Hagel calls North Korea's nuclear ambitions a 'growing threat' - Fox News

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    North Korea cranks up pressure, nuclear reactor

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    North Korea vows to restart nuke plant

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    White House responds to North Korea's recent nuke threats

WASHINGTON –  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday that North Korea's development of nuclear weapons poses a "growing threat" to the U.S. and its allies.

In a telephone call Tuesday evening to Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, Hagel cited North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and said Washington and Beijing should continue to cooperate on those problems.

"The secretary emphasized the growing threat to the U.S. and our allies posed by North Korea's aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and expressed to General Chang the importance of sustained U.S.-China dialogue and cooperation on these issues," Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement describing the phone call.

Little also disclosed that Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit China later this month. It would be Dempsey's first trip to China as head of the Joint Chiefs.

Hagel also invited the Chinese defense minister to visit the United States this year.

North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material.

Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Pyongyang is allowing South Koreans to return home from Kaesong, but that about 480 South Koreans who had planned to travel to the park Wednesday were being refused entry.

North Korean authorities cited recent political circumstances on the Korean Peninsula when they delivered their decision to block South Korean workers from entering Kaesong, Kim said without elaborating.

The two sides do not allow their citizens to travel to the other country without approval, but an exception has previously been made each day for the South Koreans working at Kaesong.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed that it is positioning an array of military assets near the Korean Peninsula, as the White House stressed that the "entire national security team" is focused on the escalating threats out of Pyongyang -- with the latest being a pledge to restart its plutonium reactor.

Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking Tuesday at a news conference with the visiting foreign minister of South Korea, said recent belligerent rhetoric from North Korea is "unacceptable" and that the U.S. will defend itself, as well as South Korea and Japan, from any threat from the North.

The declaration of a resumption of plutonium production -- the most common fuel in nuclear weapons -- and other facilities at the main Nyongbyon nuclear complex will boost fears in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the mainland U.S., technology it is not currently believed to have.

The amount of hostile language from North Korea in recent weeks was "extraordinary," Kerry said, adding that the isolated state should have no doubt that the U.S. will fulfill its treaty obligations to allies in the region.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said that two destroyer warships, the USS Decatur and USS McCain, have arrived in the region as part of a missile-defense mission. Previously, the Pentagon had only revealed that it had moved the USS McCain to the region.

"They have arrived at predetermined positions in the western Pacific, where they will be poised to respond to any missile threats to our allies or our territory," Little said Tuesday.

In addition, the Pentagon has already announced plans to have two sea-based radar systems in the western Pacific. One is already in northern Japan; the other has not yet deployed and is currently conducting non-North Korean related systems tests off Pearl Harbor.

The system in Japan can serve to protect the Korean peninsula as well as threats to the western United States that originate from North Korea.

North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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North Korea says it has cut last military hotline with South - Washington Post

SEOUL — Raising tensions with South Korea yet again, North Korea on Wednesday cut its last military hotline with Seoul, a link that has been essential to running the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.

There was no immediate word about what cutting one of the few remaining official North-South links means for South Korean workers at the Kaesong industrial complex. When the link was last cut, in 2009, many South Koreans were temporarily stranded in the North.

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The hotline shutdown is the latest of many provocative actions and threats from North Korea, which is angry about U.S.-South Korean military drills and recent U.N. sanctions punishing it for its February nuclear test. In a statement announcing the shutdown, the North repeated its claim that war might break out at any moment.

Outside North Korea, Pyongyang’s actions are seen in part as an effort to spur dormant diplomatic talks with a view toward gaining aid, as well to strengthen internal loyalty to young leader Kim Jong Un and build his military credentials.

South Korean officials said that about 750 South Koreans were in Kaesong on Wednesday and that the two Koreas had normal communications over the hotline earlier in the day, when South Korean workers traveled back and forth to the complex as scheduled. The hotline is used by the countries’ militaries to arrange border crossings by the workers.

Workers at Kaesong could be contacted directly by phone from South Korea on Wednesday.

A South Korean employee of Pyxis, a company that produces jewelry cases at Kaesong, said in a phone interview that he wasn’t scared.

“It’s all right,” he said. “I’ve worked and lived with tension here for eight years now. I’m used to it.”

Pyongyang’s action was announced in a message that North Korea’s chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks sent to his South Korean counterpart.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry called the move an “unhelpful measure for the safe operation of the Kaesong complex.”

North Korea recently cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korea and another with the U.S.-led U.N. command at the border.

The Unification Ministry said three telephone hotlines remain between the North and the South, and those are used only for exchanging information about air traffic.

— Associated Press

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Oil firms invest £330m in North Sea

27 March 2013 Last updated at 20:31 ET

BP and its partners could drill up to 12 wells depending on the initial results of the appraisal

A consortium of oil companies is to invest more than $500m (£330m) in an appraisal drilling programme which could lead to further development of a giant North Sea field.

The BP-led consortium said drilling had already started on the first of five wells planned over the next two years at Clair, west of Shetland.

Up to 12 wells could be drilled, depending on initial results.

The news came as the UK government unveiled a new oil and gas strategy.

BP's partners in the appraisal drilling programme are Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

It is the latest in a series of announcements, aimed at transforming the Atlantic's role as an oil-producing region.

Clair is already known as a "monster" field, holding eight billion barrels of oil.

However, it has been technically difficult to bring ashore.

Although the field was discovered more than 35 years ago, production did not start until 2005.

Last year, BP announced a further huge expansion.

The company and its partners hope the appraisal programme will lead to a third phase, taking production well beyond 2050.

New oil would continue to be pumped by pipeline to Shetland.

BP North Sea regional president Trevor Garlick said: "This is a major milestone and a further big commitment to the west of Shetland by BP and its co-venturers.

"If successful, the appraisal programme could pave the way for a third phase of development at Clair - this is now a real possibility."

Analysts believe that Clair - along with other developments in the area - could lead to the Atlantic overtaking the North Sea as the UK's biggest oil-producing region within 20 years.

Meanwhile, the new oil and gas strategy aimed at securing thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of investment is to be unveiled by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable in Aberdeen, which is known as the oil capital of Europe.

He will address business leaders alongside Scottish Secretary Michael Moore and UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey.

The three secretaries of state will describe plans for "tax certainty", supply chain support and skills development.

Skills shortage

The government has also announced a £7m commitment to help establish the Neptune offshore technology centre of excellence in Newcastle.

Mr Cable, who will open a facility at offshore specialists Expro in Aberdeen, said: "I want us to consider what barriers are stopping British companies bidding for and winning work in the North Sea. This is an expanding industry. We can either help create more jobs and opportunities across the UK if we get this right, or see work going overseas if not."

The oil and gas industry employs about 400,000 people and provides nearly half the UK's energy needs, the government said.

The strategy states that government will work with the industry to tackle a looming skills shortage, partly by re-training military leavers to fill some of the 15,000 new jobs expected to be created in the oil and gas sector over the next five years.

It also says that perceptions of the industry are "out-dated and inaccurate", and the government will back a campaign to highlight its significance.

It pledges to encourage more technological advancement through research and development, and also to improve the ability of small and medium-sized businesses to access finance.

Malcolm Webb, chairman of industry body Oil and Gas UK, said: "The strategy fosters strong and meaningful collaboration between the government and industry and will help to focus efforts on addressing particular areas such as skills, technology and exports.

"It will further strengthen the oilfield services sector across the country, boost investor confidence, safeguard jobs and help to maximise recovery of Britain's oil and gas reserves."

The future of the oil industry is key in the debate about Scottish independence.

The Scottish National Party, which forms the Scottish government, argues that the country can look forward to an oil boom in the early years of independence, assuming a Yes vote in September 2014.

Opponents warn against over-reliance on a volatile resource, prone to fluctuations in revenue.

Commenting on the publication of the strategy, Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "I am delighted that the UK government are following the Scottish government's lead in recognising the strength and importance of the oil and gas industry by launching their own oil and gas strategy.

"I am pleased that the UK government highlight the positive future of the industry for years to come, the extent of reserves, and the benefit to the balance of payments, and production taxes.

"I welcome their view that there will be a long term future for the oil and gas industry well beyond 2055."

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US Boosts Defense From North Korea - Wall Street Journal

By DON NISSENBAUM And JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon is preparing to strengthen its missile defense systems on the West Coast in response to increased threats from North Korea and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel Friday said the U.S. plans to boost its missile defense system due to concerns about the possible nuclear capabilities of North Korea.

The U.S. plans to boost its ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California by one-third, adding 14 additional systems to the 30 already in place on the West Coast, a senior defense official said Friday. Interceptors are vehicles that are launched to intercept intercontinental missiles in flight.

The expansion in the system was due to be announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at a news conference Friday.

The decision comes as North Korea has issued a series of threats to attack the U.S. and South Korea over new international sanctions and joint military exercises in the region.

Earlier this month, North Korea threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the U.S. and South Korea. While American officials don't believe North Korea is capable of launching a long-range attack, the threat is seen as a concerning sign of the nation's state of mind.

Pentagon officials signaled the possible expansion days earlier. "North Korea's shrill public pronouncements underscore the need for the U.S. to continue to take prudent steps to defeat any future North Korean ICBM," James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said in a speech last week at the Atlantic Council.

The administration decision comes four years after President Barack Obama put a hold on the deployment plan soon after he took office. Republican lawmakers said Friday they agreed with the enhancement, but said the administration was wrong to freeze the system in 2009.

"Four years ago, the Obama administration began to unilaterally disarm our defenses and deterrent in the hope our enemies would follow suit," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

"President Obama is finally realizing what President Reagan taught us 30 years ago: The best way to keep the peace is through strength," Mr. Rogers said.

Pentagon officials responded to the criticism, saying the danger from North Korean has evolved over the past four years.

"We use the resources to the best of our ability to prepare for threats that exist currently," said the senior defense official. "Look where North Korea was four years ago compared to where North Korea is today. It is a different threat."

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Snow moves north amid ice warning

12 March 2013 Last updated at 13:18 ET

Roads in Kent and Sussex roads were worst hit by the adverse conditions

Snow that has caused travel disruption in southern England is moving north, as forecasters warn of ice on UK roads.

Several centimetres of snow look set to fall in eastern Scotland and north-east England in the next 24 hours.

The RAC said it was a "nightmare weather scenario" and motorists were being "caught out" because of massive regional variations in conditions.

It comes after heavy snow shut schools, closed roads and cancelled trains, including Eurostar services.

The cross-Channel train operator said it had cancelled all services due to bad weather in France and Belgium, and advised passengers not to go to their departure station on Tuesday.

The Met Office has issued yellow warnings, which means be aware, for snow in parts of Scotland, the north-east of England, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands. It is warning of ice conditions on the roads in most parts of the UK.

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said conditions on the roads would worsen as more cars take to the roads and the temperature drops.

Kent and Sussex roads were worst hit by the adverse conditions, with many blocked or closed and with huge tailbacks building up. It comes after hundreds of motorists were stranded overnight in their cars in the two areas.

Air travel is also being disrupted due to snow in parts of Europe, and Jersey and Guernsey airports remain closed.

In other developments:

• Heavy snow in north-western Europe is causing severe travel disruption, including the cancellation of hundreds of flights via Frankfurt and Paris
• Train services in southern England are being affected, with Southern, Southeastern and First Capital Connect services reporting delays and cancellations
• Gatwick Airport is warning people to allow extra time for their journeys due to the problems on the roads
• The Cheltenham festival has gone ahead despite overnight frost, but the first race was delayed by 35 minutes
• Hundreds of schools across East and West Sussex, Kent and the Channel Islands were closed
• There are drifts up to 6ft (1.8m) deep in the western part of Jersey, while two people were trapped under a tree which fell during blizzards in the island
• It is feared the cold spell will have an impact on the main outdoor crop of Jersey Royal potatoes, which are planted from January onwards
• In Wales, strong winds led to speed restrictions on the M48 Severn Bridge in Monmouthshire
• About 500 passengers on a ferry from Ireland to France spent the night anchored off Cherbourg in north-west France after the vessel failed to dock. They remain onboard after the ferry docked as the ship's doors failed to open.

John Hammond, BBC weather forecaster, said: "The most severe weather - the worst of the bitter cold and the snow across the South East - is over.

"However, it is still very wintry and we are expecting further snow and ice in various parts of the country.

Snow has affected much of the county leading to the closure of dozens of schools and several roads

"The main focus for the next 24 hours is eastern Scotland and north-east England. Here, we could see a few centimetres of snow overnight."

He added: "There will be ice around. It's a cold, icy night to come across the UK."

However, severe conditions in the Channel Islands - that have left schools, roads and airports closed for a second day - were "easing", he said.

The RAC said that as of 15:00 GMT, it had dealt with more than 6,000 breakdown - 50% more than usual.

"Particular problem areas are in the south, the east and the mid-western [parts of England], which have escalated as the day progresses," said Mr Williams.

He advised motorists to check weather forecasts and to take the right winter kit on journeys - including warm, waterproof coat, blankets, boots, fully-charged mobile phone and a shovel.

"If the weather looks like it's going to get worse make a sensible decision about how necessary it is you drive in the first place," he said.

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US issues new sanctions after North Korea 'scraps' armistice - Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration reacted with new sanctions and blunt warnings Monday to a North Korean declaration that it had "completely scrapped" the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

Sharpening the tensions on the peninsula, the North Korean regime declared in the party newspaper Rodong Sinmun that the 60-year-old truce was over and "the time for final showdown has arrived." It severed a hotline that has been used to prevent an unintended confrontation between North and South Korea and angrily condemned a 13,000-troop U.S.-South Korean military exercise that began Monday.

But while expressing concern over the North's actions, Obama administration officials insisted they would not seek to ease tensions, as past administrations have done, by providing aid in exchange for promises to scale back the weapons program.

"The United States will not play the game of accepting empty promises or yielding to threats," Thomas Donilon, President Obama's national security advisor, said in a speech to the Asia Society in New York. "To get the assistance it desperately needs and the respect it claims it wants, North Korea will have to change course."

Donilon announced that the administration was issuing sanctions aimed at cutting off the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea from the U.S. financial system, saying the bank provides financing for Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. The punishments, which also blacklist three individual North Korean officials, come on top of financial sanctions imposed last week by the United Nations Security Council.

Donilon also warned Pyongyang, which is suspected of supporting an Iranian arms program, that the United States considers any sale of banned weapons technology a "grave threat" to the United States and "will hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences."

North Korea has previously threatened to void the armistice, but U.S. officials and private analysts are increasingly concerned that the North's mounting threats are a signal that it could soon lash out at South Korea.

Pyongyang responded furiously last week to the U.N. sanctions, which were imposed by unanimous vote in response to North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear test. It has warned that planes and vessels need to stay away from sections of the East Sea and Yellow Sea, hints that it may be considering more missile tests.

South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, said Monday during her first Cabinet meeting that the country needed to "deal strongly with the North Korean provocation." She also said her government was prepared to work to build trust between the North and South.

Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington predicted that Pyongyang would lash out with a military provocation within weeks, noting in an assessment that North Korea has authorized some military action within weeks of the inauguration of each new South Korean leader dating to 1992. Park was inaugurated Feb. 25.

But Christopher Hill, who was U.S. envoy for North Korean nuclear negotiations during the George W. Bush administration, said he thought the North's unprecedented tough rhetoric was aimed primarily at strengthening North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's position with his domestic audience, as well as defying the Chinese, who have been tougher than usual in their condemnation of the nuclear test.

"It bears some watching, but I don't think this is a sign of impending conflict," said Hill, now at the University of Denver.

Donilon's comments appeared to suggest that the administration was not about to overhaul its approach to North Korea — sometimes called "strategic patience" — despite pressure from the left to return to negotiations and from the right to escalate punishment.

"I don't think there is anywhere they can go," Hill said. "There aren't a lot of great choices."

paul.richter@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richter reported from Washington and special correspondent Choi from Seoul.

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North Korea threat of nuclear attack predictable but worrisome - NBCNews.com

In a sign that North Korea's threats are wearing thin, their closest ally – China -- voted with the U.S. for tough economic sanctions on luxury goods. North Korea responded by announcing they "will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack." NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

By Robert Windrem
Senior investigative producer, NBC News

Thursday’s announcement by North Korea that it could launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack against the United States in the face of new U.N. sanctions is a predictable escalation of the isolated nation’s increasingly aggressive stance toward Washington over the past year. But experts note that Pyongyang’s recent advances in its nuclear weapons and missile programs mean that such bellicose rhetoric cannot be taken lightly.

ANALYSIS

The escalation of the North’s oratory began not long after the country’s 28-year-old leader, Kim Jong Un,  took over from his late father, Kim Jong Il, on Dec. 28, 2011. It has been accompanied by two space launches – one successful – and a third nuclear weapons test.

 It is not unusual for the North to make threats against the U.S., Japan or South Korea. And on occasion -- as in the case of the 2010 artillery barrage of Yeonpyeong Island and an earlier attack on a South Korean gunboat -- it has carried out these threats.  It has never taken any military action after threatening the United States, however.

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Some analysts have suggested that the latest round of threats is intended to show that the young Kim will continue his father’s legacy of hostility toward the U.S.

To what end?

North Korea has long wanted the U.S. to sit down with its negotiators to hammer out an agreement to end the Korean War, which ended in 1953 not in a peace treaty but in a truce.

The North would like to gain concessions from the U.S. in such a negotiation, but its escalating threats and rhetoric have the opposite effect:  The Obama administration, like preceding administrations, has steadfastly refused to negotiate with Pyongyang.

KCNA / Reuters

This picture, released Tuesday by North Korea's official KCNA news agency, is said to show a rally by citizens and soldiers to support a statement by the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army that it will scrap the armistice signed in 1953 that ended a three-year war with South Korea if the South and the United States continue with annual military drills.

The problem is that North Korea, which has long taken a backseat in U.S. councils to the Middle East, does have military capabilities that could at the very least threaten U.S. interests in North Asia.

According to a recent analysis, North Korea has a weapon stockpile that could threaten both Japan and South Korea and, in longer term, the United States. Some of the weapons have already been deployed, say U.S. officials, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity. Moreover, the North has begun research into more advanced and dangerous weapons, possibly even thermonuclear weapons, they say. 

At the high end of the stockpile range, U.S. officials and other researchers said North Korea may already have up to "a few dozen" nuclear weapons that could be fitted atop its vast fleet of ballistic missiles. Those missiles are limited to an intermediate range, capable of hitting targets in Japan, South Korea or elsewhere in the northern Pacific, including U.S. military bases as far south as Guam, the officials believe.

Related story: UN passes sanctions despite North Korea threat of 'pre-emptive nuclear attack'

The U.S. believes the space launch tests are part of a development plan for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the continental United States with a payload of several hundred kilotons — 10 to 20 times the size of the bombs that destroyed the Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

U.S. officials publicly express confidence that the national missile defense system based in Alaska would be able to shoot down any incoming North Korean ICBM.

“I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday in response to a question about the North Korean threat.

 He also said the U.N. sanctions will make it harder for Pyongyang to continue to make progress on its weapons and missiles. 

“North Korea … will now face new barriers to developing its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” he said. “Resolution 2094 increases North Korea's isolation and demonstrates to North Korea's leaders the increasing costs they pay for defying the international community.” 

For the past several years, the U.S. also has been monitoring North Korean research into thermonuclear weapons — hydrogen bombs and bombs known as boosted-fission weapons, in which plutonium and uranium are combined for a higher energy yield. (The problem is that if the North conducted a test and claimed that it was thermonuclear, the U.S. would have difficulty determining if the North was telling the truth. The test site at Kilchu is far enough inland that the U.S. would not have access to the particulate matter needed to make an accurate determination, experts say. )

David Guttenfelder, AP's chief Asia photographer, was given unprecedented access on his 2011 journey to Pyongyang and areas outside the nation's showcase capital.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, a nonpartisan nuclear arms research group, said last year that any tests in the future may also be about ensuring the reliability of North Korea's current weapons design.

"Once you get beyond a dozen, it makes sense to test type and reliability of your weapons," he said. Albright said then that his group's estimate of North Korea's weapons stockpile is a bit less than those provided by the U.S. officials, but that ISIS, too, believes Pyongyang has "missile-deliverable weapons."

The design of the weapons is believed to be based on Chinese models (as were the first generation Pakistani nuclear weapons). The design is basic, and was developed in the 1960s with help from the Soviet Union, which used it to produce a whole line of nuclear warheads.

While some analysts suggested that the North planned its December rocket launch to gain attention ahead of the presidential election in South Korea , some in the U.S. non-proliferation community think otherwise. They expect that once the North feels comfortable with its ICBM technology, it will deploy the missiles.  They point to the Musudan intermediate range missile which was tested in middle of the last decade, then deployed — presumably with nuclear warheads — and aimed at Japan.

Once the North has confidence in the long-range missile based on the space rocket, U.S. officials believe they will deploy it as well, making North Korea the third nation to have nuclear weapons targeted at the United States, after Russia and China.

Many in the Obama administration see that as a more frightening prospect than Iran gaining nuclear weapons, believing that Tehran is a rational actor that will serve its own national interest and preserve the regime, compared to successive generations of North Korean leaders who have shown that they are unpredictable and erratic.

But would it force the U.S. to conduct face-to-face talks with the North? State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in December that the North has a better option.

Referring to Kim Jong Un, Nuland said: "He can plot a way forward that ends the isolation, that brings relief and a different way of life and progress to his people, or he can further isolate them with steps like this. He can spend his time and his money shooting off missiles, or he can feed his people, but he can't have both."

NBC News' Shawna Thomas contributed to this report; this piece is an updated version of a post originally published on Dec. 13, 2012.

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