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SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday that North Korea has offered to close down its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in May.

South Korea could mount swift and precise attacks on North Korea's nuclear bases should war break out on the peninsula, Seoul's incoming top military officer said Thursday. General Lee Sang-Eui, named as next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Seoul had a list of major targets its forces would strike first should a conflict erupt. Nuclear weaponry would pose the greatest threat, he told a parliamentary confirmation hearing, pledging to "mobilise all means available to precisely and swiftly strike" such bases. New Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told his own confirmation hearing last week that Seoul knew where the...

White House claims N. Korea sanctions are working By Sam Youngman Posted: 07/02/09 03:54 PM [ET] Even as the North Koreans tested four more missiles this week, the White House said Thursday that tough new United Nations sanctions are showing signs of working. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to say what evidence the administration has that the most recent round of sanctions were effectively tightening the noose on North Korea, and he warned that they will likely continue with provocative behavior. "I think it is clear the sanctions are having an impact," Gibbs said. When asked what the...

CANBERRA, Australia -- North Korea's ambassador to Australia warned Sunday that international attempts to halt his nation's missile tests could lead to war. In a letter to The Sunday Herald Sun newspaper in the southern city of Melbourne, Ambassador Chon Jae Hong defended last week's missile launches as "routine military exercises" aimed at increasing the nation's "capacity for self-defense." He said North Korean's missile program and tests were key to keeping the balance of force in northeast Asia. "It is a lesson taught by history and a stark reality of international relations, proven by the Iraqi crisis, that the upsetting...

If nuclear missiles were suddenly fired at the United States from North Korea, the U.S. is ready to shoot them down. That's the opinion of Major Gen. John Holly, head of the missile-shield program for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. "If directed, we could provide a limited defense against an attack out of Northeast Asia," Holly told Alaska lawmakers, according to the Associated Press. But he also acknowledged it would have to be a small attack, since there are only eight interceptor missiles in place in Alaska and California. Fort Greely, Alaska, currently houses six interceptors, with another 10 expected...

Big News Network.com Saturday 5th February, 2005 (UPI) The United States would dispatch 690,000 troops to help defend South Korea if war broke out on the peninsula, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Friday. Some 2,000 military planes and 160 warships would also be sent in the event of an attack from communist North Korea, the ministry said in its White Paper. The reinforcements would include several carrier battle groups capable of launching multilateral naval operations and air strikes against North Korea's border artillery forces, as well as self-guided weapons to hit the North's air force facilities and weapons of mass destruction,...

Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton warned on Friday that President Bush's decision not to negotiate with North Korea over that country's nuclear weapons program is a mistake. "I know the administration has taken the position that they will not, under any circumstances, negotiate," Clinton told ABC Radio Network News. "You know, I believe that you can be very tough, you can enforce America's interests and values while still talking." Mrs. Clinton did not comment on the disparity between her own advice to keep negotiating and her husband's recent revelation that he threatened to bomb North Korea in 1994 in...

<p>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Tuesday that Washington would seek a "diplomatic solution" to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.</p> <p>North Korea, however, reiterated its rejection of a U.N. watchdog's appeal to abandon its nuclear program and to accept foreign inspections.</p>