Pinoy Meets World

SEOUL (AFP) – - North Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North’s state media said.

In a first official response to last week’s US-South Korean summit, the state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak “are trying to ignite a nuclear war”.

“The US-touted provision of ‘extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella’ (for South Korea) is nothing but ‘a nuclear war plan,’” Tongil Sinbo said.

Full Story: AFP/Yahoo SG

SINGAPORE : The US military is tracking a North Korean ship that media reports said is heading for Singapore.

The Kang Nam departed from a port in North Korea on Wednesday and is suspected of carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear material.

Responding to media queries, Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said Singapore takes seriously the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and if the allegation is true, the ministry said Singapore will act appropriately.

Full Story: Channel News Asia/Yahoo SG

TOKYO (AFP) – - North Korea may be planning to fire a long-range missile towards Hawaii in early July, a Japanese daily said Thursday citing an analysis by the Japanese defence ministry.

The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun published the analysis after US and South Korean officials said North Korea might be readying another ballistic missile test after three previous launches in 1998, 2006 and this year.

Pyongyang said its latest April 5 launch put a satellite into orbit, while the United States and its allies labelled it a thinly disguised test of a Taepodong-2 missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.  Read more... (135 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

WASHINGTON – The United States has determined that the nuclear test conducted by North Korea last month yielded an explosion of a few kilotons, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Monday.

“The U.S. intelligence community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Punggye on May 25, 2009,” the office said in a statement. “The explosion yield was approximately a few kilotons.”

North Korea’s first nuclear test, in 2006, was about one kiloton.  Read more... (149 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

SEOUL (AFP) – - Unfazed by international anger at its second nuclear bomb test, a defiant North Korea was said Saturday to be preparing to launch a long-range missile.

The United States stressed it would not accept the North as a nuclear-armed state and warned that more atomic tests could spark an arms race in East Asia.

“A train carrying a long-range missile has been spotted at the weapons research centre near Pyongyang,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an intelligence source as saying.  Read more... (191 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

SEOUL, (AFP) – - South Korean and US troops went on higher alert after North Korea announced it is scrapping the armistice that has been in force on the peninsula for more than five decades.

“As of 7:15 am Thursday (2215 GMT Wednesday), the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command upgraded Watch Conditions by a notch to Stage Two,” Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“Surveillance over the North will be stepped up, with more aircraft and personnel mobilised,” said spokesman Won Tae-Jae.  Read more... (125 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

SEOUL – North Korea, facing international sanction for this week’s nuclear test, threatened on Wednesday to attack the South after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction.

The threat came after South Korean media reported Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium.

U.S. President Barack Obama is working to form a united response to Monday’s nuclear test, widely denounced as a major threat to stability that violates U.N. resolutions and brings the reclusive North closer to having a reliable nuclear bomb.  Read more... (185 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)