Some news from North Korea, South Korea and Jimmy Carter
News fomr Korean Centrla News Agency of DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
KPA Supreme Command Issues Communique
Pyongyang, November 23 (KCNA) -- The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army Tuesday released the following communique:
The south Korean puppet group perpetrated such reckless military provocation as firing dozens of shells inside the territorial waters of the DPRK side around Yonphyong Islet in the West Sea of Korea from 13:00 on Nov. 23 despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK while staging the war maneuvers for a war of aggression on it codenamed Hoguk, escalating the tension on the Korean Peninsula.
The above-said military provocation is part of its sinister attempt to defend the brigandish "northern limit line," while frequently infiltrating its naval warships into the territorial waters of the DPRK side under the pretext of "intercepting fishing boats."
The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK standing guard over the inviolable territorial waters of the country took such decisive military step as reacting to the military provocation of the puppet group with a prompt powerful physical strike.
It is a traditional mode of counter-action of the army of the DPRK to counter the firing of the provocateurs with merciless strikes.
Should the south Korean puppet group dare intrude into the territorial waters of the DPRK even 0.001 mm, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will unhesitatingly continue taking merciless military counter-actions against it.
It should bear in mind the solemn warning of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK that they do not make an empty talk.
There is in the West Sea of Korea only the maritime military demarcation line set by the DPRK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/no ... orth-korea
South Koreans wake up to possibility of attack on capital
North Korea's bombing of an obscure island has shaken the people of Seoul out of their complacency
The surprise artillery attack on an obscure island held by South Korea since the Korean war in the 1950s sent shock waves through a civilian population in Seoul that has often been complacent about the threat from its northern neighbour.
South Koreans seem suddenly to have woken up to a reality many had overlooked during the years of their "economic miracle" – it can happen here.
"People are saying we cannot escape if they attack us in Seoul," said Lee Tae-kyun, a teacher, watching scenes of smoke spiralling from houses and shops on tiny Yeonpyeong island, home to about 1,200 farmers and fishermen.
Kim Ki-yun, a taxi driver, agreed. If there was a major attack on the capital, he said, "we cannot escape, we will all die. It's impossible to get out of Seoul as it was during the Korean war. It is too crowded. There will be too much traffic and no escape route."
As about 80 buildings went up in flames, South Koreans learned the island has only one fire engine and there was nothing to do but let the fires burn out and hope the North Koreans would not open fire again. Villagers who had not managed to get out by boat to the port of Incheon, 40 miles to the east, were spending an uneasy night in hastily dug bunkers.
The reality that North Korea is now ready to attack a civilian rather than just a military target was the greatest lesson of a day in which North Korean gunners pumped out 100 rounds. By the time the smoke had cleared, two South Korean marines were dead and a score more people, including several civilians, were injured.
That toll was minor compared to the number killed when a North Korean midget submarine fired a torpedo at the South Korean navy corvette the Cheonan in March, splitting it in two and killing 46 South Korean sailors. The fact that civilians had come under fire, however, made all the difference to people who had tended to shrug off even the Cheonan incident as a military clash that would not affect most people.
"People are shocked," said office worker Kim Youn-suk . "It's a kind of a war. People are worrying the financial markets will crash tomorrow."
The timing was significant – on the first day of South Korean exercises that North Korea has pledged to crush with "relentless retaliation."
North Korea claimed the attack was provoked by South Korea for firing first and intruding in its waters. The issue is the NLL, Northern Limit Line, set by the UN Command three years after the Korean War, marking the line in the Yellow sea below which North Korean boats are banned.
North Korea has been challenging the line for many years, most dramatically in June1999 when South and North Korean vessels clashed and a North Korean vessel was sunk, and again in June 2002 when a North Korean vessel fired on a South Korean boat, killing six sailors.
The confrontation worsened in November of last year when a South Korean navy corvette sent a North Korean vessel back to port "in flames" with loss of life – though no one knows for sure how many casualties were inflicted. It was in retaliation for that incident presumably that North Korea staged the meticulously planned attack on the Cheonan.
The question for many though is whether South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, is prepared to make good on his threat of "retaliation" if North Korea attacks again during the current military exercises.
"People are saying we cannot escape, we will all die," said taxi driver Kim Ki-yun. "We might as well die in Seoul. It's impossible to get out of Seoul as it was during the Korean war. It is too crowded. There will be too much traffic and no escape route."But then there was the contrasting view that it can't really happen here. "People don't think there will be a real war," said Chang Sung-hee, shopping in a supermarket. "They're saying it's another incident."
"The government stance is this will not lead to war," said Park Weon-sun, a shopkeeper in central Seoul, as people crowded around a TV screen in his shop. "Koreans tend to be more complacent than they should be. I don't think it has yet really shaken them out of their complacency."
More attacks, though, might well have that effect. "Nobody I know has an escape plan," said Park. "At first everyone was shocked, but now they are going about business as usual." Sooner or later, he said, "people will realise, it can happen to you."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... inionsbox1
North Korea's consistent message to the U.S.
By Jimmy Carter
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Dealing effectively with North Korea has long challenged the United States. We know that the state religion of this secretive society is "juche," which means self-reliance and avoidance of domination by others. The North's technological capabilities under conditions of severe sanctions and national poverty are surprising. Efforts to display its military capability through the shelling of Yeongpyeong and weapons tests provoke anger and a desire for retaliation. Meanwhile, our close diplomatic and military ties with South Korea make us compliant with its leaders' policies.
The North has threatened armed conflict before. Nearly eight years ago, I wrote on this page about how in June 1994 President Kim Il Sung expelled International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and proclaimed that spent fuel rods could be reprocessed into plutonium. Kim threatened to destroy Seoul if increasingly severe sanctions were imposed on his nation.
Desiring to resolve the crisis through direct talks with the United States, Kim invited me to Pyongyang to discuss the outstanding issues. With approval from President Bill Clinton, I went, and reported the positive results of these one-on-one discussions to the White House. Direct negotiations ensued in Geneva between a U.S. special envoy and a North Korean delegation, resulting in an "agreed framework" that stopped North Korea's fuel-cell reprocessing and restored IAEA inspection for eight years.
With evidence that Pyongyang was acquiring enriched uranium in violation of the agreed framework, President George W. Bush - who had already declared North Korea part of an "axis of evil" and a potential target - made discussions with North Korea contingent on its complete rejection of a nuclear explosives program and terminated monthly shipments of fuel oil. Subsequently, North Korea expelled nuclear inspectors and resumed reprocessing its fuel rods. It has acquired enough plutonium for perhaps seven nuclear weapons.
Sporadic negotiations over the next few years among North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia (the six parties) produced, in September 2005, an agreement that reaffirmed the basic premises of the 1994 accord. Its text included denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a pledge of non-aggression by the United States and steps to evolve a permanent peace agreement to replace the U.S.-North Korean-Chinese cease-fire that has been in effect since July 1953. Unfortunately, no substantive progress has been made since 2005, and the overall situation has been clouded by North Korea's development and testing of nuclear devices and medium- and long-range missiles, and military encounters with South Korea.
North Korea insists on direct talks with the United States. Leaders in Pyongyang consider South Korea's armed forces to be controlled from Washington and maintain that South Korea was not party to the 1953 cease-fire. Since the Clinton administration, our country has negotiated through the six-party approach, largely avoiding substantive bilateral discussions, which would have excluded South Korea.
This past July I was invited to return to Pyongyang to secure the release of an American, Aijalon Gomes, with the proviso that my visit would last long enough for substantive talks with top North Korean officials. They spelled out in detail their desire to develop a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a permanent cease-fire, based on the 1994 agreements and the terms adopted by the six powers in September 2005. With no authority to mediate any disputes, I relayed this message to the State Department and White House. Chinese leaders indicated support of this bilateral discussion.
North Korean officials have given the same message to other recent American visitors and have permitted access by nuclear experts to an advanced facility for purifying uranium. The same officials had made it clear to me that this array of centrifuges would be "on the table" for discussions with the United States, although uranium purification - a very slow process - was not covered in the 1994 agreements.
Pyongyang has sent a consistent message that during direct talks with the United States, it is ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty to replace the "temporary" cease-fire of 1953. We should consider responding to this offer. The unfortunate alternative is for North Koreans to take whatever actions they consider necessary to defend themselves from what they claim to fear most: a military attack supported by the United States, along with efforts to change the political regime.
The writer was the 39th president of the United States.
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