Serious developments on North Korea's nuke, ICBM tests

World countries condemn North Korea's nuke missile test-firing

U.S. defense secretary vehemently rejects a nuclear North Korea

U.S.-North Korea tension grows as Washington deploys fighters in Japan

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North Korea vowed Wednesday to attack South Korea if ships from the North are searched as part of a U.S.-led effort to stop vessels suspected of carrying missiles or weapons of mass destruction. It also declared that the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953 is no longer valid.

The threat - unusually broad and bellicose, even by North Korean standards - came two days after the communist state was condemned by the international community, including longtime allies China and Russia, for testing a second nuclear device in violation of U.N. resolutions. Since Monday, the North has also launched five short-range missiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded by saying North Korea faces consequences for its nuclear and missile tests and denouncing its "provocative and belligerent" threats. She also underscored the firmness of the U.S. treaty commitment to defend South Korea and Japan, which are in easy range of North Korean missiles.

Key world powers have proposed a range of expanded U.N. sanctions against North Korea in response to its recent nuclear test as well as measures to give teeth to existing bans and ship searches against the reclusive country, a U.N. diplomat said Wednesday.

The five permanent veto-wielding council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - and the two countries most closely affected by the nuclear test, Japan and South Korea, discussed possible U.N. sanctions and other measures for a new Security Council resolution on Tuesday.

The diplomat, who is familiar with the talks but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were closed, said there is a clear commitment to go for sanctions in the new resolution and no reluctance from North Korea's allies, China and Russia. But what measures the 15-member council ultimately agrees to remains to be seen.

The South Korea/U.S. combined-forces command increased its surveillance to Level 2 from Level 3, said Won Tae-jae, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman. Level 2 is the highest alert level since 2006, when the North conducted its first-ever nuclear test.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against the North.

Won said the higher level means more aviation-surveillance assets, intelligence analysts and other intelligence-collecting measures will be used to watch North Korea. He refused to elaborate.

South Korea, still divided from the North by a heavily fortified border, responded to the nuclear test by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led movement to stop ships from transporting banned nuclear goods.

Pyongyang lashed out at both the U.S. and South Korea, calling Seoul's move to join the PSI tantamount to a declaration of war and a violation of the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas.

"Full participation in the PSI by a side on the Korean Peninsula where the state of military confrontation is growing acute and there is constant danger of military conflict itself means igniting a war," North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried on state media.

The regime warned that it would "deal a decisive and merciless retaliatory blow" to anyone trying to inspect its vessels.

North Korea's army said it would be "illogical" to honor the 1953 armistice between the two Koreas, given the violations by the U.S. and South Korea, and said it could no longer promise the safety of U.S. and South Korean warships and civilian vessels in the waters near the maritime border.

The Korean People's Army said in a statement that North Korea has "tremendous military muscle" and is "able to conquer any targets in its vicinity at one stroke."

Clinton said North Korea has made a choice to violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, ignore international warnings and abrogate commitments made during six-nation nuclear-disarmament talks.

"There are consequences to such actions," she said, referring to discussions in the United Nations about punishing North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.

She did not provide specifics, saying only that the intent of diplomats is to "try to rein in the North Koreans" and get them to fulfill commitments made in the nuclear talks.

Clinton said she was pleased by a unified international condemnation of North Korea that included Russia and China, North Korea's closest major ally and the host of the stalled disarmament talks.

Despite her tough words, Clinton held out hope that North Korea would return to nuclear-disarmament talks and that "we can begin once again to see results from working with the North Koreans toward denuclearization that will benefit, we believe, the people of North Korea, the region and the world."

At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs played down North Korea's angry rhetoric, saying the threats only add to its isolation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it voiced "serious concern" about the nuclear test to the North Korean ambassador and urged Pyongyang to respect the U.N. resolutions and return to the disarmament talks.

The truce signed in 1953 and subsequent military agreements call for both sides to refrain from warfare, but it doesn't cover waters off the western coast. North Korea has used the maritime border dispute to provoke two deadly naval skirmishes, in 1999 and 2002.

The latest confrontation comes as Pyongyang may have restarted its weapons-grade nuclear plant, South Korean reports said.

The U.S. and South Korea put their military forces on high alert Thursday after North Korea renounced the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas since 1953.

The North also accused the U.S. of preparing to attack the isolated communist country in the wake of its second nuclear bomb test and warned it would retaliate to any hostility with "merciless" and dangerous ferocity.

Seoul moved a 3,500-ton destroyer into waters near the Koreas' disputed western maritime border while smaller, high-speed vessels were keeping guard at the front line, South Korean news reports said. The Defense Ministry said the U.S. and South Korean militaries would increase surveillance activities.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, positioned artillery guns along the west coast on its side of the border, the Yonhap news agency said. The Joint Chiefs of Staffs in Seoul refused to confirm the reports.

The show of force along the heavily fortified border dividing the two Koreas comes three days after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and fired a series of short-range missiles.

The test drew immediate condemnation from world leaders and the U.N. Security Council, where ambassadors were discussing a new resolution to punish Pyongyang. President Obama called it a "blatant violation" of international law.

In response, South Korea said it would join more than 90 nations that have agreed to stop and inspect vessels suspected of transporting weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea called South Korea's participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative a prelude to a naval blockade and a violation of the truce signed to end the three-year war that broke out in Korea in 1950.

On Wednesday Pyongyang renounced the 1953 armistice and the following day warned U.S. forces against advancing into its territory.

"The northward invasion scheme by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet regime has exceeded the alarming level," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "A minor accidental skirmish can lead to a nuclear war."

The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea and an additional 50,000 in Japan, has denied it is planning military action. But U.S. and South Korean troops were placed on their highest alert level in more than two years.

The South Korea-U.S. combined forces command rates its surveillance alert on a scale to 5, with 1 being the highest level. On Thursday, the level was raised from 3 to 2, the second-highest level, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said. He said the last time the alert level was that high was in 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test.

Won said both militaries were raising their surveillance activities, although he would not explain what that meant. South Korean media reported that the higher alert would involve increased monitoring of North Korea using satellites and navy ships.

The U.N. Command on Korea said it would continue to observe the armistice, saying it "remains in force and is binding on all signatories, including North Korea."

North Korea has repudiated the armistice several times before, most recently in 2003 and 2006.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young accused the North of "seriously distorting" the decision to join in the initiative.

Seoul has said its military would "respond sternly" to any North Korean provocation and that it would be able to contain the North with the help of U.S. troops.

The South Korean military has dispatched "personnel and equipment deployment" along its land and sea borders, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity citing department policy. He said there has been no particular movement of North Korean troops in border areas.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because they signed a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. However, North Korea disputes the U.N.-drawn maritime border off the west coast and used that dispute to provoke deadly naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.

South Korea's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said more anti-air missiles and artillery were dispatched to military bases on islands near the disputed western sea border.

Yonhap said the destroyer has artillery guns, anti-ship guided missiles, ship-to-air missiles and torpedoes. Air force fighters were on standby, the report said.

North Korea's West Sea fleet has 13 submarines and more than 360 vessels, Yonhap said.

The recent flurry of belligerence could reflect an effort by 67-year-old leader Kim Jong Il to boost his standing among his impoverished people.

It was also seen as a test of Obama's new administration, and it came as two Americans, journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, remained in custody in Pyongyang accused of illegal entry and "hostile acts." They face trial in Pyongyang next week.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said any new Security Council resolution must be stronger than the one issued after the North's first atomic test in October 2006 and contain sanctions.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said Moscow did not want to see Pyongyang further isolated. Andrei Nesterenko said Russia opposed sanctions but did not object to a U.N. resolution.

Hong Hyun-ik, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute security think tank, said sanctions would not be effective unless China — North Korea's traditional ally — implemented them.

"Kim Jong Il must be scoffing" at the talk of sanctions, Hong said. "He knows the world will forget about any sanctions in the end."

North Korea appears to be preparing to test an advanced missile designed to reach the United States, a U.S. official said Monday, ratcheting up tensions after its second underground nuclear test.

The reclusive communist country also reportedly bolstered its defenses and conducted amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with the South have occurred in the past decade.

Satellite images and other intelligence indicated the North had transported its most advanced long-range missile to the new Dongchang-ni facility near China and could be ready to be fired in the next week or so, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

A U.S. official confirmed the Yonhap report and said the missile was moved by train, although he did not comment on where it was moved to, and said it could be more than a week before Pyongyang was ready to launch. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue involved intelligence.

The activity at the launch site came as the United Nations Security Council mulled punitive action for North Korea’s May 25 nuclear test, and ahead of a June 16 summit in Washington between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack Obama.

Complicating the situation further, a trial was set to begin Thursday in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in “hostile acts.”

The missile being prepared for launch was believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unnamed South Korean official.

That distance would put Alaska and U.S. bases on the Pacific island of Guam — along with all of Japan — within striking range.

Even so, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting Manila in the Philippines, said that although North Korea does appear to be working on its long range missiles, it was not yet clear what its plans were for them.

President Lee, hosting a conference of Southeast Asian leaders on the southern island of Jeju, warned in his weekly radio address that the South would “never tolerate” military threats.

Lee Sang-hyun, director of the Security Studies Program at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said the North’s moves were calculated to get international attention.

“North Korea wants to become a full nuclear state, then negotiate,” he said. “As a nuclear state, it will have more to gain from the U.S.”

The U.S. and Japan on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to work together to rein in the threat from North Korea, which is suspected of preparing to launch a long-range missile.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said his talks in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone were "productive."

"There is a very strong commitment between the U.S. and Japan to work together to address the North Korean missile and nuclear program, and I'm very encouraged by the cooperative and common approach that we have on these issues," Steinberg said after Monday's meeting.

Steinberg, who arrived Sunday, gave no further comment.

North Korea is reportedly preparing to launch its most advanced missile, believed to be capable of reaching Alaska, from its west coast near China. Last week, North Korea carried out nuclear tests and a series of short-range missile launches.

South Korean media reported the launch of a long-range missile could happen in the next few weeks.

U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a news conference in the Philippines, said North Korea appears to be working on a long-range missile but it wasn't yet clear what they plan to do with it.

The top item on the Chinese website of Beijing's embassy in Pyongyang is a condemnation of North Korea's nuclear test.

That, and a recent blast of blunt criticism of North Korea in China's state-run press, suggest the rancour that officials feel towards their communist neighbor -- anger likely to bring Beijing behind a U.N. resolution condemning the May 25 test and threatening fresh sanctions.

North Korea's second nuclear test took place 85 km (53 miles) from China's border, and the tremors from the blast forced many schools on the Chinese side to evacuate, wrote Zhang Lianggui, a prominent Chinese expert on the North.

He warned of catastrophe if Pyongyang mishandles a nuclear test.

"Future generations of the Korean people will have no place of their own, and China's reviving northeast will burst like a bubble," Zhang wrote in the Global Times, a popular tabloid, on Tuesday.

"This is an unprecedented threat that China has never faced in its thousands of years."

On Monday, a commentary in the same paper called North Korea a "strategic burden" for China. Not the kind of language the government would have allowed earlier this year, when the focus was on celebrating 60 years of ties with the Communist North.

Zhan Debin, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote in the paper that the Chinese government could soon be pushed to abandon its usual reticence.

"If this continues, China will not be able to stall international expectations by saying that North Korea doesn't listen or that we have no influence," wrote Zhan.

If Pyongyang continues raising the international stakes, Zhan added, war cannot be ruled out, and North Korea will "either continue trapped in a Cold War or will swiftly disappear".

Such harsh words may not have the express approval of China's leaders. But they reflect the government's growing impatience with its neighbor.

China has long regarded the North as a strategic buffer against the extension of U.S. and allied forces up to its 1,416-km (880-mile) frontier with the North.

But Beijing also fears North Korea's nuclear threats could tip the region into destabilizing and expensive military rivalry.

For all the harsh words in the Chinese media, however, the government may not be so forceful when the U.N. Security Council considers fresh sanctions against the North.

Apart from the May 25 condemnation of the test, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have avoided strong commentary about North Korea, which depends on its 1950-53 Korean War ally China for much of its food and oil.

In 2006, China backed a U.N. resolution condemning the North's first nuclear test. But it fended off demands for sanctions that could choke its economic lifeline to Pyongyang.

"China will be extremely cautious about new sanctions this time," Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asian security at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Reuters.

"China won't agree to excessive sanctions that would only stoke conflict with North Korea," he said. "Actions like that might give psychological satisfaction to some countries, but they won't help solve the North Korean nuclear crisis."

Leaders of South Korea and Southeast Asia have condemned North Korea for its nuclear test and missile launches and vowed to intensify efforts to ease rising tension on the Korean peninsula.

The leaders said in a joint press statement that the North's nuclear test last week and subsequent short-range missile launches constitute "clear violations" of an international disarmament deal and U.N. Security Council resolutions and decisions.

The leaders also said the peaceful settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue is "essential" to maintain regional peace and stability. They also said they support the resumption of six-nation talks aimed at North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

The statement was issued at the end of a two-day summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It echoed condemnation made at an Asia-Europe meeting late last month in Hanoi.

The meeting was meant to focus on boosting ties and commemorating 20 years of relations between South Korea and ASEAN.

The gathering, however, was largely overshadowed by North Korea's nuclear test and the missile launches. North Korea also appears to be preparing to test an advanced missile designed to reach the United States, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because the issue involved intelligence.

The statement on North Korea was a separate document from a broader joint statement issued on the summit.

In the summit statement, the leaders said they "are committed to continue our efforts to reduce tension" on the Korean peninsula, including those to achieve an early, peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear standoff through now-stalled six-nation talks.

Under a 2007 accord signed with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, the North agreed to disable its nuclear facilities in return for energy aid and other benefits. The disarmament negotiations, however, have gone nowhere due to disputes over how to verify the country's past nuclear activities.

Meanwhile, an Israeli intelligence official warned Monday that Iran could have enough fissile material for its first nuclear bomb by the end of this year.

Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, head of the research division of Israel's Military Intelligence, made the remarks to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Israel's Knesset (parliament).

"Iran is extremely troubling because of its speed. It has missiles which could reach Israel. The Iranian clock precedes the international dialogue clock," Baidatz was quoted by local news service Ynet as saying.

The United States and Israel have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, but Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Since taking office in January, U.S. President Barack Obama has made some diplomatic overtures to Iran that has so far been rebuffed. Obama said in May he would not pursue this policy indefinitely and would like to see some progress on the nuclear issue by the end of this year.

On May 25, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that new diplomatic overtures made by the United States to Iran were unlikely to halt the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

"I believe that the chance the dialogue has of stopping Iran's nuclear efforts is very low," Barak was quoted by Israel Radio as saying.

He added that Iran posed one of the most "serious potential threats" against Israel, reiterating that the Jewish state would not take any option off the table regarding Iran's nuclear program.