look what their showing people now [Archive] - The Project Avalon Community Forum

bennycog

24th March 2012, 07:28

games on us or the real thing?

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8440671/north-korean-missiles-aimed-at-aust-us

A senior US official has warned that North Korea's upcoming missile launch will be aimed towards South-East Asia and Australia for the first time.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, delivered the message in person to Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, Fairfax reported on Saturday.

"If the missile test proceeds as North Korea has indicated, our judgment is that it will impact in an area roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines," Mr Campbell was quoted as saying.

"We have weighed into each of these countries and asked them to make clear that such a test is provocative and this plan should be discontinued."

Nuclear-armed North Korea plans to launch a rocket in April to put a satellite into orbit, a move the US, Australia and other nations see as a pretext for a long-range missile test banned by the United Nations.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said it was deeply concerned by North Korea's plans.

A spokesperson for DFAT told AAP the government had registered concerns with the North Korean ambassador to Australia in Jakarta on Friday.

Senator Carr said North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile programs presented a "real and credible threat to the security of the region and Australia".

He said the planned satellite launch would be a clear breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be among other world leaders invited to South Korea next week for nuclear security talks.

Ms Gillard on Wednesday moved a lower house motion to renew Australia's commitment to the eradication of all nuclear weapons.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expected to raise North Korea's rocket launch at the meeting on Monday and Tuesday.

bennycog

25th March 2012, 06:44

more on the tests.. coinciding with satellite launch.. well satellite before the tests..

http://blog.american.com/2012/03/kim-jong-uns-first-provocation-can-the-u-s-afford-to-ignore-it/

In a less-than-shocking turn of events, North Korea has announced that it will launch a satellite into orbit next month. This launch, as with the last satellite launch, will amount to a ballistic missile test; United Nations Security Council resolutions have banned such launches. Better yet, Pyongyang has said it will launch the missile southward—potentially over South Korean territory. Such a move would be highly provocative, to say the least.

Put simply, this test cannot be permitted, especially as it comes in the immediate wake of the (poorly considered) U.S. deal with the North: food aid in return for a number of North Korean concessions including a moratorium on long-range missile tests. The United States has already called “on North Korea to adhere to its international obligations, including all relevant U.N. Security Council Resolutions.” Such admonishments are unlikely to be convincing.

Rather, if the United States wishes for North Korea to take it seriously—if Pyongyang is ever to take seriously the accords it agrees to—then Washington must demonstrate a seriousness of purpose that has too often been lacking. In this regard, President Obama has two options. He can order that U.S. forces strike the missile on the launch pad or, somewhat less provokingly, order that missile defense assets shoot it down after launch.

"Trained by the US but fighting against them.."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/06/us-korea-north-nuclear-idUSTRE8250AG20120306

(Reuters) - North Korea's willingness to cut a surprise deal with the United States on the future of its nuclear program does not signal any policy shift by the reclusive state's young new leader, a source with links to both Pyongyang and Beijing said.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also warned against applying pressure similar to sanctions on Iran to get it to jettison its nuclear ambitions, saying any perceived insincerity from Washington would quickly drive Pyongyang from the table.

Just weeks after Kim Jong-un succeeded his father, North Korea agreed with the United States last week to suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests, uranium enrichment at a nuclear facility, and to allow nuclear inspectors back. At the same time Washington pledged to resume food aid.

Despite the agreement, the source told Reuters not to read too much into it. "There has been no change (in policy). The door has always been open" from Pyongyang's perspective, he said. The source has correctly predicted events in the past, telling Reuters about the North's first nuclear test in 2006 before it took place.

The secretive state still clings to the teachings of Kim's grandfather, the late Kim Il-sung, whose ultimate goals include a peace treaty, the removal of nuclear weapons from both Koreas, and diplomatic recognition from Washington, he said.

The United States, which has nearly 30,000 troops in the South, says it has no nuclear weapons on the peninsula.

"on kurt campbel"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kurt-campbell/gIQAarxIAP_topic.html

Campbell could rightly be described as foreign policy think-tank royalty. The former researcher for the Center for Security and International Studies (CSIS) and the Brookings Institution helped found the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a centrist think tank that has sent its top officials to jobs across the Obama administration.

Campbell has zigzagged between government and academia since he graduated from Oxford University with a Ph.D. in international relations. He joined the Reagan administration as a special assistant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was an adviser to President Clinton, but left the federal government in 2000 to join CSIS and start a consulting firm that counsels clients looking to expand their businesses into Asia.

"trade agreement australia and south korea"

http://www.dfat.gov.au/fta/akfta/index.html

An FTA between Australia and the Republic of Korea (ROK) offers significant opportunities to further strengthen our highly complementary and growing bilateral trade and investment relationship, and deliver gains to both countries through closer economic integration.

On 5 March 2009, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed to launch bilateral FTA negotiations. On 10 March, Mr Simon Crean, then Minister for Trade, made a statement to Parliament on the launch of negotiations, and tabled a document summarising the views gathered during the ongoing public consultation process.

The ROK is one of Australia's largest export markets and overall trading partners. Our objective in the negotiations is to put Australian exporters on an equal footing with US and EU competitors which have obtained improved access to the Korean market through their own FTAs. The agreement would also include strong liberalising commitments by Korea in services, while Australia would eliminate its remaining tariffs on auto imports from Korea and would liberalise its foreign investment requirements.
Key interests and benefits

" we have a security pact with south korea. could this, applied with free trade, cause north korea to want to try to bully oz? would the US, (if they did indeed train him in leadership) use jong-un to start something with australia so they could pretend to come over and help us, only to decide to setup a few camps? bring stuff here that has been in the us secretly and store it here?
I know, just creating more conspiracy. but why not look at a few angles..

If these missiles are tested what will be the outcome? I am trying to look for some sort of confirmation to back it up from the north korean side of it but they are tight lipped i guess..

could just be a farce "