Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: DTN News - KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Says It Will Halt Nuclear Activities

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: DTN News - KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Says It Will Halt Nuclear Activities
*SPECIAL DTN NEWS MEMO: On February 26, 2012 ~ "North Korean Leader Issues Threat To Retaliate Ahead Of South Korea-U.S. Drills"., DTN News analyzed and stated
"The media communiques are created for the international agencies, foremost to announce the new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being supported and accepted by the old guards and secondly to international donors attention to fulfill it's obligations to cover North Korea shortfall on several factors including commodities and daily staple requirements." It seems the rookie North Korean leader Kim Jong Un first shenanigan hit the bull eyes by direct link to Washington and much needed food aid. By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
*DTN News - KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korean Leader Issues Threat To Retaliate Ahead Of South Korea-U.S. Drills ~ February 26, 2012
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources  Fox News (AP)
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 29, 2012: North Korea raised hopes Wednesday for a major easing in nuclear tensions under its youthful new leader, agreeing to suspend uranium enrichment at a key facility and refrain from missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a mountain of critically needed U.S. food aid.


It was only a preliminary step but a necessary one to restart broader six-nation negotiations that would lay down terms for what the North could get in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang pulled out of those talks in 2009 and seemingly has viewed the nuclear program as key to the survival of its dynastic, communist regime, now entering its third generation.
But the announcement, just over two months after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong Il, also opened a door for the secretive government under his untested youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to improve ties with the United States and win critically needed aid and international acceptance.

It also opened the way for international nuclear inspections after years when the North's program went unmonitored.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the agreement, which was announced at separate but simultaneous statements by the long-time adversaries, was a modest step but also "a reminder that the world is transforming around us."

"We, of course, will be watching closely and judging North Korea's new leaders by their actions," Clinton told a congressional hearing.

Indeed, North Korea has reneged on nuclear commitments in the past. An accord under the six-party talks collapsed in 2008 when Pyongyang refused to abide by verification that U.S. diplomats claimed had been agreed upon.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry's statement, issued by the state-run news agency, said the North had agreed to the nuclear moratoriums and U.N. inspectors 
"with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere" for the U.S.-North Korea talks.

North Korea faces tough U.N. sanctions that were tightened in 2009 when it conducted its second nuclear test and fired a long-range rocket. In late 2010, it unveiled a uranium enrichment facility that could give North Korea a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.

In the meantime, its people have continued to go hungry. The North suffered famine in the 1990s and appealed for the aid a year ago to alleviate its chronic food shortages. U.S. charities reported after a trip to North Korea last fall that children were suffering "slow starvation."

Clinton said the United States will meet with North Korea to finalize details for a proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of food aid. She said intensive monitoring of the aid would be required — a reflection of U.S. concerns that food could be diverted to the North's powerful military.

A senior Obama administration official said it was only in talks last week in Beijing that presaged Wednesday's announcement that the North had dropped its demand for rice and grains — viewed as easier to divert — and agreed to accept the U.S. "nutritional assistance" such as corn soy blend and other food targeted to young children and pregnant women.

The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivity.

North Korea's chief rival, South Korea, a staunch U.S. ally supported by 28,000 American troops, welcomed the agreement, although it has yet to receive the apology it wants from the North for two military attacks that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
Those hostilities nearly pitched the divided Peninsula into war, and the elder Kim's Dec. 17 death had fueled concern that the North could attack again and conduct another nuclear test.

Wednesday's announcement should ease those concerns, and was a welcome development for President Barack Obama in an election year when he will be looking to avoid another security crisis to add to the pressing list of urgent U.S. foreign policy concerns. Those include Iran's nuclear program, the bloodshed in Syria and a deeply unstable Afghanistan.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped North Korea would take steps toward "a verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was positive news and that the change in North Korean leadership offered a chance for "renewed engagement with the international community."

Outsiders have been closely watching how the younger Kim, believed to be in his late 20s, handles nuclear diplomacy with the United States and delicate relations with South Korea. His consolidation of power, with the help of senior advisers who worked with his father and grandfather, appears to be going smoothly, although determining the intentions and internal dynamics in Pyongyang is notoriously difficult.

Since Kim Jong Il's death, North Korea has vowed to maintain the late leader's policies and has linked its nuclear program to Kim's legacy. Many observers are skeptical whether North Korea will ever give up its nuclear program.

"North Korea uses (the nuclear program) as leverage to win concessions in return for disarmament measures. Since Kim Jong Il's death, it has called (the program) the country's most important achievement," Baek Seung-joo, an analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said. "There is still a long way to go."
While Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. welcomed the agreement, some Republicans reacted with skepticism, warning that Washington was heading down a path it has trod before — offering aid in return for nuclear commitments, only to see North Korea renege.
"Pyongyang will likely continue its clandestine nuclear weapons program right under our noses. We have bought this bridge several times before," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The administration official echoed some of that caution. But he also said the U.S. took it as a positive sign that the new North Korean leadership had carried on with a policy set in train before Kim Jong Il's death, and had shown some swiftness in reaching the accord before the official 100-day mourning period was over.

While North Korea's commitments meet the pre-steps set by the U.S. for the resumption of six-party disarmament-for-aid talks, the official said the U.S. had made no promise to restart them. He said North Korea would first have to make good on its latest commitments. The U.S. would also have to map out a strategy with the other parties in the talks — China, Japan, Russia and South Korea — on what they could offer the North in return for the irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and North Korean statements on the agreement differed on some details, including whether inspectors from U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency would be allowed into both the uranium enrichment and plutonium-based programs. The North Korean statement referred only to uranium enrichment.

A senior Obama administration official acknowledged that omission but said the U.S. was in no doubt that the North had agreed to let IAEA inspectors in to confirm the disabling of plutonium-producing reactor at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

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Financial Times - ‎1 hour ago‎
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NORTH KOREA TO SUSPEND NUCLEAR PLAN FOR FOOD AID

The Australian - ‎1 hour ago‎
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RPT-UPDATE 6-N.KOREA AGREES TO NUCLEAR MORATORIUM, IAEA INSPECTIONS

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NORTH KOREA CURBS NUCLEAR PROGRAMME IN RETURN FOR FOOD AID

The Guardian (blog) - ‎2 hours ago‎
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NORTH KOREA AGREES TO NUCLEAR MORATORIUM, IAEA MONITORS

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NORTH KOREA TO SUSPEND NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

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NORTH KOREA TO STOP NUCLEAR TESTING

TVNZ - ‎3 hours ago‎
North Korea agreed today to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to allow checks by nuclear inspectors, in an apparent policy shift that paves the way for resuming long-stalled disarmament talks.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Fox News (AP)
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS 

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

DTN News - RUSSIA NEWS: Putin Assassination Plot News Greeted With Skepticism In Russia

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - RUSSIA NEWS: Putin Assassination Plot News Greeted With Skepticism In Russia
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Star
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 28, 2012: Security forces have foiled a Chechen-linked plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, state television said Monday in a report likely to boost support for the Russian leader in a presidential election less than a week away.
Other candidates questioned the timing of the report, which comes as Putin and his party face unprecedented protests following a scandal-marred parliamentary election. The Communist Party candidate called the report a “cheap trick.”
The report, which included televised confessions, said the suspects were arrested in Ukraine and linked to a Chechen rebel leader who has claimed responsibility for terror attacks in Russia.
Putin has portrayed himself as a strong protector of Russia's national interests and has counted the victory over Chechen separatist rebels as one of the key achievements of his 12-year rule. The report casting him as a terrorist target could draw public sympathy and help secure his victory by a wider margin.
Putin, who was Russia's president from 2000 to 2008 and has been prime minister since then, is running for a third, now six-year presidential term. He is expected to win easily against four Kremlin-approved challengers, but the wave of protests since December's parliamentary election has undermined his image as a strong, popular leader.
Channel One said the suspects, acting on instructions from Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, were preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after Sunday's election. It said the suspects were arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa after an accidental explosion Jan. 4 while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment.
The Ukrainian Security Service said earlier this month it had detained a man sought by Russian authorities on charges of terrorism and two of his accomplices in Odesa on Feb. 4, but said nothing at the time about them being linked to an anti-Putin plot.
Its spokeswoman, Marina Ostapenko, said Monday the announcement in Moscow came only now because the Russian special service was conducting its own investigation. She confirmed the main suspect was involved in a plot to kill Putin, but didn't elaborate.
There was no immediate explanation for the different number of suspects cited by Russia and Ukraine.
Channel One said the source for its information was Russia's Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency dealing with domestic security. The agency refused to comment.
Umarov, whose whereabouts are unknown, has not responded to the allegations.
A Chechen rebel website, KavkazCenter, shrugged off the report about the assassination plot as “election propaganda nonsense.” The website noted that the explosion in Odesa was initially reported to have been caused by a gas leak and then that the men were preparing the explosives for a contract hit on a local businessman.
Three veteran party leaders on the presidential ballot differed on whether the report could be believed, but all said they suspected the news was intentionally delayed until shortly before the election to provide maximum benefit to Putin.
Sergei Mironov, leader of the socialist Just Russia party, said the assassination plot was plausible. The others disagreed.
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist leader running second in the polls, called the report “a cheap trick that reeks,” the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.
The nationalist party leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said the assassination plot was invented by political spin doctors and designed to appeal to “poorly educated old ladies” and housewives, the news agency reported.
The majority of Russians get their news from state-controlled television, whose blanket coverage of Putin casts him as the defender of a stable and prosperous Russia.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the statements linking the reported plot to the campaign were “blasphemous.”
Channel One said two of the alleged members of the group arrived in Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with instructions from Umarov, the top military leader for the Chechen rebels. One of them, a Chechen, was killed during the accidental explosion in Odesa and the other one, Kazakhstan citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was wounded in the blast and arrested.
Pyanzin led the investigators to their contact in Odesa, Adam Osmayev, a Chechen who previously had lived in London and had been sought by Russia since 2007, the report said. The TV station showed footage of Osmayev's arrest in Odesa with black-clad special troops bursting in and a half-naked, bloodied Osmayev on his knees, his head bowed down.
Speaking to Channel One from custody in Ukraine, Osmayev described the group's mission: “Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin ... Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election.”
Both of Osmayev's hands were bandaged, and his face was covered in green dots from an antiseptic used to treat his cuts.
He said he wouldn't have become a suicide bomber, but the other Chechen who was killed in the accidental explosion might have agreed. Osmayev added they considered using powerful military mines that would have made a suicide mission unnecessary.
Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Russia, including a January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people and injured more than 180. He also had warned that many more such attacks would follow if Russia did not allow the Caucasus to become an independent Islamic state governed by Sharia law.
Umarov also claimed responsibility for the double-suicide bombing of Moscow's subway in March 2010 that killed 40 people.
He is seen more as an ideological than a military figure, as many militant cells operate autonomously and shun centralized command.
In response to Russia's opposition protests, Umarov issued a statement this month ordering his men to avoid hitting civilian targets, saying that civilians should be spared because they have risen up against Putin.
Channel One said Osmayev had led the investigators to a cache of explosives near a Moscow avenue that Putin uses to travel between his office and a suburban residence. A Russian security officer told the television station that the suspects also had videos of Putin's convoy taken from different angles to prepare for the attack.
Pyanzin, who also confessed on film, was shown saying the group were to sabotage economic facilities and then try to kill Putin.
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WHAT IS AT STAKE IN THE RUSSIAN ELECTION?

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WAS THERE REALLY AN ISLAMIC PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PUTIN?

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PUTIN WARNS WEST OVER IRAN, SYRIA INTERVENTION

Pakistan Observer - ‎5 hours ago‎
Moscow—Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against military intervention in Syria or an attack on Iran in scathing criticism of the West on Monday as he laid out his foreign policy priorities ahead of Russia's presidential vote.

RUSSIAN TV REPORTS A WEEKS-OLD PLOT TO KILL PUTIN

Hamilton Spectator - ‎6 hours ago‎
Alexei Druzhinin/AP MOSCOW Russian television reported Monday that the Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services had worked together over many weeks to thwart an assassination attempt on the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

PUTIN ASSASSINATION PLOT FOILED

Pakistan Observer - ‎6 hours ago‎
Moscow—Russian and Ukrainian secret services have foiled a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after the March 4, 2012 Presidential elections, Russian state television said on Monday. Channel One said two suspects arrested in Ukraine ...

OIL DEPENDENCE SHADOWS PUTIN'S KREMLIN RETURN

Channel News Asia - ‎6 hours ago‎
MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin's hopes of turning Russia into one of the world's top five economies by 2020 will stay a pipe dream unless he makes a final push to wean the economy off its dependence on oil exports. But the hundreds of billions of dollars Putin ...

THE WEB IS RUSSIA'S NEW ANTI-PUTIN WEAPON

Canada.com - ‎7 hours ago‎
By Anna Malpas and Laetitia Peron, AFP February 27, 2012 Russia's new Internet-savvy opposition is going online to protest and monitor the presidential elections on March 4, bringing its iPhones and Twitter into the fray against Vladimir Putin.

REPORT: PUTIN ASSASSINATION PLOT THWARTED

Newsday - ‎7 hours ago‎
World Newsday > News > World Report: Putin assassination plot thwarted Published: February 27, 2012 9:21 PM MOSCOW -- Security forces have foiled a Chechen-linked plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, state television reported yesterday in ...

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PUTIN FOILED: RUSSIAN TV

Firstpost - ‎7 hours ago‎
Moscow: Security services in Russia and Ukraine said Monday they had foiled a plot to kill Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but his opponents ridiculed the announcement as a campaign stunt six days before he runs in Russia's presidential election.

RUSSIA CLAIMS PLOT TO KILL PUTIN FOILED

Houston Chronicle - ‎7 hours ago‎
AP FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012 file photo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gesture while speaking as he attends a massive rally in his support at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia. Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested ...

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