Monday 29 December 2014

John Kerry arrives in South Korea as tensions grow over warheads

By Bradley Klapper

Published 12/04/2013 | 08:16

John Kerry walks with deputy director general of South Korea's Foreign Ministry Moon Seoung-hyun upon his arrival in Seoul
Intelligence reports say North Korea could have a nuclear warhead fitted to a missile.
John Kerry talks with South Korean military officials
Kim Jong-Un gives the final order for the launch of the Unha-3 rocket. Photo: Getty Images
A South Korean soldier walks along a barbed wire fence at a checkpoint on the Grand Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarized zone separating North Korea from South Korea
A Japan Self-Defence Forces soldier stands near units of Patriot missiles at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo. Japan has deployed ground-based interceptors in response to North Korea's threats and actions, according to its government

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in South Korea as intelligence report admits North could have nuclear warhead fitted to missile.


Kerry was kicking off four days of talks in East Asia amid speculation that the North's unpredictable regime would launch a mid-range missile designed to reach as far as the US territory of Guam. Kerry also planned to visit China and Japan.

North Korea often times its provocations to generate maximum attention, and Kerry's presence in Seoul will provide plenty of that, even if the United States is engaged in intense diplomacy with China, the North's benefactor, in an effort to lower tensions. Another dangerous date on the calendar is 15 April, the 101st birthday of North Korea's deceased founder, Kim Il-sung.

Kerry's trip coincides with the disclosure of a new US intelligence report that concludes North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. The analysis, disclosed yesterday at a congressional hearing in Washington, said the Pentagon's intelligence wing has "moderate confidence" that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles but that the weapon would be unreliable.


James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said he concurred with Little and noted that the report alluded to at the hearing was compiled by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency and was not an assessment by the entire US intelligence community. "Moreover, North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile," he said.


Kerry's trip marks his first foray to the Asia-Pacific as America's top diplomat, spearheading the effort to "pivot" US power away from Europe and the Middle East and toward the world's most populous region and fulcrum of economic growth.





Beijing has the most leverage with Pyongyang. It has massively boosted trade with its communist neighbor and maintains close military ties. And the US believes the Chinese could take several specific steps to show North Korea it cannot threaten regional stability with impunity.

These include getting China to cut off support for North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program, said the State Department official and another senior administration official, though they rejected that the US was seeking a commercial embargo against the North.


Neither could say, however, whether Pyongyang under its enigmatic young leader, Kim Jong-un, was actually listening at this point. One of them stressed that he "wouldn't say there is no conversation between them," but declined to describe the level and impact of Chinese-North Korean contacts.

Kim's actual control of the country also is unclear, the official added. Now 29 or 30, the basketball devotee and product of a Swiss boarding school inherited power from his late father, Kim Jong-il, some 16 months ago and has seemed to lead his country on an increasingly reckless path toward possible confrontation.


Independent News Service

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