South Korea urges US to ease conditions for talks with North

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/South-Korea-urges-US-to-ease-conditions-for-talks-with-North

Analyst: United States Lagging behind Russia in Nuclear Delivery Systems

Analyst: United States Lagging behind Russia in Nuclear Delivery Systems - See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1793883?#sthash.6AngADIl.dpuf

Πηγή: ALALM
Feb 28 2016


A political analyst says the United States is lagging behind Russia in terms of its nuclear delivery systems and cannot catch up with it, Press TV reported.

Steven D Kelley, a former CIA/NSA contractor, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about US officials who called for modernizing the country’s decades-old nuclear forces.

The commander of the US Strategic Command, Adm. Cecil Haney, and other Pentagon officials have said that the US will risk eroding its credibility as a deterrent to attack by others if it does not start the modernization process now.

“The delivery systems for the United States’ nuclear arsenal are considerably obsolete and out-of-date, they have not been modernized and all of these rockets have actually been used well beyond the useful date that they were intended to be used for, so those useful dates have been extended considerably,” Kelley said.

“The Russians, on the other hand, have become quite advanced in their delivery system and missile technology and unlike the Americans, they have quite a few new systems and development and obviously with the success of the S-300 and S-400, the Americans are certainly long overdue in trying to catch up and maintain some sort of a credible delivery system,” he added.

He went on to say that “the players that would be requiring some sort of a psychological demonstration would mostly be junior players like North Korea."

US officials’ warning over the country’s old nuclear forces came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on January 6, triggering a diplomatic row.

Following the test, North Korea said it would stop its nuclear tests if the United States signed a peace treaty with Pyongyang and stopped its joint annual military maneuvers with South Korea.

Libya Intervention More Questionable in Rear View Mirror

A militia group in Tripoli, Feb. 17, 2012. 

Πηγή: IPS
By Jim Lobe
April 6 2013

WASHINGTON, Apr 5 2013 (IPS) - While the tenth anniversary last month of Washington’s invasion of Iraq provoked overwhelmingly negative reviews of the adventure except among its most die-hard neo-conservative proponents, a more recent – albeit far less dramatic and costly – intervention has faded almost completely from public notice.

Nonetheless, nearly 18 months after Western-backed rebels killed Moammar Gaddafi in the city of Sirte, the intervention by the U.S. and its NATO allies in the civil war in Libya appears increasingly costly on several levels.

That assessment applies not only to Libya and its North African neighbours, especially Mali, but also to relations among the great powers – most immediately with respect to Syria, where Russia and China have firmly resisted any western effort in the U.N. Security Council to undermine the government of President Bashar al-Assad or support the insurgency against him.

While the decision of China’s new president, Xi Jinping, to make his first overseas visit to Russia last month was by no means attributable only – or even primarily – to Western intervention in Libya, their strong objections to the way NATO interpreted a Security Council resolution to protect civilian lives as licence for “regime change” in Tripoli certainly contributed to a renewed sense of solidarity between the two former Communist rivals.

“We are living through an era of flux and change,” Xi told a university audience in Moscow in a thinly veiled reference to the West. “No country or bloc of countries can again single-handedly dominate world affairs.” For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the two countries’ “strategic partnership” on the Security Council.

Indeed, the Libya precedent was even evoked during this week’s crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

“This land is neither the Balkans nor Iraq and Libya,” boasted the official North Korean news agency in a reference to three other recent U.S. interventions against countries that, unlike Pyongyang, either lacked or, like Gaddafi, abandoned their efforts to obtain nuclear weapons that could presumably have been used to deter external attack.

Acting on a verbal threat by Gaddafi to exterminate rebels in their stronghold of Benghazi in the early stages of the civil war, the U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 1973 by a vote of 10-0 with five abstentions – Russia, China, Germany, Brazil, and India – on Mar. 17, 2011.

Pursuant to the emerging “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) legal doctrine, the resolution authorised member nations to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians under threat of attack, including by creating a “no-fly zone” over the country’s air space.

As the civil war intensified – albeit inconclusively – over the following months, however, some Arab and key Western governments, notably Britain, France, and the U.S., took more aggressive measures in support of the rebels. These ranged from on-the-ground training to supplying arms and providing real-time tactical intelligence, until Tripoli fell in late August and Gaddafi was killed two months later.

Thus, an operation undertaken purely for humanitarian reasons eventually became one dedicated to regime change.

While a comprehensive assessment of the costs and benefits is premature, an initial balance sheet would appear to confirm the notion that military intervention often reaps unintended – and negative – consequences.

On the positive side with respect to Libya itself, a long-ruling and ruthless dictator is no longer in power, and the country’s oil production has bounced back with surprising speed.

On the other hand, the central government has proved unable to reassert its control over much of the nation, leaving a huge security vacuum filled by a multitude of militias – including radical Islamists who may have been responsible for the killing of the U.S. ambassador and two of his staff in Benghazi last September.

“Libya has gone from being a tyrannical state to being barely a state at all,” according to Robert Kaplan, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in an article published Thursday “…(A) descent into worse chaos cannot be ruled out.”

That vacuum also permitted the wholesale looting of Gaddafi’s massive arsenals. “The weapons proliferation that we saw coming out of the Libyan conflict was of a scale greater than any previous conflict – probably ten times more weapons than we saw going on the loose in places like Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan,” Peter Bouckhert of Human Rights Watch told the Washington Post earlier this year.

That looting resulted in the first instance in the destabilisation of Mali where Tuareg mercenaries previously employed by Gaddafi returned home to northern Mali, quickly evicted the army, which, in turn, overthrew Bamako’s democratically elected government.

With the intervention of French and Chadian military forces earlier this year, Bamako has since retaken control of the more populous parts of northern Mali. But the region, now being patrolled by U.S. drones, is still subject to attack by Islamist forces aligned with Al-Qaeda, and the country’s future and unity remain uncertain at best.

Nor has Mali and other Sahelian countries been the only destination for Gaddafi’s former arsenal.

Substantial amounts of Libyan weapons have been traced to Syria, fuelling that civil war, and to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where Bedouin tribes – some with ties to radical Islamists – have defied local authorities and occasionally even challenged the army in the tumultuous post-Mubarak period.

But the Libyan intervention may have wrought its most consequential damage on great-power relations, particularly with respect to the prospects for future agreement among the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to authorise military intervention in civil wars, even for humanitarian purposes.

“The operation took place under the auspices of the Responsibility to Protect,” noted Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, “but it turned into a mission of regime change, and that has made the Russians and Chinese feel that they were deceived.

“And that perception in Moscow and Beijing has fed into their position on Syria and makes it unlikely that China and Russia will anytime soon again approve a humanitarian intervention,” he told IPS.

And just as North Korea feels Gaddafi’s fate vindicated its decision to risk international isolation by building a nuclear weapon, hard-liners in Iran, who are convinced that Washington also seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic, have been citing the Libya precedent in the run-up to this week’s talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, to argue against any concessions on the fate of its nuclear programme.

According to former top CIA Middle East analyst Paul Pillar, Iranian leaders have only to look at Washington’s intervention in Libya “…that overthrew a Middle Eastern regime after it had reached an agreement with the United States to give up all its nuclear and other unconventional weapons program.

“In hindsight, the intervention in Libya makes clear that even interventions that appear successful in the short term can have negative knock-on effects that call into question their value,” according to Kupchan.

*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

Top North Korean general loses job

General Ri Yong-ho (left) with North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun during a military parade in February

Πηγή: FT
By Simon Mundy
July 16 2012

The head of the North Korean army has been abruptly removed from his post, in a move that analysts said reflects the new leader Kim Jong-eun's desire to assert control over the military and eliminate potential threats to his authority.

Kim Jong-il, the former North Korean leader who died last December, had assigned Ri Yong-ho, a childhood friend, to mentor his son Kim Jong-eun as he prepared to take over the running of the country.

After decades in the military, Mr Ri, 70, was one of the most powerful figures in North Korea, with a position on the five-strong Politburo standing committee, and has frequently been seen by Kim Jong-eun’s side since he entered office.

Following a Politburo meeting on Sunday, the state news agency announced on Monday that Mr Ri had been relieved of all official duties with immediate effect. It said the move was because of illness, although there were no outward signs of health problems during Mr Ri’s recent public appearances.

While Mr Ri has been a core figure in the hawkish North Korean foreign policy of recent years, analysts said there was little to suggest that his dismissal reflected a more conciliatory stance under Kim Jong-eun.

The tone of official statements has remained belligerent since Mr Kim took power, and North Korea carried out a suspected missile test in April just two months after signing an agreement with the US to suspend such activity. In May Pyongyang rejected calls to abandon its nuclear programme, vowing to “expand and bolster it non-stop as long as this hostile [US] policy goes on”.

Jeung Yong-tae, senior research fellow at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification, said the most likely reason for Mr Ri’s dismissal was Mr Kim’s desire to strengthen his hold on the military – one of the world’s biggest, with about 1.2m troops. Almost at the same time that Mr Ri’s dismissal was announced, Mr Kim issued a rallying statement to the army, thanking soldiers for their loyalty.

“Kim Jong-eun wants to weaken the power of the generals – Ri Yong-ho might have been a possible threat to him,” Mr Jeung said. The sacked general was one of a number of elderly soldiers who rose to power under Mr Kim’s father, but are divided by a generational gap from the new leader, who is believed to be about 29 years old.

Mr Ri had held overarching control over the military since September 2010, but was put under the authority of Choi Ryong-hae, the newly-appointed director of the general political bureau, in August.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said that Mr Ri’s fall from grace could have been a result of tension between him and Mr Choi, a civilian official. “Ri's dismissal shows the party's absolute control and domination of its military,” he said. “If one dares to go against the leadership, even the closest confidant of Kim Jong-eun can be removed from his position in an instant … Ri's dismissal can be seen as a warning to the other higher officials in the party.”

State Department Investigating UN Agency for Computer Shipments to Iran and North Korea

Πηγή: Fox News
By George Russell
July 05 2012

The U.S. State Department is investigating the shipment of computers and other sophisticated equipment to North Korea and Iran by way of an obscure United Nations agency, despite ongoing U.N. and U.S. sanctions against both governments aimed at blocking their development of nuclear weapons.

The broadening inquiry raises new concerns about the ways in which U.N. agencies have managed to side-step restrictions that the world body expects the rest of the world to obey in halting the spread of sensitive technologies to nuclear-ambitious pariah regimes.

It also calls into question how much U.N. member states know about the activities of agencies they supposedly approve and supervise.

In this case, there are hints that the top official at the U.N. agency, the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, “has not yet been fully open” to the inquiries, according to a senior U.S. official.

The State Department probe came in the wake of Fox News revelations in April about the actions by the agency, the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, in sending such sensitive equipment to North Korea by a complicated method that seemed designed to bypass U.N. Security Council sanctions against the country.

The shipments took place in late 2011 or early 2012, and were financed through the Beijing offices of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The WIPO actions also violated the sweeping restrictions of the equipment manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard, which forbids any HP equipment from being sent to such regimes.

The U.S. is a member of WIPO, yet apparently knew little or nothing about the controversial delivery of computers and sophisticated services. And within a month, the State Department discovered the problem went beyond North Korea, a spokesman said in response to questions from Fox News.

“The State Department first became aware of a WIPO development project in Iran in early May 2012, while conducting a review of all WIPO projects in countries under U.N. Security Council sanctions,” the spokesman said. “We have made several inquiries to the WIPO Secretariat and requested any related documentation.”

The spokesman added that State is now “working with like-minded countries” to press WIPO’s director general, Australia-born Francis Gurry, to “conduct an independent, external fact-finding exercise into past WIPO projects in countries under [Security Council] sanctions” presumably to discover if there are further unpleasant surprises in store, and also to “ensure future development projects are properly reviewed prior to being approved and implemented.”

Word of the new revelations first surfaced at a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee last week, in which two California Democrats, Howard Berman and Zoe Lofgren, raised questions with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Teresa Stanek Rea about the transfers, which Berman declared “highly distressing and Lofgren called “an outrage.”

Stanek confirmed the fact by replying that her department was “disappointed—to say the least” by the transfers and pointed to State as the investigating agency. She also hinted at director general Gurry’s limited response so far, and predicted that “more information will likely be forthcoming.”

A State Department spokesman provided additional hints in declaring that “we have had several conversations with director general Gurry” about reforming WIPO’s project development and implementation, and “will continue to work...to put in place policies that provide greater accountability and transparency at WIPO.”

According to documents obtained by Fox News, WIPO only forwarded detailed information about the specifics of its shipments to its own in early June.

In the case of Iran, the WIPO computer shipment included 20 Hewlett-Packard Compaq desktop computers, now outmoded in the U.S. but which nonetheless still gave Iran’s Industrial Property Office significant computing power. In the case of North Korea, the equipment included both more sophisticated computers and data-storage servers.

As was the case in North Korea, WIPO experts made technical visits to Iran in advance of the shipments to scope out the project, help orchestrate financing and payment by the local office of UNDP in Tehran, and OK the deliveries, according to WIPO’s documentation.

Complicating any oversight of WIPO is that the agency essentially administers and supervises a variety of U.N. sponsored treaties on trademarks and other aspects of intellectual property, including the world-wide patent system. But different countries have signed different treaties, and thus are only party to parts of the WIPO system, making supervision a challenge.

Iran, for example, most recently signed onto WIPO agreements that govern the international administration of trademarks and international protection of place-names for products (e.g. “Champaigne”). It signed onto an arrangement known as the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1970, or nearly a decade before the Islamic revolution that installed the current bellicose regime.

Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes of the Invincible Army: A Realistic Assessment of North Korea’s Operational Nuclear Capability

Πηγή: Nautilus Institute
By Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce
September 22, 2011


This report was adapted from “Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes: Translating North Korea’s Nuclear Threats into Constrained Operational Reality,” in Gregory Moore, ed, North Korean Nuclear Operationality: Implications for Regional Security and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).



Nautilus invites your contributions to this forum, including any responses to this report.

--------------------

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Report by Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce

III. References

IV. Nautilus invites your responses


I. Introduction

Peter Hayes, Professor, RMIT University and Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute and Scott Bruce, Director of the Nautilus Institute, San Francisco assess that North Korea's options for a nuclear strike are severely constrained—so much so that the only credible use of the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal is to detonate a bomb within North Korea itself to slow down or to stop an invasion in the context of an all-out war with the United States and South Korea. They conclude that, "At this stage, North Korea’s outrageous nuclear threats against targets outside its borders are not backed up by actual capabilities. Countering the North’s rhetorical threat with more nuclear extended deterrence raises tensions instead of addressing the underlying problem of nuclear insecurity. Ultimately, the only way forward is to re-engage the North, and identify pathways that create confidence and reduce the mutual perception of the threat of massive destruction, whether by conventional or nuclear weapons."

The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on significant topics in order to identify common ground.

II. Report by Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce

- “Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes of the Invincible Army: A Realistic Assessment of North Korea’s Operational Nuclear Capability”

By Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce

North Korea’s KCNA news often threatens to launch “unprecedented nuclear strikes.” In reality, the North Korean nuclear program has limited offensive capability. [1] Just how limited is a matter of dispute between well informed observers and analysts. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, for example noted recently that it was “possible” that North Korea had miniaturized a nuclear warhead as there had been, in his opinion, “enough time for them to have succeeded in miniaturization.” [2] He based his statement on how long it took other states to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, not on an assessment of North Korea’s actual nuclear capability. Thus, in the absence of data, North Korea is attributed with capacities that it may—or may not—have. Additionally, even if North Korea has miniaturized a nuclear warhead from a big, heavy and crude nuclear explosive device, the DPRK lacks an effective delivery mechanism and therefore has a limited ability to offensively use nuclear weapons.

We assess that the North is capable of operationally using nuclear weapons, but its options for a nuclear strike are severely constrained. We conclude that the only credible use of the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal is to detonate a bomb within North Korea itself to slow down or to stop an invasion in the context of an all-out war.[3] Aside from this nuclear-use scenario, conventional weapons predominate in realistic evaluations of deterrence and war-fighting in the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean Declaratory Nuclear Posture

The stated purpose of the North Korean nuclear program has changed over the last decade. [4] North Korean statements that once described the nuclear program as a tool to secure the state against outside aggression, now describe it as a stabilizing force in the region.

During and after the collapse of the Agreed Framework in 2002, KCNA statements described the nuclear program as a substitute for a security guarantee from the United States. If North Korea’s security concerns were addressed, they argued, there would be no need for the nuclear program. An October 2002 statement is particularly telling:
“The settlement of all problems with the DPRK, a small country, should be based on removing any threat to its sovereignty and right to existence. There may be negotiations or the use of deterrent force to be consistent with this basis, but the DPRK wants the former, as far as possible.”
By 2005 this language had changed. North Korea declared itself to be in possession of nuclear weapons and began to depict its nuclear program as a regional stabilizer which prevented war by countering the US nuclear threat to the region. [6] KCNA statements even suggested that North Korea’s nuclear program benefitted South Korea by raising a nuclear umbrella over the entire Korean Peninsula! [7]

By 2010 North Korea had not only openly threatened to use it nuclear weapons for the first time, [8] but made the first real declaratory statement of its nuclear posture in response to the US nuclear posture review:
“The mission of the nuclear forces of the DPRK is to deter and repel aggression and attack against the country and the nation until the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the world is realized. The DPRK is invariably maintaining the policy not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states or threaten them with nuclear weapons as long as they do not join the act of invading or attacking us in conspiracy with nuclear weapons states.” [9]
Although these statements should be taken very seriously, particularly by South Korea and Japan who are implicated in both via their alliance with the United States, we should not assume that North Korea has the operational military capability to back up this declaratory posture and the stated nuclear threats.

North Korean Technical Nuclear Capacity

When it comes to nuclear threats against the United States, South Korea, and Japan, North Korea vastly overstates its ability to strike. North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material to produce between five and ten nuclear weapons, depending on the size of the bombs, and the state’s efficiency in creating and reprocessing plutonium, and the amount used in its two tests to date. [10] This means that the use of a single nuclear weapon would exhaust 10-20 percent of the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal. At this time, the DPRK has not resumed operations of the Yongbyon nuclear facility and is not producing additional plutonium. North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, revealed late last year, could be used to enrich uranium for a bomb, but is currently producing low enriched uranium to fuel its under-construction pilot light water reactor—assuming that its declared intention to complete and operate such a reactor is implemented as announced. [11] The limited supply of fissile material means that North must deploy its nuclear weapons in a highly strategic manner and only for the most valuable, most certain returns.

Delivery by Air

North Korea lacks a credible delivery option for its nuclear weapons. North Korean attempts to launch satellites on booster rockets in 1998, 2006, and 2009 used much the same technology needed to launch long-range missiles. All three tests failed. [12] It takes the United States scores of tests to ensure that a new missile design works, and may be deployed with sufficient confidence that it is operationally effective. [13]North Korea needs many more tests of all the systems, independently and together, at a much higher rate than one every few years, to be confident that its missiles would not fail on the ground or in the boost phase, let alone even approach a target with sufficient accuracy to destroy it. [14] In short, the North Korea’s long range missile program is not a credible threat to the United States or anyone else for that matter, and is unlikely to be one for some time.

Short and medium-range missiles have been tested but are not accurate enough to effectively target enemy forces in a combat scenario. The DPRK’s medium-range No-dong missiles cannot be counted on to hit a set target. [15] Similarly the DPRK’s short range SCUD missiles are highly inaccurate, particularly the mobile SCUD C models with an unreliable guidance system. [16] The SCUD B missiles have only a 50 percent chance of landing within 1 km of their intended target, making them unsuitable for attacking military units. [17]The unreliability of North Korea’s missile systems, the limited amount of fissile material, the lack of testing of the components of an integrated nuclear warhead and missile system, and the severity of any response to nuclear next-use by North Korea means that a DPRK leader is highly unlikely to rely on missiles to deliver a nuclear attack with a combined very small probability of success.

North Korea has only a few bombers capable of delivering a large, crude nuclear weapon to a target. The only nuclear-capable bombers in North Korea’s arsenal are the Ilyushin Il- 28 “Beagle” and the Chinese H-5 variants. [18] The Beagle was retired by the Soviets in the 1980s, but still is in active use in North Korea. Although the Beagle is technically capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, it is hard to imagine a North Korean bomber not being shot down before it reached its intended target. In a war, a North Korea bomber flying toward the DMZ would be targeted and shot down rapidly by ROK anti-aircraft weapons. Even a bolt-out-of-the-blue surprise attack is not a credible scenario due to the Il-28’s slow speed and low maximum altitude. [19] North Korea is highly unlikely to risk its limited stock of fissile material by putting it in a plane with almost no chance of actually delivering the bomb to the target.

The World's Top Executioners

Πηγή: Foreign Policy
BY JOSHUA E. KEATING

Sep. 22 2011

CHINA

Number of executions: Thousands -- reliable statistics are hard to come by.*

The number of executions carried out every year in China is a state secret, but Amnesty International believes that it numbers in the thousands. There are 55 crimes punishable by death in China, including economic crimes like corruption and embezzlemen, though a judicial reform carried out this year removed such crimes as issuing false tax invoices, robbing ancient ruins, and smuggling rare animals from the list.

The most common methods of execution are firing squad and lethal injection, though China has been something of a grim innovator on this front, launching a fleet of mobile "death vans" that travel from town to town administering injections.

In a recent high-profile case, China sentenced four Uighur separatists to death for their role in the ethnic unrest that swept through Xinjiang autonomous region in July.

IRAN

Number of executions: 252 in 2010

Depending on the circumstances, crimes punishable by death in Iran can include fornication, adultery, homosexuality, apostasy, and blasphemy -- as well as more traditional capital crimes like rape and murder. The overwhelming number of executions are carried out by hanging. Stoning is theoretically legal for some sexual crimes including adultery, but the policy seems to be under review following the international outcry over the stoning sentence of 43-year-old widow Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani last year; her sentence was eventually reduced to a five-year jail term. Iran also periodically carries out public executions for serious crimes such as rape.

There has been a sharp escalation in the number of people executed in the Islamic Republic this year. Amnesty International believes that at least 320 people were executed in the first six months of 2011 -- a rate of nearly two per day. Iran says most of these executions are part of an effort to crack down on drug trafficking -- another capital offense -- but human rights groups believe the government might also be using execution as a means of intimidation as anti-government protests spread throughout the Middle East.

Iran also has the distinction of being the world's top executioner of children, with dozens on death row. Most recently, a 17-year-old was hanged in public in the city of Karaj on Sept. 21.

NORTH KOREA

Number of executions: 60 in 2010

Like China, the exact number of prisoners killed by the North Korean state is hard to come by -- and it's almost certainly higher if you count those who die of illness or malnourishment after being sent to one of the country's massive labor camps. Crimes punishable by death in North Korea include "treason against the Fatherland" and "treason against the people." According to Amnesty International, executions are often carried out even when the crime in question isn't a capital offense under written North Korean law.

Public executions are a hallmark of the North Korean justice system, particularly when they involve officials convicted of embezzlement or smuggling. In 2007, a South Korean aid group reported that a factory chief had been executed by firing squad in a stadium in front of 150,000 spectators for the crime of making international phone calls.

YEMEN

Number of executions: 53 in 2010

Yemen applies the death penalty for a wide range of nonviolent offences, including homosexuality. The country has also been condemned for sentencing defendants under the age of 18 to death -- despite the fact that the country's laws prohibit it. Yemen has also carried out death sentences against thementally ill. Public executions are common, including a widely covered 2009 case in which a man convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old boy was shot in front of a crowd in the main square of his hometown.

Since widespread anti-government protests began this year, the government has been accused of carrying out hundreds of extrajudicial killings, many by sniper fire during marches in the capital.

UNITED STATES

Number of executions: 46 in 2010, 35 so far in 2011

The United States is an extreme outlier in its embrace of the death penalty. It is the only county in the Western Hemisphere that allows capital punishment and the only industrialized democracy that executes more than a handful of people per year. There are more than 3,000 people on death row in the United States, though the appeals process can often take years. Usage varies widely by state. Sixteen states, plus the District of Colombia, prohibit the practice altogether, and several other states almost never apply it. Texas is, by far, the national leader in executions, with 17 carried out in 2010. If Texas were its own country, it would have been tied for eighth in the world with Syria.

The death penalty is a hot-button political issue in the United States, with opponents arguing that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment -- which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution -- and is disproportionately applied against the poor and minorities. The debate re-emerged recently over the case of Troy Davis, a Georgia man who was executed on Sept. 21 for the killing of an off-duty police officer 22 years ago, despite scant physical evidence and the recantation of several witnesses. The Davis case, as well as the execution of a Mexican national in Texas in July, has drawn widespread criticism from the international community.

Some observers believe the Davis case may be a tipping point in the national debate over the death penalty, and the issue is sure to be a topic of discussion in the 2012 presidential race with Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the running.

THE OUTLIERS

No other democratic, industrialized country carries out executions on the scale of the United States, but there are a few countries where it is used sparingly. Two convicted killers were executed in Japan in 2010, and 107 people are still on death row. Domestic support for the death penalty remains high despite the opposition of some senior officials. South Korea hasn't carried out an execution for over a decade, though it remains legal; a serial killer convicted of the murders of 10 women was sentenced to death in 2009.

India sentenced two Sikh militants to death by hanging on terrorism charges this year, which would be the country's first executions since 2004. However, executions in the country are so rare that Assam state, where the two men were sentenced, was forced to place a newspaper advertisement for the job of hangman.

Every country in the Americas, with the exception of the United States, and every country in Europe, with the exception of autocratic Belarus, has banned the death penalty.

Gas to cement peace in land of morning calm

Πηγή: Rediff

By M K Bhadrakumar 

August 25, 2011

The decision by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il following their summit Wednesday to work on a 1100-kilometre pipeline project connecting Siberia with the South Korean market via North Korea is hogging the headlines. The gas pipeline project has striking similarity with the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project, which Delhi has shied away from. Actually, IPI is cakewalk in comparison with the geopolitical complexities swirling around Moscow’s trans-Korean pipeline project.

The North Korea nuclear issue is far more of a flashpoint than Iran’s would be; it actually possesses nuclear weapons whereas Iran is being pressured to give assurances and guarantees that it won’t opt for weapons development. Again, India and Pakistan are adversaries, but the two Koreas are, technically speaking, still at war. Yet, the trans-Korean project is viewed primarily as holding the potential to normalise the ties between the two Koreas — IPI could have served the same purpose, too, with regard to Pakistan and India.

The project hopes to integrate North Korea into the world community. IPA would have had a comparable impact on Iran (although it is not a hermit kingdom). The logic, from Seoul’s point of view, is also similar: How to make North Korea a stakeholder? Replace NK with Pakistan and IPI would also have the same logic — India and Pakistan become stakeholders in a stable relationship.

The South Korean media welcomes the pipeline project. The leading daily Chosun Ilbo commented: “The [South Korean government should think carefully about how it can use this signal to improve relations with Pyongyang. What is needed is a wise diplomatic solution that can lead to dialogue with North Korea.” Indeed, all sorts of anxieties are gnawing the South Korean mind. How can Seoul be sure Pyongyang doesn’t cut off gas supplies? Sounds familiar to the Indian party?

The North Korean regime is highly unpredictable. But Seoul and Moscow hope that Pyongyang will weigh carefully the value of the transit fee it will be getting from South Korea for the pipeline, which is around 100 million dollars. (IPI would have entailed a transit fee by India to Pakistan, which is probably three times the amount Pyongyang would get.) Besides, Russia is working on extracting iron-clad legal guarantees in writing from North Korea. Obviously, where there is a will, there is a way.

A striking point is that the US is not opposing Russia’s trans-Korean gas pipeline project. On the contrary, all indications are that Moscow is in consultation with Washington and the two capitals have shared concerns over the NK nuclear issue. Isn’t that strange? If the US is capable of showing the wisdom to comprehend that the trans-Korean pipeline can calm the Korean Peninsula, why should it have double standards vis-a-vis IPI? Shouldn’t South Asian security and stability be of equal interest to the US regional strategy?

Kim's Russia trip focusing on energy issue

Πηγή: AP
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA and HYUNG-JIN KIM
Aug 22, 3:43 PM EDT

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian military officers flew to North Korea for talks about renewing military ties on Monday as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train rolled through the resource-rich far east of Russia on his secretive journey to a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Kim is to meet Medvedev later this week near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia during his first visit to his country's Cold War ally in nine years. North Korea is increasingly showing signs it is prepared to restart six-nation disarmament talks in exchange for aid, after more than a year of tension during which it shelled a South Korean border island and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship.

Russian military officials arrived in the North Korean capital on Monday for a five-day visit, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported from Pyongyang. The Russian Defense Ministry said the talks will focus on the renewal of military cooperation between the countries, possible joint exercises "of a humanitarian nature" and an exchange of friendly visits by Russian and North Korean ships.

Russia and North Korea also will discuss "possibilities of joint exercises and training of search and rescue operations for sinking vessels as well as providing assistance to people during natural disasters."

Military expert Alexander Golts said North Korea's goal in inviting the Russian military could be to assuage fears of instability as Russia is considering building a natural gas pipeline through North Korea. The pipeline is expected to be one of the main topics of Kim and Medvedev's talks.

Golts said it was highly unlikely Russia would renew arms sales to North Korea, which would not be in its interests as a participant in the six-party talks. He also noted the low level of the Russian delegation, which is led by the commander of Russia's eastern military district.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that Russia - as "a partner in the six-party talks" shares the view we all have: "In order to get back to the talks, we need an improvement in North-South relations, and we need the DPRK to show concrete steps towards denuclearization."

She said that "one would hope and expect that if we have the leader in Russia, that these points are being made to him."

Kim's train crossed into Russia on Saturday morning and passed through Khabarovsk before heading west along a railway running roughly parallel with Russia's borders with China and Mongolia. The itinerary for his visit, expected to last about a week, has been largely kept secret because of what appear to be North Koreans' high security concerns.

The first and so far only time Kim is known to have gotten off the train was during a stop Sunday at the small Bureya station in the Amur province. Flags of the two countries fluttered at the railway station, while a military band played welcoming music and Russian women in national dress offered Kim traditional gifts of bread and salt.

Kim then was taken in his armored Mercedes for a tour of a hydroelectric power plant and its 139-meter (456-foot) dam on the Bureya River. He was briefed on the plant's history and electricity production capacity and praised the enormous building, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang.

"Inexhaustible is the strength of the Russian people," Kim wrote in the visitor's book, KCNA said.

Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the Amur plant to both North and South Korea, South Korean media have reported.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, while on a visit to Mongolia, said Monday that "if (Kim) frequently visits and looks at an open society, that will eventually positively affect North Korea's economic development," spokesman Park Jeong-ha said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

A Russian regional news agency, PortAmur, posted some of the only photographs of Kim's visit, showing the 69-year-old leader wearing his trademark Mao-style khaki jumpsuit. In all but one of the photographs he is seen wearing dark sunglasses. He traded them for regular eyeglasses when presented with a framed picture as a gift.

The Amur.info news website reported Monday that people living near the Bureya rail station were told to stay away from windows and prohibited from taking pictures. The local residents, however, were grateful for the makeover of the station's square, which was newly paved for Kim's visit, the website said.

Kim's next stop was unclear. Yonhap, however, citing an unidentified Russian intelligence source, reported Monday that the North Korean leader's train could be heading toward the city of Skovorodino.

Skovorodino is the starting point for a 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) oil pipeline linking oil fields of eastern Siberia and China that was inaugurated last year. Yonhap said Kim's expected stop at Skovorodino could be related to Russia's proposal to provide energy to the Korean peninsula.

Kim's train is traveling along the Trans-Baikal Railway and believed to be headed for Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, for the summit with Medvedev.

There were signs that preparations were being made for Kim to visit the village of Turka, located on the shores of Lake Baikal. The Baikal Daily website quoted residents as saying that a local police officer has been making the rounds to take down the names and addresses of all the people in the village.

One key topic for Medvedev and Kim's talks is expected to be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North's territory to the South. South Korea media said the North could earn up to $100 million every year, but negotiations haven't reported much progress because of the nuclear dispute.

Officials from Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom visited North Korea in early July for talks on the gas pipeline. North Korean officials at the time reacted positively to the project, a change from a previous reluctant position, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, however, raised worries Monday that the North could abruptly shut down the gas supply depending on relations with the South.

"As long as there is the possibility that the gas supply would be interrupted by the North for political or military reasons, it is difficult for Seoul to put a final stamp on the deal," the paper said in an editorial.

North Korean diplomats separately met U.S. and South Korean officials last month to discuss the resumption of the nuclear talks, which have been stalled for more than two years.

Russia announced Friday that it was providing food assistance, including some 50,000 tons of wheat, to the North, which might face another food crisis this year due to heavy rains.

Kim traveled to China in May in a trip seen by many as an attempt to secure aid, investment and support for a transfer of power to his youngest son Kim Jong Un. It was Kim's third visit to his country's closest ally in just over a year.

Kim last visited Russia in 2002, a four-day trip limited to the Far East. A year earlier, however, he made a 24-day train trek across the country to Moscow and back.

European Unrest: Entirely Staged Political Theatre

Πηγή: Veterans Today
By Gordon Duff
Friday, August 12th, 2011

David Cameron’s New Role as “Darkie Basher”

The current civil unrest in Britain has been carefully staged by the government and security services working in concert with news media, Israeli intelligence and the a parallel government, a Freemason organization now believed to have planned and executed the Norway killings with full complicity of police, courts and security apparatus.

A quick look around the world gives us a picture worth noting. The EU is in total economic collapse. The war in Libya has failed, unrelated to rebels, there are dark secrets there. Gaddafi had suckered Tony Blair, with the help of Israel, into a position to be blackmailed, arms and oil contracts, huge political payoffs, not just to Britain but across Europe. Gaddafi had financed half of Europe’s elections and had bought the heart of Washington’s “neocons.” Gaddafi always knew where to put money, no reason to bribe honest people. Always bribe crooks. In Washington, this left everone available, Gaddafi could pick and choose and he did. Washington and London are terrified of what he knows.

Assassinating Gaddafi is their last hope.

Rupert Murdoch’s veneer of smut peddler is now shown to be what it has always been. David Cameron, Tony Blair, even Netanyahu have always worked for him, Murdoch the “not so secret” prime mover in western politics, denying his Jewish heritage and religion when courting the hate mongers of the right and playing “most powerful Jew in the world” behind closed doors when he has chosen to wield real power, not just his friends that control the world’s press, the Federal Reserve system in the US but more. Murdoch controls both political parties in Britain, controls the GOP in the US, a political group on a binge of total insanity for sure, even treason, but it goes further.

Then it all began to come apart, tap a few phones, hack a few computers, a movie star, rock musicians, cabinet ministers, heads of state, then get caught bribing and blackmailing.

The moves to put things back in order?

Murdoch’s creation in the US, that he calls “the Tea Party,” crashed the world’s currency markets and set the planet spiraling to economic ruin. Solutions that gut the consumer economies, stifle growth but have no revenue based “balance” are simply economic sabotage. Murdoch and the Tea Party just murdered the United States. The remnants of the real Republican Party found themselves alone and powerless with no ability to turn to Democratic leadership that had been, in itself, crippled, bought and bribed.

Look into Nancy Pelosi’s family finances for a good look at why America is where it is. Shocked? There are 400 members of congress worse, that’s the real shock. But to understand this August, the month of slaughter, dead SEALS, riots, coverups, a month when talk should be holiday, you have to turn to Murdoch. You also have to remember that, next month, Israel faces another humiliating vote in the UN where they will be labeled war criminals by most of the world. Didn’t know that? Hmm.

The obsession, Israel, security, myths of terrorism.

This is his organization, reaching out and crushing, not just President Obama, the man he believes threatens his beloved Israel’s desire to wipe Iran off the map with 300,000 American soldiers dead in the process, a plan developed by Paul Wolfowitz in 1999 (we had folks next to him at the time, after all Paul likes pretty girls and pretty girls talk).

Yesterday, Richard Clarke began talking about 9/11 and how the CIA had run the operation, the hijackers. Close friends of Clarke, however, during the run up to 9/11, named him as the individual running back and forth between the Mossad and Pentagon. In fact, Clarke himself, along with Steve Rosen, Condi Rice and others, had gone so far off the deep end during the early Bush years they began to think of themselves as gods. The FBI recorded everything, bugging Clarke, bugging Rosen, every phone Wolfowitz and his staff used, all with the permission of Condi Rice.

Why China and Russia Balk at Sanctions against North Korea and Iran?

By Ted Galen Carpenter

"So why have Beijing and Moscow been so reluctant to see strong sanctions imposed on the two proliferators? The reasons are most apparent regarding China’s position toward North Korea. Although maintaining the nonnuclear status quo on the Korean Peninsula may be a significant Chinese objective, it is not the most important one. Beijing’s top priority is to preserve the North Korean state as a buffer between China and the U.S. sphere of influence in Northeast Asia. As North Korea’s economy has languished in recent years, China has worried that the North Korean regime might implode, much as the East German system did in 1989. Such a development would lead to the sudden emergence on China’s border of a unified Korea allied to the United States, probably with the continued presence of U.S. military bases. A North Korean implosion would also likely create a massive flow of refugees into China."

npu_march2010

South Korea returns fire on North in disputed waters

South Korean sailors approach Yeonpyeong Island last December. Wednesday's exchange of fire took place nearby. Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images

Πηγή: The Guardian
Wednesday 10 August 2011 08.34 BST

South Korean forces retaliate after North Korea fires three artillery shells in latest clash in Yellow Sea.

South Korean forces returned fire after North Korean artillery shells fell into waters near the tense maritime line that separates the two rivals, according to a South Korean official.

North Korea fired three shells near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, prompting the South to fire back three shells, said the defense ministry spokesman, Kim Min-seok.

South Korean forces have been on high alert in the area since a North Korean artillery attack killed four people in November on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island.

Wednesday's shooting took place nearby.

Violence often erupts in the contested waters there. Boats routinely jostle for position during crab-catching season, and three deadly naval clashes since 1999 have taken dozens of lives.

Kim said one North Korean artillery shell is believed to have fallen south of the maritime line, citing a preliminary analysis of the trajectory of the shell.

The line separating the countries was drawn at the close of the Korean war in 1953 and is still a fierce point of dispute. The countries remain technically at war.

North Korea argues the line should run farther south. Seoul believes accepting such a line would endanger fishing around five South Korean islands and hamper access to its port at Incheon.

The November attack marked a new level of hostility along the contested line. Two civilians and two marines died, and many houses were gutted in the shelling.

North Korean missile could reach Guam

Πηγή: MVaritey

BY JANELA BUHAIN - GUAM REPORTER
THURSDAY, AUGUST 04, 2011 12:00AM

HAGÅTÑA — North Korea is developing a mid-range ballistic missile that could potentially reach thousands of troops based on Guam, according to the Japan Defense Ministry.

The Associated Press said the 2011 White Paper from the Japan Ministry of Defense disclosed that North Korea is developing a missile called the “Musudan.”

The missile, according to the report, is based on Russian technology from the 1990s, and is designed for launch from mobile platforms.

The missile would be capable of reaching an estimated range of 1,500 to 2,500 miles. About 2,000 miles away from North Korea, Guam is clearly within range of the missile.

Although the report did not give details on when the missile could be operational, experts believe the Musudan was displayed in a North Korean military parade last October.

The report highlights North Korea’s threat to the region because of its nuclear weapons program and its aggressive behavior, which includes an artillery attack it made on South Korea late last year.

The report also stated that because of the secretive nature of the North Korean regime, it is difficult to determine the isolated country’s military intentions.

Sen. Rory Respicio, legislative committee chairman on federal and foreign affairs, said news of this missile is “not a new threat.”

“The recent news of North Korea’s missile capabilities are not a new threat — they’ve always had that capability,” said Respicio.

“It just underscores the Department of Defense’s need to place a U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Defense on Guam,” he added.

This, Respicio said, is a prime example of why he and other leaders have been lobbying for the creation of a Civilian Military Task Force. He said in May 2007, there was an active discussion to include a CMTF in the environmental impact statement scoping process for the placement of a ballistic missile defense system on Guam.

“Because Guam’s strategic location will be highlighted once more through this military buildup, [DOD] should be more vigilant and finally make the decision for this ballistic missile defense system to be placed on Guam, and allay any fears the people of Guam may have regarding this concern,” he said.