Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/world/asia/29korea.html
March 29, 2008
North Korea Test-Fires Missiles
By CHOE SANG-HUN [DPRK] [ROK-DPRK relations] [as 6-way talks chug along with marginal progress] [factions within DPRK leadership] [allows Kim to be for and against edicts of 6-way talks] [follwoup] following yesterday’s reports of a fracas between ROK and DPRK as result of new president in ROK, Lee Myung-bak] [also as result of factions within DPRK reported yesterday] [today, DPRK fires missiles again] [**]
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its western coast on Friday, [****]while threatening to slow further the disablement of its nuclear weapons facilities if the United States continues to demand a fuller accounting of its nuclear activities. [firing them toward Japan would have been more provocative] [***]
South Korea downplayed the missile launches, saying they were part of the Communist state’s routine military training. It did not give details about the type and number of rockets fired by the North.
But experts said Pyongyang was seeking to boost its bargaining leverage by escalating tensions at a time when negotiations with Washington over North Korea’s nuclear program are not proceeding in its favor and South Korea is becoming less generous with economic aid for the North. [******]
North Korea’s first and only nuclear test in October 2006 [***]gave rise to international concern about its missile capabilities. But it is unknown whether the North has the technology to tip its missiles with nuclear warheads.
"We are closely monitoring the situation," South Korea’s presidential spokesman, Lee Dong-kwan, said. "We believe North Korea too do not want a strain in inter-Korean relations."
The missile tests came amid rising North Korean anger at the policies of the new South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, who says he will drastically cut economic aid if the North does not end its human rights abuses and declare all of its nuclear activities.
On Thursday, North Korea expressed its anger by expelling all 11 South Korean government officials from a jointly run factory park north of the border.
Undaunted, South Korea on Thursday voted for a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning human rights violations by the North Korean government. South Korea usually abstains from such a vote in order to avoid provoking the North.
"Neither the North nor President Lee wants to back down," said Kim Keun-sik, a political scientist at Kyungnam University in South Korea. "This test of will between South and North Korea, which is a stand-off between hard-liners, signals a chill in inter-Korean relations."
Experts said the timing and location of the missile launches were significant. The disputed western sea border is the most volatile section of the inter-Korean frontier. Tension rises there in spring when fishing boats from both sides bicker over rich crab grounds. [****] The countries’ two navies fought bloody skirmishes in June of 1999 and 2002.
Chances of a repeat of such a skirmish have increased following the missile tests on Friday, Mr. Kim said.
"By launching the missiles, North Korea wants to put pressure on South Korea and the United States," said Baek Seung-joo, an analyst at the state-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.
While the North’s military was firing its rockets, its Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday blaming the United States for an impasse in six-nation talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The nuclear deadlock stems from what American officials call Pyongyang’s failure to address their suspicions that North Korea pursued a uranium-enrichment program and transferred nuclear technology to Syria.
On Friday, North Korea said it has "never dreamed" of doing either.
"The U.S. side is playing a poor trick to brand the North as a criminal at any cost in order to save its face," the North’s Foreign Ministry said. "Should the U.S. delay the settlement of the nuclear issue, persistently trying to cook up fictions, it will seriously affect the disabling of nuclear facilities."
The comments dimmed Washington’s hopes for an early resumption of the nuclear disarmament talks, [****] where the Bush administration has sought a major diplomatic achievement before its term ends in January next year.
Under an earlier six-nation deal that promised North Korea economic aid, Pyongyang last July shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor, which is its only known source of weapons-grade plutonium. It later began disabling it and related facilities at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang.
But as the dispute over the nuclear declaration dragged on, North Korea had already slowed down the disablement work, which American officials had hoped would be completed by the end of last year.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company