This is a continuation thread from the old board in which news and debate on the situation in North Korea can be centralized.

Currently:

BBC World News

Post-election push on N Korea
Experts believe N Korea has enough plutonium to make atomic bombs
South Korea says it has agreed with the US to seek an early resumption of talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

President Roh Moo-hyun suggested the move in a telephone call congratulating George W Bush on his re-election.

"President Bush gave an affirmative response," Mr Roh's spokesman said. The two leaders agreed to discuss the stalled process later this month.

There have been three rounds of six-party talks so far, but Pyongyang refused to attend one in September.

The communist state had postponed any talks until after the US presidential election.

Top priority

"The two presidents agreed to step up joint efforts to ensure that six-party talks may take place at the earliest possible date," the President Roh's spokesman Kim Jong-min said.

"President Roh proposed that the two countries give top priority to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue so as to provide a decisive momentum to bring about peace on the Korean peninsula," he said.

Mr Roh and Mr Bush are expected to discuss the issue on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Santiago, Chile, later this month.

Experts believe North Korea has already extracted enough plutonium for six or seven atomic bombs, although this is difficult to verify as Pyongyang will not submit to inspections from the UN's nuclear agency.

The six-party talks involve China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia.
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The saga continues....

I think the mere fact that they're actually extracting the plutonium is scary enough for me... man, I just don't know what to think about that nation... I can tell you that until they de-militarize, no matter what anybody tells me, I will be scared of what they're capable of...

Yes, it certainly is a volatile situation.

What are your thoughts on what we should do? Just appease them or take action?

A friend of mine's dad (who is a very intelligent college professor) actually suggested that China might take out Kim Jong Il if he gets out of hand, since keeping North Korea stable is actually in their best interests. I agree its entirely possible.

Well, I think it is important that the rest of the world truly exhaust all of its diplomatic options before considering anything from a military standpoint. With the current economic conditions in North Korea, and thier interest in China's recent success as it has become more global, I think North Korea is ripe for talks.

The economics of North Korea is really the keystone issue in generating change and peace on the peninsula.

this definitely goes along with what tsunami has said...keeping n. korea stable will be in everyone's interest, and once they know that, they can work on getting their country up to speed...

Plan C- something in between. I'm assuming plan A means that we give them everything they want, while plan B means bombing them back to the stone age.

In Hinny's little dream world, I'd walk to to Mr Kim and ask him why is he bothering with all this military crap, and work him like a shrink.

In my dream world, there would be a complete disarmament in all nations. Sadly, we're far from that.

Talking, appeasing, and coddling North Korea is what got us here in the first place. North Korea is in complete economic collapse. Last I knew a third of the people were starving. North Korea doesn't have the resources to wage war against anyone. In my opinion they are using the nukes specifically for financial leverage. Nothing like nuclear blackmail.

If it gets to a point where they're just really pissed off at someone (maybe the United States?), they might not give a second thought to pushing all of their resources into the creation of nuclear capabilities. I get the impression their government really does not give a shit about their people.

What reason does NK have to hate us? Hell, we gave them the capability to manufacture these nukes. And since when did a communist regime ever give a shit about their people?

Did you notice the word "If" that began the sentence?

I'm sure this isn't everything, but looking back through history is a start.

WW2 is over. Japanese troops pull out. Stalin comes in, but mostly leaves the place as is, since the local mood tended to savour socialism anyway. Then the Americans come in, and strike up a deal with Stalin to divide the Korean peninsula in half, with each power to take charge of the rebuilding process before the peninsula would be united under one country. Americans dismantle the popular local communes that the Korean people had set up themselves, and install a right wing tyrant in Syngman Rhee as president. Stalin gets alarmed, and sets up Kim Il Sung, father of Kim Jong Il, as his main man in the North.

A few years later, someone shot someone else over the 38th parallel, and we have the Korean war. Which never officially ended. They had a ceasefire which has since lapsed and that was it. No one did anything.

My theory is the Kim Jong Il is paranoid, thus he thinks he needs all these weapons in case the South and the US attacks him again.

NK mentioned at APEC Summit:


Apec summit gets down to business
Security in Santiago is being described as unprecedented
Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific states have kicked off an Apec summit in Chile with trade liberalisation and counter-terrorism high on the agenda.

Ahead of the summit, US President George Bush again sounded the alarm over the apparent nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. Helicopters flew overhead and security was tight for final summit arrivals.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people protested on the streets of Santiago against capitalism and the Iraq war.

At least 189 people were detained. More protests were expected later on Saturday.

Police have been deployed in strength throughout Santiago to break up unofficial protests.

The Apec gathering is the first official summit involving the leaders of all 21 member states who include Canada, China, Japan, Russia and the US.

Overshadowed?

American officials say Mr Bush will use the Apec summit to map a strategy to resume talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear ambitions.

He said North Korea would face pressure from all sides to resume six-party talks on the nuclear issue, having failed to attend the latest round of talks in September.

"The leader of North Korea will hear a common voice," he said, shortly before the summit opened.

Mr Bush also had words of warning for Iran, following reports reports it has accelerated production of uranium material that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

"It's very important for the Iranian government to hear that we are concerned about their desires, and we're concerned about reports that show that prior to a certain international meeting, they're willing to speed up processing of materials that could lead to a nuclear weapon," Mr Bush was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

He held separate meetings with the Chinese, Japanese, Russian and South Korean leaders before the summit opened.

US negotiators have denied reports that some of the countries want more concessions to North Korea, beyond a proposal made in June to allow South Korea and Japan to provide the North with aid.

Members of the bloc set up in 1989 mainly to promote trade among Pacific Rim states now account for more than half of global economic output and almost half of all international trade.

The BBC's Elliott Gotkine in Santiago says there are hopes that Apec could take steps towards creating a free trade area for the Asia-Pacific region.

I am not too worried about N Korea because if they tried to act up, China would put them down swiftly

We can't say that for sure at this point. I do believe, however, that you are right in saying that China definately has the most clout over the issue of North Korea.

UPDATE:

BBC World News


S Korea rebuked over nuke tests

The IAEA said it was satisfied the experiments had stopped
The UN nuclear watchdog has rebuked South Korea for conducting undeclared and illegal nuclear experiments.

But Seoul escaped tougher action, with the International Atomic Energy Agency refraining from referring the matter to the UN Security Council.

The IAEA said it was seriously concerned but there was no evidence the experiments were for arms programmes.

Seoul - which says it has no intentions of building nuclear weapons - welcomed the outcome.

It had lobbied hard to prevent the issue going to the Security Council.

Earlier this month, the IAEA said South Korea had made weapons-grade plutonium and near weapons-grade uranium - both a violation of nuclear safeguards.

Minute quantities

Seoul maintains the experiments were carried out by researchers for the sake of scientific development and without the knowledge of the government.

The government admitted that its scientists conducted, without official authorisation, tests in 1982 to extract plutonium and in 2000 to enrich uranium - two separate routes to an atomic bomb.

The IAEA said the quantities involved in the experiments were minute and there was no evidence that the work was being applied to a weapons programme.

Speaking after the IAEA meeting in Vienna on Friday, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said he was satisfied the experiments had halted.

"(South) Korea has taken a number of corrective actions in that regard to make sure these experiments are not continued," he told reporters on Friday.

Revelations of the secret experiments caused extreme embarrassment to South Korea and its main ally, the United States.

The issue has also given North Korea a chance to deflect criticism of its own nuclear activities and ignore calls for it to rejoin six-nation talks on the issue.

South Korea's concealment of its secret tests is also viewed by some experts as violation of Seoul's obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

UPDATE:

BBC World News:


S Korea's Roh cautions US hawks
By Bridget Kendall
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Mr Roh is on South Korea's first state visit to the UK
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun has warned the US not to drive North Korea into a corner by taking too aggressive an approach.

He voiced concern about influential US circles who, he said, were calling for regime change in North Korea.

Instead, President Roh urged a policy of persuasion and dialogue as a better way to get North Korea to change.

He was speaking in a BBC interview on the first state visit to the UK by a South Korean president.

"I feel that the more advisable course would be one that would not drive North Korea into a corner," he said.


The North Korean nuclear weapons capability will by no means, and under no circumstances, be tolerated
Roh Moo-hyun
His comments come at a delicate time in international efforts to persuade North Korea to rejoin talks on its controversial nuclear programme.

Nervousness

In the interview, the South Korean president said no one would tolerate a nuclear capability in North Korea and it was not that the US government had been aggressive.

"Let me assure you that the North Korean nuclear weapons capability will by no means, and under no circumstances, be tolerated," he said.

But he said some vocal circles in the US with considerable influence had been calling for regime change in North Korea, when the only way to induce it to embark on reforms was through dialogue.

It is not the first time South Korea has insisted that resolving the crisis over North Korea can only be done peacefully.

But these latest comments appear to reflect increased nervousness at what is being described as a tense moment in negotiations.

For months North Korea has refused to rejoin multi-party talks, blaming what it called a hostile US attitude and apparently waiting to see what would be the result of the US election.

Now this week it once again rebuffed attempts to restart a dialogue.

It seems South Korea's president is worried that unless rhetoric in the US is toned down, it may be difficult to get North Korea to change its mind.

Despite "considerable controversy" back home over his Iraq policy, Mr Roh said he will be looking to extend the duration of deployment of Korean troops.

UPDATE
BBC World News:

North Korea Threatens Japan With Aggression


Tokyo is furious over the issue of Japanese abducted by the North
North Korea has warned that it will regard any economic sanctions imposed by Japan in response to an ongoing kidnap row as a "declaration of war".

The Japanese government has already suspended food aid to North Korea as a result of the dispute.

Tokyo was outraged after human remains provided by North Korea were not those of a kidnapped Japanese woman.

North Korea has said it kidnapped some Japanese to train its spies, but denies any are still alive in the North.

A Japanese government official said sanctions against North Korea were one of the measures Tokyo was considering, but it first wanted to analyse all the information on missing Japanese nationals that its officials gathered during a visit to the North last month.

He said the decision would be made by the end of the year.


JAPAN'S MISSING
Snatched in the '70s and '80s
Used as cultural trainers for N Korean spies
Five allowed home in 2002
Five children now freed from N Korea
Eight said to be dead, others missing

Heartbreak in Japan

Sanctions could involve restricting Japanese port calls by North Korean vessels, remittances from Koreans living in Japan to the North, and imports of North Korean foods such as sea food and specialist mushrooms.

Pyongyang accused Japan of falsifying the tests to damage ties and said that if sanctions were imposed, it would hit back with an "effective physical response". The impoverished state relies heavily on contributions from Korean nationals in Japan.

"If sanctions are applied against the DPRK (North Korea)... we will regard it as a declaration of war against our country and promptly react to the action by an effective physical method," a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The statement said North Korea would also reconsider taking part in six-nation talks on its nuclear programme if Tokyo halted aid shipments. The Japanese government said earlier this week that as a result of the abduction row, it would hold back half of the 250,000 tonnes of food aid it promised North Korea in May.

More than six million North Koreans rely on foreign food aid for basic sustenance. Japan's gift has made it one of the North's most generous recent donors, but the North has survived Japanese freezes in the past. Before it promised the lump sum earlier this year, Tokyo had not pledged food aid to North Korea since 2001.

Any moves to change Japan's financial relationship with North Korea, however, are unlikely to be supported by Washington and other Japanese allies, as this would complicate the multinational talks process under way with Pyongyang.

Japanese anger

But pressure is mounting within Japan for action against its impoverished neighbour.

Last week, DNA tests showed that bones provided by North Korea to prove that a missing Japanese woman, Megumi Yokota, was dead, did not belong to her but to several other people.

Pyongyang admitted kidnapping her in 1977 but said she committed suicide in 1984. Many in Japan, including her parents, are suspicious and believe she is still alive.

Some believe she is being detained because she knows too much about the secretive country.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suggested the latest threats from North Korea might be part of a political strategy.

"We have to look carefully at what their true intentions are," he told reporters.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 to abducting 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 80s, who were to be used as cultural trainers for North Korean spies.

Five were allowed to return to Japan in 2002, while North Korea said the others had died or never entered the country.