NKorea bans ships off port from Wednesday

North Korea is warning ships to stay out of waters off its eastern port of Wonsan for three weeks from Wednesday, the Japan Coast Guard said, raising concerns Pyongyang is planning more missile tests.

North Korea is alerting vessels by radio not to enter an area that measures 100 by 263 kilometres (60 by 165 miles) at its widest points from June 10 to 30 between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, a coast guard spokesman said Monday.

"We have acknowledged the information and soon afterward issued the same warning to those who may travel in this region," the spokesman said.

The news came amid increasing speculation that North Korea is preparing to test-fire several medium-range missiles from its southeast coast.

At least three missiles are apparently being prepared for launch from a missile base in Anbyon County, near Wonsan, a port city about 100 kilometres northeast of Seoul, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.

The report said that several vehicles mounted with mobile launch pads were spotted at the base.

The Japan Coast Guard picked up a similar warning in May, only days before Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test and also launched a series of short-range missiles.

"We can't deny the possibility that North Korea is moving toward launching missiles, including ballistic missiles, in response to developments related to a UN Security Council resolution," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura.

"We are doing everything to secure the peace and security of Japan and its people, while collecting and analysing information."

South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert after the North threatened a possible attack in response to Seoul's decision to join a US-led initiative to halt the trade in weapons of mass destruction.

The North has also warned of "self-defence measures" in response to any tougher international sanctions.

Japan intercepts missile in milestone test

A Japanese navy destroyer shot down a ballistic missile on Monday in a test about 100 miles over the Pacific Monday, a first for a U.S. ally, U.S. and Japanese forces said.
The $55 million test was a "major milestone" in growing U.S.-Japanese cooperation, said Rear Adm. Katsutoshi Kawano of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Lt. General Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
U.S.-Japanese missile-defense ties have grown greatly since North Korea fired a three-stage Taepo Dong 1 missile over Japan on August 31, 1998.
The interceptor was fired by JS Kongo, the first of four Japanese destroyers due to be outfitted to counter missiles that could carry chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.
By intercepting a missile similar in speed and size to those in North Korea's arsenal, "Japan has proven its capability to defend and protect their country from North Korean missiles," said Riki Ellison, a prominent missile-defense advocate who monitored the test.
The test involved a shipboard detection and tracking tool called Aegis built by Lockheed Martin Corp and the Standard Missile-3 interceptor, produced by Raytheon Co..
The medium-range target missile was launched from a U.S. range on Kauai, Hawaii. About three minutes later, the SM-3 intercepted it about 100 miles above the Pacific, a joint U.S.-Japanese announcement said.
The Kongo, armed with its SM-3 interceptors, will return to Japan to provide an "operational" antimissile capability to complement ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles already installed in Japan, Taylor said.

SHIELD AGAINST IRAN

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency is building a multibillion-dollar, layered shield it says is designed to defeat warheads that could be fired by Iran and North Korea. Japan is the leading U.S. partner in the effort, involved in joint research and development, including for a more advanced interceptor.
In addition, the U.S. and Japanese navies have worked out common tactics, techniques and procedures for their Aegis-equipped ships to shoot down enemy missiles, the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet said last week.
Such cooperation has angered Beijing, which fears it could help the United States defend Taiwan if China used force to try to bring the self-governing island under mainland rule.
The Kongo "is emblematic of a complex weave of U.S. and Japanese anti-missile capabilities," said Paul Giarra, a former Pentagon senior country director for Japan who inaugurated a U.S.-Japan missile-defense working group in the early 1990s.
"Any system that can check China's growing ballistic missile clout is problematic for Beijing," he added.
The Lake Erie, a Pearl Harbor-based U.S. guided-missile cruiser, tracked the missile target and fed data on it to a command center while simulating a shootdown of its own, MDA's Taylor said in an email response to questions from Reuters.

from Reuters.com

N Korea removal from blacklist may hurt Japan-U.S. ties: Machimura

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Monday that Japan-U.S. ties could be adversely affected if the United States decides to remove North Korea from its list of terrorist-sponsoring nations despite Tokyo's request not to do so due to lack of progress in the issue of Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese.
While Machimura denied that one problem might totally damage bilateral relations, which he described as "multilayered," he said delisting North Korea "certainly would not have a good influence on the Japan-U.S. relationship." Machimura said that Japan-U.S. ties include the economy, culture, diplomacy and person-to-person relationships, but emphasized that the abduction issue carries "a different weight" compared with other bilateral themes as it involves the feelings and emotions of Japanese people.

Abe unconcerned about N Korea's missile launches

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Friday night that he does not regard the reported launches of short-range missiles by North Korea as "a serious issue for Japan's security."

The premier declined to give further details on what kinds of intelligence Japan has, but he said North Korea's actions were "regrettable" and again urged North Korea to carry out promised steps toward denuclearization before the international community runs out of patience. A senior Japanese Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity that the situation does not pose an immediate threat to Japan, noting that a similar incident involving the launch of multiple short-range missiles also occurred around the same time last year.

North Korean female agent linked to abduction of 2 kids ordered terror attack, police say

Japanese police have learned from testimonies that a woman believed to be the leader of North Korean agents involved in a 1974 abduction case in Japan allegedly ordered another agent to carry out a terrorist attack in South Korea in the 1970s, investigative sources said Saturday.

In the alleged abduction case of two children born to a Japanese mother and Korean father who went missing in 1973, the police have found a high possibility that a husband of the 59-year-old female agent knew of the kidnapping plan, the sources said.

The sources said the police obtained the testimonies from people related to Universe Trading — a now-defunct trading company in Tokyo's Shinagawa believed to have served as a base for covert North Korean operations in Japan. The woman also worked there.

Police believe the terrorism order was based on an instruction from North Korea, and came shortly after the failed assassination attempt in August 1974 of then South Korean President Park Chung Hee.

According to the testimonies, the female agent ordered a male agent who worked under her to "do something like that" after the failed assassination incident, the sources said.

The male agent left Japan in 1978 after disappearing from the company because of what was then explained as his increasing distrust of the female agent.

In the assassination attempt on Aug 15, 1974, Mun Se Gwang, a South Korean resident of Japan, shot at the president and his wife at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. Park survived, but his wife and a female high school student died. Mun was sentenced to death and executed later that year.

The male agent is believed to have been involved in the suspected killing of Hideko Watanabe, the Japanese mother of the two children who went missing together in 1973.

The man had allegedly told acquaintances about circumstances before and after the killing, the sources said.

The sources said the husband, who married the female agent after the abduction incident occurred in 1974, had told workers of Universe Trading and other people about the kidnapping.

The man told them of such abduction circumstances as the children being given sleeping pills but waking up in the middle of being taken to North Korea on a spy ship, and the children having bad motion sickness, the sources said.

Given such testimonies from related people, police suspect the man was either directly involved in the abduction or received detailed reports.

The female agent and the man were allegedly in an intimate relationship before their marriage, the sources said. They left Japan in 1979 and there are no confirmed records of their return, leading the police to believe that they are now living in North Korea, the sources said.

The female agent is suspected of ordering her group of agents to abduct the two children in 1974 after receiving instructions in North Korea where she went after leaving Japan with the passport of another person, the sources said.

On Thursday, police designated two children as having been abducted by North Korean agents, and set up an investigation headquarters to start a full-fledged probe into the case.

The two children are Ko Gyong Mi, then a 6-year-old girl whose Japanese name is Kiyomi, and Ko Gang, then a 3-year-old boy whose Japanese name is Tsuyoshi.

They were born to Ko Dae Gi, a pro-Pyongyang Korean resident in Japan, and his Japanese wife Watanabe, who was 32 when she went missing.

Watanabe is suspected of having been murdered before the children were taken to North Korea.

Ko Dae Gi, who had gone missing earlier, worked for Universe Trading, and is believed to have led the group there before the female agent took over the leading role.

Japan extends economic sanctions on N Korea for 6 more months

The government decided in a cabinet meeting Tuesday to extend the economic sanctions Japan imposed on North Korea after Pyongyang's first nuclear test last October, officials said.

The sanctions prohibit North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports, ban imports of all items from North Korea, and block all North Korean people from entering Japan. Japan imposed more limited sanctions after North Korea conducted missile tests last July. These sanctions banned a cargo-passenger ferry link between the two countries and barred North Korean officials from entering Japan.

Washington Post criticizes Abe's handling of sex slave issue

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign to roll back Japan's acceptance of responsibility for the abduction, rape and sexual enslavement of women during World War II is "odd" and "offensive," the Washington Post said in its editorial on Saturday.

In a piece titled "Shinzo Abe's Double Talk," the U.S. daily criticized Abe's attitude over the so-called "comfort women" issue while comparing it with his enthusiasm in resolving North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals and refusing discussions with Pyongyang until it provides information on abductees certified by the Japanese government. "If Mr. Abe seeks international support in learning the fate of Japan's kidnapped citizens, he should straightforwardly accept responsibility for Japan's own crimes and apologize to the victims he has slandered," the editorial said.

Abe urges N Korea to return to negotiations

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged North Korea on Tuesday to engage seriously in ongoing six-nation nuclear talks and to fulfill its promise to denuclearize, warning that Pyongyang would otherwise continue to face severe problems.

Asked to comment on North Korea's refusal Tuesday to attend the second-day session of the six-way talks in Beijing, Abe told reporters, "For as long as North Korea adopts this kind of attitude, it will not be able to change the circumstances it is currently facing."

North Korea urges Japan to stop talking about abduction issue

North Korea is urging Japan to stop talking about North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals and sincerely implement a six-party talks deal promising to supply North Korea with aid in return for denuclearization steps, the Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.

"The DPRK strongly demands Japan stop talking about the 'abduction issue' but redeem the crimes committed by it in the past which are more horrendous than the issue," KCNA said, referring to Japan's wartime acts, such as forcing Korean women into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. KCNA said the abduction issue is already resolved.

Japan, N Korea blame each other for breakdown of talks

Japan and North Korea ended two days of talks on normalizing diplomatic relations without progress on Thursday, blaming each other for their failure to solve thorny bilateral rows and falling short of setting the next date for the negotiations.

Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's chief representative at the talks, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho said major differences remained over bilateral issues, including a bitter dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. "I find it regrettable that specific solutions were not reached for the progress of Japan-North Korea relations during the current talks," he said. At a separate news conference, Song also said that "a big gap" remains between the two sides and that was the reason "nothing was reached" in the negotiations.

apan-N Korea talks to continue despite snag over abductions

Japan and North Korea are set Thursday to meet for their second day of talks on normalizing diplomatic relations, after their bitter row over past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents triggered a stall on the first day. Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's delegate, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho are due to meet at the North Korean Embassy in Hanoi to discuss both the abduction dispute as well as issues linked to Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea boycotted the afternoon session of the first day of the normalization talks, in objection to Tokyo's demands that it reinvestigate past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. Pyongyang eventually agreed to return to the negotiating table Thursday after informal consultations with Japan, according to Japanese diplomats. In Wednesday's talks, Japan urged North Korea to reinvestigate the cases of 12 abduction victims on Japan's official list, or all of the listed victims except the five who returned to Japan in 2002.

Japan-North Korea normalization talks begin

Japanese and North Korean diplomats began two-day talks on Wednesday with both sides calling for a solution to thorny bilateral issues that have prevented them from normalizing diplomatic relations.

Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's representative at the talks, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho met at the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi in the morning for talks that are first expected to focus on a bitter row over past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. "We plan to work...under the policy of aiming for the normalization of diplomatic ties based on a comprehensive solution to the abduction, nuclear and missile issues as well as the settling of the unfortunate past," Haraguchi said at the outset of the talks, which was open to the press.

Japs won't give 'even 1 yen' to N Korea unless abductions resolved: Aso

Japan will not give North Korea "even 1 yen" in aid unless the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North is resolved, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Saturday before the two countries hold normalization talks next week. He added that Japan is ready to maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang including the ban on port calls in Japan by the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92.

The remarks come before the two countries restart talks on normalizing diplomatic relations in Hanoi on Wednesday under the framework agreed during last month's six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear development programs. While experts are voicing concern that Japan may be isolated in the nuclear talks by sticking to the abduction issue, Aso flatly denied this, saying, "Japan will never be isolated."

Gov't protests weekly's report on 'abduction attempt'

The government protested Monday at a report by the major weekly Shukan Gendai that said Kaoru Hasuike, one of the Japanese who were abducted by North Korea in 1978, had secretly come back to Japan and tried in 1986 to take a school teacher to North Korea. "The report was totally groundless and is utterly deplorable," the government's special task force on the abduction issue said in a statement addressed to the weekly's publisher Kodansha Ltd.

Hasuike denied the allegations and sent a statement of protest, saying the article was a "preposterous and fabricated story." The article in the weekly's latest edition, which hit the stands Monday, was based on an interview with a former school teacher in Aichi Prefecture who said that a man resembling Hasuike appeared on the school premises on March 18, 1986, and tried to persuade him to go to North Korea.

Abe wants int'l community to keep pressure on N Korea

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday the international community is likely to increase pressure on North Korea if it does not respond to demands for it to take steps toward abandoning its nuclear programs.

Abe told reporters as the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programs ended in Beijing without progress that it is important for the international community to unite in implementing the U.N. sanctions resolution to prompt North Korea to take specific actions toward denuclearization. "If North Korea wants the international sanctions to be lifted, they must respond to our demands or they will not be able to resolve their problems," Abe said.

Megumi Yokota film opens in Japan

A critically acclaimed documentary telling the story of a Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean agents who became a symbol of one of Japan's most thorny diplomatic issues, hit screens across Japan Saturday. "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" was released in 37 movie theaters in 18 prefectures, including Hokkaido, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. It will be shown in 20 other prefectures as well by the mid-February.

Directed by Canadian journalists Chris Sheridan and his wife, Patty Kim, the film details what Megumi's parents, Shigeru and Sakie, have been through since their 13-year-old daughter's 1977 abduction and their struggle to enlist Japanese government help in rescuing her and other abductees. The parents made speeches Saturday morning at a theater in Tokyo's Shibuya area, where the 200 seats were full from the day's first showing.

The 85-minute film won Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and the Audience Awards at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah, among others, earlier this year.

Gov't to give NHK unprecedented order to focus on abductions

An advisory panel for the telecom minister on Wednesday endorsed his proposal to issue an unprecedented and controversial order for Japan's public broadcaster NHK to focus on the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in its international shortwave radio broadcasts, panel members said.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to issue the order within this week at the earliest amid criticism by media and experts that the move represents state interference in media freedom.

N Korea says Japan should not take part in 6-way talks as it is just 'a state of U.S.'

North Korea said Saturday that Japan should not participate in upcoming six-way talks on the North's nuclear program, while criticizing Japanese leaders for their refusal to accept Pyongyang as a nuclear power.

"It would be much better for Japan to refrain from participating in the six-party talks and less attendants would be not bad for making the talks fruitful," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported, quoting a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry. "It is the view of the DPRK that since the U.S. attends the six-party talks, there is no need for Japan to participate in them as a local delegate because it is no more than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington."

Abe says N Korea should mind its own business

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that North Korea should mind its own business rather than criticizing his attitude over whether to visit the war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

"Rather than criticizing others, North Korea itself should address international concerns or otherwise it will gradually be put into a corner. They will have to face that reality," he told reporters at his office in Tokyo.

Japan eyes new U.N. resolution if North Korea conducts another nuke test

The Japanese government is eying introducing another resolution to the U.N. Security Council that features a complete ban on imports of North Korean products if Pyongyang detonates another nuclear device or launches missiles, government sources said Saturday.

Japan would seek a resolution that would not limit the range of sanctions based on the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7 that stipulates "action with respect to threats to peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression," the sources said.