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N. Korea's Kim rapped China, Russia, called them unreliable: sources NEW YORK, Aug. 26 KYODO      North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has criticized the North's traditionally close allies China and Russia as unreliable and said Pyongyang must surmount the current difficulties it faces concerning its nuclear development program on its own, according to diplomatic sources.     Kim's skepticism toward China and Russia was expressed at an ambassadorial meeting in Pyongyang, which took place July 18-22 soon after the July 15 unanimous passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the North's test-firing of missiles, the sources told Kyodo News.     Kim's open criticism of the...

/begin my translationKim Jong-il to Visit China around Aug. 28From multiple sources from China and Japan... wonder if it is about nuclear test[2006-08-23 11:30]  Multiple sources informed us that N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il is due to visit China around Aug. 28.Chinese diplomatic sources told us in the morning of Aug 23, "Currently senior figures of N. Korean military are staying in China as an advance to team for Kim Jong-il's visit, doing necessary preparations." However, the exact date is not revealed.The sources said, "It is our understanding that these senior military figures are working on his visit schedule which...

Ties sour at North's China border August 21, 2006 -- DANDUNG, China -- Signs of discontent between those two closest of allies, China and North Korea, have begun to appear. Last month, despite Chinese urging, North Korea fired off a test salvo of seven missiles. Although the tests were generally considered to be a bid for international attention, they provided Japan with more domestic ammunition to change its constitutional bar on warfare as an instrument of national policy, a development China does not see as in its interests. Some suggestions of those cooling ties can be seen in this Chinese...

/begin my translationGovernment on Alert to Monitor Signs of N. Korean Nuclear Test '24 Hours a Day' A military monitoring team dispatched to the Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral ResourcesA few additional monitoring stations set up and in operation along DMZ(Seoul = Yonhap News) Kim Kwi-geun, Lee Kwi-won correspondent =The government and military authorities went into all-out monitoring of N. Korean nuclear test because the chance of N. Korea going ahead with the test shot up after N. Korea launched missiles on July 5, and UN passed resolution against N. Korea. A government source said in Aug. 20, "6-party talks on N. Korean nuke is still in deadlock. After the...

/begin my translationU.S. Reluctant to Fully Share N. Korean Missile Launch Intelligence With Japan(Tokyo=Yonhap News) Shin Jihong correspondent = U.S. authorities are reluctant to share intelligence regarding N. Korea missile launch with Japan, which made it difficult for Japan's Defense Agency to write up reports (on the matter,) according to Nihon Geizai Shimbun on Aug. 6. The Defense Agency was due to publish its report on Aug. 5, but U.S. demanded it to withhold the detailed intelligence, which delayed writing and publication of the report. This prompted Nukaga Fukushiro, Minister of Defense Agency, to suspend it. It was U.S. early warning satellites which first detected N. Korean missile...

Kim’s overconfidence undermined by miscalculation By TAKUJI KAWATA IN AUGUST 2000, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he wanted to use the country's missile development programme as a diplomatic bargaining chip. “I made it a (diplomatic) issue. The smaller a country is, the more proud it should be and the more strongly it should stand up against big countries,” he reportedly told an assemblage of South Korean media organisation presidents during a lunch meeting in Pyongyang. At the time, US President Bill Clinton's administration was drawing to a close. North Korea had dragged the United States into bilateral talks by...

DPRK Scud, Rodong tests 'successful' The Yomiuri Shimbun Six of seven missiles that North Korea test-fired on July 5 fell inside a sea zone that was put off-limits for ships in advance by Pyongyang, government sources said Saturday, adding that the missiles' accuracy indicates the tests were successful. Soon after the launches, the government announced the six missiles, which were Rodong and Scud missiles and exclude the launch of a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, were estimated to have hit points 400 to 500 kilometers out to sea. But the government later learned the six missiles likely slashed down in an...

Pyongyang's Missile Tests "Completely Safe" July 24, 2006 9:00 p.m. EST Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Seoul, South Korea (AHN) - The North Korean communist regime said Monday that the several missile tests it launched over the Sea of Japan were "completely safe" in a futile attempt at pacifying international indignation for the act. A statement by a South Korean government said they made sure ships and aircraft were not in the area before they conducted the launch. The South Korean state media KCNA news agency reported, "The DPRK (North Korea) launched missiles only after airspace, land...

Saturday July 22, 4:44 PM U.S. carefully watching possibility of N. Korea nuke test (Kyodo) _ The United States is vigilantly watching the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test now that it has test-fired ballistic missiles, a senior U.S. administration official told Kyodo News on Friday. "I wouldn't rule it out," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding he is unaware of any indication from North Korea that it plans to test its nuclear weapons. Asked if the United States is exercising "vigilance" about a nuclear test, the official said, "Very absolutely." North Korea warned of...

/begin my translationN. Korea: Nuclear Test Possible If UN Sanction Is Imposed 2006.07.13 If UN passes sanction against N. Korea, N. Korea may resort to nuclear test, according to some expert. Peter Hayes, a professor at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia argued during an interview with RFA that Kim Jong-il may carry it out to show that he does not succumb to U.S. pressure.Professor Hayes is an expert on energy and security issues. He has been running a project to build small power plants in N. Korea to solve its energy problem. He has visited N. Korea seven...

Pyongyang showcased its brinkmanship by test-launching a mix of at least six short-, intermediate- and long-range missiles early yesterday morning. It conducted the tests just a week after U.S. President George W. Bush issued a stern warning against it. "Launching the missile is unacceptable," he said during a news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on June 29. But the long-range Taepodong 2, believed to be capable of reaching U.S. territory, fizzled less than one minute after lift-off. That should be embarrassing to Kim Jong-il and the North Korean military. But they will do well to regard it...

A US warship prepared to shoot down a mock warhead of a medium-range missile over the Pacific Wednesday in the latest of a series of tests of a sea-based missile defense system, a spokesman said. It comes amid tensions over North Korean preparations to launch a long-range missile, but a spokesman for the US Missile Defense Agency said the missile defense test had been planned for months. "It has nothing to do with North Korea or anything else," said Rick Lehner, the agency's spokesman. It was the second test intercept of a separating warhead, but the first with an operationally...