US raises nuclear alert to DEFCON 3 level as Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency 's report rebuts White House - Pentagon opines North Korea probably has nuclear weapons that can be mounted on missiles ..... China masses troops in support of North Korea !

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2013/04/14 16:02 KST

(LEAD) N. Korea denounces S. Korea's dialogue offer as 'cunning ploy'

SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday denounced an offer of dialogue by South Korean President Park Geun-hye to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula as a "cunning ploy," implicitly rejecting any dialogue with Seoul for the time being.

   The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which is in charge of handling relations with South Korea, made the remarks days after Park offered to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang, saying she was willing to "activate the trust-building process" on the peninsula.

   Park offered talks as operations at an inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong grounded to a halt last week. Pyongyang banned South Korean managers from entering the park on April 3 amid sky-high tensions over weeks of warlike threats from North Korea.

   The offer of dialogue is "a cunning ploy to hide the South's policy of confrontation and mislead its responsibility for putting the Kaesong Industrial Complex into a crisis," said a spokesman for the North's committee in an article carried by the North's state news agency.

   The North's committee also described the South's offer of dialogue as an "empty shell" and blamed South Korea and the U.S. for raising tensions with their annual joint military drills, which will be wrapped up by the end of this month.

   "Under these circumstances, is it possible to hold a dialogue? ... Such a dialogue would be meaningless," said the spokesman for the North's committee.

   North Korea withdrew all of its 53,000 workers and temporarily suspended operations at the Kaesong complex, the last-remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, early last week amid indications that it was ready to launch a mid-range ballistic missile.

   As tensions soared, Park made the strongest overture of dialogue yet toward North Korea on Thursday, telling a meeting with ruling party lawmakers that she intends to "talk with North Korea" and continue humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation regardless of political and security tensions, according to participants.

   On the same day, her point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to step forward to the negotiating table to resolve the suspension of operations at Kaesong.

   The remarks were seen as Park's clearest overture yet toward Pyongyang and show that she is shifting the focus of her North Korea policy to dialogue, experts said, though she also renewed her commitment to deal strongly with North Korean provocations as a matter of principle.

   On Friday in Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he supported Park's offer of dialogue, but warned that North Korea would make a "huge mistake" if it launches a missile.

  (END)

2013/04/14 10:40 KST

N. Korea's leader not seen in public for 2 weeks

SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public over the past two weeks, setting off speculation that he might be tempted to tone down fiery threats of provocations, according to sources and an analyst on Sunday.

   Kim's absence from the public eye, judged by the North's choreographed media reports, was not unusual, but this month's disappearance from public view comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang is expected to launch a mid-range ballistic missile.

http://rt.com/news/japan-nkorea-false-alarm-808/

All nerves: Japan issues false N. Korea missile alarm instead of quake alert

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Published time: April 13, 2013 09:39

A soldier (R) of Japan's Ground Self Defence Force looks on as Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (unseen in this picture) inspected Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile launchers at the Defence Ministry headquarters in Tokyo on April 13, 2013 (AFP Photo / Yoshikazu Tsuno)

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Arms, Conflict, Japan, Missile defense,North Korea, Nuclear, Politics

A Japanese official mistakenly issued a pre-prepared alert announcing the launch of a North Korean ballistic missile instead of sending a message concerning a recent earthquake in western Japan.

A reported 87 airport offices in Japan received emails on Saturday saying that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile. The messages were sent by mistake, the country’s transportation ministry later explained.

An official at the Osaka aviation bureau was going to send out a letter asking if any of the region's airports had been damaged by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that earlier hit the western part of the country, injuring dozens.

Instead, the official mistakenly dispatched a pre-prepared alert about a North Korean missile launch.

At least one domestic flight was delayed due to the false alarm, though the mistaken email was retracted six minutes after it was sent, AFP reported.

This wasn't the first time Japan has raised a false alarm about a North Korean missile launch: On Wednesday, the Japanese city of Yokohama sent a message to its Twitter account's 40,000 followers saying that North Korea had launched a missile.

The tweet had a blank space where the exact time of the launch should have been pasted in, indicating that the message was posted prematurely. The message was visible for 20 minutes before the city retracted it.

Japan has lately been on high alert, with Patriot missiles stationed in Tokyo to protect its people from an expected mid-range missile test launch by North Korea.

On Friday, Pyongyang warned that Tokyo would be its primary target if war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, blaming Japan for its “hostile posture.” It also threatened a nuclear strike against the island nation if it intercepts any North Korean test missiles.

http://www.debka.com/article/22893/US-raises-nuclear-alert-to-DEFCON-3-China-mobilizes-masses-troops-on-North-Korean-border

US raises nuclear alert to DEFCON 3. China mobilizes, masses troops on North Korean border

DEBKAfile Special Report April 12, 2013, 8:59 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  North Korea   nuclear threat   US Pentagon 

US nuclear alert DEFCON 3

Friday, April 12, the US raised its nuclear alert status to DEFCON 3, Condition Yellow (out of 5 levels), stating “There are currently no imminent nuclear threats against the United States at this time, however the situation is considered fluid and can change rapidly.” Many believe that North Korea will launch their test missile on or about April 15. Japan has instructed its armed forces to shoot down any North Korean missile that heads toward its territory.

Contrary to comments from the White House Thursday, the Pentagon reported that “North Korea probably has nuclear weapons that can be mounted on ballistic missiles.” This is a very significant admission by the United States and a dangerous change to the Korean situation.

China has mobilized its military and is massing near the border with North Korea. This step was taken after North Korea placed a mid-range Musudan missile ready to launch on its east coast and its “dedication of more facilities at the Yongbon complex to nuclear weapons work.”

According to some sources in Washington, the Chinese military mobilization is not directed at deterring Pyongyang but as support for North Korea’s steps.
Late Thursday, Representative Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, made a disquieting disclosure. He quoted an excerpt from a Defense Intelligence Agency report expressing “moderate confidence” in the finding that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles whose “reliability will be low.”
This disclosure raised a furor in the United States, bringing forth a White House response. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, released a statement saying that the assessment did not represent a consensus of the nation’s intelligence community [16 agencies in all] and that “North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile.”

Pentagon press secretary George Little backed him up by saying: “It would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed or demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Seoul Friday. After meeting South Korean leaders, he travels next to Beijing and Tokyo.

In his first comment on the Korean crisis, President Barack Obama said Thursday that now is the time for North Korea to end its belligerence. He said the United States will take ‘‘all necessary steps’’ to protect its people. But Obama also says that no one wants to see a conflict on the Korean Peninsula and would explore all diplomatic options for resolving the crisis.

Obama spoke alongside UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after the two met in the Oval Office.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2013/04/12/83/0401000000AEN20130412009100315F.HTML

N. Korea warns Japan against hostile stance

SEOUL, April 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Japan Friday that Tokyo would be the first target in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula if it continues to maintain its hostile posture.

   In a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the communist country lashed out at Tokyo's standing orders to destroy any missile heading toward Japan, threatening such actions will result in a nuclear attack against the island nation.

   Japan has deployed its advanced Patriot anti-missile defense systems and sent Aegis destroyers armed with the latest SM-3 Standard missiles into the East Sea to deal with the threat posed by North Korea. Intelligence indicates that the North is ready to fire off a ballistic missile at any time.

   The news wire service said Japan, following in the footsteps of anti-North Korean policies established by the United States, has been building up its military to either lay the foundation for another invasion of the Korean Peninsula or position itself to benefit from the future conflict.

   Japan, which colonized the Korean Peninsula for 36 years in the first half of the 20th century, profited heavily from acting as a logistics base for the United States during the 1950-53 Korean War, it claimed.

   The KCNA said that Japan was used to deploy F-22 Raptor fighters over South Korea for the ongoing Foal Eagle joint military exercise carried out by Seoul and Washington.

   The media outlet said Tokyo is preparing for another war and warned it should desist from acting rashly based on the belief it will be protected by the United States.

   "Pyongyang has never forgotten Japan's past actions and those hoping to profit from another war should be prepared for a fiery nuclear end," it said.

   The warning comes as the North, angered by the latest U.N. sanctions that punishes the country for conducting its third nuclear test in February, has declared a "state of war" with South Korea and announced it would restart a mothballed plutonium-producing reactor.

   Pyongyang has also threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack against the U.S. and South Korea and unilaterally pulled out its workers from the inter-Korean industrial park on Tuesday, effectively paralyzing the joint project's operations.