Georgetown Security Law Brief

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sends envoy to China

05/22/13:  The BBC reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent a special envoy to Beijing, state media has announced, amid cooling relations between the two neighbours. Choe Ryong-hae, a top military official, flew to the Chinese capital on Wednesday, KCNA said. The brief dispatch gave no details of the visit, which comes amid an apparent toughening of Beijing's stance in the wake of Pyongyang's third nuclear test. Chinese media said Mr Choe met Wang Jiarui, a top foreign affairs official. The visit - the duration of which remains unknown - follows weeks of high tension on the Korean peninsula. China is North Korea's biggest trading partner and closest ally. It has traditionally sought to maintain stability in North Korea, avoiding any crisis that could trigger the fall of the regime and propel a flow of refugees across the border. But in recent weeks, following Pyongyang's 12 February nuclear test and amid strident rhetoric from its leaders, China has expressed frustration with North Korea, with state media openly debating the benefits of close ties. Beijing supported expanded UN sanctions against Pyongyang after its nuclear test and some of its banks have recently suspended trading with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank. It is also under domestic pressure after unidentified North Koreans seized, and subsequently released two weeks later, a 16-strong Chinese crew who had been fishing in the Yellow Sea.

As Chinese leader’s visit nears, US urged to allow counterattacks on hackers

05/22/13:  The New York Times reports with President Obama preparing for a first meeting with China's new president, a commission led by two former senior officials in his administration will recommend a series of steps that could significantly raise the cost to China of the theft of American industrial secrets. If milder measures failed, the commission said, the United States should consider giving companies the right to retaliate against cyberattackers with counterstrikes of their own. The recommendations are from the private Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, which is led by two figures who parted company with the White House on strained terms: Dennis C. Blair, Mr. Obama’s first director of national intelligence, and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former ambassador to China. The commission’s report will be published Wednesday, two days before Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, travels to Beijing to prepare for the meeting. That two-day meeting, scheduled to start in California on June 7, has been highly choreographed on both sides. Mr. Donilon was preceded to Beijing by the Treasury Secretary, the Secretary of State and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All have prepared to line up new initiatives, consultations and military-to-military exchanges intended to show a maturing relationship between the world’s two largest economies. But the recent disclosures about Chinese cyberattacks and the theft of industrial secrets, an operation managed partly from a Chinese People’s Liberation Army unit outside Shanghai, may affect the ability of Mr. Xi and Mr. Obama to forge anything the two men could claim to be a partnership.

Indian and Chinese Premiers pledge cooperation on border issues

05/20/13:  The New York Times reports the prime ministers of India and China papered over their recent border dispute on Monday with a friendly joint statement and an array of promises for future economic and military cooperation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India emphasized in his remarks that friendly relations between the Asian giants depended on “peace and tranquillity on our borders.” The two sides promised to appoint special representatives to investigate the reasons for the recent border spat. On April 15, a contingent of 50 Chinese troops was found to have set up camp in the mountainous Ladakh section of Kashmir that India claims as its own. India then stationed troops about 300 yards away from the Chinese troops and the two camps faced each other for weeks before the dispute was resolved. The two sides pledged Monday to enhance cooperation and agreed to joint military training exercises later this year. Their statement also referred to improved cooperation on maritime security. China’s growing maritime presence, including the building of ports in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan in what has been called a “string of pearls” strategy, has alarmed India. Mr. Li is scheduled to leave India on Tuesday to visit Pakistan.

Chinese hackers resume attacks on US targets

05/20/13:  The New York Times reports three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks  using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials. The Obama administration had bet that “naming and shaming” the groups, first in industry reports and then in the Pentagon's own detailed survey of Chinese military capabilities, might prompt China’s new leadership to crack down on the military’s highly organized team of hackers — or at least urge them to become more subtle. But Unit 61398, whose well-guarded 12-story white headquarters on the edges of Shanghai became the symbol of Chinese cyberpower, is back in business, according to American officials and security companies. It is not clear precisely who has been affected by the latest attacks. Mandiant, a private security company that helps companies and government agencies defend themselves from hackers, said the attacks had resumed but would not identify the targets, citing agreements with its clients. But it did say the victims were many of the same ones the unit had attacked before. The hackers were behind scores of thefts of intellectual property and government documents over the past five years, according to a report by Mandiant in February that was confirmed by American officials. They have stolen product blueprints, manufacturing plans, clinical trial results, pricing documents, negotiation strategies and other proprietary information from more than 100 of Mandiant’s clients, predominantly in the United States.

Ban Ki-moon urges North Korea to end missile tests

05/19/13:  The BBC reports UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on North Korea to refrain from carrying out any further missile tests. He was speaking as Pyongyang test-fired a fourth short-range missile over the weekend. Such launches are routine but come as countries in the region are trying to break a stalemate in relations there, the BBC's Lucy Williamson says. Mr Ban urged Pyongyang to lower the tensions in the region and "resume dialogue" over its nuclear programme. Speaking in Russia after talks with President Vladimir Putin, Mr Ban called the missile tests "a provocative action".

Karzai seeks Indian military aid amid Pakistan row

05/19/13:  The Miami Herald reports Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek increased military aid from India during a three-day visit starting Monday and will discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan, India's archrival, an aide said. The comments follow a weekend report by the Times of India that said Afghanistan's ambassador to India had said the country needs India's help with "equipment and weapons to fight." The Press Trust of India later quoted a spokesman for India's foreign ministry as saying the country is ready to meet any such request. "Yes, we will ask for assistance for the strengthening of our security forces," Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said in a briefing Saturday ahead of the trip. He did not comment on the Indian reports. Karzai's visit could irk Pakistan, especially if any arms deal materializes. Pakistan considers Afghanistan its own backyard and suspects rival India of seeking greater influence there as a strategy to hem in the country from both sides. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since they were divided into two countries when they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Afghanistan and India signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2011 that has included Indian military training of Afghan security forces. Faizi indicated Saturday that Karzai would seek to expand that cooperation.

Pakistan adopts Chinese rival GPS satellite system

05/19/13:  Phys.Org reports Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system, a report said Saturday. The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications. Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system, according to English-language China Daily. Huang Lei, international business director of BDStar Navigation, which promotes Beidou, told the newspaper the company would build a network of stations in Pakistan to enhance the location accuracy of Beidou. He said building the network would cost tens of millions of dollars. American website Defensenews.com reported early May that Pakistani military experts were in favour of using the Chinese system, even though the availability of the signal could not be guaranteed in case of conflict.

North Korea 'fires three short-range missiles'

05/18/13:  The BBC reports North Korea has fired three short-range missiles from its east coast, South Korea's defence ministry said. Two missiles were fired on Saturday morning and one in the afternoon, the ministry said in a statement. Officials at the ministry said they were "monitoring the situation and remain on alert". The launches come at a time of stalemate between the two neighbours following weeks of high tension earlier this year. Saturday's missiles were fired in a north-east direction, and did not pose the same threat as the intermediate-range missiles Pyongyang was believed to have deployed along its coastline last month. It removed them from the launch site early in May, indicating a lowering of tension on the peninsula, a US official said. Such launches are routinely carried out by the Communist nation, the BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Seoul. Tensions were high last month amid threats from North Korea to attack Japanese, South Korean and US military targets in the region and restart a mothballed nuclear reactor that produced plutonium for its weapons programme.

Commentary: It's not just China, India is also buying and building aircraft carriers

05/17/13:  Foreign Policy published an article by John Reed who notes that as China commissioned its first-ever aircraft carrier aviation unit, Asia's other rising power, India, gave its carrier aviators a serious equipment upgrade with the introduction of 16 brand-new Russian-made MiG-29K and four MiG-29KUB carrier-borne fighters earlier this week. India has operated old British aircraft carriers for decades. Right now it flies aging Sea Harrier jump jets from INS Viraat, formerly the Royal Navy carrier Hermes. These Sea Harriers are subsonic attack planes with limited payloads operating from a carrier that was built in the 1950s. The supersonic MiG-29K is an updated, naval version of the Soviet Union's 1980s-vintage MiG-29, which was designed to counter U.S. Air Force F-15s and F-16s in the skies over Europe should the Cold War ever turn hot. The planes are way faster than the 1980s-vintage Sea Harriers and can carry more weapons capable of shooting down enemy planes and hitting enemy ships. The Indian navy's new MiGs are going to be flown off of India's newest carrier, the former Soviet navy "aircraft-carrying cruiser" Admiral Gorshkov. That vessel has been massively refurbished at a Russian shipyard into the soon-to-be delivered INS Vikramaditya, a full-on carrier that, after much work, looks remarkably similar to China's first carrier, the Liaoning -- herself an old Soviet carrier.

Okinawa piques Chinese papers

05/09/13:  The New York Times reports Chinese state-run newspapers began carrying commentaries on Wednesday and Thursday questioning Japan’s sovereignty over the island of Okinawa, the latest sign of growing nationalism and territorial ambitions among a significant sector of China’s elite. People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, published an opinion column on Wednesday by two academics who noted that the Ryukyu Islands, of which Okinawa is the most important, for many years had been an independent kingdom that paid tribute to China. Japan took control of the islands in a series of moves through the 1870s, formally annexing them in 1879 and abolishing the local monarchy. Global Times, a sometimes stridently nationalistic newspaper, published a news article on Thursday asserting that questions about Okinawa’s sovereignty could help China in its long-running territorial dispute with Japan over seven uninhabited islands northeast of Taiwan, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China and Taiwan. The Chinese government has not endorsed the idea that Okinawa, the site of extensive American military bases, should be independent of Japan. At a regularly scheduled news conference on Wednesday, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman answered three questions about Okinawa with almost identical language, but did not take a clear position on sovereignty. The Japanese government quickly dismissed the People’s Daily column. “It is beyond doubt that it belongs to Japan, and that is the fact historically and internationally, so such an argument is absolutely undignified,” Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary, said in a regularly scheduled news conference on Wednesday.

US directly blames China’s military for cyberattacks

05/07/13:  The New York Times reports the Obama administration on Monday explicitly accused China’s military of mounting attacks on American government computer systems and defense contractors, saying one motive could be to map “military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.” While some recent estimates have more than 90 percent of cyberespionage in the United States originating in China, the accusations relayed in the Pentagon's annual report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities were remarkable in their directness. Until now the administration avoided directly accusing both the Chinese government and the People’s Liberation Army of using cyberweapons against the United States in a deliberate, government-developed strategy to steal intellectual property and gain strategic advantage. “In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the US government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military,” the nearly 100-page report said. The report, released Monday, described China’s primary goal as stealing industrial technology, but said many intrusions also seemed aimed at obtaining insights into American policy makers’ thinking. It warned that the same information-gathering could easily be used for “building a picture of US network defense networks, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.” It was unclear why the administration chose the Pentagon report to make assertions that it has long declined to make at the White House. A White House official declined to say at what level the report was cleared. A senior defense official said “this was a thoroughly coordinated report,” but did not elaborate.

India and China 'pull back troops' in disputed border area

05/07/13:  The BBC reports India and China have started pulling back troops from disputed territory near the two countries' de facto border, India's foreign ministry says. Soldiers were said to have set up camps facing each other on the ill-defined frontier in Ladakh region last month. The two sides held a series of talks to resolve the row and on Sunday, agreed to withdraw the troops. The two countries dispute several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962. Tensions flare up from time to time. They have held numerous rounds of border talks, but all have been unsuccessful so far. A spokesperson for India's foreign ministry, Syed Akbaruddin, told the BBC that India and China had agreed to pull their troops back to positions they held prior to the current stand-off, which began last month. Meetings between border commanders were being held to confirm the arrangement, he added. Indian officials had accused Chinese troops of straying 10km (six miles) into Indian territory on 15 April and putting up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh, in eastern Kashmir. China had denied reports of an incursion. The pull-out comes days ahead of Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid's visit to China, ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India. Mr Khurshid is visiting China on 9 May, ahead of Mr Li's visit on 20 May for his first overseas trip.

Commentary: Xi's War Drums

05/02/13:  Foreign Policy published an article by John Garnaut: China's new leader is using the military to consolidate his power. But has he unleashed forces beyond his control? Xi has taken charge at a moment when China has been building up its military power as never before, surprising the United States and shocking its neighbors with the speedy development of new hardware and the aggressive manner in which it has deployed those tools to support its expanding ambitions. Top US intelligence analysts and generals have admitted to being caught out by the 2011 flight-testing of China's new J-20 stealth fighter. They were dumbfounded by China's subsequent deployment of the East Wind 21D, the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile, dubbed "the carrier killer" in the West. And now China is on track to nearly triple its fleet of maritime strike aircraft by 2020. China is simultaneously developing and producing seven types of submarine and surface warships. That's after a decade in which it quadrupled its number of modern submarines, including nuclear submarines designed to carry nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. It has massively expanded production of corvettes, frigates, amphibious ships, and destroyers. In September, China launched its first aircraft carrier.  But the specter of war is not the only possible explanation for Xi's saber rattling and demands for combat readiness. For even as Japanese leaders and US officials were publicizing their concerns this winter about a region on the brink of naval conflict, it became clearer that Xi and his close military confidants are squarely focused on domestic politics. Xi, then, has ultimately chosen to defend the Communist Party against internal political threats rather than prepare it to face external military threats. There is little doubt the Communist Party has been sharpening its identity in a post-communist world by defining itself against the West, fanning nationalist fervor, and promising a restoration of China's ancient grandeur. Xi thus has little choice but to keep pumping enormous resources into a war machine if he is to justify his party's continuing monopoly on power.

Sarabjit Singh: Indian 'spy' dies after Pakistan attack

05/02/13:  The BBC reports an Indian man convicted of spying by a court in Pakistan has died after being attacked last week by fellow inmates, medical officials and his lawyer said. Sarabjit Singh, was attacked with bricks by prisoners in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail on Friday. He fell into a coma and died at 01:00 on Thursday morning (20:00 Wednesday GMT) in Lahore's Jinnah hospital. Indian PM Manmohan Singh's office said the perpetrators should be brought to justice for the "barbaric" attack. Singh was sentenced to death for spying and his role in bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Pakistan in 1990. His family, who had only just returned to India after visiting him in hospital, always insisted Singh was innocent and had strayed into Pakistan by mistake when he was arrested. But mercy petitions were rejected by Pakistani courts and former President Pervez Musharraf. India had appealed for Singh, 49, to be released or transferred to India over concerns about his treatment following his attack. He had sustained several serious injuries, including a fractured skull.

Sri Lanka 'intensifies crackdown on dissent' - Amnesty

04/30/13:  The BBC reports Amnesty International has accused Sri Lanka of intensifying a crackdown on dissent and urged the Commonwealth not to hold its summit there unless the human rights situation improves. It says the government is responsible for harassing and imprisoning critics. Sri Lanka has rejected the allegations, saying that a rehabilitation process is under way after years of conflict. Last week Commonwealth foreign ministers agreed to hold the summit in Colombo despite objections by Canada. The next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is set to take place in Colombo in November and Sri Lanka would then represent the Commonwealth as its chair for the next two years. Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird has said he was "appalled" that Sri Lanka had been chosen to host the meeting, arguing it had failed in the fundamental Commonwealth values of "freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law and good governance". Amnesty International's report, released on Tuesday, echoed some of the criticisms. It says that journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and opposition politicians are among those who have been targeted in what the report calls "government-sanctioned abuse".

Japan's Coast Guard sold hi-tech ship without wiping data

04/30/13:  The Washington Times reports Japan's Coast Guard sold a decommissioned patrol vessel to a salvage yard run by a senior member of a pro- North Korea non-profit, without checking that the ship’s computer systems had been wiped, Tokyo’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Monday. The 106-ton vessel Takachiho was decommissioned in 2011, and sold for scrap. But the newspaper reports that the Coast Guard's regional headquarters never confirmed whether the vessel’s navigation data was deleted before it was scrapped. Although weapons and other equipment were removed before the vessel was handed over to the scrap yard owners, the navigation data recording system was left installed on the bridge. The system records a vessel’s location at regular intervals and, “information regarding operational [deployment] patterns of the [Takachiho] could have been obtained by some party,” an official from the Coast Guard’s 10th regional headquarters in Hyuga told the paper. In February, the national leadership of the Coast Guard circulated guidance to all regional headquarters saying that thorough checks must be conducted whenever vessels are sold to make sure navigation data have been wiped clean.

North Korea is expected to indict an American

04/27/13:  The New York Times reports an American tour operator is facing indictment in North Korea on charges that he tried to overthrow the government there, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. The announcement could complicate Washington’s difficult diplomatic balancing act as it tries to hold a tough line with North Korea over its nuclear program while avoiding any confrontations that could lead to an armed conflict. The tour operator, Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American from Washington State, traveled with a group of businessmen in November from Yanji, China, to the North Korean special economic zone of Rason, where he was arrested. The news report on Saturday said that the North had already finished its investigation and that Mr. Bae had admitted his guilt to charges that could draw the death penalty. North Korea, a police state, has often used the plight of detained Americans as a bargaining chip in its dealings with Washington. Some were freed only after former American presidents traveled to the North. Mr. Bae is the sixth American detained by North Korea since 2009, but he is facing the gravest charges. In January, Bill Richardson, a former American ambassador to the United Nations, tried to see Mr. Bae during a private trip to the North, but he said he was rebuffed by the government.

South Korean workers to leave industrial zone in North

04/26/13:  NPR reports South Korea has ordered the withdrawal of its workers from a jointly run industrial zone in North Korea, in a further sign of how relations have gone from bad to worse between the two countries in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Pyongyang blocked access to the Kaesong zone, which is located just inside North Korea and was established in 2002 as a symbol of rapprochement between the rival neighbors. In the past, even as tensions flared, Kaesong — an important source of hard currency for the North and cheap labor for the South — had kept operating. On Friday, however, Seoul's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said the approximately 175 South Korean workers still in the zone after the North's blockade would be returning home after Pyongyang this week declined to resume bilateral talks. "Because our nationals remaining in the Kaesong industrial zone are experiencing greater difficulties due to the North's unjust actions, the government has come to the unavoidable decision to bring back all remaining personnel in order to protect their safety," Ryoo said. "North Korea must guarantee the safe return of our personnel and fully protect the assets of the companies with investment in Kaesong," he added without giving a time frame for the withdrawal. About 120 South Korean companies set up shop in the complex, which employed 53,000 North Koreans, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

US Marine rapid response force deploying to Spain base

04/26/13:  CNN reports the first of 500 Marines have begun deploying to Spain as part of a new rapid reaction force to respond to threats against US citizens, government personnel or installations in Africa. The new task force is based at Moron Air Base in southern Spain, which provides quick access especially to northern Africa, where security concerns have grown since the September 2012 attack on a USgovernment facility in Benghazi, Libya, a Pentagon official told CNN. Deployment began Wednesday. When fully operational, the unit will be required to be airborne within six hours of receiving orders, providing the type of rapid response that the Pentagon says was not possible during the Benghazi attack. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died during the assault at the US mission and CIA annex. The Marine unit will have the job of providing protection for embassies and diplomatic compounds under attack or receiving threats; protecting US citizens; rescuing downed pilots; and assisting other elements of the US military in the event of a need to evacuate American citizens, the official said. He declined to be identified because much of the group's work has not yet been publicly discussed by the Marine Corps. Spain provided final approval for the unit's presence Friday. The full 500-strong team, which is to be in place within 30 days, will include 225 Marines equipped for ground combat along with intelligence and communications specialists, plus another 225 personnel to man and maintain the six V-22 Osprey aircraft and two C-130 refueling aircraft that make up the aviation component of the unit.

As Bird Flu spreads to Taiwan, governments act to prepare

04/25/13:  The New York Times reports the new strain of avian influenza that has infected more than 100 people in China in the last two months has, for the first time, been reported outside mainland China. Officials in Taiwan reported one case in a 53-year-old Taiwanese citizen who traveled regularly to the Chinese city of Suzhou for work, where he probably contracted the virus. He fell ill on April 12, three days after returning to Taiwan. Tests revealed on Wednesday that he was infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus. As of Tuesday, Chinese officials had reported 108 cases and 22 deaths from the new flu. The case has set off alarms in Taiwan, where the Central Epidemic Command Center says that it has “continued to strengthen surveillance and fever screening of travelers arriving from China.” The patient in Taiwan, described as severely ill, is being treated in a special isolation room, and 139 people who had contact with him — including 110 health workers — are being watched for symptoms. So far, there is no evidence that any have contracted the disease, which has not been found to spread from person to person. Officials elsewhere in the region are increasingly jittery about the spread of the virus from China. On Wednesday, Japan said it was racing to make changes that would essentially allow local governments to consign bird flu patients or suspected patients to hospitals, and order them to stay away from their workplaces. The Japanese government took similar precautions during epidemics of the H5N1 and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, viruses in the last decade.

US and China put focus on cybersecurity

04/23/13:  The New York Times reports the United States and China held their highest-level military talks in nearly two years on Monday, with a senior Chinese general pledging to work with the United States on cybersecurity because the consequences of a major cyberattack “may be as serious as a nuclear bomb.” Cybersecurity has become a sudden source of tension between the two countries. China has bristled over the growing body of evidence that its military has been involved in cyberattacks on American corporations and some government agencies. Last month, the Obama administration demanded that the Chinese government stop the theft of data from American computer networks and help create global standards for cybersecurity. At a news conference on Monday after talks with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the Chinese general, Fang Fenghui, said he would be willing to set up a cybersecurity “mechanism,” but warned that progress might not be swift. “I know how difficult it is,” General Fang said. “Anyone can launch the attacks — from the place where he lives, from his own country or from another country.” General Dempsey arrived in Beijing on Sunday for his first visit to China. His predecessor, Adm. Mike Mullen, held talks in Beijing in July 2011. General Dempsey’s three-day visit comes as mistrust has mounted between Beijing and Washington over a host of issues, including differences over North Korea, Washington’s strengthened military posture in the Asia Pacific region, China’s assertiveness in the South and East China Seas and basic problems of how the two militaries should communicate in a crisis.

Tensions flare between China and Japan over islands and shrine

04/23/13: The New York Times reports tensions between Japan and its Asian neighbors rose on Tuesday when a large group of Japanese lawmakers paid a symbolically charged visit to a Tokyo war shrine, while Chinese paramilitary ships and a flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists appeared to converge on disputed islands. The group of 168 mostly low-ranking conservative lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo in what local news media described as the largest mass visit by Parliament members in recent memory. The shrine of the indigenous Shinto religion honors Japan’s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. This has made Yasukuni, and the political leaders who visit it, a target of criticism by China and South Korea, which suffered under Japan’s early 20th-century empire building. Last year, a group of 81 lawmakers visited the shrine during the same season, when Yasukuni celebrates a three-day spring festival. This year’s mass visit comes at a time when Japan’s relations with both those neighboring countries have frayed because of disputes over territory and history. The shrine is viewed by many in China and South Korea as a symbol of how Japan remains unrepentant for its brutal wartime expansion across Asia. For many Japanese nationalists, visits to the shrine appear have become a way of standing up to what they see as the increasingly insistent demands of China, which has usurped their country as the dominant power in Asia.

UN detects possible signs of past North Korean nuke test

04/23/13: The Miami Herald reports a UN agency tasked with looking for signs of nuclear explosions says its monitoring stations have detected radioactive gases that could be linked to North Korea's Feb. 12 test. CTBTO says stations in Japan and Russia have picked up ''significant" traces of noble gases that accompany a nuclear explosion and say they ''could be attributed" to the North's test. A statement from the Vienna-based CTBTO Tuesday said the Japanese station is located around 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the test site. It says lower levels were picked up by the Russian site at Ussuriysk, without giving its location in relation to the site. It says the two types of xenon radioactive isotopes detected ''provide reliable information on the nuclear nature of the source."

Chinese troops camping in "Indian territory:" police

04/20/13:  Reuters reports several dozen Chinese soldiers have set up a remote camp some 10 km (6 miles) inside territory claimed by India in the high altitude Himalayan desert of Ladakh, Indian police sources said, in a possible return to border tension between the Asian giants. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the two countries were in touch with each other to resolve the row. The ill-defined border has fuelled 50 years of mistrust despite blossoming economic ties. The Indian army set up its own temporary camp just 500 meters (1600 feet) from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers after the incident on April 15, a senior police official stationed close to the border told Reuters. India lost a short but bloody war with China in 1962, fought in Ladakh and the eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Today India controls Arunachal Pradesh, while China administers a large area adjacent to Ladakh called Aksai Chin. Neither side is comfortable with the arrangement. Small incursions are common across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border that runs some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the Himalayas, but it is rare for either country to set up camp so deep within disputed territory. The two countries have increased their military presence on each side of the border in recent years as their fast-growing economies permit more spending on defense of remote regions. They hold frequent meetings to diffuse tensions, but high-level talks to resolve the dispute have not produced results. The latest incident took place at Daulat Beg, where India established a landing strip during the 1962 war. At 5,100 meters (16,700 feet), the strip is one of the world's highest. It was reopened in 2008.

China to send first aircraft carrier on high seas voyage: Xinhua

04/19/13:  Reuters reports China will send its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, on a voyage on the high seas for the first time within a year, the state-run news agency Xinhua said on Friday. The Liaoning, purchased used from Ukraine and refurbished in China, has conducted more than 100 exercises and experiments since it was commissioned last year, Xinhua said. Although considered decades behind US technology, the Liaoning represents the Chinese navy's blue-water ambitions and has been the focus of a campaign to stir patriotism. It has also been the most visible of China's efforts for more than a year to build up military hardware, including test flying two prototype versions of stealth fighter jets -- one of which is believed capable on landing on aircraft carriers. Last year, China also unveiled its first attack helicopter and a range of drone aircraft it hopes to export. In November a US government commission said it believed that within two years, Chinese submarines would be capable of deploying nuclear weapons. China is alone among the original nuclear weapons states to be expanding its nuclear forces, according to the report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

North Korea sets conditions for return to talks

04/18/13:  The New York Times reports North Korea on Thursday demanded the lifting of United Nations sanctions and an end to joint American-South Korean military exercises as preconditions for starting dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula. By making demands that both Washington and Seoul had no intention of accepting, North Korea signaled that it would not stand down anytime soon from a weeks-long military standoff. But the fact that North Korea has recently begun responding to U.S. and South Korean offers for dialogue, even though they came with steep preconditions, has raised cautious hopes among South Korean analysts that the North might be ready to wind down weeks of hostile rhetoric that at times appeared to bring the peninsula close to a point of conflict. The statement demanded that Washington withdraw “all nuclear war means” from South Korea. It also said South Korea must stop making negative assertions about North Korea, such as its accusation blaming North Korea for a cyberattack that paralyzed the computer networks of South Korean broadcasters and banks last month. It also taunted President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, saying that she should consider the North’s nuclear weapons “a property common to the nation.” Ms. Park has repeatedly said that nuclear weapons would only bring North Korea “self-destruction.”

World experts to help China with bird flu investigation

04/16/13: Reuters reports an international team of flu experts will go to China this week to help with investigations into the deadly H7N9 virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. The new strain of avian flu has killed 14 among 63 people known to have been infected, but no human-to-human spread of the virus has been confirmed. The team includes four specialists in areas such as emerging viruses, human-to-animal flu viruses and epidemiology, as well as an unspecified number of WHO staff, Thomas said. Another WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl, said it would be made up of eight people in all. One of the points the mission wants to investigate is how some people seem to fight off the infection. China confirmed on Saturday a seven-year-old child had been infected by the virus in the capital Beijing, the first case outside the Yangtze river delta region in eastern China where the new strain emerged last month. No exact date has been set yet for the arrival of the team which is expected to hold talks in Beijing and visit affected provinces, he said. The mission - made up of American, European, Australian and Chinese experts - will get underway by Saturday and is expected to carry out a week-long study, Thomas said. In a statement issued late on Monday, the WHO said more than 1,000 close contacts of the people confirmed as having H7N9 were being closely monitored for symptoms. "So far, there is no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission," it said.

China suggests US is stirring tensions in Asia-Pacific region

04/16/13:  The New York Times reports China published a national defense paper on Tuesday suggesting that the United States was creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region by strengthening its military presence and reinforcing its alliances there. The paper, released by the Ministry of Defense, did not declare that the United States was responsible, but the message was clear. Strongly alluding to the Obama administration’s policy to “pivot” toward a greater focus on the Asia-Pacific region, the paper said, “Some country has strengthened its Asia-Pacific military alliances, expanded its military presence in the region, and frequently makes the situation tenser.” Thus, China has an “arduous task to safeguard its national unification, territorial integrity and development interests.” Presented at a news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, the paper has mostly a symbolic significance, defense analysts say. It is useful as a way of understanding how the Communist Party thinks defense issues should be presented to the public, they say. But it is scarcely looked at by China’s military officers. Over all, the paper suggested that China should be satisfied with its strategic position and offered a congratulatory note, saying that China “has seized and made the most of this important period of strategic opportunities for its development, and its modernization achievements have captured world attention.” In particular, it singled out a better situation with Taiwan, saying, “Cross-straits relations are sustaining a momentum of peaceful development.”

Powerful earthquake strikes in Iran

04/16/13:  The New York Times reports a powerful earthquake that struck southeastern Iran was felt in several countries in Asia on Tuesday, rocking buildings in the Indian capital of New Delhi, sending panicked resident of Karachi, Pakistan, fleeing into the streets and causing tremors through Persian Gulf states. Iranian officials said they expected many deaths. The earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was near Khash, Iran, not far from Iran’s border with Pakistan, the United States Geological Survey said. An Iranian official told state television that he expected hundreds of deaths because of the severity of the earthquake. The worst-hit area, along Iran’s southeastern border, is home to nearly 2 million people, who live in three main cities, Zahaedan, the provincial center, and the epicenter of the earthquake between the cities of Saravan and Khash, where roughly 400,000 people live, the semiofficial Tabnak Web site reported. The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Iran’s seismology center as saying the earthquake was the worst in 40 years. The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake had a depth of 9.7 miles. Such deep earthquakes are rare and have greater destructive capability.

Kerry says US prepared to reach out to North Korea

04/15/13: The blog Space War reports Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he would be prepared to reach out to North Korea urging it back to negotiations, but he vowed the US would protect Japan from Pyongyang’s threats.  Following talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, where Patriot missiles have been deployed in anticipation of a missile launch by the North, Kerry pledged the US would backstop its ally.  “The United States is fully committed to the defense of Japan,” Kerry said at a joint press conference with Kishida.  “We’re prepared to reach out [to North Korea], but we need the appropriate moment, appropriate circumstances,” Kerry said later.  “There are standards clearly that we want to achieve to enter into negotiations, but there are certain channels that we can reach out to.”

US opposes "coercive" China action in island dispute with Japan

04/14/13: The Miami Herald reports the United States said Sunday that it is committed to defending Japan and opposes any coercive action by China to seize territory under Japanese control in the East China Sea.  Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington isn’t taking a position in the dispute over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.  Japan and China have sparred over the uninhabited islands in recent years.  Kerry’s strong words of support for America’s ally come just a day after he promised new levels of US-Chinese cooperation on a host of problems, most notably North Korea’s nuclear program.

Avian Flu virus confirmed in Beijing for first time

04/13/13:  The New York Times reports the bird flu virus that has been centered in the city of Shanghai and surrounding provinces has now been reported elsewhere in China, as a 7-year-old girl was being treated on Saturday in a Beijing hospital for avian influenza. The virus has already killed 11 people in China, with 7 of those deaths reported in Shanghai, and the rest coming from three surrounding provinces. The Beijing case involved a girl whose parents were in the poultry trade, according to the Beijing Health Bureau. She entered the hospital on Thursday and tests confirmed on Saturday that she had the H7N9 virus. The bureau said that she was in stable condition at the hospital, and that there were no indications that people she had come in contact with had the virus.

China and US make North Korea nuclear pledge

04/13/13:  The BBC reports China and the US have vowed to work together to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programme and to settle tensions through dialogue. A Chinese statement issued during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry said the nuclear issue was the "shared responsibility of all parties". Mr Kerry said the two sides must decide "very quickly" how to proceed. North Korea has recently threatened nuclear attacks, and is feared to be preparing a missile launch. A flurry of warlike statements from Pyongyang has prompted speculation that a launch could happen on 15 April, when the country marks the 101st birthday of the nation's founder and former leader, Kim Il-sung.

Wary of North Korea, Japan puts missile defense in Tokyo

04/09/13:  The New York Times reports the Japanese Army set up a battery of interceptor missiles on the grounds of the Defense Ministry in central Tokyo on Tuesday, as the nation girded itself for a possible missile test by North Korea, maybe as soon as this week. The Patriot antimissile battery was deployed after the defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, issued standing orders to the Japanese military on Sunday to shoot down any North Korean missile that threatened to hit Japanese territory. Japan has responded to past North Korean tests by similarly issuing such orders and positioning interceptor missiles. The ministry said warships carrying the Aegis radar and interceptor missiles had been deployed as a shield in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The Patriot battery, an American-supplied system that is also deployed at two Japanese military bases near Tokyo, will be the second line of defense, the ministry said. Signs that North Korea may be preparing for a missile test have been met with concern in Japan, which has found itself under the flight path of previous test missiles. In an intensifying war of words with South Korea and the United States, the North has threatened to strike American military bases in Japan. Some of those bases are in the greater Tokyo area, a densely populated urban zone of 33 million people. The United States military also has its own Patriot batteries on bases in Okinawa, the Japanese island that hosts most of the 50,000 American military personnel in the country.

Fukushima nuclear plant: radioactive water 'leak'

04/09/13:  The BBC reports a fresh suspected leak of radioactive water has been detected at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator says. The contaminated water may have leaked into the ground from one of the plant's storage tanks, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said. The nuclear plant has suffered two power failures in the past month. Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it would visit the plant to conduct a review. If confirmed, the leak at the underground storage pool would be the third leak discovered at the plant since Saturday. The underground tanks store radioactive water that have been used in the plant's cooling systems.

China steps up bird flu precautions

04/06/13:  The BBC reports China is stepping up its efforts to contain the spread of a new strain of bird flu which has killed six people in the country. The authorities in Shanghai, where four deaths were recorded, have closed three poultry markets and banned the import of all live birds into the city. China has now identified 16 domestic cases of the H7N9 virus. The World Health Organization says there is no evidence yet that the virus is being transmitted between humans. The human cases of H7N9 have all occurred in eastern China, in Shanghai and its neighbouring provinces of Anhui and Zhejiang. The latest death was a 64-year-old man who died in Zhejiang, the second death there, state media report. There was no sign of infection in anyone who had had close contact with him, said officials. On Thursday, officials began the slaughter of at least 20,000 birds in Shanghai after the virus was detected in pigeons sold in Huhuai market. The trading of live birds - how poultry is traditionally sold in China - has also been halted at a market in the Zhejiang city of Hangzhou, after the virus was detected in quail being sold there.

Radioactive water leak feared at Japan nuke plant

04/06/13:  The Miami Herald reports the operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant said Saturday that it was moving tons of highly radioactive water from a temporary storage tank to another after detecting signs of leakage, in a blow to the plant's struggles with tight storage space. Tokyo Electric power Co. said about 120 tons of the water are believed to have breached the tank's inner linings, some of it possibly leaking into the soil. TEPCO is moving the water to a nearby tank at the Fukushima Dai-chi plant - a process that could take several days. TEPCO detected the leak earlier in the week, when radiation levels spiked in water samples collected in between the inner linings of the tank. Radiation levels in water samples taken outside the tank also have increased, an indication of the water leak, TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono said. Contaminated water at the plant, which went into multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, has escaped into the sea several times during the crisis. Experts suspect there has been a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system, citing high levels of contamination among fish caught in waters just off the plant.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/06/3326696/radioactive-water-leak-feared.html#storylink=cpy

CDC begins work on vaccine for China flu

04/05/13:  The New York Times reports federal health officials have begun to make a seed vaccine against the mysterious new H7N9 flu circulating in China, they said Thursday. While it is being made “only as a precaution,” a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized, an agency virologist said the agency was “fairly worried” about the new virus. China reported that it had confirmed 14 cases of the new flu, and on Friday it reported that six cases were fatal. No cases of human-to-human transmission have been confirmed, even though China’s disease control agency has traced hundreds of people who had contact with the 14 known cases, the news agency Xinhua reported. The flu, previously found only in wild birds, was isolated for the first time in domesticated birds on Thursday; after it was found in pigeons in a Shanghai live bird market, the authorities began culling every bird there. It will take at least a month to create the seed vaccine, even though the agency is speeding the process by building it from synthetic DNA rather than waiting for a virus sample to arrive from China, said Michael Shaw, associate laboratory director for the CDC’s influenza division.

China mobilizes to fight new bird flu

04/04/13:  Reuters reports China said it was mobilizing resources nationwide to combat a new strain of deadly bird flu that has killed four people, as Japan and Hong Kong stepped up vigilance against the virus and Vietnam banned imports of Chinese poultry. The H7N9 bird flu strain does not appear to be transmitted from human to human but authorities in Hong Kong raised a preliminary alert and said they were taking precautions at the airport. In Japan, airports have put up posters at entry points warning all passengers from China to seek medical attention if they suspect they have bird flu. A total of 11 people in China have been confirmed to have contracted H7N9, all in the east of the country. Another person died on Thursday, in Shanghai, bringing the number of deaths to four, state media said. Xinhua news agency said the victim was a 48-year-old man who worked delivering poultry.

North Korea moves missile to coast, but limited threat seen

04/04/13:  The New York Times reports South Korea’s defense chief said on Thursday that North Korea has moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable” range, but that it was not capable of reaching the United States. The disclosure came as the Communist North’s military warned that it was ready to strike US military forces with “cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.” North Korea has been issuing a blistering series of similar threats in recent weeks, citing as targets the US military installations in the Pacific islands of Hawaii and Guam, as well as the United States mainland. In its latest threat on Thursday, it did not name targets but said it was authorized to “take powerful practical military counteractions” against the threats from B-2 bombers from the United States, B-52 bombers from Guam and F-22 Stealth jet fighters from Japan that have recently run missions over the Korean Peninsula during joint military exercises with South Korea.

China continues military buildup near North Korean border as tanks, armor deploy

04/04/13:  The Washington Times reports China continued moving tanks and armored vehicles and flying flights near North Korea this week as part of a military buildup in the northeastern part of the country that US officials say is related to the crisis with North Korea. The Obama administration, meanwhile, sought to play down the Chinese military buildup along the border with Beijing’s fraternal communist ally despite the growing danger of conflict following unprecedented threats by Pyongyang to attack the United States and South Korea with nuclear weapons. According to U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports, both intelligence and Internet reports from the region over the past week revealed the modest military movements in the border region that began in mid-March and are continuing. The buildup appears linked to North Korea’s March 30 announcement that it is in a “state of war” with South Korea after the United Nations imposed a new round of sanctions following the North’s Feb. 12 nuclear test and because of ongoing large-scale joint US-South Korea military exercises. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troop and tank movements were reported in Daqing, located in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, and in the border city of Shenyang, in Liaoning Province.

North Korea threats: US to move missile defences to Guam

04/04/13:  The BBC reports the US is sending a missile shield to the Pacific island of Guam as North Korea threatens nuclear strikes. The Pentagon said the shield would be ready within weeks, adding to warships that were sent to the area earlier. The North had named Guam among a list of possible targets for attack that included Hawaii and the US mainland. North Korea is not thought to have the technology to strike the US mainland with either a nuclear weapon or a ballistic missile, analysts say. But it is capable of targeting US military bases in the region with its mid-range missiles.

North Korea can likely revive reactor in six months, needs years for more bombs

04/04/13:  Reuters reports North Korea can probably restart a mothballed plutonium-producing reactor in six months if it is determined to do so and the site has suffered no major structural damage, but it may take years to produce significant new atom bomb material. Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that it would revive the aged Yongbyon five-megawatt research reactor that yields bomb-grade plutonium, but stressed it was seeking a deterrent capacity. Several nuclear experts familiar with North Korea's program said it would probably take the North Koreans about half a year to get the Yongbyon research reactor up and running, provided it has not suffered significant damage from neglect. The decision to restart the reactor was the latest chapter in an escalating crisis that erupted after Pyongyang was hit with U.N. sanctions for conducting a third nuclear test in February, and the United States and South Korea staged military drills that North Korea viewed as "hostile."

Japan shifts from pacifism as anxiety in region rises

04/02/13:  The New York Times reports the Japanese soldiers in camouflage face paint and full combat gear were dropped by American helicopters onto this treeless, hilly island, and moved quickly to recapture it from an imaginary invader. To secure their victory, they called on a nearby United States warship to pound the “enemy” with gunfire that exploded in deafening thunderclaps. Perhaps the most notable feature of the war games in February, called Iron Fist, was the baldness of their unspoken warning. There is only one country that Japan fears would stage an assault on one of its islands: China. Iron Fist is one of the latest signs that Japan’s anxiety about China’s insistent claims over disputed islands as well as North Korea's escalating nuclear threats are pushing Japanese leaders to shift further away from the nation’s postwar pacifism. The new assertiveness has been particularly apparent under the new prime minister, Sinzo Abe, a conservative who has increased military spending for the first time in 11 years. Until recently, a simulated battle against Chinese forces would have been unthinkably provocative for Japan, which renounced the right to wage war — or even to possess a military — after its march across Asia in World War II resulted in crushing defeat. The purely defensive forces created in 1954 are still constrained from acting in too offensive a manner: last year, a smaller mock assault by Japanese and American forces on an island near Okinawa was canceled because of local opposition. That recalculation — a large step in what analysts see as a creeping over the years toward a more robust Japanese military — could have broad implications for the power balance in the region, angering China and likely giving the United States a more involved partner in its pivot to Asia to offset China’s extended reach.

 

US adds F-22 fighter jets to military exercise in South Korea

04/02/13:  NPR reports the United States has sent two F-22 Raptor fighter jets to take part military drills in South Korea, a move that is meant to show US commitment to the defense of the region from its North Korean neighbor, a Pentagon spokesman told the Associated Press. Also on Monday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye appeared to give her country's military permission to strike back at any attack from the North.  According to the New York Times, Park told the South's generals that she considers the threats from North Korea "very serious." Last week, B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers were sent to South Korea for the annual exercise.

 

North Korea says it will restart reactor

04/02/13:  The New York Times reports North Korea said on Tuesday that it would put all its nuclear facilities — including its operational uranium-enrichment program and its reactors mothballed or under construction — to use in expanding its nuclear weapons arsenal, sharply raising the stakes in the escalating standoff with the United States and its allies. The announcement by the North’s General Department of Atomic Energy came two days after the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his nuclear weapons were not a bargaining chip and called for expanding his country’s nuclear arsenal in “quality and quantity” during a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. The decision will affect the role of the North’s uranium-enrichment plant in its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of the capital, Pyongyang, a spokesman for the nuclear department told the Korean Central News Agency. It was the first time North Korea had said it would use the plant to make nuclear weapons. Since first unveiling it to a visiting American scholar in 2010, North Korea had insisted that it was running the plant to make reactor fuel to generate electricity, though Washington suggested that its purpose was to make bombs.

 

UPDATED: Voice in Kim Jong-un's head tells him to stop what he's doing

04/01/13: The Onion reports that while performing his duties as Supreme Leader of North Korea Monday, Kim Jong-un reportedly heard a small voice in the back of his mind telling him that his actions over the last six months have been very strange and wrong.  Sources confirmed that the tiny voice, which spoke to Kim at various points throughout the day, quietly suggested that the four-star military general and Worker Party’s secretary is a weird person with out-of-whack priorities who acts in a way that makes little sense to anyone.  “You are a very odd man who does things that are bizarre and indicative of a mentally ill person,” the little voice reportedly said following a speech in which Kim issued apocalyptic threats to enemies in the West and predicted the destruction of America.  “The things you say on a daily basis are not only extremely creepy and off-putting, but they are also very wrong. You should probably not be the leader of a country.”

UPDATE: April Fool.

North Korea vows to keep nuclear arms and fix economy

04/01/13: The New York Times reports North Korea’s leader on Sunday announced a “new strategic line” that defied warnings from Washington, saying that his country was determined to rebuild its economy in the face of international sanctions while simultaneously expanding its nuclear weapons arsenal, which the ruling party called “the nation’s life.”  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un presided over a Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, the first such meeting since 1993.  The party meeting took place against the backdrop of joint military exercises in South Korea involving American and South Korean forces.  On Sunday, American F-22 stealth fighter jets were flown from a base in Japan to South Korea to join the exercises.  In past weeks, B-52 and B-2 bombers offered a demonstration of American air power as part of the exercises.

White House says North Korea "state of war" threat taken seriously

03/31/13: The Hill reports the White House said Saturday it was taking threats of war from North Korea “seriously,” while acknowledging that Pyongyang has a history of bellicose rhetoric.  “We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact with our South Korean Allies,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.  “But, we would also note that North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats and today’s announcement follows that familiar pattern.”  North Korea Saturday declared that a “state of war” existed with the South and threatened to “dissolve” the United States in an “all-out war and nuclear war.”  Pyongyang has cut the military hotline with Seoul and earlier this week said the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 was void.

North Korea enters 'state of war' with South

03/30/13:  The BBC reports North Korea has said it is entering a "state of war" with South Korea in the latest escalation of rhetoric against its neighbour and the US. A statement promised "stern physical actions" against "any provocative act". North Korea has threatened attacks almost daily since it was sanctioned for a third nuclear test in February. However, few think the North would risk full-blown conflict. It has technically been at war with the South since 1953 as no peace treaty has been signed. An armistice at the end of the Korean War was never turned into a full treaty.