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To: Mephisto who wrote (5787)	1/10/2003 1:22:26 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

North Korea says it is withdrawing immediately from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to control the spread of nuclear technology. news.bbc.co.uk The official Korean Central News Agency said that, although Pyongyang was pulling out of the NPT, it had no intention of producing nuclear weapons. "Our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," Friday's statement said. But the BBC's Charles Scanlon in Tokyo says the decision will be seen as a very serious escalation of the dispute over North Korea's nuclear programme. International concern over North Korea's intentions has been growing since it expelled two UN inspectors last month, and re-activated some of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. The announcement coincided with talks in the US state of New Mexico between two North Korean diplomats and a former US ambassador. The meeting is not officially sponsored by the Bush administration but has its support. Click here to see a map of nuclear sites Several governments have strongly condemned Pyongyang's decision to quit the NPT. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said: "Our nation will strongly demand from North Korea a quick retraction of its statement." French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said: "It is a serious decision, heavy with consequences". He is in China for two days of talks on the crisis. The South Korean Government is to hold an emergency National Security Council meeting at 0800 GMT on Friday to decide how to respond. The ruling Millenium Democratic Party said in a statement: "The South Korean Government immediately needs to learn what the North wants, and should seek a solution through close discussions with the United States, Japan, China, Russia and the European Union." Meanwhile, Australia says it will send a senior delegation to North Korea next week to discuss the crisis. Serious escalation In its statement, North Korea denounced what it called US aggression, saying: "We can no longer remain bound to the [non-proliferation] treaty, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon". North Korea last announced it was withdrawing from the NPT in 1993, provoking a dangerous confrontation with the United States. It later suspended the decision and entered talks. There may be room for manoeuvre this time too. A North Korean diplomat in Beijing said Pyongyang would "reconsider" its withdrawal if the US resumed shipments of fuel oil. The US, European Union, South Korea and Japan agreed in November to halt fuel shipments to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear programme. Experts doubt Pyongyang's claim that its nuclear programme is designed to produce electricity - the Yongbyon reactor is too small and could only produce a negligible amount of power. It is believed the country could produce enough plutonium for five or six nuclear bombs by May. Our correspondent says fears are growing that North Korea has decided nuclear weapons are the best guarantee of security and, with the US preoccupied with Iraq, now is the best opportunity to get them. US mediator Former US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, is acting as mediator between the United States and North Korea. His talks with the two visiting North Korean diplomats on Thursday were "cordial and candid," a US spokesman said, adding that a second three-hour session would begin at 0900 (1600 GMT) on Friday. Mr Richardson, now governor of New Mexico, said he knew one of the diplomats, deputy ambassador to the UN Han Song Ryol, from when he worked with him in North Korea in 1994. The Bush administration stressed Mr Richardson would not be speaking on behalf of the US Government, despite being briefed by the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his government maintain that dialogue is the best way to tackle the nuclear controversy. "We must make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free, but at the same time we must have the patience to resolve the issue peacefully," he said on Friday.

To: Mephisto who wrote (5787)	1/10/2003 8:44:14 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Madman or master? Kim keeps the world guessing Jonathan Watts in Tokyo Saturday January 11, 2003 The Guardian By his surprise withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the Korean leader Kim Jong-il once again has the world wondering whether it is dealing with a dangerous madman or a brilliant tactician. Just as diplomats in north-east Asia were congratulating themselves on having found a way out of the crisis, the ever unpredictable Mr Kim has plunged them straight back in by setting off on a characteristically unorthodox negotiating tangent. As the media in Pyongyang roared out predictions of a third world war that the North would win with a "fire-to-fire standoff", Mr Kim's envoys in the United States began a bizarre mission to Santa Fe for a cosy chat with a former US ambassador they have identified as the best conduit for their message. So what is Mr Kim playing at? It's a guessing game that has been played before, but the risk for Mr Kim is that familiarity with his style is likely to breed contempt among his opponents. Since inheriting power from his father in 1994, Mr Kim has been able to make great use of his appalling reputation in the outside world, which relies on information from defectors and the impressions of a small number of Koreans not from the North who have met him. Mr Kim is usually depicted as a menacing but ludicrous figure - a spoilt, drunken playboy obsessed with Hollywood films but displaying the fashion sense of a yokel with his Mao era jacket, beer belly and raised shoes. One Japanese TV show has focused on the "pleasure brigade" of hand-picked young women who entertain the "Great Leader" with singing, dancing and bathtime massages. Former aides have described how Mr Kim, who is reported to have four wives, has enjoyed swimming with attractive female nurses and doctors. More than fond of a tipple, Mr Kim was seen knocking back 10 glasses of wine during his summit with the South Korean president Kim Dae-jung. According to a Newsweek article on "Mr Evil", the North Korean leader was the biggest individual customer for Hennessy VSOP cognac for two years running in the early 90s. It is claimed that he lives in a world of fantasy. Deified by his people but bullied mercilessly by his father, he is said to have escaped during his youth into a personal collection of films that is now said to number 15,000. When he became culture minister, he took this hobby to extremes by ordering the kidnapping of South Korea's leading film director and actress. But rather than being amusing, this apparently unpredictable figure is feared for the murderous consequences of his whims and bizarre plots. As head of North Korea's special forces for much of the 70s and 80s, he has been linked by defectors to the 1983 assassination attempt on the South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan and the 1986 bombing of a Korean Airlines jet in which 115 people died. He has milked his image of being unstable and dangerous for all it was worth during nearly a decade of brinkmanship that has enabled him to cling to power despite all predictions. By most rational calculations, North Korea was defeated either along with the rest of the communist bloc at the end of the cold war or during the recent years of famine, which has killed millions of North Koreans, but, as Mr Kim appears to have demonstrated one again, he does not accept the logic of the outside world. But he appears to be running out of threats and friends. One South Korean officials shrugged yesterday at the news of the North's latest escalation. "Straight out of the crisis escalation handbook," he said. "They think that by making everything seem like it cannot get any worse, they will be able to extract the best concessions, but people are not so scared anymore." The world has indeed seen Mr Kim start to appear more normal - and thus more vulnerable - in the past two years. In 2000, after becoming the most senior minister to visit Pyongyang, Madeleine Albright removed some of the mystique surrounding Mr Kim by saying he was slippery but not delusional. "I found him very much on top of his brief," the then US state secretary said. An avid surfer of the internet and viewer of satellite TV news, Mr Kim knows more about the outside world than anyone else in his isolated country, where the media is strictly controlled. He appears to be aware that he is increasingly an anachronism. In a sign that he may want to end his semi-godlike status, he ordered North Korean schools in Japan to remove his picture from classrooms. In Pyongyang his image is far less visible than his father's. This September he showed how desperate North Korea has become by confessing that its special forces had abducted at least a dozen Japanese civilians - including courting couples, cooks and beauticians - in the late 70s. For a country that has always claimed to be a victim, this was a risky move that could have undermined his authority. Like yesterday's statement, that admission shocked the outside world, but from Mr Kim's point of view it was just another survival tactic aimed in the short term at winning aid and dividing opponents and in the long term at securing the survival of his regime. To him that is the only part of the game that matters. guardian.co.uk

To: Mephisto who wrote (5787)	4/1/2003 2:40:54 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Britain and US in crisis talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons news.independent.co.uk By Andrew Grice, Political Editor 01 April 2003 Britain and the United States will discuss how to tackle the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme today amid signs that Pyongyang intends to exploit the war in Iraq. At the talks in Washington, the UK and US are expected to agree to seek a United Nations statement urging North Korea to "pull back from the brink" by reversing its decision to withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Although Donald RUMSFELD, the US Defence Secretary, has said America could fight wars in Iraq and North Korea at the same time, Britain will not back military action and is determined to defuse the crisis diplomatically. North Korea raised the stakes at the weekend by warning that it would "not make any slightest concession and compromise", claiming that Iraq invited its "miserable fate" by opening its weapons facilities to UN inspectors. Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office minister who will represent Britain at today's talks, told The Independent: "The situation in North Korea is very serious. The fear is that it will get worse before it gets better. There is concern that North Korea will use the current situation in Iraq to escalate things further." North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the US and a non-aggression pact. The US and UK want multilateral negotiations, and the UK is floating a compromise under which the North Koreans could have an informal meeting with the US during wider discussions. Mr Rammell will meet James Kelly, the Assistant Secretary of State, and John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State. They will discuss plans to impose economic sanctions against North Korea if it starts to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The West believes North Korea already has enough fissile material to make one or two nuclear weapons and reprocessing would allow it to produce more within a year. The US has already decided to impose new trade sanctions on North Korea after concluding that Pyongyang sold ballistic missile technology to Pakistan last August. The US, UK and France want the UN to agree a "firm but low-key" statement saying North Korea's actions are unacceptable and demanding that it pulls back from confrontation by re-engaging with the international community. China and Russia have been reluctant to use the UN route, fearing that it could inflame the crisis. However, China is now believed to be moving towards backing a UN statement.

To: Mephisto who wrote (5787)	4/1/2003 5:47:55 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Confusion Swirls Over N.Korea 'Missile Test' Tue Apr 1, 7:07 AM ET story.news.yahoo.com EXCERPT: By Martin Nesirky SEOUL (Reuters) -" Conflicting reports about a North Korean short-range missile test on Tuesday jangled North Asian nerves already on edge over suspicions Pyongyang might seek to grab attention now the U.S.-led war in Iraq is under way. Initially, Japanese and U.S. officials said North Korea had fired a surface-to-ship missile without warning into the Yellow Sea between the Korean peninsula and China. A South Korean intelligence source also confirmed the test. But officials in Seoul then contradicted the reports about South Korea (news - web sites)'s communist neighbor, which says it believes it will be the next target after the U.S. war in Iraq is over. "Following our initial investigation, we could not find evidence that North Korea fired a missile," a South Korean Defense Ministry official told Reuters. "

To: Mephisto who wrote (5787)	4/1/2003 5:49:37 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

N Korean leader 'missing' North Korea's mercurial leader Kim Jong-il has not appeared in public for 47 days, according to South Korean monitors. The so-called "Dear Leader" was last seen in public on 12 February, when he visited the Russian embassy in Pyongyang. The secretive Mr Kim often disappears from public view. But his failure this week to attend North Korea's annual parliament session - for the first time in six years - has prompted a flurry of speculation. Some Korea-watchers suspect he could be holed up with top military officials, possibly at a resort in the country's north, following the war in Iraq. North Korea - branded by United States President George W Bush as part of the "axis of evil" - fears it could be the US' next target. 'War talks' According to a high-ranking North Korean defector to the South, Jo Myong-chol, North Korea appeared to be on a war footing. North Korean military leaders, including Vice-Marshal Jo Myong-rok, Mr Kim's deputy on the National Defence Commission, and Kim Yong-chun, chief of the army general staff, also stayed away from the parliament session, Yonhap news agency said. However, the reason for Mr Jo's absence may have been illness. Yonhap said on Friday that he was receiving treatment for chronic kidney problems in a Beijing hospital. South Korean officials at the National Intelligence Service, National Police Agency and Unification Ministry, who monitor Mr Kim's movements, indicated however that the North Korean leader did not appear to be incapacitated or ill, Yonhap said. South Korean intelligence reports show Mr Kim has been "active" during the last 43 days, Yonhap said. Mr Kim's disappearance from public view is the longest since February 2001, when he was not seen for 35 days. news.bbc.co.uk