North Korea Just LOVES Teasing Us With Their Nukes

Test Looms as U.S. Tracks North Korean Ship
SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ship shadowed by an American Navy destroyer and possibly heading toward Myanmar on Sunday could pose the first test of how far the United States and its allies will go under a new United Nations resolution to stop the North’s military shipments.

The United States began tracking the ship, the 2,000-ton freighter Kang Nam, after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, the North’s capital, on Wednesday.

Pentagon officials have said they suspect the ship is carrying prohibited materials, but they have declined to say where it may be headed. A South Korean cable news network, YTN, on Sunday quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying that Myanmar was the destination of the freighter, which may be carrying missile components.

North Korea has said it would consider interception an “act of war” and react accordingly.

Over the weekend, the North’s state-run news media said the country vowed to “respond to sanctions with retaliation” and threatened “unlimited retaliatory strikes” against South Korea if it cooperated with the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is ruled by a military junta and has long been suspected of buying North Korean arms as well as providing transit services for North Korean vessels engaged in illicit trade. The Kang Nam is the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the resolution adopted by the Security Council on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.

The resolution forbids North Korea to traffic in a wide range of nuclear and conventional weaponry and calls on United Nations members to search North Korean ships, with the crews’ consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is aboard. If the crew does not accept inspection on the high seas, North Korea is to direct the vessel to a port for inspection by local authorities there.

Because Myanmar is another nation defying international weapons sanctions, a port there would be unlikely to comply with the resolution.

Shortly after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, the Kang Nam was detained in Hong Kong following a Council resolution banning trade in nuclear and ballistic missile technology. But then the ship was found to be carrying no cargo.

The potential high-seas confrontation over the Kang Nam came as American defense officials planned to travel this week to South Korea, Japan and China to discuss how to enforce the sanctions.

Last week, the United States urged banks to become more vigilant against financial transactions involving North Korea. The United States also said it had deployed a floating radar base near Hawaii to guard against a long-range North Korean missile test, which the North Koreans have said they may conduct soon, possibly around July 4.

Questioned about the North’s behavior, President Obama said in a taped interview with CBS News to be broadcast Monday that “this administration — and our military — is fully prepared for any contingencies.”

Mr. Obama would not specify if he meant the United States would respond militarily to a North Korean missile launching aimed at Hawaii. But he said, “I do want to give assurances to the American people that the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted in terms of what might happen.”

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S. Korean Minister Says Social Instability Increasing in North
South Korea's chief official on North Korea policy says he believes North Korea's recent acts of international defiance are aimed at shoring up power at home.

With talks to end the North's nuclear weapons at a standstill, South Korea is intensifying its diplomacy with partners to respond to the North's latest threats.

North Korea's official Rodung Sinmun newspaper described the country as a "proud nuclear power" Monday, and warned it would be a "great mistake for the United States to think it will not be hurt" in the event of military conflict on the peninsula.

That latest example of shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang comes as the U.S. Navy tracks a North Korean vessel which may be carrying missile parts or other weaponry. Such items are prohibited under the latest United Nations Security Council resolution passed after North Korea's nuclear test last month.

South Korea's main 24-hour cable news channel network cited intelligence officials Monday as saying the North Korean vessel was probably destined for Burma.

South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told the Reuters news agency Monday, Pyongyang's recent provocations appear to fit a pattern.

Hyun says social instability has increased in North Korea, so leader Kim Jong-il needs to continue to reinforce his domestic power base.

Those comments echo earlier assessments by analysts here in Seoul, who say Kim Jong Il's apparent stroke about a year ago challenged perceptions of his complete command of the North's government.

Hyun adds, the North Korean leader also has to think about possible power succession, whether it happens right away or some time later-- that is another reason to reinforce his power base.

South Korea is intensifying diplomacy to contain North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons. President Lee Myung-bak travels to Tokyo this Sunday to discuss North Korea with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. Seoul's main envoy on the nuclear issue, Wi Sung-lac, is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart in Moscow later this week. A South Korean envoy is also traveling to a gathering in Poland for the South's first formal participation in a U.S.-led anti-proliferation cooperative.