NORTH KOREA'S STARVING CHILDREN vs NUCLEAR WEAPONS (PLEASE PRAY)

NORTH KOREA'S CHILDREN ARE STARVING (PRAY):

KIM JONG UN IS USING FOOD DISTRIBUTION MONEY TO DEVELOP MORE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

CHINA KNOWS THIS BUT DOESN'T CARE.


Sources: Asia Press, Fox News, CNN, The Guardian, BBC News, Newsweek, Youtube


**** Unicef warns of severe child malnourishment in North Korea


About 25,000 children in North Korea require immediate treatment for malnutrition after a drought cut food production by a fifth and the government reduced rations, Unicef has warned.

The UN’s children’s fund is asking for £12.6m ($18m) in donations for its North Korea work as part of a global £1.9bn humanitarian appeal for children.

It said the money needed for its work had doubled in three years, driven by global conflicts and extreme weather that were forcing growing numbers of children from their homes and exposing millions more to food shortages, violence, disease and abuse.

For the first time, it said a quarter of the worldwide appeal would go towards educating children in emergencies, focusing on 5 million children affected by the Syrian civil war, which is now in its fifth year.

In North Korea, Unicef said severe drought during 2015 in four agricultural provinces led to a 20% reduction in crop production compared with 2014.

“The impact of this will continue into 2016. Cereal rations were reduced, impacting the nutritional and health status of women and children,” it said in a statement.

International aid appeals for North Korea are often severely underfunded as foreign governments try to pressure Pyongyang to curtail its nuclear ambitions.

Aid workers warn that whenever North Korea conducts nuclear weapon trials – such as the hydrogen bomb test this month – foreign funds dry up. During 2015, Unicef received only 38% of the £15.5m North Korea appeal.

The hermit nation suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed as many as a million people, and the country still relies heavily on foreign aid.

“The severe drought last year reduced food production and children’s access to safe, clean water,” Unicef’s representative in North Korea, Timothy Schaffter, told the Guardian.

“Without safe water, children are at greater risk of diarrhoea, which is a leading cause of malnutrition and death. We have reports of a 72% increase in diarrhoea among children under five in the most severely drought-affected provinces.

“If we are unable to secure additional funding, our supplies of essential medicines will start running out in March, nutrition supplies will be depleted by mid-year, and our highly successful immunisation programme will run out of basic vaccines before the year’s end.”

In its global 2016 appeal, the bulk of the funds sought would provide life-saving aid needed for Syria and the resultant refugee crisis in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, Unicef said.

It called for £126m for children in Yemen, where 10 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, and said it needed £17.9m to help children in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, and where a political crisis has led to street fighting and mass displacement.

About one in nine children worldwide are living in conflict zones, said Unicef which warned of donor fatigue: protracted crises in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan were all less than 40% funded in 2015.

“In the past few months I have seen with my own eyes children pushed beyond the boundaries of human suffering in Burundi, north-east Nigeria and along the migrant and refugee route in Europe,” said Afshan Khan, Unicef’s director of emergency programmes.

Extreme weather posed a further risk to children. “Climate change, deforestation and the worsening El Niño weather system are pointing to more frequent and intense disasters in 2016, impacting a larger number of children in east Asia and the Pacific,” Unicef regional emergency adviser Carmen van Heese said.

The impact of El Niño in the Pacific islands had caused typhoons and floods, Unicef said. Drought warnings are in force for Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Palau.

“Children and families are struggling to cope with one of the worst El Niño cycles ever recorded, with more frequent and intense cyclones expected in 2016,” Unicef said, warning of further malnutrition and crop failures.

OTTO WARMBIER MURDERED BY NORTH KOREA GOV'T SAYS JOHN MCCAIN

JOHN MCCAIN SAYS OTTO WARMBIER WAS MURDERED BY NORTH KOREA GOV'T:

DID OTTO DIE IN VAIN?

WHEN WILL USA STOP KIM JONG UN'S REIGN OF INHUMANE TERROR??


Sources: Business Insider, ABC News, CNN, YouTube


***** John McCain: Otto Warmbier was 'murdered by the Kim Jong-Un regime'


Sen. John McCain of Arizona delivered a decisive statement after the death of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was imprisoned in North Korea for over a year, and said that the US "cannot and should not tolerate the murder of its citizens by hostile powers."

"Let us state the facts plainly: Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, was murdered by the Kim Jong-un regime," read a statement from McCain released Monday. "In the final year of his life, he lived the nightmare in which the North Korean people have been trapped for 70 years: forced labor, mass starvation, systematic cruelty, torture, and murder."

"North Korea is threatening its neighbors, destabilizing the Asia-Pacific region, and rapidly developing the technology to strike the American homeland with nuclear weapons," continued McCain. "Now it has escalated to brutalizing Americans, including three other citizens currently imprisoned in North Korea."

Warmbier, who was detained and eventually convicted for the "hostile" act of stealing a propaganda poster at a hotel in 2016, returned home on June 13 after reportedly being in a coma for a year. During his last days, he was said to have been in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness," and died less than a week later.

"It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost - future time that won't be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds," read a Monday statement from the Warmbier family. "But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person."

McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Service Committee, has long been a vocal critic of the North Korean regime and has called for increased pressure on its leader, Kim Jong Un.

North Korea's Kim Jong II Has Been Diagnosed With Pancreatic Cancer

MSNBC----

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, a news report said Monday, days after new images of him looking gaunt spurred speculation that his health might be worsening following a reported stroke last year.

The 67-year-old Kim was diagnosed with the cancer around the time he was felled by a stroke last summer, Seoul's YTN television reported, citing unidentified intelligence officials in South Korea and China.

The report cited the officials saying the disease is "threatening" Kim's life.

Pancreatic cancer is usually found in its final stage, and considering Kim's age, he is expected to live no more than five years, the report said.

South Korea's spy agency said it could not confirm the report. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters he knows of nothing of the report.

Kim's health is a focus of intense media speculation due to concerns about instability and a power struggle if he were to die without naming a successor. His third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, has widely been reported as being groomed as heir, but the regime has made no announcement to the outside world.

Rare appearance:

Monday's report came after Kim last week made a rare public appearance, in an annual memorial for his late father and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

Television footage showed him markedly thinner and with less hair — only the second state event he has attended in person since the reported stroke. He also limped slightly, and the sides of his tightlipped mouth looked imbalanced in what were believed to be the effects of a stroke.

The images touched off speculation that he could have other health problems.

South Korea's spy agency has long suspected that Kim has diabetes and heart disease.

Medical doctor and professor Min Yang-ki of Seoul's Hallym University Medical Center has said diabetes usually leads to weight loss. The neurologist also said Kim's limping appears to be a result of a stroke. However, he said, overall it appeared Kim has recovered from that reported illness.

Kim walked on his own into a Pyongyang auditorium for last week's memorial at a normal pace and bowed while standing during a moment of silence.

North Korea experts said the latest images of Kim show he is still fit enough to rule.

The totalitarian leader, whose rule is buttressed by an intense cult of personality, knew that the people of North Korea would pay great attention to the memorial, and his appearance there is a message that he is in charge, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said last week.

Kim Jong Il took over North Korea after his father died in 1994 of heart failure at age 82, though he did not take on his father's title of president. He runs the North from his post as chairman of the National Defense Commission.

In early April, he presided over a parliamentary meeting where he was re-elected as leader.

Son in line to take over?

The South's spy agency believes that Kim's 26-year-old youngest son, Jong Un, is sure to inherit North Korea, Seoul's Chosun Ilbo daily reported Monday, citing a recent report to the National Assembly by the National Intelligence Service.

The agency also reported that Kim Jong Il is expected to officially designate the son as his successor in 2012, the centennial anniversary of late national founder Kim Il Sung's birth, the paper said.

But the regime under the son is expected to be unstable and vulnerable to internal political strife as Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, could attempt to snatch power, the paper said.

The spy agency declined to confirm the report.

Sources: MSNBC

North Korea Threatens To Annihilate U.S.

Huffington Post----

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.

Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.

The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.

"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.

Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.

Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.

North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.

A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.

Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.

Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.

In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.

South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.

Sources: Huffington Post, Flickr

N. Korea Threatens U.S. With Military Action Over Imposed Sanctions....Possible World War III? (Secretary Of State Clinton Responds)

MSNBC----

(MSNBC reports on this developing story.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Clinton: North Korea has been "denounced by everyone."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Saturday threatened "resolute military action" if the United States tried to isolate it after the U.N. Security Council imposed widened sanctions against the reclusive communist state for a nuclear test in May.

The North also vowed to start a program to enrich uranium and to "weaponize" plutonium at its nuclear weapons plant, the North's official news agency KCNA quoted its foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

The report said Pyongyang would consider any attempt by U.S. or its allies to impose a "blockade" as an "act of war."

The sanctions resolution approved on Friday banned all weapons exports from North Korea and most arms imports into the state. It authorized U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the latest U.N. penalties provide the tools needed "to take appropriate action" against the communist nation.

Clinton said the U.S. was gratified at the latest move against North Korea, adding that action represented a unified response against the North's provocative action.

She said the U.S. will work with other countries on vigorously enforcing the sanctions. She said he goal is to send a clear message about preventing nuclear proliferation by the North.

North Korea's response:

A senior South Korean official said that North Korea may possibly respond to U.N. punishment with "another nuclear test and maybe more missiles."

"They will never, never give up their nuclear weapons," said the official who asked not to be named due to the sensitive subject matter.

North Korea has raised tension in the region in the past months by test-firing missiles, restarting a plant to produce arms-grade plutonium and holding the May 25 nuclear test, which put it closer to having a working nuclear bomb.

Two senior diplomats negotiating the U.N. resolution told Reuters on condition of anonymity the Chinese had never really clarified whether they intended to implement the new sanctions resolution.

China's U.N. ambassador, Zhang Yesui, said the resolution showed the "firm opposition" of the international community to North Korea's nuclear ambitions, but he urged countries to exercise caution when inspecting North Korean cargo.

"Under no circumstances should there be use or threat of the use of force," Zhang said.

United International response:

The resolution seeks to deprive North Korea of financing and material for its weapons program and bans the country's lucrative arms exports, especially missiles. It does not ban normal trade, but does call on international financial institutions not to provide the North with grants, aid or loans except for humanitarian, development and denuclearization programs.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said the resolution provides "a strong and united international response" to North Korea's test in defiance of a ban imposed after its first underground atomic blast in October 2006.

Studies have shown that U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for missile testing and its only prior nuclear test in 2006 had almost no impact, while its meager trade actually increased due to lax enforcement of those measures.

"The success of financial sanctions depends heavily on how far China and the United States are willing to go to pressure North Korea," said Jeong Hyung-gon, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

he isolated country's $2 billion annual trade with neighboring China, equal to about 10 percent of the North's annual GDP, is its most important economic relationship. Beijing has wanted to avoid any measures that could cause the North's economy to collapse and lead to chaos on its border.

South Korea's defense minister said this week the North's saber rattling is to build internal support for leader Kim Jong-il, 67, as he prepares for succession in Asia's only communist dynasty.

Since Kim took over in 1994 and launched his guiding "military first" policy, the North's economy has grown weaker and an estimated 1 million people died in a famine in the late 1990s.

North Korea will be high on the agenda when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak goes to Washington this week for a summit with President Barack Obama.

"One of the most important reasons for North Korea continuing its nuclear ambitions is to consolidate the power to stay within the Kim Jong-il family," Lee said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The new U.N. measures expand previous provisions to hit North Korea's arms trade, which is a key source of foreign currency for the destitute state that produces few other goods it can sell to the outside world.

A study by the U.S.-based Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis think tank this year estimated Pyongyang earns around $1.5 billion a year from missile sales.

During more than two weeks of negotiations on the draft resolution, the United States and Japan had pushed to authorize forced inspections of suspicious air, land and sea cargo. But diplomats said Russia and China had made clear they would veto the resolution unless the inspections were based on consent.

The resolution did speak of a "required inspection" if a ship refuses to be inspected. But the ship's flag country could then send the vessel to any port it chooses, where the local authorities would carry out any cargo inspection.


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N.Korea Sentences Two US Journalists, Uses Them As Bargaining Tools

Huffington Post----

(MSNBC reports on this story.)

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.

The sentencing came amid soaring tensions fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. Many believe Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the unpredictable country for its latest military threats.

In a cryptic two-sentence report, the North's state news agency said Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 were sentenced after the five-day trial ended Monday. They were guilty of a "grave crime" against the nation and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said.

The court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," said the report, without giving other details. The phrase refers to a prison term, according to Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

He said North Korean law calls for transferring convicts to prison within 10 days after verdict.

Ling and Lee, working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.

Some analysts believe negotiations will now begin that will likely lead to the journalists' release.

"North Korea refused to release them ahead of a court ruling because such a move could be seen as capitulating to the United States," said Hajime Izumi, professor of international relations and an expert on North Korea at the University of Shizuoka in Japan.

But now "North Korea may release them on humanitarian grounds and demand the U.S. provide humanitarian aid in return," he said. "North Korea will certainly use the reporters as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States."

Their release could come through a post-negotiation political pardon, said Yang Moo-jin, a colleague of Choi at the University of North Korean Studies.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the 12-year sentence _ the maximum possible allowed by the North's laws _ could have been a reaction to "hard-line" moves by the U.S., including threats of sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"But the sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end," he said.

Tensions have been running high since the North held its second underground nuclear blast May 25 and followed it up with several missile tests. U.S. officials have said the North appears to be preparing to test another long-range missile at a new launch pad.

The circumstances surrounding the trial of the two journalists and their arrest March 17 on the China-North Korean border have been shrouded in secrecy, as is typical of the reclusive nation. The trial was not open to the public or foreign observers, including the Swedish Embassy, which looks after American interests in the absence of diplomatic relations.

The two were reporting about the trafficking of women at the time of their arrest, and it's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington was trying to confirm press reports of the sentencing.

Kelly said the U.S. was "deeply concerned" about the sentences and that officials would "engage in all possible channels" to free the women.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said the former vice president has no comment. The South Korean government also did not comment. Alanna Zahn, a spokeswoman for the journalists' families, said the family members have no immediate comment.

Another American who was tried in North Korea in 1996 was treated more leniently. Evan C. Hunziker, apparently acting on a drunken dare, swam across the Yalu River _ which marks the North's border with China _ and was arrested after farmers found the man, then 26, naked. He was accused of spying and detained for three months before being freed after negotiations with a special U.S. envoy.

The North Koreans wanted Hunziker to pay a $100,000 criminal fine but eventually agreed on a $5,000 payment to settle a bill for a hotel where he was detained.


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Secretary of Defense Gates Issues A Stern Warning To North Korea

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: "The policy of the U.S. has not changed. Our goal is complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and we will not accept North Korea as a Nuclear Weapons State. The transfer of Nuclear weapons or materials by North Korea to states or non-states entities would be considered a grave threat to the U.S. and our allies."

"We would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such actions."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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President Obama & Other World Leaders Sharply Condemn North Korea's Nuke Test!

This morning President Obama and other world leaders sharply condemned news of North Korea's recent Nuclear Bomb test.

The president's anger regarding North Korea's blatant defiance of International Law was clearly expressed in these statements released from Washington, DC, "North Korea's claims "are a matter of grave concern to all nations." "North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security."

Russia, Japan and the U.K. were also disturbed by North Korea's actions.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown's comments mirrored that of President Obama's, "the test was erroneous, misguided and a danger to the world."

U.N Talks are now in motion on how to best handle the situation.

Sources: Huffington Post, Flickr, Wikipedia

North Korea Claims It Recently Conducted Powerful Nuke Test....Serious Security Threat To U.S.

Huffington Post----

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea claimed it carried out a powerful underground nuclear test Monday _ much larger than one conducted in 2006 _ in a major provocation in the escalating international standoff over its rogue nuclear and missile programs.

Pyongyang announced the test, and Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed an atomic explosion at 9:54 a.m. (0054 GMT) in northeastern North Korea, estimating the blast's yield at 10 to 20 kilotons _ comparable to the bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The regime also test-fired three short-range, ground-to-air missiles later Monday from the same northeastern site where it launched a rocket last month, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. The rocket liftoff, widely believed to be a cover for a test of its long-range missile technology, drew censure from the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea, incensed by the condemnation of the April 5 rocket launch, had warned last month that it would restart its rogue nuclear program, conduct an atomic test and carry out long-range missile tests.

On Monday, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said the regime "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of measures to bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense."

President Barack Obama said a nuclear test would constitute an act of "blatant defiance" of the U.N. Security Council and a violation of international law, and only further isolate North Korea.

North Korea's claims "are a matter of grave concern to all nations," he said, calling for international action in a statement from Washington. "North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security."

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said the U.N. Security Council will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday in New York (2030 GMT).

North Korea's nuclear test poses a grave challenge to nuclear nonproliferation and clearly violates U.N. Security Council resolutions," he said in Tokyo. "We are not tolerating this at all."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the test as "erroneous, misguided and a danger to the world. This act will undermine prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and will do nothing for North Korea's security," he said. "The international community will treat North Korea as a partner if it behaves responsibly. If it does not, then it can expect only renewed isolation."

South Korea, meanwhile, was grappling with the suicide two days earlier of President Lee Myung-bak's liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, whose death drew condolences from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Kim held a 2007 summit in Pyongyang with Roh, who championed reconciliation with North Korea.

The rise in tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs comes amid questions about who will succeed the authoritarian Kim, 67, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last August. North Korea also has custody of two American journalists _ accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" _ who are set to stand trial June 4.

Monday's atomic test was conducted about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of the northern city of Kilju, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said, speaking on state-run Rossiya television.

Kilju, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, is where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 in a surprise move that angered even traditional ally China and drew wide-ranging sanctions from the Security Council.

An emergency siren sounded in the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles (200 kilometers) to the northwest. A receptionist at Yanji's International Hotel said she and several hotel guests felt the ground tremble.

North Korea boasted that Monday's test was conducted "on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control" than in 2006.

Ten to 20 kilotons would be far more than North Korea managed in 2006. U.S. intelligence officials said the 2006 test measured less than a kiloton; 1 kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT. However, Russia estimated the force of the 2006 blast at 5 to 15 kilotons, far higher than other estimates at the time.

Radiation levels in Russia's Primorye region, which shares a short border with North Korea, were normal Monday several hours after the blast, the state meteorological office said.

In Vladivostok, a city of 500,000 about 85 miles (140 kilometers) from the Russian-North Korean border, translator Alexei Sergeyev said he wasn't concerned about the test and doesn't fear North Korea.

"Their nuclear program does not have military aims _ their only aim is to frighten the U.S. and receive more humanitarian aid as a result," said Sergeyev, 24.

The reported test-firing of short-range missiles took place at the Musudan-ri launchpad on North Korea's northeast coast, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the nuclear test site, Yonhap said. Unnamed sources described it as a ground-to-air missile with a range of 80 miles (130 kilometers).

Japan's coast guard had said Friday that North Korea warned ships to steer clear of waters off the coast near the launch site, suggesting Pyongyang was preparing for a missile test. Yonhap also had reported brisk activity along the northeast coast last week.

South Korean troops were on high alert but there was no sign North Korean soldiers were massing along the heavily fortified border dividing the two nations, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. Tensions have been high since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February 2008 saying Pyongyang must fulfill its promises to dismantle its nuclear program before it can expect aid.

North Korea is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half-dozen atomic bombs. However, experts say scientists have not yet mastered the miniaturization needed to mount a nuclear device onto a long-range missile.

The 2006 test prompted North Korea's neighbors and the U.S. to push for a pact that would give Pyongyang 1 million tons of fuel oil in exchange for disabling its nuclear facilities.

North Korea signed the accord in February 2007 and began disabling its main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon that November. Pyongyang destroyed the Yongbyon cooling tower in June 2008 in dramatic show of its commitment to the process, but then abruptly halted the process weeks later over a dispute with Washington over how to verify its 18,000-page list of past atomic activities.

Talks hosted by Beijing in December failed to resolve the impasse, and North Korea abandoned the six-nation negotiations last month in anger over the U.N. condemnation of its rocket launch.

North Korea claims it launched the rocket to send a satellite into space; South Korea, Japan and other nations saw it as a way to test the technology used to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile, one capable of reaching the U.S.

The Security Council called the launch a violation of 2006 resolutions barring the regime from ballistic missile-related activity.


(The Korean Central News Agency released the following report: The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006.)




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