NKorea's Kim believed still in charge: South Korean minister

NUKEWARS

NKorea revives nuclear disablement: US
The United States said Friday that North Korea has broadly resumed disabling its weapons-grade nuclear program, all within days of a deal that revived the troubled negotiations. North Korea has removed more fuel rods from the nuclear reactor, put all seals back on equipment at the Yongbyon complex and restored the monitoring system there, according to US experts cited by the State Department. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the United States was satisfied "thus far" with North Korea's actions toward fulfilling its pledges. A weeks-long deadlock was broken on October 11 when Washington struck North Korea from a terror blacklist after saying Pyongyang agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume disabling its atomic plants. Just months before US President George W. Bush leaves office on January 20, the deal saved the disarmament negotiations -- involving the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia -- from potential collapse. "All the seals are back on, the surveillance equipment is back reinstalled, and the equipment that had been removed is back where it had been," McCormack told reporters during the daily press briefing. "In addition to that, they have removed more rods from the reactor. So on the reactor they have actually gone beyond where they were prior to their reversing their disablement steps," he said. He added that "60 percent of the reactor rods have been removed," but said he did not know when the process should be completed. "Now on the reprocessing and fuel fabrication facilities, they have not yet gotten to that baseline where they were before. There is still work to be done, but (there is) progress on it," he added.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Oct 17, 2008
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is believed to remain in control of the government despite reports of ill health but the situation in the isolated country is unpredictable, South Korea's defense minister said Friday.

Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee, joined by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a news conference, said the United States and South Korea were monitoring the situation closely.

"Kim Jong-Il has not been seen in public for a while now, but both Korean and United States intelligence services estimate that he still has control over his administration," Lee said.

Kim, who was last seen in public in mid-August, is believed to have suffered a stroke or some other serious illness, and was reported to have undergone brain surgery.

Lee said the state of Kim's health had "significant implications for the security of the Korean peninsula. And intelligence communities from both Korea and the United States are monitoring the situation closely," he said.

"Crisis or instability situations in North Korea could stem from many different causes so it would be very difficult to predict them at this point," he said.

Gates noted there have been other times of heightened concern about the stability of the north, such as during past famines.

"I just echo Minister Lee's observation that our militaries stay in very close touch on this, work together and consider various alternatives," he said.

Kim's failure to appear at a military parade on the country's 60th anniversary September 9 unleashed a wave of reports and speculation about his health that have raised questions about who is in control in the North.

North Korean state television aired photographs last weekend of Kim visiting a women's artillery base, but South Korean and US analyst said they appeared to have been taken before his health problems.

Lee sought to soften his comments by joking that Kim's disappearance from view should not be given too much attention.

"I believe that he's probably enjoying all this newfound attention. And if we show him too much attention, then we might spoil him," Lee said.

But with nuclear weapons and the world's fourth largest army, North Korea remains the last hair-trigger flashpoint of the Cold War.

The defense ministers held annual defense consultations earlier Friday on the state of US and South Korean defenses against North Korea.

In a joint statement, the ministers welcomed North Korea's resumption of measures to disable its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon following Pyongyang's removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But Gates said: "The North Korean nuclear and conventional threat continues to be the focal point of our deterrent and defense posture."

He reaffirmed US commitment to South Korea's defense, and the extension of the US nuclear umbrella.

Gates said Washington stood by an agreeement earlier this year to halt a drawdown of American troops from the peninsula and maintain US force levels there at 28,500.

The two countries also reviewed preparations for the transfer of wartime command from the United States to South Korea by 2012.

Lee said the US side had assured the United States would provide the military capabilities needed to maintain the same level of deterrence "before, during and after" the transfer of wartime control.

Gates said President George W. Bush took action earlier this week to give South Korea the same status as NATO and Japan in buying US weapon systems.

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NUKEWARS

UN inspectors back inside North Korea: US

Washington (AFP) Oct 14, 2008
Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog are back in North Korea, resealing nuclear facilities after Washington took Pyongyang off its terrorism blacklist, the US State Department said Tuesday.

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