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20 April 2010 S.Korea says no sign N. Korea preparing nuclear test By Staff Writiers Space War |
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| http://www.spacewar.com/reports/SKorea_says _no_sign_N_Korea_preparing_nuclear_test_999.html | |
South Korean YTN TV, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source in Beijing, said North Korea had begun the preparations in February for a test possibly in May or June. But South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told journalists: "There are no signs of the North preparing for a third nuclear test." Analysts in Seoul also dismissed the report as implausible. YTN TV had said the preparations involved significantly upgraded technology compared with its previous two tests. It said Pyongyang had been receiving technological assistance from Russians and that a senior North Korean official recently visited Beijing to discuss a possible test. North Korea carried out its first nuclear test in 2006 and a second in May last year, after it walked out of six-party nuclear disarmament talks. Analysts in Seoul said however that the isolated communist state had little reason to carry out another nuclear test at a time when its ally China is struggling to revive the stalled disarmament talks. Baek Seung-Joo of the prestigious Korea Institute for Defence Analyses told AFP the TV report was "like a novel," saying Russia and China were dedicated to global efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation. South Korea warned on Tuesday however that a resumption of the six-party talks may not be possible if Pyongyang is found to have been involved in the sinking of one of its warships last month. China is the host of the talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes in return for diplomatic and economic gains. The forum also includes the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States Yang Moo-Jin, professor of the University of North Korean Studies, also dismissed the YTN report as "totally implausible." "There is no reason for the North to carry out a third nuclear test at this time when the host China is making utmost efforts to resume the six-party talks," Yang said. North Korea has said it will not return to the nuclear talks programme until UN sanctions are lifted and the United States commits to holding talks on a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
Earlier related report: The downing of a 1,200-tonne corvette in the Yellow Sea last month after a mystery blast has ratcheted up cross-border tensions, with suspicions hanging over North Korea although Seoul has not directly accused Pyongyang. "If convincing evidence of North Korea's involvement is found, I think the six-party talks will be unable to take place for the time being," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told a briefing. Adding to the jitters, a South Korean television station said North Korea was preparing a third nuclear test, but Yu dismissed the report and analysts also described it as implausible. Yu however said that if Pyongyang is clearly found to be responsible for the March 26 disaster which cost the lives of 46 sailors, "the North would then have to be called to account over the sinking". As well as warning about the future of the stalled nuclear talks, he repeated comments made Sunday that Seoul would take the issue to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if Pyongyang was involved. South Korean officials say an external explosion was the most likely cause, but have refrained from directly pointing the finger at the reclusive communist state. President Lee Myung-Bak vowed Monday a "resolute" response to the disaster, the worst peacetime loss of life for South Korea's navy. Pyongyang on Saturday denied any involvement, accusing the conservative South Korean government of seeking to shift the blame in order to justify its hardline policy toward the communist North. Analysts said the incident could harm diplomatic efforts aimed at coaxing North Korea back to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks it quit a year ago. "South Korea may take strong diplomatic measures or ask for a delayed six-party forum if there is clear evidence of North Korea's involvement," Seoul's Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-Hyun told AFP. Foreign Minister Yu dismissed a report by South Korean YTN TV that the North was preparing a third nuclear test following ones in 2006 and 2009. "There are no signs of the North preparing for a third nuclear test," he said. Quoting an unidentified diplomatic source in Beijing, YTN said the North had begun the preparations in February, involving significantly upgraded technology, for a test possibly in May or June. Yang Moo-Jin, professor of the University of North Korean Studies, also dismissed the YTN report as "totally implausible." North Korea has said it will not return to the nuclear talks programme until UN sanctions are lifted and the United States commits to holding talks on a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War. With the cloud of suspicion hanging over North Korea over the sinking, South Korea is launching detailed inspections of the Cheonan after the broken wreckage was moved ashore. "Naked-eye inspections of the stern have led the joint investigation team to a conclusion that an outside explosion was a high possibility," defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae told journalists. "But any conclusive findings would come only after we salvage and inspect the bow section and other debris," he added. Efforts to recover the still-submerged bow resumed after the salvage was hampered when a chain snapped under pressure from high waves and strong currents. The bow is expected to be brought to the surface by this weekend if weather conditions are favourable. Salvage ships and mine sweepers have also been combing the sea in the hunt for debris. Seoul has set up a 69-member investigation team which will eventually include 15 US and other foreign experts in a bid to ensure the eventual findings cannot be disputed. Yoon Duk-Yong, co-head of team, said Friday that the warship appeared to have received a powerful impact on the port side, where steel plate was curved inwards, and ruled out an onboard blast. |
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20 April 2010 |
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| http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE63J57420100420? rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401 | |
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(Reuters) - North Korea is preparing for a third atomic test that may come in May or June, South Korean broadcaster YTN reported on Tuesday, an act that could further isolate Pyongyang and complicate already troubled nuclear diplomacy. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan dismissed the report, saying Seoul had seen no evidence, and the U.S. State Department also voiced doubts about its accuracy. "If North Korea was making such preparations, there would be related circumstances that can be detected ... there is no intelligence on such circumstances," Yu told a news briefing. "We are sceptical of that report," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington. YTN quoted an unnamed diplomat as saying that preparations began in February and involve a level of technical proficiency that is significantly upgraded from the first two tests, considered partial successes at best. North Korea has boycotted international nuclear disarmament talks for over a year and put conditions on its return that include ending U.N. sanctions imposed after its last test in May 2009 that dealt a severe blow to its feeble economy. North Korea, scrutinized by U.S. spy satellites, can easily signal it is preparing for a test by moving equipment but that does not mean a blast is imminent, analysts said. A third test would improve North Korea's ability to make nuclear weapons but also decrease its supply of fissile material, thought to be enough for six to eight nuclear bombs, experts say. HEDGING ITS BETS Destitute North Korea may be trying to hedge its position, experts said. It needs the aid that comes with making progress in nuclear disarmament talks but also wants the world know it can rattle the region with another nuclear test if discussions fail. "The North is likely to first show that it may conduct a test and then try to prod China and the United States (into making concessions)," said Lee Jong-won, an expert on the North at Japan's Rikkyo University. Leader Kim Jong-il is expected to soon go to China, his state's biggest backer and closest thing it can claim as a major ally, where he may try to win sweeteners for returning to the six-country talks hosted by Beijing, experts said. Kim's leadership has been tested by a failed currency move late last year that exacerbated food shortages among an impoverished public and sparked rare civil unrest. This raised questions about his ability to anoint his youngest son as heir to the state his family has ruled for more than 60 years. Previous nuclear tests, trumpeted at home, have boosted Kim's stature with his country's powerful armed forces and rallied the masses around his guiding military-first rule. A German former aid worker in North Korea told reporters in Beijing that farmers had been resisting accepting the new currency following the reform which, she said, was threatening already precarious food supplies. "Some people thought that after some time everything will be fine again. But then when they said at the beginning of January that nobody could use any foreign currency, then people became really unhappy," said Karin Janz, who until February 1 was North Korea country director for German NGO Welthungerhilfe. Market players, who have grown used to the North's sabre rattling, said the report had no major market impact. The North's two previous nuclear tests caused brief, and quickly reversed, falls in local shares and the Korean won. Investors said markets would move on acts that raise the chance of war, shaking the export-based economies of North Asia that are responsible for about one-sixth of the global economy. "North Korea should come to its senses. The people are suffering and they spent 6 billion won ($5.37 million) in fireworks on founder Kim Il-sung's birthday. Imagine how much corn that could buy," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said. (Additional reporting by Christine Kim in Seoul,
Yoko Kubota in Tokyo,
Ben Blanchard in Beijing and
Arshad Mohammed in Washington, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Ron Popeski) |
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