Uranium gives NKorea second way to make bombs

After repudiating negotiations on dismantling its plutonium-based nuclear program, North Korea admitted this month to having an even more worrying way to make bombs.

Following nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced it can enrich uranium—a simpler method of building nuclear weapons than reprocessing plutonium. Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous factories that can better evade spy-satellite detection, and uranium bombs may work without test explosions.

The admission—made in a threatening response to a June 12 U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Pyongyang for an underground plutonium bomb test last month—poses a new challenge to the U.S., China, South Korea, Russia and Japan as they seek to stem the reclusive country's atomic ambitions.

Since 2003, they have focused on persuading the North to disable a nuclear reactor north of Pyongyang, where the communist regime had been laboriously extracting plutonium, not a naturally occurring material, from spent fuel rods.

Natural uranium, on the other hand, is readily available. North Korea has said it has an estimated 26 million tons of natural uranium deposits, of which about four million tons can be economically extracted. The Washington-based Federation of American Scientists also said an estimated 4 million tons is high-quality uranium ore.

That doesn't mean North Korea can make a uranium bomb overnight. The uranium must be highly enriched first, and making enough for a bomb requires operating 1,000 to 3,000 centrifuges for a year, said Lee Choon-geun, an expert at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute.

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283196/posts

N Korea issues navigation ban for ‘military drill’
Zee News ^ | July 01
Posted on July 1, 2009 6:16:02 AM PDT by maquiladora

Tokyo, July 01: (Kyodo) North Korea has issued navigation bans for 10 coastal sites along the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea citing military exercises, the Japan Coast Guard on Wednesday said.

The latest move covers seven sites located off the Sea of Japan coast and three sites in waters off the Yellow Sea, the coast guard said, adding that it was informed of the bans by the North Korean government via e-mail.

The new bans indicate that North Korea is preparing for newer missile launches, official sources stated.

Pyongyang test-fired a long range missile on April 5 and conducted its second nuclear test as well as launching three short-range missiles on May 25, after issuing similar navigation bans. (Kyodo)

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http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54990

News
American Forces Press Service
North Korean Missile Launch ‘Not Unexpected,’ Official Says
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – North Korea’s launch of four short-range missiles yesterday didn’t surprise Defense Department officials, a Pentagon spokesman said today.

“What’s fair to say is that North Korea, [and its] behavior, continues to be unpredictable,” Bryan Whitman said, noting the activity “was not unexpected.”

Whitman said he doesn’t know of any specific violations of a June 12 United Nations Security Council nonproliferation resolution on North Korea associated with the launch.

North Korea has been the subject of near-universal condemnation since conducting a nuclear test in April. It also has tested intercontinental and intermediate-range missile technology.

A defense official, speaking on background, said he sees the reason for the launches as two-fold. The first is increased capability due to the improvement of North Korea’s missile systems. The second is that the country is using the actions to improve its position when dealing with the international community, which by all indications, he said, is having the reverse effect.

While this hypothesis isn’t unfounded, he said, it doesn’t negate the fact that the act should be cause for concern.

“I think that North Korea is looking for attention, and this is one of the ways that they seek to get attention,” the defense official said. “I don’t want to give the sense that there isn’t concern. There’s great concern about this unpredictable and dangerous activity that’s taking place.”

In fact, the country’s development of its nuclear program, as well as its continual improvement, testing, and exercising of ballistic missile capabilities and its proliferation activities, should be cause for concern, the official said.

“It’s the combination of all of these things,” he said. “It’s the direction in which North Korea continues to head that should cause not only the United States, but [also] the international community at large, some concern.”

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“Burma, North Korea Said To Expand Military Ties (No.3 man’s secret visit to NK last Nov )”
Salem-News ^ | 07/02/09 | Kyaw Min Htun
Posted on July 2, 2009 11:08:51 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Previously...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278989/posts

“N. KOREA “HELPING BURMA WITH WMD” (TOP STORY!)”
Chosun Ilbo News, Seoul ^ | 25 June 2009 (59th anniversary of start of Korean War) | Chosun Ilbo, Seoul, S. Korea (English)
Posted on June 25, 2009 12:55:56 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo

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http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg191.htm

June 30, 2009
TG-191

Treasury Targets North Korea’s Missile Proliferation Network

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today targeted North Korea’s missile proliferation network by designating Hong Kong Electronics under Executive Order 13382. E.O. 13382 freezes the assets of designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them, thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems. Hong Kong Electronics, located in Kish Island, Iran, has been designated for providing support to North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank (Tanchon) and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID).

Tanchon and KOMID have also been designated by the United States under E.O. 13382 and the UN Security Council under Resolution 1718. The Department of State also today targeted North Korea’s nuclear proliferation network by designating Namchongang Trading Corporation (NCG), a North Korean nuclear-related company in Pyongyang, under E.O. 13382.

“North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions,” said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Today’s action is a part of our overall effort to prevent North Korea from misusing the international financial system to advance its nuclear and missile programs and to sell dangerous technology around the world.”

Since 2007, Hong Kong Electronics has transferred millions of dollars of proliferation- related funds on behalf of Tanchon and KOMID. Hong Kong Electronics has also facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID. Tanchon, a commercial bank based in Pyongyang, North Korea, is the financial arm for KOMID - North Korea’s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

Tanchon plays a key role in financing the sales of ballistic missiles for KOMID. Tanchon has also been involved in financing ballistic missile sales from KOMID to Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), which is the Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled missiles. SHIG has been designated under E.O. 13382 and sanctioned by the United Nations under UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1737. Since 2005, Tanchon has maintained an active relationship with various branches of Iran’s Bank Sepah, an entity designated under E.O. 13382 and sanctioned by the United Nations under UNSCR 1747, for providing financial services to Iran’s missile program. The U.S. has reason to believe that the Tanchon-Bank Sepah relationship has been used for North Korea-Iran proliferation-related transactions.

For additional information on the Department of State’s designation of Namchongang Trading Corporation, please visit http://state.gov/press.

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285303/posts

SKorea says NKorea fires 4 missiles off east coast
AP from Yahoo ^ | July 4, 2009 | KWANG-TAE KIM
Posted on July 3, 2009 11:34:40 PM PDT by AH_LiveRight

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired four missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, in what was likely to be seen as a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday.

The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired four short-range missiles, could further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the U.N. resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday and the fourth at about noon but declined to elaborate on the type.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile. North Korea’s Scuds are considered short-range, South Korea’s military said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

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