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New activity at N.Korea nuclear test site: report

S.Korea to turn on Christmas lights on tense N.Korea border
Seoul (AFP) Dec 15, 2010 - South Korea will display Christmas lights near its tense border with North Korea for the first time since 2004 following the regime's deadly artillery attack last month, military officials said Wednesday. The South has partially resumed a cross-border propaganda campaign since the March sinking of a South Korean warship and the bombardment of a border island, which killed four people including civilians and sparked outrage. Since the attack, the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 war, Seoul has also staged a series of military drills in a show of strength against Pyongyang. The defence ministry said it has approved a request by the Seoul-based Yoido Full Gospel Church to set up Christmas lanterns on a steel tower atop a military-controlled hill.

The church is expected to switch on the lights on December 21 on the 155-metre (yard) hill, which is just three kilometres (two miles) from the border and overlooks the North's Kaesong city, it said. The two Koreas in 2004 reached a deal to halt cross-border psychological operations and the South stopped the church from switching on the lights to mark Christmas and Buddha's birthday. The communist North had accused the South of displaying Christmas lights to spread the religion among its people and soldiers. The North's constitution provides for religious freedom, but the US State Department says this does not in practice exist. Seoul began preparing to restart its propaganda war following the sinking of the warship with the loss of 46 lives. It installed loudspeakers along the land border but has not yet switched them on.

Seoul says a North Korean torpedo sank the ship, a charge denied by Pyongyang. Soon after last month's artillery attack, the South's military reportedly floated 400,000 leaflets across the border denouncing the North's regime. "There is no reason for our side to abide by the 2004 agreement because of North Korea's military provocations," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP, declining to confirm the leaflet launches. The loudspeakers are designed to blast anti-regime and pro-democracy messages deep into the border region -- up to 24 kilometres (15 miles) at night and 10 kilometres during the day. North Korea, one of the world's most closed societies, has threatened to open fire on the loudspeakers if they are switched on, and also to fire at locations from where balloons carrying leaflets are released. In addition to the reported military operation, private activist groups frequently float huge balloons across the heavily fortified frontier. These carry tens of thousands of leaflets denouncing the regime of Kim Jong-Il.
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Dec 15, 2010
North Korea has dug a tunnel more than 500 metres deep at its nuclear test site in possible preparation for another test, a South Korean newspaper reported Wednesday.

The work is going on in Punggye district in the northeastern province of North Hamkyong, the region where the North staged tests in 2006 and 2009, Chosun Ilbo quoted intelligence sources as saying.

It said the North is also reportedly speeding up major excavation work and construction of a new building at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang.

The South's National Intelligence Service could not confirm the report, which comes at a time of increasing international concern over the communist state's nuclear programmes.

The regime revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon to visiting US experts on November 12.

US officials say the new plant could easily be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium, allowing the production of more atomic bombs.

The US State Department said Tuesday the North has "at least one other" uranium enrichment site in addition to the one disclosed.

"North Korea is busy digging even in winter when the ground is frozen at two nuclear facilities (in Punggye district and Yongbyon)," Chosun Ilbo quoted an unidentified intelligence official as saying.

Based on an estimate of the amount of soil dug up, the officer speculated that the North has excavated to a depth of more than 500 metres (1,640 feet) in Punggye district.

"If progress goes on at the current pace, the North will have dug a cave one kilometre deep, the depth where it is possible to conduct a nuclear test, between March and May next year," the official was quoted as saying.

Chosun Ilbo also reported major construction work at Yongbyon.

Siegfried Hecker, a US nuclear scientist who visited Yongbyon last month and was shown the new uranium enrichment plant, also reported that work had begun on an experimental 25-30 megawatt light-water reactor.

"The North has never admitted what it is building," the paper quoted a security official as saying. "We just speculate that it is a nuclear facility whose purpose is unclear."

earlier related report
NKorea has at least one other uranium enrichment site: US
Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2010 - The United States said Tuesday that North Korea has "at least one other" uranium enrichment site than that disclosed to US experts last month, saying the issue raised concerns.

The remarks from State Department spokesman Philip Crowley reinforced those made earlier by South Korea's foreign minister Kim Sung-Hwan who voiced suspicion that Pyongyang may harbor secret uranium enrichment facilities.

"We're very conscious of the fact that, in the recent revelations to American delegations, what they saw did not come out of thin air. It certainly reflects work being done at at least one other site," Crowley told reporters.

"This remains a significant area of concern," he said, adding he did not want to get into intelligence matters.

The North revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon atomic complex to visiting US experts on November 12, shortly before it sparked a security crisis with an artillery attack on a South Korean island.

The New York Times, citing anonymous officials in President Barack Obama's administration, reported Tuesday that North Korea's new nuclear facility is "significantly more advanced" than work done by Iran.

Pyongyang says its new operation is intended to fuel a nuclear power plant, but senior US and other officials fear it could easily be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium to augment the country's plutonium stockpile.

Diplomats are touring the region to discuss a response both to the attack and the potential new nuclear threat.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting a South Korean intelligence source, said Seoul and Washington believe there may be three or four other locations where the North is conducting uranium enrichment.

"It is a report based on intelligence information and I would just like to say we have been following the issue for some time," Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan told a briefing.

US scientist Siegfried Hecker, one of those to see the Yongbyon plant, said it was most likely designed to make fuel for a civilian reactor and not bombs.

"However, it is highly likely that a parallel covert facility capable of HEU (highly enriched uranium) production exists elsewhere in the country," he wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Kim said: "I can't speak definitely, but I personally think that there is a fair point in Dr Hecker's assumption."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting Monday with his visiting North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-Chun, expressed "deep concern" about the new uranium capability, Moscow's foreign ministry said.

South Korea is still in shock after the North's November 23 bombardment of Yeonpyeong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border, which killed four people including two civilians.

It was the first attack on a civilian area in the South since the 1950-53 war.

South Korean army chief General Hwang Eui-Don resigned Tuesday over a controversial property investment, in a further blow to the military's morale. It has been widely criticized for a perceived feeble response to the North's attack.

Hwang stepped down following media reports that he had profited unfairly from the property deal, a claim he denies.

But he judged it inappropriate to stay in his post at a time when he must lead reform of the army, a defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

Lavrov urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions banning its nuclear activities and called for a resumption of six-party talks aimed at negotiating an end to the North's nuclear programs.

Russia is involved in the stalled talks alongside the two Koreas, China, Japan and the United States.

China, the North's sole major ally, has called for a new meeting of six-party envoys to resolve the latest crisis.

But the United States, Japan and South Korea say a return to negotiations at this point could be seen as rewarding the North's aggression.

They want China, which has failed publicly to condemn its ally for the island attack, to take a tougher line.

Crowley said US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and other US officials who are expected to press China for stronger action on North Korea left for Beijing.

The delegation will also discuss preparations for Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Washington, he added.



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NUKEWARS
N.Korea may have secret uranium enrichment sites: minister
Seoul (AFP) Dec 14, 2010
South Korea's foreign minister voiced suspicion on Tuesday that North Korea may have secret uranium enrichment facilities, in addition to the one it disclosed last month. The North revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon atomic complex to visiting US experts on November 12, shortly before it sparked a security crisis with an artillery attack on a South Kor ... read more







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