The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's business empire, which includes the conservative Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea's communist leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents.

The payments included a $3 million "birthday present" to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to "several tens of million dollars" to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, the partially declassified documents said.

Moon apparently was seeking a business foothold in North Korea. But the transactions also raise legal questions for Moon and could cast a shadow on George W. Bush's presidential campaign, given the Bush family's longstanding financial and political ties to Moon and his organization.

Besides making alleged payments to North Korea's communist leaders, the 80-year-old founder of the South Korean-based Unification Church has funneled large sums of money, possibly millions of dollars as well, to former President George H.W. Bush.

One well-placed former leader of Moon's Unification Church told me that the total earmarked for former President Bush was $10 million. The father of the Republican nominee has declined to say how much Moon's organization actually paid him for speeches and other services in Asia, the United States and South America.- consortium news

"In early July I spoke in five cities around Korea at rallies held by the Women's Federation for World Peace. There, I declared that my wife, WFWP President Hak Ja Han Moon, and I are the True Parents of all humanity. I declared that we are the Savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah." Rev. Moon Unification News August 24, 1992

"There will be a purge on God's orders, and evil will be eliminated like shadows. Gays will be eliminated, the 3 Israels will unite. If not then they will be burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring but this is what happens. It will be greater than the communist purge but at God's orders."Gods day morning address

27th May, 2005 (UPI) North Korea has denied it is preparing to conduct a nuclear test explosion and claims the rumor was started as propaganda by the United States. The claim was made by state-run television, which said the United States was trying to undermine the North Korean government and leadership.

"After speaking ill of our republic as an outpost of tyranny and a fearful country, the U.S. has come up with rumors of a missile test and an underground nuclear test," the report said.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials said spy satellites spotted tunnels and a viewing platform under construction in the northeastern town of Kilju, which appear to be preparations for a nuclear test, the (South) Korea Times said Friday. Last June, North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, had three rounds of negotiations, without progress. Since, North Korea has refused to rejoin the talks, citing hostile U.S. policy. Big News Network.com

North Korea could strike US

29/04/2005 07:57 - (SA) Washington - North Korea is able to mount a nuclear warhead on missiles that could hit the United States, a senior US defence official said on Thursday in a startling assessment of the hardline communist state's military capability. Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, gave the assessment while answering questions during a Congressional hearing.

Asked by Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton whether North Korea had the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device, Jacoby said: "The assessment is that they have the capability to do that, yes, ma'am."

He said that North Korea also had the ability to deploy a two-stage intercontinental missile that could successfully hit US territory.

Concern

"Assessed to be within their capacity, yes," Jacoby told Clinton when asked if a two-stage intercontinental missile strike was "already within their operational capacity."

Questioned on the possible target range of the missiles and whether they could reach the West Coast of the United States, Jacoby said he needed to look at the range arcs but added: "It's certainly Alaska and Hawaii, and I believe a portion of the Northwest."

It is believed to be the first time a US government official is publicly saying that North Korea has the technology to add a nuclear device to a missile.

His remarks at the hearing on the defence intelligence budget of the US Senate Armed Services Committee alarmed the wife of former President Clinton.

"It is troubling beyond words that we have testimony like that at this time," said the Democratic Senator from New York as she suggested that the Bush administration's policy on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive does not seem to be working.

"There is that old saying, you know, if you're in a hole, quit digging. And this administration just keeps getting bigger shovels, and it bothers me greatly," Clinton said.

President George W Bush admitted on Thursday "there is concern" about North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's capacity "to deliver a nuclear weapon."

"We don't know if he can or not, but I think it is best when you're dealing with a tyrant like Kim Jong-Il to assume he can," he told a news conference.

Bush said however that negotiations were still the best way to reign in North Korea's nuclear arms programme and tougher action would require consensus among regional allies. He signalled he would have to consult with other partners to the talks - China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - before mulling tougher measures such as taking the matter to the UN Security Council. Bush said that the North Korean threat was among reasons for the US move to establish a missile defence system.

"Perhaps Kim Jong-Il has the capacity to launch a weapon and wouldn't it be nice to shoot it down?" he said. "And so we got a comprehensive strategy in dealing with him."

North Korea announced in February that it possessed nuclear arms. - news24.com/

May 28, 2005 SEOUL: A food shortage crisis in North Korea is growing more severe by the day and the communist state is dispensing "starvation rations" to its population, a top UN agency official said on Friday.

The crisis has grown dire as international aid is drying up and food stocks from last year's harvest in North Korea grow short, Anthony Banbury, the regional director for Asia of the UN's World Food Programmeme told a news conference in Seoul.

"There is now a food crisis in North Korea and that crisis is getting worse by the week, and by the day," Banbury said.

The situation is not as dire as the mid 1990s when over an estimated one million North Koreans died of starvation, but the current situation could deteriorate and bring about widespread famine, he said. Banbury said North Korea bears a large measure of responsibility for the current food-shortage crisis. North Korea has spent heavily to develop an atomic arsenal. - Pakistan daily times

May 28, 2005 SEOUL - By severing some of the few remaining U.S. ties with North Korea in recent days, the Bush administration appears to be trying to further isolate the Pyongyang regime over its pursuit of nuclear weapons, analysts say.

Wednesday's suspension of a Pentagon program to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War puts an end to one of the few regular channels of face-to-face contact between Americans and North Koreans. It also cuts off a source of hard currency for the communist nation's army, which was being paid millions to assist in the search for remains.

Also this week, the U.S. refused to renew the contract of the American executive director of an international consortium in charge of supplying energy to North Korea.

Analysts said the decision to terminate the contract of Charles Kartman, a career diplomat who had headed the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization since 2001, was probably a prelude to abandoning a light-water nuclear reactor being built on North Korea's east coast.

"The U.S. is shutting down anything that is in any way remotely beneficial to North Korea," said L. Gordon Flake, an expert on North Korea and head of the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs in Washington.

He described this week's moves as signs that the administration was "gearing up for the next phase" as the prospect of North Korea returning to multinational talks on its nuclear weapons program grew increasingly unlikely.

A former State Department official, who did not want to be quoted by name, said the suspension of the remains recovery program and Kartman's termination indicated a concerted effort by the administration to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.

"They are putting all the pieces in place to shut everything down around North Korea," he said. v Aid officials are worried that the United States might not make its annual contribution to a United Nations food drive for North Korea. The U.S. has been one of the largest suppliers of food to the impoverished nation, last year providing 50,000 tons. It has not yet indicated whether it will make a pledge this year, said Anthony Banbury, Asia director of the U.N. World Food Program. - By Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer latimes.com

Seoul (AFP) Oct 02, 2005

President Roo Moo-hyun gave a strong indication on Saturday that he plans to end the United States' right to control South Korea's armed forces in case of war, a source of lingering resentment here. Roh, elected on a wave of anti-American sentiment in December 2002, made the remarks at a ceremony to celebrate the armed forces' 57th anniversary.

"The recently announced military reform programme reflects our determination to achieve independence in defence capability. When completed, this reform will transform our armed forces into advanced, crack units," Roh said. "It will be reborn as independent armed forces that fit its name and reality as well, especially by exercising our own wartime operational control," he added.

Under a controversial 1950 accord, operational control over South Korea's 680,000-strong armed forces would be exercised by the commander of US troops stationed in South Korea in case of an armed conflict. The recovery of the wartime operational rights, handed to US military authorities during the Korean War, is seen by many South Koreans as a matter of national sovereignty.

South Korea last month unveiled a military reform programme highlighted by a 26 percent cut in troops to 500,000 by 2020 and a drastic increase in fire-power. South Korea hosts 32,500 US troops. President George W. Bush has nominated the current commander of US Army forces in Europe to lead the US forces in Korea, the Pentagon said last month. If confirmed by Congress, General Burwell Bell III will replace General Leon Laporte as head of the combined US-South Korean forces command.

Ties between the two allies have been strained over how to rein in North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and Roh's rejection of a joint plan for armed intervention in the event of instability there. Other contentious bilateral issues are the sharing of defense costs and a plan for redeployment of US troops.

However, Roh stressed the alliance is stronger than ever, as shown in the two sides' joint efforts to resolve the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. "The alliance will keep developing toward a comprehensive, dynamic and mutually beneficial one in the future," he said.

A senior defence ministry official said there were no immediate plans to discuss wartime control with the US side. "This issue of wartime operational control should be adressed very carefully in consideration of the security situation and the two countries have not yet started talking about this issue," he said. - spacewar.com

Oct 2005 - Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea alleged Monday that U.S. spy planes flew about 180 missions over the communist state in October.

Pyongyang publishes a monthly tally of U.S. aerial espionage. The U.S. military doesn't comment, although it acknowledges monitoring North Korean military activity.

Citing an unidentified military source, the North's official Korean Central News Agency claimed that American aircraft, including U-2 spy planes, RC-135 reconnaissance planes and EP-3 electronic surveillance planes spied on "strategic military objects," coastal areas and under the sea.

"These aerial espionage flights clearly prove that the U.S. imperialists are desperately trying to stifle the DPRK militarily behind the scene though they are giving lip-service to the negotiated settlement of the nuclear issue," KCNA said in an English-language report. DPRK is the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea and the U.S. have been in a standoff over the North's nuclear programs. Since 2003, the two sides have held four rounds of talks to resolve the dispute, along with China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The latest negotiations in September produced a breakthrough accord in which North Korea pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid, security assurances and diplomatic recognition. But the North's demand a day later for a light-water reactor raised doubts about its willingness to proceed.

The next talks are scheduled for early November, although no specific date has been announced yet. - airforcetimes

Beijing, PTI: November 1, 2005 - China, as a neighbour of North Korea, will continue to provide aid to the neighbouring country as part of Beijing's policy of forging an "amicable" and "prosperous" neighbourhood, a senior Chinese Communist Party official has said.

"We will provide aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the best of our ability," head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Wang Jiarui, told reporters here on Sunday at a press conference. Briefing reporters on Chinese President and CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao's just-concluded maiden official goodwill visit to North Korea, Wang said: "China not only provides the DPRK with economic aid, but also helps it build factories. We will render help to the best of our ability when the DPRK faces difficulties." China is North Korea's last major ideological ally, a key supplier of food.

Wang said China's policy towards neighbouring countries is to foster an amicable, peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood. "The policy can't be interpreted in a narrow way," Wang said, "China and the DPRK exchange views on developing domestic economy, science and technology and education.. The newly established Tae-an Friendship Glass Factory, which was built with aid from China, is an innovative project in providing assistance to better people's lives." - deccanherald.com

NOVEMBER 01, 2005 03:01 by Myoung-Gun Lee

The headquarters of the Movement to Make Our Nation One, better known as the Gyeore Hana movement, is rapidly emerging as South Koreas window to the inter-Korean exchanges recently being led by North Korea.

This group is closely associated with the Unification Coalition for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint South-North Korea Declaration and Peace in the Korean Peninsula, a unification group that emphasizes nationalism and wages anti-American activities.

The Unification Coalition created controversy by criticizing the recent EU draft resolution on North Koreas human rights, saying, It is a vicious political slander that lacks even basic facts. As a result, there are worries among civic groups that amid the ongoing exchange efforts with and assistance to North Korea, inter-Korean exchange and humanitarian assistance might by sidelined by rising ideological conflicts.

The Rapid Emergence of Gyeore Hana

Gyeore Hana is a non-profit civic group created in February last year by various progressive groups members such as the National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification of Korea and the South Korean Headquarters for the Alliance of Korean People for National Unification. Gyeore Hana gathered 3,847 members in South Korea and sent them to Pyongyang 16 times in one month starting September 26. They watched the mass gymnastics show Arirang in Pyongyang, performed in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the North Korean Workers Party, and visited the birthplace of Chairman Kim Il Sung in Mangyongdae, Pyongyang. The number of people sent by Gyeore Hana, 3,847 is over half of the 7,203 that visited North Korea and watched Arirang. It is the largest number of visitors sent to North Korea by a single organization. South Koreas visits to watch the Arirang performance ended in late October.

Gyeore Hana officials started to reside in Yanggakdo Hotel, Pyongyang, since late September, opened direct phone lines to South Korea, and coordinated the visiting schedule of South Korean visitors. It is very rare for North Korean authorities to permit the establishment of phone lines to South Korea for individual groups.

North Korean authorities used the same line on October 6 to tell their South Korean counterparts that the Workers` Party Foundation Anniversary invitations they extended to South Korean civilian representatives were canceled. Although the attendance of South Korean civic groups was arranged by the South Korean Preparation Committee of the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration (June 15 Preparation Committee), North Korea used Gyeore Hana as its communication window. It is reported that the committee asked North Korea for an explanation.

An official working at an organization that engages North Korea said, The Unification Coalition also belongs to the June 15 Preparation Committee, and I think that North Korean authorities, knowing well the relationship between the Unification Coalition and Gyeore Hana, used Gyeore Hanas phone line.

There are rumors among groups that engage with North Korea that the South Korean government is friendly to Gyeore Hana. It is reported that Gyeore Hanas Standing Representative Choi Byung-mo, a lawyer, is a close friend with key members of South Koreas ruling party.

The Relationship between Two Groups

A government official overseeing North Korean affairs said, You can view Gyeore Hana as an organization that is in fact being managed by the Unification Coalition. The members of the group also support this view. The Unification Coalitions Standing Representative Council Chairman Han Sang-ryul is a joint representative of Gyeore Hana, and Unification Standing Executive Committee Chairman Han Chung-mok and former Chief of Secretariat Kim Yi-gyung are the management committee chairman and secretary general of Gyeore Hana, respectively. - english.donga.com

(Page 1 of 3) Jan. 15, 2006 (CBS) North Korea has been called many things - the Hermit Kingdom, the most isolated country in the world, an outlaw nation, an exporter of terrorism, part of the "axis of evil." It's been on a war footing with the United States for more than 50 years.

Few outsiders, and even fewer journalists ever get a chance to go to North Korea and see first-hand some of what is happening there. 60 Minutes correspondent Dan Rather got that chance recently.

And even though the 60 Minutes team couldn't go anywhere or do anything without two full-time official government guides, they saw people, things and events that sometimes frightened them and were always surprising.

The first thing that caught our attention in the capital, Pyongyang, was the traffic police. Well dressed and impeccably groomed, they display almost no emotion as they pirouette in a city that's so poor and so short on electricity there aren't any traffic lights most of the year. The police are in perpetual motion, working with an almost robotic precision. All of which is rather odd because there isn't much traffic. People can't afford cars.

And, unlike in China and Vietnam, they can't afford bikes, either. We saw only a few. Most people have to walk to their jobs. We weren't allowed to visit any offices or see anyone at home. You can be locked up in Pyongyang for letting a stranger into your home. We asked for, and were denied, permission to go to a food market. No reason was given, though the government is known to be very defensive about widely reported food shortages.

We could see that air pollution is becoming a problem because of factories and the power plant. One of the streets made us think for a moment we were in Paris. But there's nothing romantic about this city: everything seemed structured, organized and very clean. We never saw one scrap of paper on the sidewalks. The government assigns workers to keep them clean and also decrees who gets to live here. It's a privilege, reserved for strong supporters of the regime.

We saw some of the true believers erecting signs. The signs said "60." It wasn't a welcoming party for 60 Minutes, you can't watch our broadcast here. It's almost impossible to see any foreign TV broadcasts. As for the 60? Well, we were there when the country was celebrating its 60th birthday.

In the main square, the government was eager to let us take all the pictures we wanted at the gigantic military parade and birthday party. Somehow North Korea, which is the size of Mississippi, manages to afford the third largest army in the world. The soldiers, men and women with their high stepping and their goose-stepping, seemed even more trained, motivated and robotic than the traffic police.

The big show went on for two hours, and it wasn't just for us. It's one of the few shows you can regularly see on television. The government, and three star generals like Ri Chan Bok, want the North Korean people to know they're ready for an American invasion, which the general insists is coming.

"Tell the American people that you met the general. If the United States invades our country and starts a war, the People's Army will fight to the death and defend ourselves, taking appropriate revenge," General Bok said.

Does the general think that the United States might attack North Korea?

"We firmly believe that the United States will carry out its policies on our country even if they have to use military means," the general said.

And if the United States does invade, the general says his country is ready to use the ultimate weapon. "What we can say to you definitely right now is that we currently have nuclear weapons." - cbsnews.com

Washington (AFP) Jan 17, 2006 - The United States could be drawn into hostilities with North Korea if it widens its sanctions on the nuclear-armed communist regime, a former South Korean minister warned Tuesday.

Washington has already slapped financial sanctions on the hardline regime over alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities.

Angry over the action, Pyongyang has refused to return to multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive.

"Coercive measures such as large-scale sanctions and interdiction of DPRK ships as part of the 'Proliferation Security Initiative' have the potential to trigger a major conflict, even a conflagration," ex-unification minister Park Jae Kyu said in a Washington lecture Tuesday.

The US-educated Park, now president of South Korea's Kyungnam University, did not elaborate on a possible US-North Korea conflict but noted that Pyongyang had accused Washington of "poisoning the atmosphere" of six-party nuclear talks by imposing the financial sanctions. The United States has clamped down on companies it suspects of aiding North Korea in counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade and urged Pyongyang to resume the talks without preconditions. It is not known whether Washington would step up its sanctions, but last year it reportedly reviewed a plan to seek UN endorsement for intercepting ships or aircraft suspected of carrying so-called weapons of mass destruction to or from North Korea. The plan, under the US-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative also involving Japan, Australia and a number of European nations, was considered an option if North Korea refused to abandon its nuclear weapons.

The Stalinist state in September agreed in principle to disband its nuclear weapons program in return for diplomatic and security guarantees and energy aid. But it reacted angrily after the US Treasury Department in the same month told US financial institutions to stop dealing with a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, which it accused of being a front for North Korean counterfeiting.

A month later the US blacklisted eight North Korean companies allegedly involved in the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The nuclear standoff ignited in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-enrichment program. North Korea responded by throwing out UN inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Park said North Korea "does have more to gain" from a peaceful resolution of the current nuclear standoff, adding that "its dire economic situation means that it is in no condition to risk a war."

The prospect of future economic cooperation between North Korea and South Korea, Japan and China "will hinge on the absence of major disturbances," said the ex-minister, who was instrumental in arranging the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 since the emergence of two separate states on the Korean peninsula in 1948.

But Park said South Korea believed that "exerting overt pressure on the North Korean government would not really help alleviate the North Korean people's suffering nor would a UN resolution be compatible with the goal of prodding the North to resolve the nuclear issue."

China's ambassador to Washington Zhou Wenzhong said North Korea was eager to have improved relations with the United States but highlighted Pyongyang's security concerns. "They feel they are not being treated as a friend or a partner ... rather they feel their security is being threatened," he said during a visit to Chicago.

China, North Korea's top ally and aid provider, is host to the six-party nuclear talks, which also include the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia. "Its in the best interest of everyone to try to resolve the issue peacefully and obviously a nuclear free peninsula is in the best interest of all," Zhou said. spacewar.com

North Korea is no longer forging US dollars, contrary to US claims, South Korea's intelligence agency has said. The agency had no evidence Pyongyang has made forged, so-called "supernotes" since 1998, a lawmaker briefed by the National Intelligence Service said.

US sanctions imposed in connection with the alleged forgery have stalled talks on the North's nuclear ambitions. The US negotiator to the talks warned on Wednesday that diplomacy was the preferred, but not the only, option. The South's National Intelligence Agency (NIS) briefed lawmakers in a closed door session on Thursday.

A legislator with the ruling Uri Party, Im Jong-in, later told reporters that North Koreans had been arrested in 1990 for counterfeiting US dollars, but that was the last time the NIS was aware of such behaviour was in 1998.

Washington's belief that the North was continuing the practise has led to US sanctions on a number of firms, infuriating Pyongyang and stalling international talks on its nuclear programme. Christopher Hill, the US chief negotiator on the North, said Washington could consider other options if the stalemate continued. "We want a diplomatic solution to this problem ... we believe it's the best solution, absolutely the best solution (but) it's probably not the only solution," he told a forum in Washington.

The international community has looked in the past to China, as the North's closest ally, to bring Pyongyang back to the talks table. But an influential think-tank warned in a report issued on Thursday that China did not wield as much leverage as was generally thought.

"China's influence on North Korea is more than it is willing to admit but far less than outsiders tend to believe," the International Crisis Group report said.

However, the report did acknowledge that China was still in the best position to coerce the North, given the two countries' economic interaction. BBC

The US believes that NKorea may sell its nuke technology to other countries.

by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Feb 02, 2006

US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte accused North Korea Thursday of threatening global security with its nuclear weapons and by selling conventional arms and missiles to conflict-embroiled regions.

He told a Senate hearing that North Korea's claim to have nuclear weapons "is probably true" and "has threatened to proliferate these weapons abroad."

Like Iran, which is poised to be dragged to the UN Security Council over suspected atomic weapons work, North Korea "threatens international security and is located in a historically volatile region," Negroponte said.

"Its aggressive deployment posture threatens our allies in South Korea and US troops on the (Korean) peninsula," he said.

Some 32,500 US soldiers are stationed in South Korea to help Washington's ally face up to North Korea's 1.2-million-strong army under a mutual defense treaty dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The United States is engaged with China, Russia, South Korea and Japan in six-party talks with North Korea to end the Stalinist state's nuclear weapons drive but the negotiations have stalled since November.

Pyongyang has said it will not return to the talks unless Washington withdraws financial sanctions it has imposed for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities. - spacewar

by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Mar 09, 2006

The United States on Wednesday called North Korea's missile programs a global "threat" after the Stalinist nation reportedly test-fired two missiles. Washington also urged Pyongyang to abide by a moratorium on missile tests.

"As we have continued to point out, North Korea's missile program and activities are a threat not only to the region, but the international community at large," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

The United States, he said, "call upon North Korea to abide by the moratorium concerning missile tests."

Pyongyang carried out the missile tests at around 9:00 am (0000 GMT) and at noon (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, Japan's Nippon Television Network said, quoting officials of the Japanese Defence Agency and public security authorities.

The ground-to-ground missiles with a range of five kilometers (3.1 miles) landed in North Korean territory, the television network said.

North Korea stunned the world by launching a missile over Japan in 1998, prompting Tokyo to send up a spy satellite and take other security measures.

Japan teamed up with the United States to develop a missile shield after the 1998 launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il promised to keep a moratorium on test launches of ballistic missiles in place "in and after 2003" when he met Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September 2002, reports had indicated.

In an indication that the United States wanted to thwart North Korea's missile threat, McCormack said Washington was "working with our friends and allies in the region on deployment of active missile defenses.

"We have cooperative relationships with a number of countries around the world on missile defense, and that would also include in the northeast Asia region," he said.

The North Korean missile tests came amid an impasse in six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

The talks among the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China have been stalled since November following financial sanctions imposed by Washington on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities.

McCormack said Wednesday that the United States believed that the six-party talks remained "the best way" to deal with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"It is also a forum in which issues of missile proliferation and missile technology can also be addressed," he said. - spacewar.com

Thu Apr 13, 2006 By Jack Kim TOKYO (Reuters) -

North Korea said on Thursday it might boost its nuclear deterrent if six-country talks on ending its atomic programs remained deadlocked, but said it would return if Washington met a demand to unfreeze it assets.

Pyongyang's top envoy to the stalled negotiations told a news conference in Tokyo the United States must lift what the North considers to be financial sanctions against it.

"I told them the minute we have the funds or I have the funds in my hand I will be at the talks. But if they continue to come with pressure and sanctions, we will respond with extremely strong measures," envoy Kim Kye-gwan said. "There is nothing wrong with delaying the resumption of the six-party talks. In the meantime we can make more deterrent. If the United States doesn't like that, they should create the condition for us to go back to the talks."

In an official media report on Thursday, North Korea reiterated it has been building a nuclear deterrent to counter what it views as Washington's hostile policy toward it.

Washington has clamped down on a Macau-based bank it suspects of assisting Pyongyang in illicit financial activities, including money laundering.

Kim has been in Tokyo, where he attended a security symposium along with most of the other chief delegates to the six-party talks, including U.S. envoy Christopher Hill. At the airport before departing, Kim said it was up to the United States to seek bilateral discussions. "I always have patience," he said.

FACE-SAVING COMPROMISE?

An analyst in Seoul said Kim's comments might indicate Pyongyang was fishing for a compromise, where the United States could say not all of the North's accounts frozen at the Macau bank were used for illicit activity and then free up some funds. "Seoul's preference is for the U.S. to find some gesture that will help North Korea save face. China's position is not all that different," said Kim Sung-han, head of North American studies at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

Analysts have said a meeting between the U.S. and Chinese presidents next week in the United States could also increase the pressure on North Korea to return to talks. Beijing is urging flexibility on the financial crackdown. Tokyo says Pyongyang must appreciate that unless the atomic issue and a separate standoff with Japan over abductees is resolved the North's already weak economic position would deteriorate further.

Hill, currently in South Korea, said Pyongyang was boycotting the discussions, but urged patience for the stalled process. Washington says the financial issue is separate from the nuclear talks and has urged Pyongyang to return to the talks. Hill said the amount of the frozen Macau funds was about $20 million, equal to approximately one week's worth of energy aid proposed by South Korea for the North in return for scrapping its nuclear programs. "The DPRK needs to understand that as long as it is going to be producing nuclear weapons, we are going to be having a real close look at its finances," Hill said, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Hill, who was in Tokyo until Wednesday, had no substantive discussions with Kim in the Japanese capital, dimming prospects for renewed progress in the nuclear talks. Hill said he was ready to meet Kim face-to-face within the six-party format. The last round of the talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States was held in November. - reuters.com

By Jon Herskovitz Thu Apr 20 - 2006 - SEOUL (Reuters) -

North Korea has charged the United States with counterfeiting its own currency and shifting the blame to Pyongyang, adding artists with "blood-shot eyes" in Japan are making cartoons attacking Pyongyang's leaders.

A spokesman for the Ministry of People's Security said in a statement the North had obtained "shocking evidence" Washington and Tokyo are producing false material that gives the impression Pyongyang is a criminal state, the North's KCNA news agency said late Wednesday.

"The CIA secretly enlist(s) experts on counterfeiting notes claimed to be the 'most sophisticated in the world' and invite(s) them to issue lots of fake currencies at 'counterfeit notes printing houses of North Korean-style' operating in U.S. military bases in different parts of the world," the spokesman said.

U.S. Treasury officials have briefed various governments about Washington's suspicions that North Korea has for years been producing a high quality copy of its $100 bill. U.S. officials have dubbed the copy the "supernote."

"Although Pyongyang denies complicity in any counterfeiting activity, at least $45 million in such supernotes of North Korean origin have been detected in circulation, and estimates are that the country earns from $15 million to $25 million per year from counterfeiting," the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in a report in March.

The North Korean spokesman said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had enlisted the help of artists in Japan to produce and distribute video tapes and CDs that falsely accuse North Korea of violating human rights and conducting illicit activity. "The CIA and plot-breeding organizations in Japan are working with blood-shot eyes to produce animation files aimed at attacking the DPRK," the report said.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea has denied taking part in illicit activities.

The report did not give more information about the contents of the animation but said they are appearing in the mass media in the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Officials from the United States, Japan and other regional powers have been trying to get North Korea to return to stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's atomic programs. The talks have hit a snag over a U.S. crackdown on firms Washington suspects of aiding North Korea in illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug trafficking. North Korea has said it is unthinkable for it to return to the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States when Washington is trying to topple its rulers through financial pressure. - news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON, May 19 (AFP via spacewars) May 19, 2006

The United States warned Friday that it would be a major international concern if North Korea launched a long-range missile, amid reports Pyongyang may be preparing to test-fire the weapon.

"If in fact North Korea did launch a long-range missile, it will be a real source of concern to the international community," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "They haven't done so since 1998. That was the last time they launched a long-range missile," he said.

Japanese officials warned Friday that North Korea might be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile that could one day be developed to hit the US West Coast.

They were responding to media reports from Tokyo and Seoul that satellite data have shown increased movement by trailers and other vehicles near the Musudan-ri missile test site in northeastern North Korea, facing the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

Pyongyang, which is boycotting nuclear disarmament talks, could fire for the first time a 35-meter (116-foot) Taepodong-2 in the range of 3,500 to 6,000 kilometers (2,200 to 3,750 miles), the officials said.

North Korea is reportedly believed to be developing the missile for a range of up to 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), which would put the continental United States within striking distance.

McCormack noted that since 1998, North Korea has abided by a moratorium on the launch or testing of long-range missiles. He warned that any impending launch of such a missile could also violate an agreement reached in September during the now stalled six-nation nuclear talks. "And we believe that such a launch would also contravene the letter and the spirit of the September 19th, 2005 joint statement which North Korea signed onto," he said.

The nuclear talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia and aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, have been stalled since November, when Washington imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering. North Korea sought the removal of the sanctions as a precondition for returning to talks but the United States has refused to budge.

North Korea's nuclear program as well as its development of means to deliver potential nuclear weapons were a global concern, McCormack said. If Pyongyang launched a long range missile, it would expose "North Korea's intentions, what it says about their motivations and what it says about their seriousness about abiding by commitments that they've made," he said.

Japanese and South Korean officials learned about the increased nuclear site activity from US forces based in the two countries, reports said.

North Korea shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, claiming it was a satellite launch. It has since carried out a series of tests on smaller-range missiles.

Washington has denounced Pyongyang as a leading global proliferator of missiles and missile technology. The cash-strapped communist state has refused to stop missile exports, a major source of hard currency earnings.

In June last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told a South Korean envoy he would scrap the missiles once diplomatic ties were established with Washington.

By Demetri Sevastopulo and Stephen Fidler in Washington and Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: June 11 2006 - FT.Com

North Korea is preparing for a possible test of an intercontinental ballistic missile with the potential to hit the US, according to Washington officials.

A senior official said there were "enough indications" to suggest that Pyongyang was getting ready to fire a Taepodong-2 missile from a launch pad in eastern North Korea. It would be the Stalinist state's first test of a longer-range missile since 1998 when Pyongyang generated an international crisis by unexpectedly firing an intermediate-range Taepodong-1 over Japan.

Test preparations are far more advanced than on previous occasions when North Korea appeared to be gearing up for a launch. The Taepodong-2 is a two, or three, stage "integrated" missile. The three-stage version consists of a solid-fuel booster rocket strapped atop a Scud missile attached in turn to a short-range Nodong missile.

The US is monitoring the launch site to see if North Korea starts final assembly of the missile. If North Korea fuelled an assembled Taepodong-2, it would increase the probability of a test, since the move is difficult and dangerous to reverse.

Pyongyang - which is keenly aware that the US can monitor its preparations by satellite - could be bluffing. Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, has a history of performing eye-catching stunts when he feels he is being ignored, which has happened recently as Washington focuses on resolving nuclear tensions with Iran. Another US official said he might be "playing games" to get attention.

While the preparations could be for a satellite launch, the US is positioning military assets to track any launch. In 1998, North Korea claimed that its Taepodong-1 flight was a satellite launch. The senior official said there was no "definitive evidence" that Pyongyang would go ahead with the test.

"We are still not sure that it is ready to launch," the official said. "This could be a lot of training. It could be political manoeuvring...we are not on the edge of our seat yet."

He added that South Korea was "vigorously" urging China to lobby North Korea to abandon the test. Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's foreign minister, last week said the preparations were of "great concern" - comments that underscored South Korean anxiety given that Seoul has traditionally played down the chances of any inflammatory actions by the North. The official said the US wanted to avoid creating a crisis because " that is what North Korea wants".