goldmonkey
24th May 2010, 09:15 AM
U.S. Backs South Korea in Cutting Trade With the North
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/asia/25korea.html
SEOUL, South Korea — Tensions escalated sharply Monday on the Korean Peninsula as the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, said that his nation would sever nearly all trade with North Korea, deny North Korean merchant ships use of South Korean sea lanes and ask the United Nations Security Council to punish the North for what he called the deliberate sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.
In Washington, the Obama administration said the South Korean measures were “entirely appropriate.” President Obama instructed American military commanders to coordinate closely with their South Korean counterparts to “insure readiness and deter aggression.”
“The Republic of Korea can continue to count on the full support of the United States,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Beijing, where she was attending high-level talks between China and the United States that have been overshadowed by the crisis. “Our support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal.”
The steps outlined by Mr. Lee in a nationally televised speech — coupled with new moves by South Korea’s military to resume “psychological warfare” propaganda broadcasts at the border after a six-year suspension — amounted to the most serious action the South could take short of an armed retaliation for the sinking of the ship, the South’s worst military loss since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.
“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again,” Mr. Lee said. “But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts. Trade and exchanges between South and North Korea will be suspended.”
Continues ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/asia/25korea.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykaSe2wO1Hk
U.S. Implicates North Korean Leader in Attack
A new American intelligence analysis of a deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship concludes that Kim Jong-il, the ailing leader of North Korea, must have authorized the torpedo assault, according to senior American officials who cautioned that the assessment was based on their sense of the political dynamics there rather than hard evidence.
The officials said they were increasingly convinced that Mr. Kim ordered the sinking of the ship, the Cheonan, to help secure the succession of his youngest son.
“We can’t say it is established fact,” said one senior American official who was involved in the highly classified assessment, based on information collected by many of the country’s 16 intelligence agencies. “But there is very little doubt, based on what we know about the current state of the North Korean leadership and the military.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/asia/23korea.html
S.Korea to hold anti-submarine drills against North
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSUL00005420100524
SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - South Korea's defence minister said on Monday the country would stage anti-submarine drills jointly with the U.S. military after the sinking of one of its navy ships by a North Korean torpedo in March.
Minister Kim Tae-young also said in a prepared speech that the South would resume anti-North loudspeaker broadcasts at their heavily armed border and take part in a U.S.-led exercise to stop suspected shipments of nuclear weapons or missile-related cargoes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/asia/25korea.html
SEOUL, South Korea — Tensions escalated sharply Monday on the Korean Peninsula as the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, said that his nation would sever nearly all trade with North Korea, deny North Korean merchant ships use of South Korean sea lanes and ask the United Nations Security Council to punish the North for what he called the deliberate sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.
In Washington, the Obama administration said the South Korean measures were “entirely appropriate.” President Obama instructed American military commanders to coordinate closely with their South Korean counterparts to “insure readiness and deter aggression.”
“The Republic of Korea can continue to count on the full support of the United States,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Beijing, where she was attending high-level talks between China and the United States that have been overshadowed by the crisis. “Our support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal.”
The steps outlined by Mr. Lee in a nationally televised speech — coupled with new moves by South Korea’s military to resume “psychological warfare” propaganda broadcasts at the border after a six-year suspension — amounted to the most serious action the South could take short of an armed retaliation for the sinking of the ship, the South’s worst military loss since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.
“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again,” Mr. Lee said. “But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts. Trade and exchanges between South and North Korea will be suspended.”
Continues ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/asia/25korea.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykaSe2wO1Hk
U.S. Implicates North Korean Leader in Attack
A new American intelligence analysis of a deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship concludes that Kim Jong-il, the ailing leader of North Korea, must have authorized the torpedo assault, according to senior American officials who cautioned that the assessment was based on their sense of the political dynamics there rather than hard evidence.
The officials said they were increasingly convinced that Mr. Kim ordered the sinking of the ship, the Cheonan, to help secure the succession of his youngest son.
“We can’t say it is established fact,” said one senior American official who was involved in the highly classified assessment, based on information collected by many of the country’s 16 intelligence agencies. “But there is very little doubt, based on what we know about the current state of the North Korean leadership and the military.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/asia/23korea.html
S.Korea to hold anti-submarine drills against North
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSUL00005420100524
SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - South Korea's defence minister said on Monday the country would stage anti-submarine drills jointly with the U.S. military after the sinking of one of its navy ships by a North Korean torpedo in March.
Minister Kim Tae-young also said in a prepared speech that the South would resume anti-North loudspeaker broadcasts at their heavily armed border and take part in a U.S.-led exercise to stop suspected shipments of nuclear weapons or missile-related cargoes.