Reports: NKorea readying several missile tests

AP ^

[maquiladora]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is preparing to launch three or four medium-range missiles, along with an intercontinental ballistic missile, amid moves by Kim Jong Il to anoint his third son as heir to the world's first communist dynasty, reports and experts said Tuesday.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North is preparing to fire three to four medium-range missiles from Anbyon on its east coast.

"Many vehicles mounted with mobile launchers are being spotted" at Anbyon, Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official saying. "It looks like at least three missiles will be launched."

The North has also transported what is believed to be its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile to a base near China in the west, officials confirmed.

[Cindy]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk

#

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/tongchang-launchpad_dg_090603.jpg

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/html/tongchang-ni_launchpad_dg_090603.htm

“Tongchang-ni launchpad, North Korea
Tongchang-ni Launchpad Overview”

SNIPPET: “New imagery as of 3 June 2009 of the launch site at Tongchang-ni shows that the umbilical tower and movable launch pad appear to be operational.”
Image Credit: DigitalGlobe.

[Cindy]

http://www.state.gov/p/eap/ci/kn/c6647.htm

Previously...

QUOTE:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/05/124081.htm

North Korea: Can North Korea be Relisted as a State Sponsor of Terrorism
Ian Kelly
Department Spokesman, Office of the Spokesman
BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Washington, DC

Question Taken at May 28, 2009 Daily Press Briefing
May 29, 2009

###
###

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/05/124048.htm

Ian Kelly
Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
May 28, 2009

SNIPPET: “NORTH KOREA
Russia Has Played a Constructive Role at the UN Security Council
Meetings and Consultations Continue in New York
Secretary Clinton is Very Engaged”

[Godzilla]

This is reaching a point where either the US or Japan will attempt a shoot-down of any long range NK rocket. This ain’t gonna get pretty.

[Cindy]

“This ain’t gonna get pretty.”

I agree.

[Cindy]

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/korea/2009/06/08/211252/South-Korea.htm

Updated Monday, June 8, 2009 9:26 am TWN, Reuters
“South Korea makes plans to counter North missile”

SNIPPET: “SEOUL — South Korea has outlined a plan to counter a possible missile attack by North Korea, including airstrikes on a missile base, Seoul’s Yonhap News reported on Sunday citing military sources.

A scenario by the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff submitted to President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday included a plan to counter-attack in case North Korea fires a missile targeting the South’s battleships in the contested waters off the west coast, Yonhap said.

The response under the contingency plan would be joint attacks from surface, air and sea against the North’s missile base, it said.”

[Cindy]

Thanks to Jet Jaguar for the ping to this thread.

#

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266926/posts

U.S. Weighs Intercepting North Korean Shipments
NYT via Drudge ^ | June 8, 2009 | DAVID E. SANGER
Posted on June 7, 2009 7:58:20 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar

The Obama administration signaled that it was seeking a way to interdict North Korean shipments suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear technology.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2266906/posts?page=38#38

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_387493.html

Home > Breaking News > Asia > Story
June 8, 2009
“N.Korea closing eastern port”

SNIPPET: “TOKYO - NORTH Korea is warning ships to stay out of waters off its eastern port of Wonsan for three weeks from Wednesday, the Japan Coast Guard said, raising concerns Pyongyang is planning more missile tests.

North Korea is alerting vessels by radio not to enter an area that measures 100 by 263 kilometres at its widest points from June 10 to 30 between 8am and 8pm, a coast guard spokesman said on Monday.

‘We have acknowledged the information and soon afterward issued the same warning to those who may travel in this region,’ the spokesman said.

The news came amid increasing speculation that North Korea is preparing to test-fire several medium-range missiles from its southeast coast.

At least three missiles are apparently being prepared for launch from a missile base in Anbyon County, near Wonsan, a port city about 100 kilometres northeast of Seoul, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.

The report said that several vehicles mounted with mobile launch pads were spotted at the base.”

38 posted on June 7, 2009 8:35:33 PM PDT by Cindy

[Cindy]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hM96sRn69bkN1XDLqb2_pkmFxqdgD98M9GM00

“NKorea sentences 2 US journalists to 12 years jail”
By VIJAY JOSHI – 32 minutes ago

SNIPPET: “SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said its top court convicted two U.S. journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the United States.

The North’s Central Court tried American TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee during proceedings running from last Thursday to Monday and found them guilty of a “grave crime” against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
It said the court “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.” The KCNA report gave no other details.

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

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267001/posts

N. Korea may use mobile radar before long-range missile launch: source
Yonhap News ^ | 06/08/09 | Sam Kim

Posted on June 7, 2009 10:40:02 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

N. Korea may use mobile radar before long-range missile launch: source

By Sam Kim

SEOUL, June 8 (Yonhap) — South Korean officials believe North Korea may deploy a mobile radar shortly before test-firing a long-range ballistic missile it is apparently assembling on its west coast, a source said Monday.

Such a step would mean the North could avoid setting up radar at the base, avoiding foreign surveillance.

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54696

Pentagon Encouraged on Pakistan, Wary on North Korea, Spokesman Says

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2009 – Defense Department officials are encouraged by the Pakistani campaign in the country’s Swat Valley and in its provinces of Buner and Dir, but North Korea continues to be a vexing issue, the Pentagon press secretary said here today.

Pakistan’s month-long offensive against the Taliban within its borders is going well, Geoff Morrell said during a Pentagon news conference. “We are hoping that the offensive continues to the point that these militants in this region are defeated,” he said.

The United States continues to stand ready to provide whatever assistance the Pakistani military needs to finish the job, Morrell said. “But we are clearly encouraged by the fact that, ever since there was this encroachment on Islamabad by the Taliban and associated other militant groups, we are seeing an aggressive and sustained military operation in response,” he added.

North Korea continues to be a problem, and the press secretary said the U.S. position will continue to stress diplomacy. “Our focus is now and has been and likely will continue to be on coming up with diplomatic and economic pressures that will persuade the North from abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the platforms to deliver them,” he said.

American efforts are focused on the United Nations and the Six-Party Talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and North Korea.

Still other actions are contemplated should diplomacy fail. “Obviously, we never take anything off the table in terms of what our options are should the North not be dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear-weapons capability,” Morrell said, “but that’s not where our focus is right now.”

Morrell reiterated Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ statement in Singapore last week. “He, like the president and almost everybody else involved in this, is sick of buying the same horse multiple times — is sick of responding to North Korean provocations by making concessions that get you back to the status quo ante only to see this all unfold again,” Morrell said.

“So while we are pursuing diplomacy and while we are pursuing economic sanctions, we are simultaneously working with our allies … who may be amenable to this on trying to devise additional defensive measures, prudent planning in the event that the North continues down this reckless path,” he said.

Gates has tasked his policy team to figure out creative and prudent ways to bolster defenses if North Korea continues, Morrell said.

The United States will work with Japan and South Korea or alone if it has to, he said.

“We’re talking about this on a trilateral basis, which would be ideal, on a bilateral basis if necessary, and, if it comes to that, unilaterally,” the press secretary said.

[Cindy]

NEW THREAD:

Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2268201/posts

(LEAD) N. Korea vows to fight U.S. with ‘willpower’
YONHAP NEWS.co.uk (English) ^ | 2009/06/09 19:40 KST | By Kim Hyun
Posted on June 9, 2009 12:21:07 PM PDT by Cindy

NorthKorea

SEOUL, June 9 (Yonhap) — North Korea urged its people Tuesday to be armed with willpower against the United States and warned not to depend on allied nations, as the country faces new international sanctions for its recent nuclear test.

The full-page editorial by the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper published by the Workers Party of Korea, apparently pointed to China, which has rebuked the May 25 nuclear explosion and is now working on a punitive resolution with the U.N. Security Council.

“We will win when we fight the (U.S.) imperialists to the end, and there will be only shame and disgrace if we surrender,” the paper said. “The confrontation with the imperialists is a war of willpower.”

(Excerpt) Read more at english.yonhapnews.co.kr ...