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Seoul, South Korea

Both China and North Korea appear eager to put on a show of business as usual amid US diplomatic and military moves to bring together America’s two regional allies, South Korea and Japan.

While China and North Korea solidified their relationship in a quick visit Thursday to Pyongyang by Dai Bingguo, China’s highest-ranking foreign affairs official, the US shored up its trilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan. To the disappointment of South Koreans as well as Americans, analysts saw no sign of significant Chinese pressure on North Korea to pull back from confrontation with the South.

IN PICTURES – Cult of Personality: Inside North Korea

The cordial tone of official Chinese and North Korean dispatches contradicted what many see as the wishful thinking of South Korea’s national security adviser, Chun Yung-woo.

Mr. Chun was quoted in a US document released by WikiLeaks as telling the US ambassador to South Korea, Kathleen Stephens, in February 2010 that China “would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the US in a ‘benign alliance’ as long as Korea was not hostile toward China.”

WikiLeaks also released a separate US cable quoting a Chinese vice foreign minister, He Yafei, as saying in 2009 that North Korea’s behavior in conducting missile tests that April was that of “a spoiled child.”

Two high-level trips by Americans next week are expected to elicit some understanding of the depth of real attitudes in Beijing and Pyongyang. James Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, travels to Beijing to impress upon the Chinese the need to hold North Korea in check if the Chinese really want “stability,” as they often say.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is planning to visit North Korea next week. Mr. Richardson, who has visited several times over the years, has been a strong advocate of “engagement” with North Korea and is expected to try to lay the groundwork for renewed dialogue between North Korea and the US.

By csmonitor.com

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (r.) shakes hands with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo (l.) in Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec. 9, amid the continuing military crisis on the Korean peninsula. Gao Haorong/Xinhua/AP

North Korea is being probed for possible war crimes committed by its military, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced Monday.

“The office of the prosecutor has received communications alleging that North Korean forces committed war crimes in the territory of the Republic of Korea,” it said in a statement on the court’s website.

“The prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, confirmed that the office has opened a preliminary examination to evaluate if some incidents constitute war crimes under the jurisdiction of the court.”

Prosecutors said the preliminary examination would look into the rogue state’s conduct with respect to two deadly attacks on South Korean territory and interests this year.

The most recent attack was the Nov. 23 shelling by North Korea’s forces of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island that resulted in several deaths and many injuries.

ICC prosecutors also cited the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship by a torpedo allegedly fired from a North Korean submarine. That attack killed 46 South Korean sailors.

The prosecutor’s office said the preliminary examination would determine if the criteria have been met for opening an investigation.

Top U.S. soldier to visit South Korea

In Seoul, South Korean military and defence officials are preparing for a visit later this week by the top U.S. military officer.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is to meet Wednesday with senior South Korean defence officials to let them know that the U.S. continues to stand by them.

It’s the latest indication that Washington is increasingly concerned by the tense situation in the Korean pensinsula.

The White House said President Barack Obama called Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday night to discuss North Korea and urge China to use its influence to rein in its provacative ally.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also met in Washington on Monday with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss the North Korean situation.

She said they shared concerns about what she called “provocative attacks from North Korea.”

By cbc.ca

Smoke raises from South Korea's Yeonpyeong island on Nov. 23. The International Criminal Court announced Monday it will investigate North Korea for possible war crimes for its role in the shelling and for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. (Yonhap/Associated Press)

The United States on Monday called for tighter enforcement of UN sanctions against North Korea and for China to play a “responsible” role in easing mounting tensions in the region.

The United States will “confront the threat” posed by North Korea’s new nuclear activities and its deadly attack on its southern neighbour last week, said US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

A UN Security Council sanctions committee meanwhile met to discuss efforts to implement actions already ordered against the North after its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Signalling a tougher US line with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s regime, Ms Rice said the United States expects committee members “to intensify their important ongoing efforts to tighten sanctions enforcement.”

The sanctions include an arms embargo and actions – including an assets freeze and travel ban – taken against entities and individuals linked to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Ms Rice called last week’s attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island “outrageous” and said the United States would “work with the international community to maintain peace and security in this region as we simultaneously confront the threat posed by North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities.”

The ambassador said the United States looks “to China to play a responsible leadership role in working to maintain peace and security in that region.”

China is North Korea’s closest international ally and its main trade partner.

“It is in China’s interests, it is in the interests of the countries in the region, and we expect them to take steps that are consistent with their obligations and all of our obligations under UN Security Council resolutions,” Ms Rice told reporters.

The United States has not yet stated its position on China’s call for six- nation talks on North Korea to take place in Beijing in the coming days.

South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan had previously been in talks with North Korea seeking to end its nuclear weapons program until the North pulled out of the negotiations in April 2009.

By telegraph.co.uk

Super Hornet fighter attack aircraft is launched off the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier, USS George Washington during the joint military exercise off South Korea's West Sea Photo: AP

The United States and South Korea began joint war games Sunday as South Koreans demanded vengeance over a deadly North Korean artillery bombardment that has raised fears of more clashes between the bitter rivals.

Meanwhile, the North worked to justify one of the worst attacks on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War. Four South Koreans, including two civilians, died Tuesday when the North rained artillery on the small Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, which is home to both fishing communities and military bases.

North Korea said civilians were used as a “human shield” around artillery positions and lashed out at what it called a “propaganda campaign” against it.

The North said that Sunday’s planned U.S.-South Korean war games showed that the U.S. was “the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene.”

The war games, which involve the USS George Washington supercarrier, display resolve by Washington and Seoul to respond strongly to any future North Korean aggression. However, Washington has insisted the drills are routine and were planned well before last Tuesday’s attack.

The drills kicked off Sunday morning when ships from both countries entered the exercise zone, an official with South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

David Oten, a spokesman for the U.S. military in South Korea, said U.S. ships were still steaming toward the area and the drills would not officially begin until later in the day.

North Korea on Saturday warned of retaliatory attacks creating a “sea of fire” if its territory is violated.

The South Korean president told top officials “there is a possibility North Korea may take provocative actions during the [joint] exercise,” and urged them to co-ordinate with U.S. forces to counter any such move, according to a spokesman in the president’s office.

By cbc.ca

South Korean ships are shown off the coast of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island on Sunday as the two countries prepared to begin war games. (David Guttenfelder/Associated Press)

INCHON, South Korea — As they left behind gutted homes, scorched trees, and rubble-strewn streets, residents of the tiny South Korean island shelled by North Korea told harrowing tales yesterday of fiery destruction and narrow escapes.

Ann Ahe-ja, one of hundreds of exhausted evacuees from Yeonpyeong Island arriving in the port of Inchon on a rescue ship, said Tuesday’s artillery barrage that killed four people — two of them civilians — had caught her by surprise.

“Over my head, a pine tree was broken and burning,’’ Ann told AP Television News. “So I thought, ‘Oh, this is not another exercise. It is a war.’ I decided to run. And I did.’’

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the shelling of the island near the two nations’ disputed maritime border one of the “gravest incidents’’ since the Korean War.

South Korean troops remained on high alert. In Washington, President Obama pledged to “stand shoulder to shoulder’’ with Seoul and called upon China to restrain its ally, North Korea.

The United States has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to guard against North Korean aggression. The troops are a legacy of the bitter three-year conflict that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

Seoul and Washington reaffirmed plans to hold joint military exercises this week in the Yellow Sea, just 70 miles south of Yeonpyeong. The White House said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington would take part.

The Obama administration urged China to press North Korea to halt provocative action, saying Beijing has a duty to tell Pyongyang that deliberate acts “specifically intended to inflame tensions in the region’’ are not acceptable.

China said late yesterday that it was highly concerned about the artillery exchange and urged restraint.

China “feels pain and regret about an incident causing deaths and property losses and is worried about the developments,’’ Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

Diplomats for countries on the UN Security Council said there had been no request for the 15-member council to hold a full, formal meeting about the shelling, but said some informal bilateral talks were being held.

About 10 homes suffered direct hits and 30 were destroyed in the midafternoon barrage, according to a local official who spoke by telephone from the island just seven miles from the North Korean shore. About 1,700 civilians live on Yeonpyeong alongside South Korean troops stationed there.

“I heard the sound of artillery, and I felt that something was flying over my head,’’ said Lim Jung-eun, 36, who fled the island with three children, including a 9-month-old strapped to her back. “Then the mountain caught on fire.’’

Many evacuees had spent the night in underground shelters and embraced tearful family members on arrival in Inchon.

The shower of artillery from North Korea was the first to strike a civilian population. In addition to the two marines killed, the bodies of two men, believed in their 60s, were pulled from a destroyed construction site, the coast guard said. At least 18 people — most of them troops — were injured.

The skirmish began after North Korea warned the South to stop carrying out military drills near their sea border, South Korean officials said.

When Seoul refused and fired artillery into disputed waters — away from the North Korean shore — the North retaliated by shelling Yeonpyeong.

Seoul responded by unleashing its own barrage of howitzers and scrambling its fighter jets.

North Korea, laying out its version of events, said the army warned the South several times that firing “a single shell’’ in its waters would draw a “prompt retaliatory strike.’’

In Pyongyang, residents boasted that the exchange showed off their military’s strength and ability to counter South Korean aggression.

By boston.com

Survivors of the artillery exchange arrived yesterday at the port in Inchon, South Korea, from Yeonpyeong Island. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama met Tuesday with his top advisers about the situation on the Korean peninsula, in the wake of North Korea’s artillery attack on a South Korean island. Obama is expected to telephone South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to reiterate U.S. support for South Korea.

Immediately upon his return to the White House from a brief trip to the Midwestern state of Indiana, the president went into a meeting  of his national security team.

According to a White House statement, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Secretaries of State and Defense Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates were among those taking part.

Also participating in person or via video link were the chairman of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen and the commander of U.S. forces in Korea, General Walter Sharp as well as Admiral Robert Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The White House statement says Obama reiterated the unshakeable support of the United States for the Republic of Korea, and that he discussed ways to advance peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

Briefing reporters earlier in the day, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton described Mr. Obama has being “outraged” by North Korean actions on Tuesday, adding that the United States “stands shoulder to shoulder” with South Korea and that it is fully committed to South Korea’s defense.

It is unknown what contacts President Obama has made or plans to make with other world leaders. Asked whether the president would call China’s President Hu Jintao, White House Burton said only that Obama would do what is appropriate.

U.S. envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth was in Beijing, consulting South Korean, Japanese and Chinese officials, and is expected to meet with the president. The key focus of Bosworth’s talks in the region was Pyongyang’s recent revelation of an apparent uranium enrichment plant.

Bosworth called the North Korean artillery attack that killed two South Korean marines and wounded 18 people, three of them civilians, “aggression.”

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday called the attack an “unprovoked military assault,” and said the Obama administration is planning a “measured and unified” response, working with China and other nations in the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.

By voanews.com

The plane went down about 100 miles from the border in what analysts say may have been a defection attempt.

A North Korean military aircraft crashed into a cornfield in northeastern China about 100 miles from the border in what analysts believe was a failed defection attempt, the Chinese government said Wednesday.

The pilot was killed in the crash Tuesday, according to China’s official Xinhua news service, which also reported that the government “is in communication on the matter with the North Korean side.”

Chinese authorities released little information about the crash which took place in Fushun prefecture, Liaoning province. But photographs reportedly taken by villagers were widely distributed on Chinese blog sites showing the wreckage with a red star in a blue circle, the insignia of the North Korean air force. North Korea’s first air division’s 24th regiment is headquartered in Uiju, just north of the border city of Sinuiju, and pilots frequently train near the Yalu River which forms the border with China.

The aircraft was identified as a Russian-made MiG fighter, most likely a MiG-21, although early reports had described it as a helicopter.

South Korean analysts said they believed the pilot was attempting to escape his impoverished homeland, possibly heading toward Russia, which is more hospitable to defectors than China. Along the way, he might have run out of fuel and attempted an emergency landing in the fields.

“This couldn’t be a training accident — the border is clearly marked,” said Kim Chul-woo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “An attempted defection is the only plausible explanation.”

A respected military analyst in Seoul said that South Korean intelligence is still trying to determine what happened.

“I’m skeptical of what the Chinese government is saying,” said the analyst, who asked not to be quoted by name. The analyst said he believed the plane might have carried one or more passengers besides the pilot and might not have crashed accidentally.

Among the theories in circulation is that the pilot was heading toward a nearby airport in Shenyang and ran out of fuel. The plane was reported not to have sustained serious damage, making it conceivable that a passenger escaped.

Defections have increased in 2010 amid growing food scarcities in isolated North Korea, with most people escaping by foot across the border into China. However, there have been several famous incidents, one in 1983 and another in 1996, in which North Korean air force captains flew their planes across the demilitarized zone into South Korea.

By Barbara Demick

In northeastern China, people look over the wreckage of a North Korean military aircraft. (Yonhap / AFP/Getty Images / August 18, 2010)

The U.S. will send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea’s west coast in the coming months for more joint drills that have sparked opposition from China.

“Part of the sequence of exercises that we conduct will be a return of the George Washington, including exercising in the Yellow Sea,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters yesterday in Washington, referring to the strip of water between the Korean peninsula and China. There will be more joint maneuvers over the “next several months,” both in the peninsula’s western and eastern waters, he said.

The USS George Washington took part in July 25-28 exercises off South Korea’s eastern coast designed to deter North Korea from further provocations after the communist country was accused of sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan in March. China says it is “firmly opposed” to any threatening foreign military activities near its shores as it resists a U.S. push to scale down China’s presence in the South China Sea.

China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and political ally, has resisted blaming Kim Jong Il’s regime for attacking the Cheonan, an incident that claimed the lives of 46 sailors. South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea after their 1950-1953 civil war ended in a cease-fire.

North Korea has repeatedly threatened “physical retaliation” against the U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers since U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the plans last month during a visit to Seoul.

No Threat

North Korea “should not feel in any way threatened by these exercises, while at the same time it should be very, very clear that further military action will not be tolerated,” Morrell said yesterday. “We’re going to hit all the various kinds of exercises that can be conducted,” including anti- submarine and bombing exercises, he added.

South Korea yesterday began its own anti-submarine drills in its western waters that are set to last for five days. Its annual joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise with the U.S. will take place between Aug. 16 and 26.

Tensions between the U.S. and China over the seas between Korea and Vietnam have intensified this year. China cut off military ties with the U.S. to protest planned arms sales to Taiwan. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi sparred over China’s claims to sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea.

At a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, Clinton signaled her intent to intercede in the disputes in the region.

Yesterday, the U.S. confirmed it is in talks with Vietnam to share nuclear fuel and civilian nuclear technology, provoking an angry reaction from China.

The nuclear discussions with Vietnam underline “double standards” by the U.S. as it promotes denuclearization, the China Daily newspaper cited Teng Jianqun, deputy-director of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, as saying yesterday.

By Bomi Lim

Aircraft carrier USS George Washington departs Busan, South Korea, on Sunday, July 25, 2010.

In a move that is antagonizing North Korea and irking China, South Korea commenced a major naval exercise in the Yellow Sea Thursday, the largest since 46 South Korean sailors died in March in the sinking of a warship.

The five-day exercise involves some 4,500 personnel and all four branches of the military, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Seoul, which oversaw an international investigation into the March sinking of the Cheonan, claims a North Korean submarine sank the corvette and is demanding an apology. A multinational investigation also found North Korea responsible. Pyongyang has vehemently denied the accusation.

Prior to the Cheonan’s sinking, the South Korean navy had largely discounted the threat of submarines in the Yellow Sea, due to the shallow waters in the area.

North Korea said via state media that it would undertake “strong physical retaliation” and warned fishermen to stay clear of the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime border between the Koreas.

The drills amount to an “undisguised military intrusion,” Pyongyang has said.

“The army and people of the DPRK are closely watching every move of [South Korean President] Lee Myung-bak’s group of traitors. And if the puppet warmongers dare ignite a war, they will mercilessly destroy the provokers and their stronghold by mobilizing most powerful war tactics and offensive means beyond imagination,” the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, according to North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA.

“Raising issue with the legitimate, defensive exercise is a provocation in itself,” South Korean Rear Adm. Kim Kyung-sik retorted Wednesday, speaking to local reporters.

Meanwhile, China, which has refused to condemn North Korea over the alleged torpedo attack and which remains Pyongyang’s closest strategic ally, is reportedly carrying out air defense drills on its Yellow Sea coast across from the Korean peninsula.

Given North Korea’s decrepit military, experts say the chances of a naval attack on well-prepared South Korean forces are small.

“The North Koreans have to rely on asymmetric capabilities,” said Dan Pinkston, who heads the international Crisis Group’s Seoul offices. “In a straight-up fight they are not that capable.”

Deadly North Korean strikes in past years — a commando raid on the South Korean presidential mansion in 1968; terrorist bombings in 1983 and 1987; and naval clashes in 1999 and 2002 — all used the element of surprise, an element that would be difficult to spring on the large, alert force South Korea is fielding for the maneuvers.

If North Korea retaliates, it will likely be with a weapons test rather than a direct confrontation, said one expert.

“They do not do eye-for-eye, tit-for-tat responses,” said Choi Jin-wook of the Korea Institute of National Unification. “Shooting a missile or testing a weapon or some kind of diplomatic action are possible, but I don’t think there will be a military reaction.”

The exercise does not include any U.S. assets, leading some commentators to wonder whether Washington is wary of angering Beijing in the Yellow Sea.

South Korean and U.S. forces conducted exercises together in the Sea of Japan last month. Those exercises included an anti-sub infiltration component — intended to thwart a submarine attack on a ship.

If the joint exercises continue, such a move could be part of a gradual build-up of American pressure on China.

“The U.S. is slowly containing China in other places, and they could exercise in the East Sea in the future,” said the Korea Institute of National Unification’s Choi. “I think the U.S. is very deliberately pressuring China.”

The warship sinking has heightened tensions between the two neighbors who fought a war from 1950 to 1953. The war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning the two nations are still technically at war. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

By the CNN

A South Korean destroyer drops depth charges during anti-submarine drills on Thursday.

The largest joint military exercise by the United States and South Korea in years is underway in the Sea of Japan.  These war games were called in response to North Korea’s sinking of the South Korean navy ship, Cheonan, an incident that killed 46 sailors in March. 

Throughout the day, on calm seas and under clear skies, F-18 Hornet fighter jets and other aircraft were catapulted from the flight deck of this nuclear-powered carrier.

About 200 aircraft are participating in the four-day drill, known as Invincible Spirit.  Some took part in live fire exercises.  For the first time, an exercise here also includes four of the U.S. Air Force’s most advanced fighters, F-22 Raptors.

In the sea are 20 American and South Korean naval vessels, advancing no closer than 200-kilometers south of the maritime boundary with North Korea in the eastern sea. 

In the Command Direction Center of the aircraft carrier, U.S. Navy Commander Peter Walczak says the exercise is similar to what routinely occurs on the carrier, except for the additional component of cross-training with South Korean forces.   A key component in the drill is detecting enemy submarines and defending against them. 

North Korea’s threat to unleash a nuclear attack in response to the joint war games, Commander Walczak says, is not causing undue alarm for the U.S. 7th Fleet.

“The only extra precaution is that, maybe, were more observant to what is going on in the area.  A little more sensitive to intel reports, what have you.  The ship itself, the airplane flying, the schedule, it is pretty much what we do with standards operations.  Our alert posture is not necessarily any higher than any other time during normal operations,” he said. 

The carrier’s strike group is under the command of Rear Admiral Dan Cloyd.  He calls the current exercise, “purely defensive in nature” and says there’s no reason for North Korea to be provocative.

“Our intent is to improve defense capabilities in areas such as anti-submarine warfare, air defense and anti-surface warfare,” Cloyd said. “Our intent is not to provoke reactions from any nation, be it North Korea, or any other here in the Western Pacific region.”

North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea on March 26.  The incident has escalated tension on the Korean peninsula, which, on Tuesday, marks the 57th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War.  The two sides have yet to sign a peace treaty.

By Steve Herman

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) departs Busan, Republic of Korea, 25 July 2010