New South Korea exercises to test border tension

South Korea has said it will hold new large-scale military drills involving ground and air live fire on Thursday.

Artillery, jets and about 800 soldiers will take part, the government said, alongside separate naval exercises that began on Wednesday.

Tension has been high since North Korea shelled the South's Yeonpyeong island last month, killing four South Koreans.

Drills by the South on Monday near Yeonpyeong sparked Northern threats of retaliation that did not materialise.
Huge scale

An army spokesman said Thursday's drill would be held at Pocheon, 20km (12 miles) south of the border - about 50km from central Seoul.

Exercises have been held at Pocheon before, but this would be on an unprecedented scale, the spokesman said.

"The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we'll have 36.

"We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition," the spokesman said.

"We will retaliate thoroughly if the North commits another provocative act like the shelling of Yeonpyeong," First Armoured Battalion commander Choo Eun-sik told Yonhap news agency.

"Through this exercise [at Pocheon], we will demonstrate our solid military preparedness," he said.

The BBC's Kevin Kim in Seoul says this is the largest winter live-fire exercise ever conducted on land here.

Separately, a "routine" four-day naval firing exercise has begun off the east coast of South Korea, involving six warships and helicopters.

The North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong shocked South Koreans.

It sparked the replacement of the country's defence minister and the development of a more active defence and deterrence policy among South Korean planners.

South Korea and the US - with which it has a long military relationship - had already been conducting large-scale military exercises, following the apparent torpedoing of a South Korean warship by the North on 26 March, which killed 46 south Korean sailors.

The pace of military drills has been stepped up in recent weeks, despite frequent denunciations from North Korea and its closest ally China.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, a giant Christmas tree was lit on the southern side of the demilitarized zone, despite concerns in Seoul that North Korea could strike the position.
Richardson visit

Efforts to redirect the Korean issue back to the negotiating table have been unsuccessful.

China and the North say it is time to return to the six-nation talks about North Korea's nuclear programmes.

But the US, South Korea and Japan have said they will not return to such talks, which have previously involved rewards for the North if it cuts back on nuclear development.

After a visit to North Korea, the US politician, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, said North Korea agreed to let international monitors back into the country to inspect its nuclear sites.

China has also urged the North to invite staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency but there has been no word from the North on the subject.

"The six-party talks will be restarted again when the North Koreans display a willingness to change their behaviour," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

North Korea walked out of the six-party talks in April 2009 and expelled UN nuclear inspectors from the country.

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North Korea has at least one other uranium enrichment site: US

The United States said Tuesday that North Korea has "at least one other" uranium enrichment site than that disclosed to US experts last month, saying the issue raised concerns.

The remarks from State Department spokesman Philip Crowley reinforced those made earlier by South Korea's foreign minister Kim Sung-Hwan who voiced suspicion that Pyangyong may harbor secret uranium enrichment facilities.

"We're very conscious of the fact that, in the recent revelations to American delegations, what they saw did not come out of thin air. It certainly reflects work being done at at least one other site," Crowley told reporters.

"This remains a significant area of concern," he said, adding he did not want to get into intelligence matters.

The North revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon atomic complex to visiting US experts on November 12, shortly before it sparked a security crisis with an artillery attack on a South Korean island.

The New York Times, citing anonymous officials in President Barack Obama's administration, reported Tuesday that North Korea's new nuclear facility is "significantly more advanced" than work done by Iran.

Pyongyang says its new operation is intended to fuel a nuclear power plant, but senior US and other officials fear it could easily be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium to augment the country's plutonium stockpile.

Diplomats are touring the region to discuss a response both to the attack and the potential new nuclear threat.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting a South Korean intelligence source, said Seoul and Washington believe there may be three or four other locations where the North is conducting uranium enrichment.

"It is a report based on intelligence information and I would just like to say we have been following the issue for some time," Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan told a briefing.

US scientist Siegfried Hecker, one of those to see the Yongbyon plant, said it was most likely designed to make fuel for a civilian reactor and not bombs.

"However, it is highly likely that a parallel covert facility capable of HEU (highly enriched uranium) production exists elsewhere in the country," he wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Kim said: "I can't speak definitely, but I personally think that there is a fair point in Dr Hecker's assumption."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting Monday with his visiting North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-Chun, expressed "deep concern" about the new uranium capability, Moscow's foreign ministry said.

South Korea is still in shock after the North's November 23 bombardment of Yeonpyeong island near the disputed Yellow Sea border, which killed four people including two civilians.

It was the first attack on a civilian area in the South since the 1950-53 war.

South Korean army chief General Hwang Eui-Don resigned Tuesday over a controversial property investment, in a further blow to the military's morale. It has been widely criticized for a perceived feeble response to the North's attack.

Hwang stepped down following media reports that he had profited unfairly from the property deal, a claim he denies.

But he judged it inappropriate to stay in his post at a time when he must lead reform of the army, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Lavrov urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions banning its nuclear activities and called for a resumption of six-party talks aimed at negotiating an end to the North's nuclear programs.

Russia is involved in the stalled talks alongside the two Koreas, China, Japan and the United States.

China, the North's sole major ally, has called for a new meeting of six-party envoys to resolve the latest crisis.

But the United States, Japan and South Korea say a return to negotiations at this point could be seen as rewarding the North's aggression.

They want China, which has failed publicly to condemn its ally for the island attack, to take a tougher line.

Crowley said US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and other US officials who are expected to press China for stronger action on North Korea left for Beijing.

The delegation will also discuss preparations for Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Washington, he added.

China: Diplomat went to North Korea to cool tensions

China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday a recent visit to North Korea by the country's top diplomat marks a significant effort by Beijing to tamp down regional tensions, in an apparent attempt to show it is responding to international calls to rein in its long-standing ally.

During Dai Bingguo's two-day trip last week, both sides reaffirmed the need to avoid further escalations, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Tensions spiked in the region following a North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island last month that killed four people.

"The two sides believe that parties should keep calm and exercise restraint, take a responsible attitude to avoid further escalation of tensions, and play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula," Jiang told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.

Jiang also repeated calls for emergency consultations between North Korea and the five countries taking part in long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

China has come under growing pressure from the U.S. and others to leverage its influence as North Korea's most important ally to mitigate Pyongyang's behavior. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg was set to visit China starting Wednesday for further talks on the issue.

Beijing, which provides crucial food and fuel aid to Pyongyang, has responded that it won't pressure the North in a way that could destabilize it, fearing the collapse of the regime and a flood of refugees across the border into northeastern China. Beijing, which fought on the North's side in the 1950-53 Korean War, is also wary of the unification of the Korean peninsula under a pro-U.S. southern-based government.

Jiang said North Korea took a "positive attitude" toward China's proposal for emergency talks, but other participants remain cool to the idea of renewed consultations between the six countries.

In Seoul, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan reiterated Tuesday South Korea's position that North Korea must first take concrete steps toward denuclearization before six-party talks can resume.

"I would say that our previous stance remains unchanged," Kim told reporters. "I have repeatedly said that our government is not opposing talks themselves but now is not the right time (to resume the six-party talks) in principle."

Top diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea met last week in Washington and issued a statement that they would not resume nuclear negotiations with North Korea until it stops its "provocative and belligerent" behavior and takes concrete steps to roll back its nuclear arms program.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, meanwhile, leaves the United States for North Korea on Tuesday, making a brief stop in Beijing on Thursday. Richardson, who has often acted as a diplomatic troubleshooter, has made regular visits to North Korea and has also hosted North Korean officials in New Mexico.

Later Tuesday, North Korea said it agreed with Russia to work together to foster peace on the Korean peninsula through bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including six-nation talks.

The agreement was reached during a Monday meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries, Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea campaigned for Eric Clapton performance, cable reveals

One of the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks reveals that North Korean officials suggested the U.S. government make arrangements for rock icon Eric Clapton to perform in Pyongyang as a way of building "good will" between the countries.

The suggestion was relayed to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, through an intermediary whose name was redacted from the document.

"Arranging an Eric Clapton concert in Pyongyang could also be useful, [the intermediary] said, given Kim Jong-Il's second son's devotion to the rock legend," the cable begins. "As Kim Jong-Il's second son, Kim Jong-chol, is reported to be a great fan, the performance could be an opportunity to build good will."

Representatives for Clapton did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

But one analyst cautioned Sunday that the 2007 cable's contents could say more about an intermediary's interest in trying to promote himself by arranging a high-profile performance than North Korea's leadership.
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"At that point, given the generally positive diplomatic atmosphere, I doubt the U.S. government would have objected. But this may be more the fantasy of a self-promoting intermediary than a reflection of the desire of the Dear Leader and his sons to rock 'n' roll in Pyongyang," said Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis."

However, Chinoy -- formerly CNN's Senior Asia Correspondent -- noted that the cable is not the first time a story has surfaced about the Kim family's admiration for the British rock legend.

"One of the stories about Kim Jong Chol and his brother Kim Jong Un is that one, or both, supposedly went to a Clapton concert somewhere in Europe while they were attending boarding school in Switzerland," he said.

The cable, titled "[Redacted] Shares Ideas on DPRK Interaction," deals with North Korean relations with South Korea, the United States, and Korean-Americans wishing to meet with their relatives still in the country. It makes no reference to the North Korean nuclear program.

The intermediary advocated for greater U.S. government involvement in "facilitating the reunification of Korean-American families divided by the Korean War."

The cable mentions two groups -- Compatriots United and the Los Angeles-based Pyongtong -- that arrange such reunions but often have difficulties dealing with the North Korean bureaucracy.

The document says Compatriots United has arranged "thousands of reunions," but it is under the control of North Korea's Overseas Compatriots Committee. That committee, the cable claims, "extorts a tremendous amount of money from desperate families to arrange the visits."

According to the cable, the intermediary told U.S. diplomats that "North Korea would not run such an exploitative system if the United States government were involved in the process. There is a reluctance, he said, for Korean-Americans to pursue family reunions because they do not want to divulge their personal information to the DPRK and they do not want the North Koreans to milk them for money before, during and after the reunion."

"The [United States government] could at least volunteer to serve as a conduit for correspondence between these families and North Korea to prevent the DPRK from learning the home addresses and bank accounts of participants. The DPRK might be willing to accept this structure because it badly wants a relationship with Washington," the cable reads.

The intermediary also described the frustrating process for any outsiders to get things done in North Korea.

"It is necessary to get the DPRK's various institutions to cooperate. Each institution seems to have veto power, but none has the power to push anything forward. ... The only organizations that can really deliver are the military, which does not talk to anybody, or the Red Cross."