North Korea asks embassies to consider moving diplomats out



By Guy Faulconbridge and Ronald Popeski

LONDON/SEOUL | Fri Apr 5, 2013 11:24am EDT

(Reuters) - North Korea has asked embassies to consider moving staff out and warned it cannot guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10, Britain said, amid high tension and a war of words on the Korean peninsula.

The requests come on the heels of declarations by the government of the secretive communist state that real conflict is inevitable, because of what it terms "hostile" U.S. troop exercises with South Korea and U.N. sanctions imposed over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing.


"The current question was not whether, but when a war would break out on the peninsula," because of the "increasing threat from the United States", China's state news agency Xinhua quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying.

It added that diplomatic missions should consider evacuation. North Korea would provide safe locations for diplomats in accordance with international conventions, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a notification to embassies.

Britain said its embassy in Pyongyang had been told by the North Korean government it "would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict from April 10th".

"We believe they have taken this step as part of their continuing rhetoric that the U.S. poses a threat to them," Britain's Foreign Office said.

It said it had "no immediate plans" to evacuate its embassy and accused the North Korean government of raising tensions "through a series of public statements and other provocations".

A Polish spokesman said Warsaw saw the latest statements by Pyongyang as "an inappropriate element of building up the pressure and we obviously think that there is no risk from outside on North Korea". He added that the Polish embassy saw no need to move staff out.

"This question has been directed to all embassies that are on the ground in Pyongyang," a Swedish Foreign Office official said.

Under the Vienna Convention that governs diplomatic missions, host governments are required to help get embassy staff out of the country in the event of conflict.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said North Korea had "proposed that the Russian side consider the evacuation of employees in the increasingly tense situation", according to a spokesman for its embassy in Pyongyang.

Moscow said it was "seriously studying" the request. A statement from its foreign ministry said Russia hoped all parties would show restraint and considered "whipping up military hysteria to be categorically unacceptable."

ROCKETS

In a fusillade of statements over the past month, North Korea has threatened to stage a nuclear strike on the United States, something it lacks the capacity to do, according to most experts, and has declared war on South Korea.

Military analysts say North Korea might be able to hit some part of the United States, but not the mainland and not with a nuclear weapon.

The threats against the United States by North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un are "probably all bluster", said Gary Samore, until recently the top nuclear proliferation expert on President Barack Obama's national security staff.

The North Koreans "are not suicidal. They know that any kind of direct attack (on the United States) would be end of their country," he added.

On Friday, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed two of its intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or U.S. Pacific bases.

The report could not be confirmed.

Speculation centered on two kinds of missiles, neither of which is known to have been tested.

One is the so-called Musudan missile which South Korea's Defence Ministry estimates has a range of up to 3,000 km (1,865 miles). The other is the KN-08, believed to be an inter-continental ballistic missile.

The North has always aggressively condemned the regular military exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies, but its reaction to this year's has reached a blistering new pitch.

"The rhetoric is off the charts," said Victor Cha, former director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council.

The verbal assaults from Pyongyang have set financial markets in South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, on edge.

South Korean shares slid on Friday, with foreign investors selling their biggest daily volume in nearly 20 months, hurt after aggressive easing from the Bank of Japan sent the yen reeling, as well as by the tension over North Korea.

"In the past, (markets) recovered quickly from the impact from any North Korea-related event, but recent threats from North Korea are stronger and the impact may therefore not disappear quickly," Vice Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said.

Kim Jong-un, 30, is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.

Some fear the young leader of the isolated communist state may view the risk of conflict as one worth taking.

"We don't understand this new guy at all. And if the North Koreans move to provoke the South, the South is going to retaliate in a way we haven't seen before," Cha said.

(Additional reporting by Lim Seung-gyu, Hyunjoo Jin, Somang Yang and Peter Apps; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Reuters

Country Estimated warheads
United States 7,650
Russia 8,420
United Kingdom 225
France 300
China 240
India 80-100
Pakistan 90-110
North Korea Fewer than 10
Israel 80

US military to deploy spy plane in Japan: report

TOKYO: The US military is set to deploy an unmanned spy plane in Japan to boost surveillance capabilities as North Korea apparently readied for missile launches, a newspaper report said on Saturday.

The Global Hawk will be stationed at the US airbase in Misawa, northern Japan, in the first ever deployment of the aircraft in the country, the Sankei Shimbun reported, quoting government sources.

The US military informed Japan last month about plans to deploy the plane between June and September but may bring the date forward, it said, following reports about North Korea’s preparations for missile launches.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean government official, said North Korea had loaded two mid-range Musudan missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities near its east coast.

The Musudan have never been tested but are believed to have a range of around 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles), which could theoretically be pushed to 4,000 if they were to be given a light payload.

That would cover any target in South Korea and Japan, and possibly even reach US military bases located on the Pacific island of Guam.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when the North test-launched a long-range rocket. In February, it conducted its third nuclear test and drew fresh UN sanctions. -- AFP

It is for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). It is made up of four complimentary systems, or Blocks. Block 10, the initial airframe , was deployed overseas shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Block 20, the first production version, was produced in August 2006. Block 30 adds critical signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability. And Block 40, currently in the final development stages, provide new capabilities with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP), next generation of airborne air-to-air and air-to-ground radar system.

North Korea's long-range missiles are notoriously unreliable. The Taepodong-2, for example, has been tested only once and failed less than a minute after launch. However, North Korea's Unha-3 carrier rocket, not shown on the chart, successfully put an object into Earth's orbit late last year and is partially based on the Taepodong-2 — though it too has experienced failed launches in the past.

It's not known what kind of missiles have been moved to North Korea's east coast, but most reports indicate they are of intermediate range, perhaps able to reach Guam.

The JMSDF AEGIS BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) was originally for engagement in the event of a failure of the Taepondong missile launch...knowing how unreliable NK's missile launches were.

Singapore - AIM-9X SIDEWINDER Missiles

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress April 3 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the Republic of Singapore for 20 AIM 9X-2 SIDEWINDER Block II All Up Round Missiles and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $36 million.

The Government of the Republic of Singapore has requested a possible sale of 20 AIM 9X-2 SIDEWINDER Block II All Up Round Missiles, 8 CATM-9X-2 Captive Air Training Missiles, 5 CATM-9X-2 Block II Missile Guidance units, 2 AIM-9X-2 Block II Tactical Guidance units, containers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistical and program support. The estimated cost is $36 million.

read more

I think we must avoid coming to the conclusion that a potentially destabilizing arms race is under way in South East Asia. Recent military spending in the region is an expected process of military modernization. However Singapore’s persistent sense of vulnerability, has contributed somewhat to this modernization trend.

South Korean President is 61-year-old Ms Park Geun-hye (unmarried and childless). Her mother was killed by a North Korean devotee, and her father murdered by his spy chief.

Ms Park's father, Park Chung-hee, was himself president of South Korea – seizing power in a coup in 1961. His wife was killed by a bullet intended for him in 1974; the president was murdered five years later by his own spy chief.

JASDF BMD Architecture and Concept of Operations




Japan Ministry of Defense

Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC)




Technobahn Military Aviation News

Sea-Based X-band Radar

The US Navy is reportedly deploying the huge Sea-based X-band radar to the Korean Peninsula. The x-band radar, or XBR, was designed, built and tested by Raytheon for Boeing, the prime contractor of the SBX-1 development. Raytheon’s nine-story-high X-band Radar (XBR) is the world's largest X-band radar. It is a missile-defense radar capable of tracking a baseball-size object 2,500 miles away.

One important difference from Aegis is the use of X band in the SBX. Aegis uses S band, and Patriot uses the higher-frequency C band. The X band frequency is higher still, so its shorter wavelength enables finer resolution of tracked objects. The radar is so powerful that if it were off the east coast of the United States near Washington, D.C., it would be capable of detecting the motion and rotation of a baseball launched into outer space from the San Francisco area, according the to Lt. Gen Trey Obering Director of MDA (Missile Defense Agency).

The Sea-Based X-Band Radar is mounted on a fifth generation Norwegian-designed, Russian-built CS-50 twin-hulled semi-submersible drilling rig. It can track, discriminate, and assess long-range ballistic missiles as part of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The system can communicate with potential U.S. interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, that could shoot down a target missile.

The vessel has many small radomes for various communications tasks and a central, large dome that encloses and protects a phased-array, 1,800 tonne (4,000,000 pound) X band radar antenna. The small radomes are rigid, but the central dome is not – the flexible cover is supported by positive air pressure. The amount of air pressure is variable depending on weather conditions.

The SBX tracks incoming ballistic missiles through space during the 20 or so minutes that they are outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The radar then transmits detailed tracking information to GMD’s command unit, which calculates a fire mission and launch its Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) missile. As the GBI streaks towards the threat, SBX distinguishes between warheads and decoys, ensuring the interceptor’s accuracy.

These interceptors directly hit the incoming missile either inside the earth's atmosphere or while the hostile missile is in space. The interceptors ram the warhead at a very high closing speed, destroying the target using only kinetic energy. It has been described as hitting a bullet with a bullet - a capability that has been successfully demonstrated in test after test. Another defense approach is used by the Airborne Laser Test Bed, which uses directed energy to destroy its target. (Funding for the ALTB program was cut in 2010 and the program was canceled in December 2011. It made its final flight on February 14, 2012)

The SBX uses high-frequency and advanced radar signal processing technology to improve target resolution, permitting the radar to perform effectively against closely-spaced warheads, debris, and decoys. XBR also performs kill assessment, i.e., after impact, the XBR determines whether the actual warhead was hit and whether it was destroyed and rendered harmless.

The one drawback of SBX is that X-band radars, like all other radars, cannot see over the curvature of the earth, known as the “radar horizon.” SBX’s ability to detect incoming missiles (and discriminate between warheads and decoys) depends completely on where the radar is located in relation to the incoming missile. Thus, the closer to the launch position that SBX is positioned, the better the odds that GMD will be able to complete a successful interception. The platform can operate hundreds of miles from the target area it is scanning, so it is not expected to sail close to North Korea.

Vessel length: 116 meters (380 ft)
Vessel height: 85 meters (280 ft) from keel to top of radar dome
Vessel draft: approximately 10 meters (32 ft. 9 in.) when in motion or otherwise not on station; approximately 30 meters (98 ft. 5 in.) when on station
Vessel stability: remains within 10 degrees of horizontal on station (fully passive stabilization)
Cost: $900 million
Crew: Approximately 75-85 members, mostly civilian contractors
Radar range: 2,000 km (1,242 mi.)
Displacement: 50,000 tons

The vessel is a commercially designed ocean-going, selfpropelled, semi-submersible oil drilling platform that was modified to meet the functional requirements of the SBX. The CS-50 semi-submersible rig on which the radar is mounted was built as the “Moss Sirius” at the Vyborg shipyard in Russia for Moss Maritime (now part of the Saipem offshore company). It was purchased for the Sea-based X-band Radar project by the Boeing company. The vessel has a dynamic positioning capability to enable precision station keeping in potential adverse sea states and weather conditions.




This post has been edited by noavatar: Apr 7 2013, 07:24 PM

Full Name: Geun-hye Park

Birth Date: 02-02-1952

Birth Place: Daegu, South Korea

Education: Sogang University, Université de Grenoble (France)


At the age of just 22, she was thrust into the political limelight, becoming South Korea's first lady when her mother was shot dead in 1974 - hit by a North Korean sympathizer's bullet that was intended for her husband. The assasin is Mun Se-gwang, a Japanese-born Korean. For five years, Ms Park was charged with receiving the spouses of foreign heads of state at the Blue House, South Korea's presidential residence. Ms Park Geun-hye, holds an engineering degree (electronic engineering) from Sogang University in Seoul. She also briefly studied at the University of Grenoble, but left France following the death of her mother.

Her father was assassinated by his own intelligence chief, Gim Jaegyu, on 26 October 1979. Awoken in the night to be told of her father’s murder, Ms Park says her first words were: “Is the border with North Korea secure?” Despite this outward coolness, she was deeply shaken by her father’s death, retreating from public life. For 19 years she worked with a charitable foundation and read extensively on philosophy and spiritualism.

During a campaign on 20 May 2006, Ji Chung-ho, a 50-year-old criminal with eight previous convictions, slashed Park's face with a utility knife. The blade slices a deep path from Park Geun-hye’s ear to the front of her right jaw, causing an 11-centimeter wound on her face, requiring 60 stitches and several hours of surgery.

A softly spoken woman who never married or had children, Ms Park tends to avoid publicity, preferring to spend time reading or practising yoga. Ms Park’s carefully managed public appearances and closely guarded privacy make her difficult to assess.

The fact that she never married nor had children could have worked against her in a traditional society like that of South Korea, but she turned those facts around, using them to illustrate her devotion to the country as well as insulation against corruption. Ms Park said in a televised press conference, "I have no family to take care of and no children to pass wealth to. You, the people, are my family and your happiness is the reason that I stay in politics. Like a mother who dedicates her life to her family, I will become the president who takes care of the lives of each one of you".

(Various sources)




This post has been edited by noavatar: Apr 7 2013, 07:46 PM

Yes Koreans have never forgotten his brutal suppression of political opponents during 18 years of rule that began with a military coup in 1961. Ms Park apologised to victims of her father's rule during last year's election campaign.

She accepted that "In the shadows of South Korea’s rapid growth there was pain, suffering and irregularities as well as various human rights abuses committed by authorities", for which she said: "I deeply apologise to all those who were personally hurt and families members of victims of government abuse".




Ms Park Geun-hye is bowing a deep bow after a press conference, in which she apologized for events in the past including the May 16 Coup and the Yushin Constitution at the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul on September 24.

This post has been edited by noavatar: Apr 7 2013, 08:38 PM

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