TRUMP vs KIM JONG UN (HUMANITARIAN AID WAR - STARVING N. KOREANS)

TRUMP vs KIM JONG UN (HUMANITARIAN WAR):

TRUMP WANTS TO HELP SAVE NORTH KOREAN CITIZENS FROM KIM'S BRUTAL REGIME.

WILL CONGRESS STEP UP AND HELP NORTH KOREA'S SUFFERING PEOPLE??


Sources: The Guardian


***** Donald Trump declares ‘patience is over’ with North Korea


President Donald Trump declared that the US had run out of patience with North Korea over its nuclear drive as he welcomed South Korea’s new leader Moon Jae-In to talks at the White House.

While Moon has been arguing for greater engagement with Pyongyang as the best way to put the brakes on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Trump made clear that he was in no mood to pursue diplomacy with a regime he accused of having no respect for human life.

And while Moon announced that Trump had accepted an offer to visit Seoul later this year, the leaders failed to map out any kind of joint strategy on how best to deal with the threat posed by the North Korean leadership.

“Together, we are facing the threat of the reckless and brutal regime in North Korea. The nuclear and ballistic missile programs of that regime require a determined response,” said Trump.

“The North Korean dictatorship has no regard for the safety and security of its people, for its neighbors and has no respect for human life.”

The Trump administration has been growing increasingly exasperated with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s regime which has staged a barrage of missile tests in recent months.

There was also deep anger in the United States after Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in North Korea on a tourist trip around 18 months ago, was returned home in a coma earlier this month. He died several days later.

Trump had been pinning his hopes on China – North Korea’s main diplomatic ally – to bring pressure to bear on Pyongyang but declared their efforts had failed.

“The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed, many years it has failed. Frankly, that patience is over,” Trump said at a press briefing in the Rose Garden.

And while he avoided criticising his guest’s approach, Trump made clear he was in no mood to enter dialogue with North Korea but rather saw sanctions as the best way to proceed.

“The United States calls on other regional powers and all responsible nations to join us in implementing sanctions and demanding that the North Korean regime choose a better path and do it quickly and a different future for its long suffering people,” he said.

Washington, South Korea’s security guarantor, has more than 28,000 troops in the country to defend it from its communist neighbor, which has been intensifying missile tests – including five since Moon’s inauguration.

Moon said there was no dispute between his government and Trump over the nature of the threat posed by North Korea.

“The gravest challenge confronting our two nations is the nuclear and missile threat posed by North Korea,” he said. “President Trump and I decided to place a top priority on addressing this issue, and coordinate closely on relevant policies.

“To this end, we will employ both sanctions and dialogue in a phased and comprehensive approach... to seek a fundamental resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem.”

Moon has used his first foreign trip to lobby the Trump administration and congressional leaders to back his policy of engagement with the North.

Before his arrival, Moon argued that Seoul and Washington must offer concessions to Pyongyang if it complies with demands for a nuclear freeze – as a gateway to dialogue, and to eventual dismantlement of its nuclear program.

But the Trump administration’s hardening stance was illustrated on Thursday when it placed sanctions on a Chinese bank linked to North Korea – drawing an angry response from Beijing.

The two leaders also spoke about bilateral trade, with Trump saying the current $17 billion dollar trade deficit with Seoul was unacceptable, highlighting the number of Korean-made cars on American roads.

“I’m encouraged by President Moon’s assurances that he will work to create a level playing field so that American workers and businesses and especially automakers can have a fair shake at dealing with South Korea,” he said.

China Losing Patience With N. Korea Wikileaks Reveal

WikiLeaks: China Weary Of North Korea Behaving Like A "Spoiled Child"


New documents posted on the websites of the Guardian and The New York Times suggest Chinese officials are losing patience with long-time ally North Korea. Senior figures in Beijing have even described the regime in the North as behaving like a "spoiled child."

According to cables obtained by WikiLeaks, South Korea's then vice foreign minister, Chun Yung-woo, said earlier this year that senior Chinese officials (whose names are redacted in the cables) had told him they believed Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control, and that this view was gaining ground with the leadership in Beijing.

Chun was quoted at length in a cable sent by the U.S. ambassador in Seoul, Kathleen Stephens, earlier this year. He is reported as saying that "the North had already collapsed economically and would collapse politically two to three years after the death of (leader) Kim Jong-il."

CNN has viewed the cables posted on the newspapers' websites and on the WikiLeaks website.

Chun, who has since become South Korea's National Security Adviser, dismissed the prospect of China's military intervention in the event of a North Korean collapse, noting that "China's strategic economic interests now lie with the United States, Japan, and South Korea -- not North Korea."

He said that younger generation Chinese Communist party leaders no longer regarded North Korea as a useful or reliable ally and would not risk renewed armed conflict on the peninsula, according to a secret cable to Washington.

In a separate cable from January this year, then-South Korean Foreign Mnister Yu Myung-Hwan is quoted as telling U.S. diplomats that "the North Korean leader [Kim Jong Il] needed both Chinese economic aid and political support to stabilize an 'increasingly chaotic' situation at home."

The cables suggest China is frustrated in its relationship with Pyongyang. One from April 2009 quoted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei as saying that "North Korea wanted to engage directly with the United States and was therefore acting like a "spoiled child" in order to get the attention of the "adult." The cable continued: "China therefore encouraged the United States, 'after some time,' to start to re-engage the DPRK."

In October 2009, a cable sent from Beijing recounted a meeting between U.S. diplomats and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo, who had recently met Kim Jong Il. According to the leaked cable, Dai noted that Kim had lost weight when compared to when he last saw him three years earlier, but that Kim appeared to be in reasonably good health and still had a "sharp mind."

Dai also spoke about Kim's liking for alcohol. The cable continued: "Kim Jong-il had a reputation among the Chinese for being 'quite a good drinker,' and, Dai said, he had asked Kim if he still drank alcohol. Kim said yes."

The North Koreans told Dai that they wanted to have dialogue with the United States first and that they would consider next steps, including possible multilateral talks, depending on their conversation with the United States. North Korea held "great expectations for the United States," said Dai.

Further evidence of China's unease at Pyongyang's behavior came in a cable in June 2009 from the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, Richard Hoagland. He reported that the Chinese envoy there was "genuinely concerned by North Korea's recent nuclear missile tests," and saw its nuclear activity a 'threat to the whole world's security.'" Hoagland reported that China's objectives were "to ensure they [North Korean leaders] honor their commitments on non-proliferation, maintain stability, and 'don't drive [Kim Jong-il] mad.'"

It seems the Russians were similarly frustrated by North Korean obduracy. In April 2009, a U.S. diplomatic cable quoted a senior Russian official as saying that "Foreign Minister Lavrov had a difficult trip to North Korea that did not reveal any flexibility in DPRK's position." The Russian official assessed that Pyongyang was "hunkering down for a succession crisis."


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Sources: CNN, Wikileaks, Google Maps

Kim Tae-Young Resigns; N. Korea's Attack Sign Of Chaos Or Premeditated?

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With Limited Options, South Korea Shifts Military Rules


Responding to growing public criticism after a deadly North Korean attack, President Lee Myung-bak accepted the resignation on Thursday of his defense minister and announced changes in the military’s rules of engagement to make it easier for South Korea to strike back with greater force, especially if civilians are threatened.

The government also announced plans to increase the number of troops and heavy weapons on Yeonpyeong Island, where two marines and two civilians died Tuesday in an artillery fusillade from the North.

But Mr. Lee, who came to office two years ago vowing to get tough with the North, has little maneuvering room in formulating a response. While the attack appears to have pushed anti-North Korean sentiment here to its highest level in years, there is little public support for taking military action against the North that might lead to an escalation of hostilities.

“North Korea has nothing to lose, while we have everything to lose,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of politics at Seoul National University. “Lee Myung-bak has no choice but to soften his tone to keep this country peaceful. It is not an appealing choice, but it is the only realistic choice.”

The South’s powerful neighbor is also counseling restraint. The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said Thursday that Beijing opposed any provocative military behavior by either side on the Korean Peninsula, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported.

On Thursday, while North Korea warned through its official news agency of further military retaliation if provoked by South Korea, Mr. Lee said only, “We should not drop our guard in preparation for the possibility of another provocation by North Korea,” according to his chief spokesman, Hong Sang-pyo. “A provocation like this can recur any time.”

The changes in the rules of engagement were similarly restrained. South Korean defenses on five coastal islands in the Yellow Sea had been set up primarily to guard against possible amphibious landings by North Korean troops. Critics said Thursday that the military had not anticipated the possibility of an attack by North Korean artillery batteries, which are reportedly in caves along the North’s coastline.

“Now, an artillery battle has become the new threat, so we’re reassessing the need to strengthen defenses,” Mr. Lee told lawmakers. The new measures he outlined include doubling the number of howitzers and upgrading other weaponry.

The new rules of engagement will be based on whether military or civilian sites are the targets, said Mr. Hong, the presidential spokesman, adding that the move was made to “change the paradigm of responding to North Korea’s provocations.”

Previously, South Korean forces were allowed to respond only in kind — if the North fired artillery, the South could answer only with artillery — to contain any dispute. Now, officials said, the military would be allowed to respond with greater force.

The aftermath of this week’s artillery attack was not the first time Mr. Lee had come under criticism for sitting on his hands in the face of a deadly provocation by the North. Two years ago, when a South Korean tourist was shot by a sentry at a North Korean mountain resort, his government’s response amounted to a slap on the wrist: suspending tours to the resort and banning South Korean civic groups from visiting the North.

But the clearest case was Mr. Lee’s response in March to the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan.

Mr. Lee at first seemed to stall by waiting for the results of an international investigation, which took two months to conclude that the ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo. When he responded, it was with relatively mild measures like reducing the South’s already minuscule trade with the North, resuming the South’s cold-war-era propaganda speakers along the demilitarized zone and demanding an apology. But the speakers have yet to be turned on after North Korea threatened to shoot at them, and Mr. Lee dropped the apology demand as a precondition for talks.

Mr. Lee was widely blamed in South Korea for having provoked the Cheonan episode by ending unconditional aid to the North at the start of his presidency.

“Before, the public saw him as too hard, and now they see him as too soft,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul.

Despite public pressure to do more, Mr. Lee does not have many options for using less lethal forms of pressure on the North, diplomatic or economic. North Korea has already weathered years of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation. In fact, the tough economic conditions appear only to give the North motivation to continue its brinkmanship, to extract aid as it faces a winter of food and fuel shortages. Some analysts say the North is also using the provocations to burnish the military credentials of Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, and his heir apparent.

Analysts say making sanctions effective would require greater support from China, North Korea’s traditional protector, which has so far been reluctant to tighten the screws on the North’s already decrepit economy. In recent days, Mr. Lee and President Obama have agreed to make new appeals to Chinese leaders to put more pressure on the North Korean dictator, but analysts say they are not optimistic that the Chinese will comply.

Still, South Korean officials said they would urge China to act more responsibly by pressing the North to refrain from any more attacks. They also said they would ask Beijing to more closely monitor trade with North Korea by Chinese merchants, which they said has been a way for the North to bypass international economic sanctions.

Mr. Lee and his advisers appear to have concluded that a less confrontational stance is the only way to persuade North Korea to end its provocations. A few analysts speculated that Mr. Lee might eventually end up not far from his liberal predecessors like former President Roh Moo-hyun, who used economic aid to appease the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula.

“Anyone would conclude that the peaceful approach is best to reverse the situation,” said Moon Jung-in, a politics professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and a former adviser in the Roh administration. “A hard-line approach is not a real option.”

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North Korea Strike May Have Been Premeditated

Since the two Koreas exchanged hundreds of artillery rounds Tuesday in an incident that killed two South Korean marines and two civilians, Seoul and Pyongyang have been blaming each other for instigating the attack.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young (who resigned Thursday after being criticized for what was called his poor response to the strike) says he suspects that two senior-level North Korean officers allegedly involved in the March sinking of the South’s warship, Cheonan, were behind this week’s attack. The North, on the other hand, claims that the South fired first.

Regardless of where the first shot came from, Pyongyang seems to have been setting the stage for this kind of attack as early as last year. For the past two years, the North Koreans have increasingly claimed that they were threatened by American and South Korean war games. So when the South conducted counter-proliferation drills with the United States last year, the North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) declared that it will no longer be bound by the Korean Armistice Agreement and added that it “will not guarantee the legal status” of islands in disputed waters, including Yeonpyeong, the island that was shelled Tuesday.

Translation: North Korea believes it is at liberty to attack should it feel provoked.

What’s more, a relatively unnoticed North Korean military drill in August suggests that Tuesday’s shelling may have been premeditated. On Aug. 9, the North fired about 100 artillery pieces toward South Korean waters. Later that day, North Korean drones were spotted hovering near Yeonpyeong.

South Korean defense officials say they believe the North Koreans are using the drones to spy on the South’s troops and weapons stationed on islands such as Yeonpyeong. That, along with the sequence of the exercise, suggests that the communist North has been gearing up for an attack on the island for some time.

The North Koreans are justifying this week’s shelling as a “decisive self-defensive measure” in response to South Korean military exercises. It’s a logic they’ve been using since the early 1990s; Pyongyang has used U.S. and South Korean war games as a pretext to step up its belligerency, citing the “hostile policies of the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime.”

This time, however, things could get worse. In the past, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il used the relatively moderate foreign ministry to keep the military in check so things don’t spiral out of control. But recently, the military appears to be increasingly asserting itself on policy matters.

In the past two years, military organs such as the Supreme Command of the KPA and the National Defense Commission have been issuing policy statements directed toward the outside world -- something that was mostly done by the foreign ministry in the past.

More frightening is that there are reasons to believe that the military has become so emboldened and powerful that Kim Jong-il may no longer be the absolute leader who calls the shots in Pyongyang. For one, the Dear Leader’s physical and mental capacity has been declining—he reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008 and has grown frail since then.

His third son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, lacks military credentials (although he recently and arbitrarily was elevated to the rank of general), and has to prove to the military that he has what it takes to be the next dictator-in-chief. That may explain why the Kims recently toured the base from which the shelling took place, to rubber-stamp the attack.

What’s ironic is that part of the military’s growing hubris could be of Kim Jong-il’s own making. In the late 1990s, he initiated his Songun—or military-first—policy, in which the KPA was elevated to the highest position in the government. Under that policy, Kim Jong-il sprinkled his generals with Mercedes, missiles and nukes.

Now, experts say the military has become so powerful that the Dear Leader no longer can rein in his generals. “The military-first policy has essentially reached its logical conclusion—that Kim Jong-il is no longer in a position to make the final policy decisions,” says Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. negotiator and Korea expert.

Meanwhile, the South Koreans will soon begin naval exercises in the Yellow Sea with the U.S. The exercises will involve the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which the Obama administration dispatched as a way to signal its displeasure about the shelling.

In the eyes of North Korea’s generals, that may well constitute another excuse to get trigger-happy, again.


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, NY Times, Google Maps

China Reluctant To Help Quell North Korea's Cry For Attention

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Administration May Face Uphill Climb In Appealing To China On North Korea


The Obama administration is banking on China to help resolve and contain the confrontation between North and South Korea but may end up disappointed, given the Communist juggernaut's record in assuaging North Korea's belligerence.

China has so far declined to put pressure on North Korea after an international investigation found that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March -- a strike that killed 46 sailors.

Now that a North Korean artillery attack on a tiny South Korean island has left at least four dead and many more injured, some doubt China will step to the plate and move to stifle the North's deadly behavior, which coincides with a rare leadership succession in the reclusive regime.

"Unfortunately, China has shown itself to be more a part of the problem than part of the solution," said Bruce Klingner, a former official with the CIA's Korea Branch who now works as a research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. "We're not likely to get much from China."

He said that while some inside the Chinese government view North Korea, which exercises a far more oppressive brand of Communism than China, as an albatross and impediment to dealing with the more economically prosperous South, the country would rather put up with the North's temper tantrums than get involved and risk an all-out violent conflict next door.

But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview Wednesday that China is the one country with influence in Pyongyang. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. diplomats are urging China to put pressure on the North Korean regime in the wake of the attacks, as the U.N. Security Council, of which China is a veto-wielding member, is expected to meet.

If China doesn't play ball, the United States and its Asian allies are left with yet another tricky, lose-lose situation on the Korean peninsula. Some analysts say Korea is just trying to extract more aid, others say it's making noise to mark the ascension of a new ruler. The State Department made clear it does not want to reward bad behavior with engagement, leaving the United States with options ranging from tough talk to military demonstrations to better sanctions enforcement.

"The North Koreans engage in these provocative acts because they know they can get away with them," said Gordon Chang, author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World." "We know that (there are) going to be more and more incidents until the Obama administration and the Lee administration in Seoul move away from just rhetoric."

Chang said a strike on North Korea's recently unveiled uranium enrichment facility should be "on the table" as a last resort, but so should tougher financial sanctions.

Tony Schaffer, with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, said military exercises with the South Koreans should also become more frequent, "to show we're serious."

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier and support ships have been sent to the waters west of the Korean peninsula, apparently as part of planned war exercises with the South.

"There may be some more exercises considered in light of the artillery attack," one defense official said.

Klingner said the United States should continue to pursue a two-track approach, of putting the squeeze on North Korea through sanctions while opening the door for the country to rejoin the six-party talks on its nuclear program.

He said "unconditional engagement" would not be worthwhile, but the country could still be persuaded to come back to the table. He suggested the United Nations and United States crack down on countries like Iran, Syria and Burma where the North is allegedly providing nuclear material, as well as get tougher on China for its economic engagement with North Korea.

The Obama administration has by turns taken a tough and cautious tone in addressing the latest confrontation on the peninsula.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday that the United States will not "buy into this cycle of rewarding that kind of behavior" from North Korea. He called for a "deliberate, slow approach."

"We're not going to respond willy-nilly," he said.

Asked what China could add to the process, he said. "They've got, obviously, a closer relationship with North Korea."

He said a "unified, coherent front" toward North Korea, presumably with China, would "make them aware of their isolation."





Korean Crisis: How Will China Respond?


All eyes are on China after North Korea provoked threats of "enormous retaliation" from South Korea by firing artillery rounds at Yeonpyeong Island.

Four people were killed in Tuesday's shelling. The North claimed South Korea provoked the attack by holding a military drill off their shared coast in the Yellow Sea.

China is North Korea's ally and its biggest trading partner. They share a long border prompting speculation about how the communist country could react to tension next door.

China has the power to cut off North Korea's most important link with the outside world by stopping their shipments of food, fuel and weapons, but has indicated no intention to do so.

However, analysts say China's leverage over its next door neighbor may be over-rated.

"China does have more influence than other players but we have to remember China does not have absolute influence," said Wenran Jiang, political science professor at University of Alberta.

China is also reluctant to lean heavily on allies like North Korea because it follows the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, analysts say.



Beijing is trying to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.

North Korea walked away from the last round of the six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

The talks have been stalled for about three years. Analysts say the heightened tension in the Korean peninsula is a reminder that hotspots like the Korean crisis need urgent action. They say reconvening the six-party talks is one of the most immediate steps available to re-engage with the nation.

So what does North Korea want? "What they really wanted for years is diplomatic recognition of North Korea by the U.S.," said Wenran Jiang.

"They are frustrated because they feel they have done the six-party talks, they have launched missiles, have done nuclear weapons tests, they have made all kinds of threats but they still don't get the U.S. to move towards normalization," he said.

Analysts say, despite the apparent ineffectiveness of the six-party talks, Beijing still stands a better chance of bringing Pyongyang back to the fold through diplomacy.

"It's important for us to remember that during the six-party talks these conflicts were less likely to happen, while without such mechanism we see such bloodshed." Jiang said.



Observers say it all comes down to building trust -- a difficult task -- and here China can play a unique role as a rising global power and a potential peace-maker.


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Wall Street Reacts To North Korea's Attacks: Dow Drops 142 Pts

Dow Falls 142 Points On Korean Worries


U.S. stocks were pummeled today, with the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) briefly falling below 11,000, in the wake of North Korea's apparent shelling of a South Korean island.

The American slump followed the reaction of markets around the world to the Korean news. Three more worries weighed on stocks: whether Europe could contain the Irish debt crisis, a weak report on existing-home sales and a cut in the Federal Reserve's economic outlook.

The dollar, gold and silver all rallied as some investors sought safe havens for their cash.

The Dow closed down 142 points, or 1.3%, to 11,036, after dropping as many as 186 points early in the session. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) fell 17 points, or 1.4%, to 1,181, and the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) was off 37 points, or 1.5%, to 2,495.

Gold settled up $19.90 to $1,377.60 an ounce in New York. Silver settled up 11.1 cents to $27.572 an ounce. Copper, however, settled down 4.9 cents to $3.7025 a pound.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 1.3% to 79.81. The dollar rose against the euro, British pound and the Japanese yen. The biggest gain was 1.7% against the euro.

Crude oil was down 49 cents to $81.25. Crude had fallen to as low as $80.28. early in the day.

The dollar's gain also pushed interest rates lower, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 2.762% from 2.813% on Monday.

Futures trading suggests a slightly higher open on Wednesday. The day includes reports on initial jobless claims and personal income and spending. Deere (DE) and Tiffany (TIF) will report quarterly results.

Jury: SAP owes Oracle $1.3 billion

After hours, a federal jury in Oakland, Calif., ruled that German software maker SAP (SAP) should pay $1.3 billion to rival Oracle (ORCL) for copyright infringement. Oracle shares jumped 1.3% to $27.54 after hours after dropping 3.1% to $27.19 in regular trading.

SAP had admitted liability for the actions of a now-shuttered SAP subsidiary called TomorrowNow.

TomorrowNow, which provided software maintenance and support to Oracle customers, illegally downloaded Oracle software and documents, infringing on 120 copyrights. SAP had argued its liability was $40 million. Oracle wanted $288 million to $3 billion. SAP, whose shares fell 1.4% after hours to $48.02 in New York, may appeal.


Sources: MSN Money, MSNBC

Obama Vows U.S. Will Protect South Korea From N. Korea's Attacks

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Obama: U.S. Will Defend South Korea From North Korea's Aggression


South Korea — International diplomats scrambled Tuesday to defuse tensions in the Koreas after North Korea bombarded a South Korean island with artillery shells, killing at least two people. President Barack Obama pledged the United States would defend Seoul from aggression by its communist neighbor.

Yet with its options limited, the U.S. sought a diplomatic rather a military response to one of those most ominous clashes between the Koreas in decades.

"South Korea is our ally. It has been since the Korean War," Obama said. "And we strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance."

The president, speaking to ABC News, would not speculate when asked about military options. He was expected to telephone South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Tuesday night, and he met into the evening with his top national security advisers to discuss next steps.

Obama called North Korea an "ongoing threat that has to be dealt with" and reiterated that South Korea is "one of our most important allies" and "a cornerstone of U.S. security in the Pacific region."

A White House official told ABC that the U.S. is discussing several measures with its allies, including action at the United Nations Security Council and further sanctions, and more joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, to demonstrate solidarity and support.

Earlier, South Korea warned the North of "enormous retaliation" if it took more aggressive steps after Pyongyang fired scores of artillery shells at the island of Yeonpyeong. It was one of the most serious attacks by the North on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.

The South fired back after Tuesday's attack and sent fighter jets to the area, close to a disputed maritime border on the west of the divided Korean peninsula and the scene of deadly clashes between the two rivals in the past.

South Korea was conducting military drills in the area at the time but said it had not been firing at the North. Pyongyang blamed Seoul for starting the fight, which killed at least two South Korean marines and wounded at least 15 other troops along with three civilians and razed scores of houses on the island of Yeonpyeong.

The extent of casualties on the northern side was unknown but officials in Seoul said they could be considerable.

Calling the incident "an invasion of South Korean territory," Lee warned that future provocations could be met with a strong response, although there was no indication of immediate retaliation.

"I think enormous retaliation is going to be necessary to make North Korea incapable of provoking us again," Lee told reporters during a visit to military headquarters in Seoul.

The incident followed revelations over the weekend that Pyongyang is fast developing another source of material to make atomic bombs, and analysts said the North may again be pursuing a strategy of calculated provocations to wrest diplomatic and economic concessions from the international community.

North Korea said its neighbor started the fight.

"Despite our repeated warnings, South Korea fired dozens of shells from 1 p.m. ... and we've taken strong military action immediately," its KCNA news agency said.

North Korea said it was merely "reacting to the military provocation of the puppet group with a prompt powerful physical strike," and accused Seoul of starting the skirmish with its "reckless military provocation as firing dozens of shells inside the territorial waters of the" North.

The supreme military command in Pyongyang threatened more strikes if the South crossed their maritime border by "even 0.001 millimeter," according to KCNA.

South Korean officials said the skirmish began when Pyongyang warned the South to halt military drills in the area.

When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters, albeit away from the North Korean shore, the North retaliated by bombarding the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations and a small civilian population.

When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters — but away from the North Korean shore — the North retaliated by shelling the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations and a small civilian population.

Seoul responded by unleashing its own barrage from K-9 155mm self-propelled howitzers and scrambling fighter jets.

South Korea responded by firing K-9 155 mm self-propelled howitzers, but a South Korean official declined to say whether North Korean territory was hit.

The entire clash lasted more than an hour, NBC News reported.

Sources told NBC that the North fired the first salvo of artillery shells at the island four hours after the South's "live-fire" artillery training exercise.

South Korea returned fire almost immediately. For more than an hour, the two sides exchanged salvos — the North Koreans fired about 70 artillery shells, the South fired about 80.

South Korea's military indicated it inflicted heavy casualties on the North, but the claim could not be independently verified.

Senior U.S. military commanders in South Korea have been temporarily put on a 24-hour operational alert, essentially meaning they man their commands around-the-clock. The rest of U.S. military forces have not been placed on alert, and the overall threat level against U.S. forces has not been raised, according to NBC News.

In addition, senior military officials told NBC News that no U.S. service members, equipment, weapons, ships or planes have been ordered to reposition themselves inside South Korea, and no additional forces are headed to the region.


'Brink of war

The exchange represents a sharp escalation of the skirmishes that flare up along the disputed border from time to time.

It also comes amid high tensions over the North's apparent progress in its quest for nuclear weapons — Pyongyang claims it has a new uranium enrichment facility — and six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il anointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the heir apparent.

"It brings us one step closer to the brink of war," said Peter Beck, a research fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, "because I don't think the North would seek war by intention, but war by accident, something spiraling out of control has always been my fear."

The two Koreas are still technically at war — the Korean War ended only with a truce and North Korea does not recognize the maritime border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-1953 conflict.

Tension also rose sharply early this year after Seoul accused the North of torpedoing one of its navy vessels, killing 46 sailors.


'Frightened to death'

"I thought I would die," said Lee Chun-ok, 54, an islander who said she was watching TV in her home when the shelling began. Suddenly, a wall and door collapsed.

"I was really, really terrified," she told The Associated Press after being evacuated to the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, "and I'm still terrified."

YTN television said dozens of houses caught fire on Yeonpyeong, which is about 75 miles west of the capital Seoul near the disputed maritime border. It is a mere seven miles from — and within sight of — the North Korean mainland.

diplomats scrambled Tuesday to defuse tensions after North Korea bombarded a South Korean island with artillery shells, killing at least two people. President Barack Obama pledged the United States would defend Seoul from aggression by its neighbor.

The station broadcast pictures of thick columns of black smoke rising from the island. Screams and chaotic shouts could be heard on the video. YTN said between 1,200 and 1,300 people live there.


U.S., U.N. condemn attack

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea's artillery attack and conveyed his concerns to the Security Council's president.

Ban, who is South Korean, called for "immediate restraint" and insisted that "any differences should be resolved by peaceful means and dialogue."

Pak Tok-hun, North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador, said the shelling incident was a matter to be discussed between the two countries, not by the U.N. Security Council.

"The Security Council is dealing with threats to international peace and security," he said as Security Council diplomats consulted on how they might respond to the incident. "This is a regional issue between the North and South."

The U.N. and U.S. military commander in South Korea called for general officer-level talks with the North Korean military in order to exchange information and de-escalate the situation.

"We call upon North Korea to stop these unprovoked attacks and fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement," said Gen. Walter L. Sharp. "These actions are threatening the peace and stability of the entire region."

"We call upon North Korea to stop these unprovoked attacks and fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement," said Gen. Walter L. Sharp, UNC commander. "These actions are threatening the peace and stability of the entire region."

While condemning the attack, the U.S. played down the chances of any immediate U.S. military action.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates conferred with his South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young by phone and the two agreed to coordinate any response to "this act of aggression" by North Korea, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

"He (Gates) expressed sympathy for the loss of life and appreciation for the restraint shown to date by the South Korean government," Morrell said.


'Colossal danger'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of the "colossal danger" of an escalation in fighting on the Korean peninsula.

"It is necessary to immediately end all strikes," Lavrov told reporters during a visit to the Belarussian capital Minsk. "Tensions in the region are growing."

The senior U.S. envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said that China and the United States agreed that North Korea's shelling of the South Korean island was "very undesirable" and restraint was needed.

Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a news conference that both sides of the divided Korean peninsula should "do more to contribute to peace" and said it was "imperative now to resume the six-party talks" aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Newsweek: Powerful generals fuel Asian arms race

Those negotiations — involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — have long been on ice.

However, the reclusive North has recently been pushing to resume the six-party talks, which previously it has used to win massive aid in return for promises to end its weapons program.

China is North Korea's only major ally, and its economic and diplomatic support have been important to shoring up its otherwise isolated neighbor. Kim Jong Il visited China twice this year to strengthen ties.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

How To Respond To North Korea: Very Limited Options


Bruce Klingner is a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He previously served 20 years in the C.I.A. and Defense Intelligence Agency, including as the C.I.A.’s deputy division chief for Korean analysis.


Pyongyang has again dangerously raised tensions, this time by attacking a small South Korea island in the first artillery strike since the Korean War. The situation on the Korean Peninsula is tense but unlikely to lead to war. Seoul will be constrained by all the same factors that hindered a strong South Korean response to North Korea’s attack in March on the Cheonan naval ship.

South Korea fears that even a limited retaliatory attack could degenerate into an all-out conflagration. President Lee Myung-bak called for a “stern response” but also took care not to escalate the situation further. As with the Cheonan attack, it shows the limited leverage and options that Seoul and Washington have toward North Korea.

The artillery attack furthers the North’s tactical objectives of asserting sovereignty over the Western Sea Area. But, more importantly, it furthers its strategic goals and is part of a continuing pattern of provocations to force the United States and South Korea to abandon pressure tactics, including sanctions. Similarly, North Korea’s disclosure of a covert nuclear facility is another action to force the U.S. and its allies back to the negotiating table by raising fears of an expanding nuclear arsenal.

It is worrisome, if not frightening, how far Pyongyang is now willing to go to achieve its foreign policy objectives. North Korea appears to have abandoned previously self-imposed constraints on its behavior. Although the new brazenness could be linked to the North Korean leadership succession, it may also reflect growing desperation brought on by deteriorating economic and political conditions.

Pyongyang’s actions are designed to weaken U.S. and South Korean resolve but will likely have the opposite effect. Washington responded to this weekend’s disclosure of a covert uranium enrichment facility by rejecting calls for a hasty return to the six-party talks nuclear negotiations. The U.S. and South Korean governments have properly resisted entreaties to acquiesce to North Korean demands. This, in turn, may very well cause North Korea to do something even more provocative.

China resisted efforts for a U.N. response to North Korea’s blatant act of war in the Cheonan attack, even refusing to accept the evidence of the international investigation team. It is unacceptable for Beijing to continue to take a neutral position or pressure Washington to a premature return to the six-party talks.

Although Seoul will likely exercise restraint in this situation, Pyongyang is venturing into new territory in its actions. North Korea’s willingness to engage in ever more provocative acts has created a growing risk of miscalculation by either side. The Cheonan attack, the revelation of a uranium enrichment facility, and today’s artillery attack shows the previously static situation is unraveling.


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Sources: Heritage Foundation, MSNBC, NY Times, Google Maps

US Golf Legend Tiger Woods Loses To South Korea's Y.E. Yang

MSN Fox Sports, NBC Sports----


In a year of spoilers at the majors, Y.E. Yang was the biggest of all.

He toppled the mighty Tiger Woods.

Yang became the first Asian-born player to win a major Sunday with a stunning performance in the PGA Championship, memorable as much for his clutch shots as the player he beat.

Woods was 14-0 when he went into the final round of a major atop the leaderboard. He had not lost any tournament around the world in nine years when leading by two shots.

None of that mattered to Yang, a 37-year-old South Korean who hit the shots everyone expected from Woods. Leading by one on the final hole, Yang slayed golf’s giant with a hybrid 3-iron that cleared the bunker and settled 12 feet from the cup.

Yang made the birdie putt and shouted with joy as he pumped his fist. That gave him a 2-under 70, and a three-shot victory when Woods missed yet another short par putt and shot 75.

“I tried to master the art of controlling my emotions throughout the small wins I had in my career,” Yang said through his agent, Michael Yim. “I think it turned out quite well today.”

It was the second time Woods has finished runner-up in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, both times to a surprise winner. Seven years ago, he birdied the last four holes and came up one short of Rich Beem.

This time, Woods made one mistake after another over the last four holes, mostly with his putter.

“I did everything I needed to do, except for getting the ball in the hole,” Woods said. “Just didn’t make the putts when I needed to make them.”

Yang was No. 110 in the world, his only victory on the PGA Tour coming in March at the Honda Classic, on a course across the street from headquarters of the PGA of America. He was best known for holding off Woods at the HSBC Champions in China three years ago.

This stage was far bigger. Yang was even better.

He took the lead for the first time all week by chipping in for eagle from about 20 yards short of the 14th green. And when it looked as though nerves were getting the best of him on a three-putt bogey at the 17th, he delivered his two most important shots.

Yang still had enough strength left to hoist his golf bag over his head, and later the 44-pound Wanamaker Trophy. After a long and tearful embrace with his wife, Young Ju Park, he walked across a bridge saluting thousands of fans who couldn’t believe what they saw.

What a capper to this year in the majors.

Kenny Perry was poised to become the oldest Masters champion at 48 until Angel Cabrera beat him in a playoff. Phil Mickelson, reeling from his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer, was on the verge of finally winning the U.S. Open until Lucas Glover outplayed him over the final few holes. And just last month, 59-year-old Tom Watson was an 8-foot par putt away from winning the British Open, then lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink.

Woods losing a two-shot lead in the final round of a major? That was unthinkable — until a breezy afternoon at Hazeltine.

“I played well enough the entire week to win the championship,” Woods said. “You have to make putts. I didn’t do that. Today was a day that didn’t happen.”



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Sources: NBC Sports, MSN Fox Sports, Google Maps

Hackers Take Down U.S. & South Korean Government Web Sites...Both N. Korea, China Suspected

MSNBC----


WASHINGTON - A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting Cyber crime.

Suspected cyber assaults also paralyzed Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, banks and Internet sites in a barrage that appeared linked to the attacks in the U.S., South Korean officials said Wednesday.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening.

U.S. officials refused to publicly discuss details of the cyber attack. But Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the agency's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and other partner organizations about the problems and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks."

The U.S., she said, sees attacks on its networks every day, and measures have been put in place to minimize the impact on federal Web sites.

It was not clear whether other federal government sites also were attacked.

A lot of computers involved:

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

"It certainly seems to be a well-organized attack," an anonymous government official told The Washington Post. "There are a lot of computers involved. What we don't know is who is orchestrating it."

In South Korea, the sites of 11 organizations including the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and top Internet portal Naver went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokeswoman at Korea Information Security Agency.

They appeared to be linked to the knockout in the United States, though investigators are still unsure who was behind the attacks, Ahn said.

An initial investigation found that many personal computers were infected with a virus ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korea Information Security Agency official Shin Hwa-su said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.

South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said he doubts whether the impoverished North has the capability to knock down the Web sites.

But Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said the attack could have been done by either North Korea or China, saying he "heard North Korea has been working hard to hack into" South Korean networks.

Two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem.

Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, called it a "massive outage" and said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.

Keynote Systems is a mobile and Web site monitoring company based in San Mateo, Calif. The company publishes data detailing outages on Web sites, including 40 government sites it watches.

According to Rushlo, the Transportation Web site was "100 percent down" for two days, so that no Internet users could get through to it. The FTC site, meanwhile, started to come back online late Sunday, but even on Tuesday Internet users still were unable to get to the site 70 percent of the time.

"This is very strange. You don't see this," he said. "Having something 100 percent down for a 24-hour-plus period is a pretty significant event."

He added that, "The fact that it lasted for so long and that it was so significant in its ability to bring the site down says something about the site's ability to fend off (an attack) or about the severity of the attack."

Denial of service attacks against Web sites are not uncommon, and are usually caused when sites are deluged with Internet traffic so as to effectively take them off-line. Mounting such an attack can be relatively easy using widely available hacking programs, and they can be made far more serious if hackers infect and use thousands of computers tied together into "botnets."

For instance, last summer, in the weeks leading up to the war between Russia and Georgia, Georgian government and corporate Web sites began to see "denial of service" attacks. The Kremlin denied involvement, but a group of independent Western computer experts traced domain names and Web site registration data to conclude that the Russian security and military intelligence agencies were involved.

According to The Washington Post, Joe Stewart, the director of malware research at Atlanta based SecureWorks, said the attack software contained few clues about its origins, although a line of text deep in within the malware carried the cryptic message "get/china/dns."

Documenting cyber attacks against government sites is difficult, and depends heavily on how agencies characterize an incident and how successful or damaging it is.

Government officials routinely say their computers are probed millions of times a day, with many of those being scans that don't trigger any problems. In a June report, the congressional Government Accountability Office said federal agencies reported more than 16,000 threats or incidents last year, roughly three times the amount in 2007. Most of those involved unauthorized access to the system, violations of computer use policies or investigations into potentially harmful incidents.

The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, says there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers in 2008, up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006.


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Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Keynote Systems, Tech Shout, Google Maps

N. Korea Warns U.S. Of Military Action After Pres. Obama's Meeting With S. Korean President

Huffington Post----

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned Wednesday of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked, the latest threat in a drumbeat of rhetoric in defense of its rogue nuclear program.

Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea is preparing an additional site for test-firing a long-range missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States. Russia's deputy defense minister reportedly said it would shoot down any missile headed its way.

The warning of a military strike, carried by the North's state media, came hours after President Barack Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that recent U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington Tuesday for a landmark summit in which the two leaders agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang claims its nuclear bombs are a deterrent against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with Seoul to topple its secretive regime _ led by the unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il who is reportedly preparing to hand over power to his 26-year-old youngest son.

"If the U.S. and its followers infringe upon our republic's sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a one hundred- or one thousand-fold retaliation with merciless military strike," the government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary.

The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, also called Obama "a hypocrite" for advocating a nuclear-free world while making "frantic efforts" to develop new nuclear weapons at home.

"The nuclear program is not the monopoly of the U.S.," it said.

The report did not mention the Obama-Lee summit.

Attention has been focused on North Korea since it conducted a nuclear test, its second, on May 25 in defiance of the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council responded by toughening an arms embargo, authorizing ship searches for nuclear and ballistic missile cargo and depriving the regime of the financing used to build its nuclear program.

South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday that the North has begun withdrawing money from its bank accounts in the Chinese territory of Macau and elsewhere, for fear they would be frozen under the U.N. sanctions.

But Lim Eul-chul, a research professor at South Korea's Kyungnam University and an expert on North Korea, cast doubt on the report. He said the North likely had decreased its exposure to banks in Macau sharply after its funds were previously frozen there under U.S. sanctions.

"They know how to keep and secure their money," Lim said, adding that North Korea can effectively hide funds in accounts in mainland China opened in the name of third parties such as local Chinese companies and ethnic Korean Chinese citizens.

Separately, Japan's Sankei newspaper said Wednesday that the North has been showing signs of preparing two sites _ the Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast and the Musudan-ni site on the northeastern coast _ from where a long-range missile could be launched.

It was earlier thought that any launch would come only from the northwest.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper also carried a similar report Wednesday, quoting an unidentified government official as saying that a special train that carried a long-range missile to the northwestern site has recently moved to the northeastern site.

But South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has been running an empty cargo train from a weapons factory to the two sites.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying the movement is aimed at "confusing" foreign intelligence agencies.

Still, Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul, said the possibility of the North conducting a long-range missile test is high unless tension with the U.S. "is dramatically reduced."

In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Popovkin as saying that if a North Korean missile comes toward Russia "we will see it and shoot it down."

South Korea's Unification Ministry, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the reports on money withdrawals or on the missiles, which ostensibly can carry a nuclear warhead. It remains unclear whether they have developed a nuclear device small enough to be carried on a missile.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. It revealed last week that it is also producing enriched uranium. The two materials are key ingredients for making atomic bombs.

Some analysts believe that the North's rhetoric is aimed at showing people at home that their government can defy the powerful U.S., and eventually to give credit for it to Kim's reported heir apparent, Kim Jong Un. The analysts say this would make Jong Un's ascent to the top acceptable to the North Koreans.


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Sources: Huffington Post, Google Maps