaliatory strikes over further planned artillery drills on disputed island

Tense: South Korean marines patrol on Yeongpyeong Island as the country announced it would stage further artillery drills over the weekend

Stand off: South Korean Navy vessels lie off the disputed island. North Korea has threatened to launch two retaliatory strikes if the drills go ahead

North Korea has again warned its southern neighbour to stop planned artillery drills on disputed islands and said it would launch two retaliatory strikes if it failed to comply.

South Korea has said it plans to carry out a 24-hour live-fire drill on Yeonpyeong Island sometime between Saturday and Tuesday, depending on weather.

Pyongyang, which claims ownership of nearby waters and has said it considers the drills an infringement of its territory, responded to similar firing exercises last month by shelling the tiny island.

Patrol: Police officers walk past a shelter on the island. Artillery drills last month saw the north shell Yeonpyeong, killing four people

Envoy: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson arrives in Pyongyang in a bid to ease the tension between the two countries

That attack killed four people on the island, including two civilians, which is home to a fishing community and military bases.

An unnamed senior North Korean military official told the Korean Central News Agency that if the south carried out more drills 'despite our military's prior warnings, second and third unpredictable self-defensive strikes will be made'.

A notice sent to the South Korean military today added that the retaliation would be made 'to safeguard our republic's sacred territorial waters' and that the 'intensity and scope of the strike will be more serious than the November 23 shelling'.

Seoul has said its planned drills are part of 'routine, justified' exercises and has warned that it is prepared to deal with any North Korean attack.

Representatives of the American-led UN Command, which oversees the armistice which ended the Korean War, will observe the drills.

The stand off comes as a high-profile U.S. state governor visited North Korea today in a bid to ease tensions.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has been a frequent unofficial envoy for the north, said he wanted to visit the country's main nuclear complex and meet with senior officials during his four-day trip.

He said ahead of his visit that he expected to get some sort of message from North Korea.

'My objective is to see if we can reduce the tension in the Korean peninsula.'

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the drills posed no threat.

'North Korea should not see these South Korean actions as a provocation,' he added.

South Korea warns of problems when NK power shifts

The United States and South Korea should be prepared for a crisis in North Korea when dictator Kim Jong Il leaves power, South Korea's defense chief said Friday.

The expected transfer of power to Kim's youngest son could have unpredictable consequences in the isolated nation, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said during a visit to the Pentagon.

"When Kim Jong Il's health may deteriorate, or if there's a movement of public opinion in North Korea, we cannot eliminate the possibility of there being an instability situation in North Korea" that would affect the security of the whole peninsula, Kim said through an interpreter.


Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young hold a joint news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.


Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, looks toward South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young at the end of a joint news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.





He did not elaborate, but some experts warn that the North could try to raise the prestige of its next leader by launching missiles or attacking South Korean targets. Others have said change at the top could trigger a military coup or a popular revolt.

North Korea has maintained a tight grip on its people and economy over six decades, while it pursued nuclear and missile technology and repeatedly defied international demands to disarm.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke with his South Korean counterpart, told reporters it is not clear that the North's current leader's son, Kim Jong Un, would steer his country differently than his father. In a joint statement following two days of talks, both the U.S. and South Korea said that they "will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state."

But North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Sin Son Ho, defended his country's nuclear deterrent, saying the Korean peninsula would already have turned into a "bloody ground of war" without it.

"The more the United States pursues the hostile policy and escalates nuclear threats against the sovereignty and existence of our nation, the DPRK will continue its self-defensive deterrence," Sin said, referring to his country using the initials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

There are signs of improving relations between the Koreas, including plans for reunions of families divided by the Korean War and talk of reviving a joint tourism venture.

But the U.S. also has deep concerns. North Korea quit U.S.-backed disarmament talks two years ago, stands accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, in March and may be seeking to resurrect its partially dismantled nuclear weapons program.

Some experts say North Korea may be trying to create the illusion of a thaw while it presses ahead with its nuclear program and reorders its political leadership.

"There's a lot of speculation about the circumstances that lay behind the sinking of the Cheonan and whether other provocations may follow," Gates said. "Provocations will not be tolerated."

Referring to the Cheonan without mentioning its name, Sin accused the U.S. of fabricating a conspiracy, driving "the situation of the Korean peninsula into a brink of war."

"If the United States is truly concerned about peace and security on the Korean peninsula, it should cease immediately all the military maneuvers that aggravate the situation and accept the DPRK's proposal to conclude the peace treaty."

The South Korean defense minister said North Korea must take responsibility for the sinking and apologize before relations can improve.

He said there are no indications that North Korea plans to disrupt an upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers in South Korea. "But we will go about watching against North Korean threats and any possible North Korean provocations," he added, including stepped up surveillance in concert with the United States.

Also Friday, nuclear proliferation experts said North Korea may be moving ahead with a program to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang has moved beyond laboratory-scale work and is now capable of building a "at the very least, a pilot-scale" plant of centrifuges to enrich uranium, said a report by the Institute for Science and International Security.

The same Washington-based group also recently reported that satellite images show new construction in the area around North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, where it once produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.

The work is reportedly continuing at the same time that North Korea's leadership seems to have chosen a successor to Kim Jong Il.

A top official told broadcaster APTN on Friday that North Koreans will be honored to follow Kim's son as the third-generation leader of the reclusive communist nation.

The official's words underscored recent political moves in North Korea that seemed to seal the younger Kim's role as leader-in-waiting.

At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said that no matter who is in charge in Pyongyang, the U.S. will demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons. "We view that as an internal political matter and it really doesn't change our position," he said.

Paul Stares, an expert on Northeast Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it would be "irresponsible" not to prepare for numerous possible changes in North Korean behavior as leadership passes to a new generation.

"But there could also be provocative behavior," Stares said. "There could be possible unwelcome situations if there is a desire to burnish the credentials of the heir apparent by generating external provocations like the Cheonan or something else."

Victor Cha, who advised former President George W. Bush on North Korea, said that a leadership change would not reduce Pyongyang's reliance on ally China or loosen its grip on its centralized economy.

"Major economic reform for a political system like this is extremely risky," said Cha, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It is about the most risky thing that a closed regime can do and it is exponentially more risky if it is a closed regime going through a transition."

South Korea sends aid to North, talks start on reunions

A convoy of South Korean trucks carrying the first rice aid to North Korea in three years crossed the peninsula’s heavily armed border on Friday in the latest of a series of conciliatory moves between the rivals.

At the same time, officials from both countries met in the North Korean border town of Kaesung to discuss the resumption of reunions of families split by the Korean War which were halted after the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year.

Relations between the two Koreas have soured since conservative President Lee Myun-bak’s election in 2008, and then sank to their lowest point in decades at the start of the year with the sinking of a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who visited Pyongyang last month, said the North was now sending a clear and strong signal to Washington and Seoul that it wanted to restart aid-for-disarmament talks.

Seoul, with Washington’s backing, accused Pyongyang of torpedoing its warship in March, and responded with toughened sanctions against its already weak economy and by staging a series of intimidating joint military drills off the peninsula.

Pyongyang denies it sank the South’s vessel but there have been signs of a thaw since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s surprise trip to ally China late last month.

Analysts say Kim went to China in search of economic aid for his cash-strapped economy — still reeling from botched currency reform late last year that triggered inflation and wiped out ordinary people’s savings — and to win political support for his son Kim Jong-un’s succession.

Flood aid

Compounding the North’s woes, severe flooding over the past two months has hit food production that even in a good year falls a million tonnes short of the amount needed to feed its 23 million people.

Seoul this week announced its first substantial aid package to its destitute neighbour in more than two years after flooding killed dozens, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated farmland.

On Friday, nine trucks carrying rice crossed the border at Paju, the second shipment inside a day after a fleet of trucks loaded with flour headed into North Korea.

Some diplomats and an aid group have said flooding was to blame for the apparent postponement this week of a Workers’ Party conference in Pyongyang, which was meant to bring together the North’s political elite for the first time in 30 years.

The meeting was widely seen as laying the ground for the eventual succession of the ailing Kim Jong-il’s youngest son.

Media reports have also speculated Kim’s health or disagreements over a reshuffle of the power structure may have caused the delay. North Korea state media has not mentioned the conference.

In recent weeks, the North has made a series of conciliatory gestures, including releasing a South Korean fishing boat and its crew, as well as an American jailed in the North, and said it wanted to restart the so-called six-party talks joining the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China.

The apparent thaw has prompted the start of shuttle diplomacy between regional nuclear envoys, fuelling speculation of a resumption in the talks, which had been rendered all but irrelevant when the North tested a nuclear device last year.

The allies have resisted calls by Beijing for the resumption of the talks, saying it was up to Pyongyang to show it is genuinely committed to dialogue and cutting tensions.

Carter, who travelled to Pyongyang in August to bring home the jailed American, said he had “received clear, strong signals” that Pyongyang wanted to restart negotiations on a peace treaty with Washington and Seoul, and on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

“They (North Korea) referred to the six-party talks as being ‘sentenced to death but not yet executed’,” Carter wrote in the New York Times on Thursday.

South Korea marks 60th anniversary of historic battle with dramatic re-enactment involving hundreds of troops

South Korea has staged a dramatic military re-enactment to mark the 60th anniversary of one of the most important battles of the Korean War.

Around 14,000 people took part in the event, which involved ships, aircraft and soldiers from South Korea, Australia and the United States, at the coastal city of Incheon.

The re-enactment of the Incheon Landing took place despite protests from North Korea that the original landing was a 'crime committed with the aims of bringing down the Korean people'.

A North Korea state newspaper said the ceremony was planned to deliberately provoke Pyongyang and showed its enemies' 'ambition for invasion... remains unchanged though over half a century has passed'.

The rapid amphibious invasion was followed by a bloody 11-day advance in Seoul, with U.S General Edward Almond eventually declaring the city liberated on September 25 1950

South Korea, with the help of the US military, has staged numerous 'War Games' in recent years.

The massive military drills are designed to be a show of strength to counteract the continual threatening behaviour by North Korea.

The event on Wednesday involved veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War from nine countries.

Twelve ships, 16 aircraft and some 200 marines from South Korea, the U.S. and Australia took part in the event, which included a mock landing, marine reconnaissance diving and a fly-past.
The original landing at the coastal city of Incheon in September 1950 by United Nations Forces, led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, occurred just months after North Korea invaded the South, sparking the conflict.

The hugely successful mission is seen by historians at a turning point in the war, ending a string of victories by the invading North Korean People's Army (NKPA) and resulting in the subsequent recapture of the South's capital Seoul.

The rapid amphibious invasion was followed by a bloody 11-day advance in Seoul, with U.S General Edward Almond eventually declaring the city liberated on September 25.
The two Koreas have technically remained at war ever since after the fighting ended with an armistice, with no peace treaty ever agreed.

Relations between the two nations have worsened in recent months after the South blamed Pyongyang of sinking one of its warships in March.

Last week the North released four South Korean fisherman who had been held for a month after being accused of illegally straying into North Korea's waters.

Controversial: The dramatic re-enactment took place despite protests from North Korea that the original landing was a 'crime committed with the aims of bringing down the Korean people'

A South Korean Navy hovercraft travels past U.S. Navy's amphibious transport dock ship USS Denver during a mock landing operation in the sea off Incheon

Landing: The event involved ships, aircraft and soldiers from South Korea, Australia and the United States

Historic battle: South Korean amphibious vehicles joined the mock landing operation in the sea off Incheon where United Nations forces landed in September 1950

U.S. and the South Korean Marine landing crafts sail to shores in a smoke screen near the Dokdo Ham, South Korean Navy's 14,000 ton-class large-deck landing ship

History: The original landing, by United Nations Forces and led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, took place at the coastal city of Incheon in September 1950

Around 14,000 people took part in the re-enactment to mark the 60th anniversary of the historic landing which historians claim marked a turning point in the Korean War

Three killed as Typhoon Kompasu tears through South Korea

Three people were killed and millions of pounds of damaged caused after the strongest tornado in 15 years tore through Seoul.

Powerful gusts ripped over power lines and forced the cancellation of scores of international flights after the tropical storm hit South Korea this morning.

An 80-year-old man died after being hit by a flying roof tile and a 37-year-old businessman was killed on his way to work by a falling branch, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Spectacular: The NASA satellite image shows Typhoon Kompasu - the seventh storm to affect the region this season - as it moves northwards

Powerful: The typhoon, the strongest to hit the Korean peninsula in 15 years, killed three people

A 75-year-old man also died after he was electrocuted while examining a transformer.

More than 60 international flights were cancelled, mostly to and from China, officials at Incheon and Gimpo airports said.

Services on Seoul subway lines and five railway routes were also suspended and schools in the capital were also ordered to delay the start of lessons for two hours.

The storm caused at least £5.4million in damages to the football stadium in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Typhoon Kompasu also left more than 60,000 homes along South Korea's west coast without power.

Kompasu, the Japanese word for 'compass', hit Ganghwa Island around 40 miles west of Seoul this morning.

The Korean peninsula is expected to be rid of the typhoon by tonight, but more than 3 inches of rain may fall on the captial and surrounding areas tomorrow, according to the state-run Korea Meterological Administration.

The typhoon also caused torrential rain and heavy gusts in North Korea, although there were no reports of casualties.

Last month, floods swamped farmland, houses and public buildings in the northwestern city of Sinuiju in North Korea and displaced more than 23,000 people.

Warnings: People walk past the wreckage of street vending booths in Seoul

Gusts: A towering wave crashes over the walls in Sinan. Around 60 flights to South Korea had to be cancelled because of the storm

Damage: Trees lie torn out of the ground after Typhoon Kompasu battered Chuncheon in South Korea

South Korea’s PM-designate quits under pressure

South Korea’s reformist Prime minister-designate Kim Tae-ho said on Sunday he would step down as nominee amid opposition criticism of his qualifications and ethics.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak named the 47-year-old former governor of a rural province as his choice as prime minister this month in a major mid-term reshuffle aimed at pushing through his pro-business reform agenda.

Lee replaced around half his cabinet at the time.

Some observers saw Kim (picture, bowing) as being groomed as a presidential candidate for the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) determined to retain power in the next election in 2012.

“I have resigned as the prime ministerial nominee with the thought that I should not cause any more trouble to the president’s governance,” Kim told a media conference in Seoul.

“During the confirmation process I sincerely acknowledged my many shortcomings. Although I feel some of the allegations were a bit unfair I accept them as they were caused by my insufficiencies.”

The main opposition Democratic Party has called into question Kim’s qualities as a leader, citing his failure to extricate himself from alleged involvement in a high-profile influence-peddling scandal, Yonhap news agency reported.

Prime ministers in South Korea traditionally take on a more bureaucratic and administrative role. Cabinet reshuffles occur frequently and often involve the prime minister.

His choice as aimed at boosting the Lee administration’s communication with local governments and the younger generation, the presidential office had said at the time of his nomination.

Kim had been earmarked to replace the previous Prime Minister, Chung Un-chan, who quit last month to take responsibility for the government’s failure to win parliamentary approval for a key development project.

Lee’s plans for job creation and his business-friendly reform agenda have been blocked for months in parliament due to a row over plans to move some ministries to a new administrative capital.

A vote in June marked the end of the plan by rejecting Lee’s initiative, and led to Chung’s resignation.

The GNP had a strong showing in parliamentary by-elections in late July, giving fresh momentum for his legislative agenda as he begins the second half of his single five-year term

Cursing South Korean soldiers gagged

South Korean soldiers shout as they take part in an exercise on Baengnyeongdo, an island near the disputed maritime border with North Korea. South Korea’s top military brass have said there is no excuse for soldiers’ foul language

South Korean soldiers have been ordered to clean up their act, and cut out expletives.

Even as tensions simmer on the peninsula, top military brass have said there is no excuse for foul language, and rather the country’s half a million soldiers should brush up on their knowledge of history.





Defence Minister Kim Tae-young ordered his staff this week to strengthen “language purification education” to combat verbal abuse within the military, local media today quoted ministry officials as saying.

“These soldiers aren’t teenagers,” the Korea Herald quoted a senior ministry official as saying. “Once they are discharged in their 20s, they can’t be constantly cursing their way through life. That’s why we want to help clean up their language.”

All South Korean men must serve a mandatory 24 months in the military. The two Koreas are still technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Clinton Announces New Sanctions Against NKorea-US-South Korean war games a threat to peace, says North

Celtic sign South Korea's 'human weapon' Cha Du-ri

Celtic-bound: South Korea's Cha Du-ri (front) gets the better of Uruguay's Alvaro Pereira in their last 16 World Cup clash


South Korean World Cup defender Cha Du-ri has signed for Celtic on a two-year deal, the Glasgow club said.
Manager Neil Lennon's second signing of the summer was subject to a work permit and has an option for a third year.

The 29-year-old Cha, who played in three of South Korea's World Cup games before they were knocked out by Uruguay in the last 16, has been dubbed 'human weapon' for his habit of injuring opponents, team mates and coaches in training sessions and games.



Cha moves to Scotland after playing for Freiburg in Germany last season. Celtic, Scottish champions 42 times, had a disappointing 2009-10 season and finished six points behind city rivals Rangers.

'I am excited about playing for Celtic and living in Glasgow,' he said.

'Celtic are a big club and have a good chance of winning trophies and I really want to play in a Glasgow derby,' added the converted forward.

'Even in Germany, people talk about the Old Firm game, so to actually play in one would be amazing.'