The air force will try again to launch the unarmed Minuteman 3 missile on Wednesday -- between 3:01 am and 9:01 am local time (1001 and 1601 GMT) -- from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, the air force said.

The missile's trajectory will be toward the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands -- about 4,300 miles (7,000 kilometers) across the Pacific.

The air force did not explain the latest delay except to say it was due to a "range instrumentation safety issue."

"Extensive resources are devoted to every launch mission to ensure safety in our local area and downrange," Colonel Brent McArthur, who decides when to launch, said in a statement. "Public safety is my first priority during all launch operations."

The test was delayed last month to avoid stoking tensions with North Korea, which had deployed two medium-range Musudan missiles to its east coast, threatening strikes, including with nuclear warhead.

Tensions have abated, with US intelligence reporting that the weapons were removed from their launch pads in early May.

But North Korea in recent days has fired off a six short-range missiles in tests.

"These tests provide us the opportunity to demonstrate the readiness of the ICBM force," said Colonel Richard Pagliuco, commander of the 576th Flight Test Squadron, in a statement.

"Every test provides valuable data regarding the accuracy and reliability of the weapon system."

Some of the soldiers participating in US test come from the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where 17 officers recently lost their certification to control ICBMs after a poor performance review.

The US has some 450 Minuteman 3 missiles, stored in silos on three bases including Minot, Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

The missile has been in service since the early 1970s and the Air Force plans to continue upgrading them through 2030.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Beijing (AFP) May 22, 2013 - A top North Korean general and confidant of leader Kim Jong-Un met a senior Chinese official in Beijing Wednesday, with relations between the allies strained ahead of a China-US summit.

Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People's Army politburo, is a "special envoy" of the North's young leader, Pyongyang's official news agency said.

He met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's International Department, said Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei, to "exchange views on the situation on the Korean peninsula and other issues of common interest".

Hong gave no details.

China is the North's sole major ally and chief economic benefactor. But the relationship has been sorely tested in recent months by Pyongyang's refusal to heed Beijing's warnings against provoking the international community with its nuclear and missile programme.

China has long been the North's main diplomatic protector. But it sided with the rest of the UN Security Council in imposing sanctions after the North's long-range rocket test last December and its nuclear test in February.

The measures triggered a dangerous cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula, during which China came under enormous US-led pressure to rein in a wayward ally threatening nuclear strikes against the US and South Korea.

Choe is believed to be the highest-ranking North Korean party official to visit China since Kim's late father and predecessor Kim Jong-Il in August 2011.

Kim Jong-Un has not visited since taking power in December 2011 but sent his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, a powerful figure in the inner circle, to Beijing in August last year.

Northeast Asia expert Wang Dong of Peking University called Choe's trip a "somewhat encouraging sign" that Pyongyang might be open to talks, but warned it was still taking provocative steps such as firing short-range missiles.

"The question of course will be how serious North Korea will be," he said.

Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the timing was significant ahead of a June 7-8 summit between US President Barack Obama and China's new leader Xi Jinping.

And South Korea's new president Park Geun-Hye is expected to hold a summit with Xi in Beijing in late June.

"Choe is Kim Jong-Un's closest confidant, so Kim is sending his highest possible envoy to China ahead of the US summit," Yang told AFP.

"This will be Kim's way to deliver his message to Obama concerning peace on the Korean peninsula and the nuclear issue," he added.

Seoul and Washington have held out the prospect of talks with Pyongyang, but only if it shows a firm commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

The North has made it clear its nuclear deterrent is not up for negotiation, but observers said Choe might be empowered to offer some assurances or concessions to China.

"He's Kim's top military guy, so clearly the North's nuclear and missile programme will be on the agenda," said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.

"China is looking for some sign of compromise, and Choe might offer an assurance not to conduct any more nuclear tests for now," Cheong said, adding that the North might seek a Kim summit with Xi in exchange.

Cho Han-Bum of South's Korea Institute for National Unification said the North's "threats and military brinkmanship during the recent crisis didn't reap much in the way of reward, so Kim needs a boost and a China visit would help cement his legitimacy as leader".

The relationship between the two nations, forged in the 1950-53 Korean War, has weakened significantly over the years as China's economic transformation has distanced it from the ideological rigidity of the dynastic Kim regime.

In line with UN sanctions, Beijing has moved to restrict Pyongyang's financial operations in China which the international community says are the major conduit for funding its nuclear weapons programme.

The strain in relations was reflected most recently when a Chinese fishing boat with 16 crew was seized by unidentified North Koreans.

The detention caused outrage online in China, with Internet users calling on Beijing to take a tough stance against Pyongyang.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Vienna (AFP) May 22, 2013 - Iran is making significant progress in expanding its nuclear programme, including in opening up a potential second route to developing the bomb, a new UN atomic agency report showed Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's latest quarterly update said that Tehran has accelerated the installation of advanced uranium enrichment equipment at its central Natanz plant.

It also outlined further progress at a reactor under construction at Arak, also in central Iran, which Western countries fear could provide Iran with plutonium if the fuel is reprocessed.

The US State Department said the report was an "unfortunate milestone" marking a decade of Iran expanding its nuclear activities "in blatant violation of its international obligations".

Highly enriched uranium and plutonium can both be used in a nuclear weapon. North Korea used plutonium in two tests in 2006 and 2009, while uranium was used in the "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

The new IAEA report, seen by AFP, said Iran has installed at Natanz almost 700 IR-2m centrifuges and/or empty centrifuge casings, compared with just 180 in February. None was operating, however.

Iran has said it intends to install around 3,000 of the new centrifuges at Natanz -- where around 13,500 of the older models are in place -- enabling it to speed up the enrichment of uranium.

The UN Security Council has passed numerous resolutions calling on Iran to suspend all enrichment and heavy water activities -- of the kind under development at Arak -- and has imposed four rounds of sanctions.

Last year additional unilateral US and EU sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports and its financial system began to cause real problems for the Persian Gulf country's economy.

Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, has refused to rule out military action against Iran, as has US President Barack Obama. Iran says that its atomic activities are peaceful.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the impasse, most recently in six-power talks with Iran in Kazakhstan in April, have failed to make concrete progress.

Despite developments at Natanz, the IAEA report noted that Iran has not started operating any new equipment at its Fordo facility, built under a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

Fordo is of more concern to the international community, since it is used to enrich uranium to fissile purities of 20 percent and Natanz mostly to five percent, technically much closer to the 90-percent level needed for a bomb.

The IAEA report showed that Iran has produced so far 324 kilos (714 pounds) of 20-percent enriched uranium, 44 kilos more than three months ago, but that 140.8 kilos have been diverted to fuel production, up from 111 kilos.

Experts say that around 240-250 kilos are needed for one bomb.

At the research reactor under construction at Arak, meanwhile, which Iran says will start operating in the third quarter of 2014, the IAEA said that the plant's large reactor vessel "has been received but ... yet to be installed".

But the agency also "observed that a number of other major components had yet to be installed, including the control room equipment, the refuelling machine and reactor cooling pumps."

Iran had not provided the IAEA with updated design information for the IR-40 reactor at Arak since 2006, the IAEA added, saying this was "urgently required".

"This is important because the reactor could be used to produce enough weapons grade plutonium for one weapon a year," Mark Fitzpatrick, analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

The IAEA is meanwhile also trying to press Iran to provide access to documents, sites and scientists involved in what it suspects were research activities, mostly in the past but possibly ongoing, towards developing the bomb.

At one of these sites, the Parchin military base near Tehran, the new IAEA report said that in addition to months of activity levelling the area that the agency wants to inspect, Iran has now covering a "significant proportion" with asphalt.

"I don't think they are doing themselves any favours," one senior official familiar with the probe said, adding that some rubble from the site had been dumped in lakes.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Tokyo (AFP) May 22, 2013 - Japan is considering direct talks with North Korea, the government said Wednesday, adding momentum to the cause after a top level aide to the prime minister made a surprise trip to Pyongyang.

Bilateral talks are on the table as Tokyo seeks to salve the running sore of abductions of its nationals by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 1980s, an issue that inflames public opinion at home.

But any move to break with Washington and Seoul, who have both stressed the need for a united approach to Pyongyang, could rankle.

"As we are seeking all possibilities, of course such a thing is an option," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters when asked about resuming talks suspended last year when North Korea announced a rocket launch.

The comment came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Sunday to seek talks with Pyongyang on the issue and after adviser Isao Iijima returned from North Korea following a four-day visit.

Iijima told North Korean officials that Tokyo "would not make any move" unless they return all Japanese kidnap victims, hand over the kidnappers and resolve all the abduction cases, according to Japanese media citing sources close to him.

The trip fuelled speculation Pyongyang was trying to cozy up to Tokyo at a time when ties with Washington and Seoul have gone into deep freeze over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

South Korea dubbed the trip "unhelpful" to efforts to forge a united front against Pyongyang.

Glyn Davies, the US special representative for North Korea policy, cautioned that Pyongyang was trying to "split" the international community.

Washington would like to see the resumption of six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia, and are intended to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

Abe has set great store by seeking a "comprehensive solution" to the abduction issue, along with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions.

Iijima was a senior aide to Junichiro Koizumi and accompanied his visits to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 as Japan's prime minister for talks with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

During Koizumi's 2002 trip, North Korea admitted its agents kidnapped Japanese nationals in Cold War years to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

Several of those snatched were allowed to return to Japan along with children who were born in the North, but Pyongyang said the rest of them had died, although many in Japan were not convinced.

Japan will not give "any humanitarian aid" to the impoverished North unless the "abduction victims safely return home", Keiji Furuya, Abe's minister in charge of the abduction issue, told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We will do everything possible to get back all the abduction victims," he said, referring to the possibility of talks.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Washington (AFP) May 22, 2013 - Iran could face tightened sanctions within months after a US congressional panel Wednesday adopted a measure targeting the nation's auto and mining industries as well as its foreign currency reserves.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which would extend existing sanctions to the auto and mining sectors and allow the US president to subject other Iranian industries, such as engineering, to similar restrictions.

Today's US sanctions focus on Iran's finance and energy sectors, notably its oil exports. Six countries and territories -- China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey -- still import Iranian oil, but they have reduced their imports since 2012, with Washington granting them exemptions.

The new law, should it pass the House and Senate and be signed by President Barack Obama, would require further reduction of one million barrels per day over the next year as a condition of the exemption, amounting to a virtual embargo on Iran's crude exports.

"Now is the time to snap Tehran's Achilles' heel," the committee's chairman, Republican Ed Royce, said after the vote.

"Simply put, without oil revenue there is no cash for atomic weapons or Hezbollah."

The measure would also close a loophole in sanctions which the European Union imposed on Iran's foreign currency reserves by punishing any institution that serves as an intermediary in facilitating currency conversions for Tehran.

"Today's bipartisan passage of the strongest-ever sanctions leveled at Iran's nuclear weapons program should send a loud and clear message to Tehran: give up your nuclear weapons program now, or face uncompromising pressure from the United States Congress," said top committee Democrat Eliot Engel.

The currency penalty could land a severe financial blow against Iran, which holds an estimated $30 billion in reserves outside of Europe, mostly in euros, according to Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The bill is likely to be adopted by the full House, then considered by the Senate in the next few months.

Meanwhile the Senate on Wednesday approved by 99-0 a resolution condemning Iran's pursuit of nuclear capability and supporting Israel's right to self-defense.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez said that while the resolution does not authorize the use of force against Iran, it "makes clear that a nuclear Iran is not an option, and that the United States has Israel's back."

Pro-diplomacy group the National Iranian American Council decried the House and Senate measures as "saber rattling" that will merely stoke tensions with Iran.

Western sanctions have been in place for years in an effort to prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb, which Washington asserts is Tehran's intent. The Islamic republic says its nuclear program is purely civilian.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Beijing (AFP) May 22, 2013 - A top official and confidante of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un Wednesday met a senior Chinese official in Beijing, at a time of strained relations and ahead of a China-US summit.

Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People's Army politburo, flew to Beijing with a handful of senior military and ruling party officials, the Korean Central News Agency said, highlighting his role "as a special envoy" of the North's young leader.

Choe met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's International Department, the official news agency Xinhua said, without giving further details.

Choe is believed to be the highest ranking North Korean party official to visit China -- Pyongyang's sole major ally and chief economic benefactor -- since late leader Kim Jong-Il in August 2011.

Kim Jong-Un has never visited since he took over after his father's death in December 2011. He sent his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, one of the powerful figures in Kim's inner circle, to Beijing in August last year.

The trip comes at a sensitive time for a relationship which has been sorely tested in recent months by Pyongyang's refusal to heed Beijing's warnings against provoking the international community with its nuclear programme.

China has long been the North's chief diplomatic protector. But it sided with the rest of UN Security Council in imposing sanctions after the North's long-range rocket test in December last year, and its nuclear test in February.

The sanctions triggered a dangerous cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula, during which China came under enormous US-led pressure to rein in its wayward ally which was threatening nuclear strikes against the US and South Korea.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the timing of Choe's visit was significant ahead of a scheduled June 7-8 summit between US President Barack Obama and China's new leader Xi Jinping.

And South Korea's new president, Park Geun-Hye, is expected to hold a summit with Xi in Beijing in late June.

"Choe is Kim Jong-Un's closest confidante, so Kim is sending his highest possible envoy to China ahead of the US summit," Yang told AFP.

"This will be Kim's way to deliver his message to Obama concerning peace on the Korean peninsula and the nuclear issue," he added.

Seoul and Washington have held out the prospect of talks with North Korea, but only if it displays a firm commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

The North has made it clear that its nuclear deterrent is not up for negotiation, but observers said Choe might be empowered to offer some assurances or concessions to China.

"He's Kim's top military guy, so clearly the North's nuclear and missile programme will be on the agenda," said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.

"China is looking for some sign of compromise, and Choe might offer an assurance not to conduct any more nuclear tests for now," Cheong said, adding that the North might seek a Kim summit with Xi in exchange.

The bilateral relationship, forged in the 1950-53 Korean War, has weakened significantly over the years, as China's economic transformation has distanced it from the ideological rigidity of the dynastic Kim regime across the border.

In line with UN sanctions, Beijing has moved to restrict Pyongyang's financial operations in China which the international community says are the major conduit for funding its nuclear weapons programme.

The strain in relations was reflected most recently when a Chinese fishing boat with 16 crew was seized by unidentified North Koreans.

The detention caused outrage online in China, with Internet users calling on Beijing to take a tough stance against Pyongyang.

Cho Han-Bum, an analyst at South korea's Korea Institute for National Unification, said Choe's trip would almost certainly include talks on a possible China visit by Kim.

"The North's threats and military brinkmanship during the recent crisis didn't reap much in the way of reward, so Kim needs a boost and a China visit would help cement his legitimacy as leader," Cho said.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Seoul (AFP) May 20, 2013 - North Korea fired a sixth short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Monday, defying warnings from UN chief Ban Ki-moon and South Korea after a flurry of similar tests at the weekend.

The latest firing was confirmed by the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who said it was unclear if the North was testing guided missiles or rockets from multiple launchers.

"North Korea launched two projectiles on Monday -- one in the morning and the other in the afternoon," a JCS spokesman told AFP.

Such drills are not unusual but they come as the Korean peninsula is only just emerging from a period of particularly elevated military tensions triggered by the North's nuclear test in February.

In a statement on Monday, Pyongyang angrily rejected criticism that the missile exercises were a deliberate attempt to kick off a fresh cycle of tensions.

"Military training ... is the indisputable right of any sovereign nation," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said.

"Viciously taking issue with our military's rocket firing training ... is an unacceptable challenge and a wanton provocation," it said.

North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles off its east coast on Saturday and another on Sunday.

South Korea had labelled the weekend tests "deplorable", while UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

"It is time for them to resume dialogue and lower the tensions," Ban said in Moscow on Sunday.

North Korea argues that the real provocation is coming from South Korea and the United States, which have carried out a series of small and large-scale joint military drills in recent months.

The joint exercises have included the use of nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers and, most recently, the participation of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

On Monday South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye's top security advisor, Kim Jang-Soo, again urged Pyongyang to desist from any more drills.

"Whether it's just a test or a show of force, the North should not get involved in actions that create tension," Kim said.

At one point, North Korea had been primed to test a pair of medium-range missiles, but US intelligence said the weapons were removed from their launch pads in early May.

The most significant fallout from the recent months of sabre-rattling has been the withdrawal of both sides from the Kaesong joint industrial park which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) over the border in North Korea.

Established in 2004 as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, Kaesong had come through previous crises on the Korean peninsula unscathed.

In early April, however, the North ordered all of its 53,000 laborers working for the 123 South Korean companies in Kaesong not to report to work. Seoul responded by pulling out its personnel soon afterwards.

South Korea has proposed formal talks on recovering stockpiles of raw materials and finished goods the South Korean firms left behind, but Pyongyang on Monday suggested any dialogue should focus on the overall future of the project.

"A more pressing issue than removing the finished goods is whether the complex will collapse or not," said a spokesman for the North side of the management committee that runs Kaesong.

Neither of the two Koreas has officially declared the complex closed, and Seoul has continued to supply a minimum amount of electricity.

Owners of the South Korean firms in the complex said Monday that they were the victims of a catfight between Seoul and Pyongyang.

"Entrepreneurs and company employees are being squeezed by the emotional struggle between the governments of the two Koreas," an association representing the owners' interests said in a statement.

Some 200 CEOs and managers filed a request Monday to visit the complex, but the South's Unification Ministry said North Korea would first have to agree to working-level talks.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Herndon, Va. (UPI) May 21, 2013 - With Iran's registration for presidential applicants closed, the West awaits the outcome of Tehran's June 14 election. But, for Iran's clerics, the outcome is probably already known.

When registration to run for Iran's highest political office ended March 11, more than 680 applicants had filed for candidacy. The next step is for the country's Guardian Council to determine who is qualified to run. With so many names that might seem like a daunting task but, in reality, it isn't.

It is important first to understand the relationship between the Guardian Council and Iran's top spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, to whom the president answers.

The Guardian Council consists of 12 men. Six must be experts in Islamic law "conscious of the present needs and the issues of the day." They are personally selected by Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.

The remaining six members must be jurists "specializing in different areas of law." Although not selected by the supreme leader, they are elected by Iran's parliament from among those nominated by the head judge -- who is appointed by Khamenei.

Thus, whether directly or indirectly, Khamenei wields influence over all 12.

The bottom line: No presidential candidate receives approval without Khamenei's support.

Since 30 percent of the registered candidates were women, 204 applicants are immediately dropped as Iran's constitution prohibits them from running. Only a handful of the remainder, whose names have already been floated by Khamenei to the Guardian Council, will make the final cut. The Guardian Council will announce who will run by Thursday.

There was some excitement among Iranians as a last-minute registrant was Hashemi Rafsanjani -- a previous president and one of Khamenei's antagonists after the 2009 election was stolen from the people by the supreme leader and his re-elected cohort President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While Iranian newspapers promote Rafsanjani as a reformist, the West shouldn't get its hopes up.

Despite Rafsanjani's opposition to the 2009 presidential election results and confrontation with Khamenei, indications are the two have made nice. Rafsanjani wouldn't have registered without knowing he would make the cut by obtaining Khamenei's prior approval. And, by approving Rafsanjani, Khamenei gives the appearance of credibility to the presidential field.

When Rafsanjani -- considered a founding father of the Islamic Revolution -- ran for the presidency in 1989, he was approved by Khamenei who had just succeeded his predecessor as supreme leader. Rafsanjani became Iran's fourth president.

Rafsanjani was perceived to be a man of the people; the reality was he brutally eliminated opposition to Iran's theocracy -- even those residing outside the country. From a life of poverty, theocratic control and corruption enabled him to become a "mullah with moolah." As president, he amassed a personal fortune, now estimated at more than $1 billion dollars but left Iran's economy in shambles.

Hundreds of intellectuals were purged under Rafsanjani -- imprisoned, tortured or simply disappeared. Some dissidents were beaten to death.

As mentioned, Iran's borders posed no obstacle to Rafsanjani's brutal reach as he authorized numerous terrorist attacks abroad, including the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. This resulted in the issuance in November 2006 of a warrant by an Argentine judge for Rafsanjani's arrest.

(This was in addition to a 1997 German criminal court's conviction of an Iranian hit squad for killing four dissidents, ruling they had acted upon orders from a special committee of which the controlling members were Rafsanjani and Khamenei.)

Most telling about Rafsanjani are comments he has made displaying callousness for human life.

Reflecting upon targeting foreigners for terrorist attack, he once observed: "It is not difficult to kill Americans or Frenchmen. It is a bit difficult to kill (Israelis). But there are so many (Americans and Frenchmen) everywhere in the world."

More foreboding was a 2001 comment alluding to the future use of nuclear weapons by Iran, a statement made when it wasn't known Rafsanjani that had already initiated a secret nuclear weapons development program: "The use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality."

(Of course, such a naive comment demonstrates Rafsanjani's failure to understand Iranian nukes would release radiation which would then spread to other Muslim countries and to recognize the subsequent devastation that would be caused by an Israeli retaliatory strike from its submarine force.)

But such comments by a "man of the cloth" are most telling about how clerics and other Islamic fanatics view their religion to be committed to the destruction of non-believers.

With the United Nation's top nuclear inspector recently announcing (unsurprisingly) that the 10th round of talks this year concerning Iran's nuclear program have ended without agreement and no date for new talks, with the United States accepting such lack of progress due to the June 14 presidential election, with Iran's success under Khamenei getting it closer to its nuclear goal line, with Khamenei's final approval attaching only to a president who will support his policies, with Iran's demonstrated knack for dragging out the nuclear talks until the U.S. effort to prevent Tehran from getting nukes transitions into one of then trying to contain Iran's use of them, the West needs to recognize, even with a new president, an ill wind will still prevails in Tehran.

(Lt. Col. James G. Zumwalt, a retired Marine infantry officer, served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf War. He is the author of "Bare Feet, Iron Will--Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields," "Living the Juche Lie: North Korea's Kim Dynasty" and "Doomsday: Iran--The Clock is Ticking." He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Beijing (AFP) May 21, 2013 - North Korea released 16 Chinese fishermen and their boat Tuesday, Beijing said, demanding an explanation after the kidnapping by armed attackers heightened strains between the neighbours.

"The DPRK side released the fishing boat and all the fishermen were safe and healthy," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular press briefing, using the North's official name.

The vessel's owner had not paid a ransom, he added, calling on Pyongyang to launch "a full investigation into the incident and make an explanation to us and take effective measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents".

The seizure is the latest strain in the relationship.

Owner Yu Xuejun told AFP that armed North Koreans whom he said were probably from Pyongyang's military detained the boat in waters between the two countries on May 6 and demanded 600,000 yuan ($98,000) for the men's release.

Beijing is Pyongyang's sole major ally and its key provider of aid and trade, but China said it "firmly opposed" the North's atomic test in February.

North Korea has for years done most of its banking through China, but with the imposition of stronger UN sanctions after the nuclear test, Beijing has come under greater pressure to tighten its control on Pyongyang's financial flows.

The state-owned Bank of China in early May shut the account of a North Korean bank accused by the United States of supporting the atomic programme.

Reports said the boat's captors had asked Yu to pay the ransom into a bank account in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, a major hub for trade between China and the North.

The detention caused outrage online in China, with Internet users calling on Beijing to take a tough stance against Pyongyang, and accusing authorities of not trying hard enough to secure the men's release.

In an editorial Tuesday before the release was announced, the state-run Global Times, which often reflects nationalist opinion, said Beijing should "should let the North Korean side know we are angry".

"If North Korea continues to go rogue, China should take actions to push it toward a more measured response," it said, adding: "If we don't set rules for North Korea, our whole government's image may be seen as being too weak."

The incident came a year after the return of 29 Chinese fishermen also kidnapped by unidentified North Koreans who had demanded a 1.2 million yuan ransom.

Those sailors were returned without ransom after the foreign ministry said it had contacted North Korea to try to resolve the case, Xinhua reported at the time.

"There is no clear demarcation of the sea border between China and North Korea," the Global Times quoted Lu Chao, a Chinese maritime researcher, as saying.

"Whenever North Korean coastal troops lack money, they cross the line and detain Chinese vessels to extort money. And most ship owners choose to pay the ransom if the amount is not too high," he said.

]]> Thu, 23 MAY 2013 23:05:24 AEST Tokyo (AFP) May 19, 2013 - Japan's prime minister vowed Sunday to seek talks with Pyongyang in a bid to settle the nagging issue of North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese, without risking its alliance with Washington and Seoul.

Shinzo Abe made the comment after a surprise visit to North Korea by one of his advisers last week has irritated the United States and South Korea as a possible damper to their efforts to forge a united front against Pyongyang.

"I want to pursue negotiations or dialogue" with North Korea, he told reporters in Fukuoka, southern Japan, according to Japanese media.

"I will definitely try to realise the return home of all the kidnap victims, the search for truth behind the cases and the handover of the abductors during the Abe government," he said.

But he added Japan will also continue seeking a "comprehensive solution" to the abduction issue along with North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions in concerted efforts with allies.

The adviser, Isao Iijima, returned home via Beijing on Saturday after the four-day visit to Pyongyang where he discussed with North Korean officials ways to resolve the long-pending abduction issue, which has derailed bilateral talks to improve ties.

Iijima told North Korean officials that Tokyo "would not make any move" unless they return all Japanese kidnap victims, hand over the kidnappers and resolve all the abduction cases, according to Japanese media citing sources close to him.

But the trip has fuelled speculation Pyongyang was trying to cozy up to Tokyo at a time when ties with Washington and Seoul have gone into deep freeze over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

South Korea dubbed the trip "unhelpful" to international efforts to forge a united front against Pyongyang.

Glyn Davies, the US special representative for North Korea policy, initially expressed surprise on Tuesday by saying Iijima's trip was "news" to him.

Davies was visiting Seoul, the first leg of his tour which later took him to Beijing and Tokyo for talks with government officials there.

"We knew that North Korea would eventually shift their strategy to that of seeking engagement in an effort to split us and to exploit any differences in our respective national positions," Davies told reporters on Saturday at the end of his stay in Tokyo.

Davies, however, said he was confident Tokyo was "fully aware of the challenges and pitfalls of engaging North Korea."

A member of Abe's cabinet on Sunday defended Iijima's trip which he said reflected the premier's resolve to have North Korea come clean on the abductions which took place in the 1970s and 1980s.

"Japan has an extremely important case, the abduction issue, which is separate from interests of other countries," Akira Amari, the state minister of economic revitalisation, said in a talk show on public broadcaster NHK.

"This is an area in which Japan should act on its own initiative," he added.

In 2002, North Korea officially admitted to the abductions but its refusal to give a fuller account of the cases has infuriated Japan.

Iijima was a senior aide to Junichiro Koizumi and accompanied his visits to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 as Japan's prime minister for talks with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

During Koizumi's 2002 trip, North Korea admitted its agents kidnapped Japanese nationals in Cold War years to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

Several of those snatched were allowed to return to Japan along with children who were born in the North, but Pyongyang said the rest of them had died, although many in Japan were not convinced.

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