Nordkorea kündigt Atomtest an

[romko]

Nordkorea hat angekündigt, dass es einen Atomtest unternehmen werde. Die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur KCNA meldete heute, damit wolle Pjöngjang seine Fähigkeit zur Selbstverteidigung angesichts der "Feindseligkeit" der USA gegenüber Nordkorea stärken. (orf.at)

[Dessi]

Weiß man schon, wo die das machen?

[romko]

Muss wohl auf deren eigenen Territorium sein ... aber haben die überhaupt Platz dafür??? Immerhin wird die Gegend auf lange Sicht verseucht sein. Deppen gibts aber auch.

[Hellia]

also, um die Sicherheit der eigenen Bevölkerung geht es hier wohl nicht.

Irgendwie kommt mir diese Einstellung schmerzhaft vertraut vor.

[simplify]

ich denke die nordkoreaner fühlen sich von den amis nicht ernst genommen im fall iran konnte die welt bush nur mühsam vor einer militäraktion zurückhalten, nur bei nordkorea rührt sich der bursche gar nicht

[Benjamin]

03.10.2006
Kommentar der Financial Times Deutschland zu Nordkorea / Atomtest - vorab 04.10.2006

Test für die Staatengemeinschaft

http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nach...0-2006-015.htm


Atomtest-Ankündigung Nordkoreas drückt Yen
Mi Okt 4, 2006

Nordkoreas Atomtest-Ankündigung hat am Mittwoch die Anleger am internationalen Devisenmarkt zu Yen-Verkäufen veranlasst.

"Wegen der geographischen Nähe Japans ist die Ankündigung negativ für die japanische Währung , die ohnehin schon unter Druck ist", sagte ein Händler. Der Dollar kletterte bis auf 118,20 Yen (Vorabend: 117,95) Yen. Der Euro legte bis auf 150,46 (150,13) Yen zu, bröckelte im Verlauf aber wieder ab. Zum Dollar gab der Euro leicht auf Kurse um 1,27 (1,2730) Dollar nach.

Nordkorea hatte am Dienstag einen ersten Atomtest angekündigt und dies mit einer wachsenden Bedrohung durch die USA begründet. Ein konkreter Zeitpunkt für den Test wurde nicht bekannt. Die Ankündigung hatte im Westen zu großer Besorgnis geführt. Die Europäische Union (EU) erklärte, das Verhalten Nordkoreas sei unverantwortlich und trage zu einer Eskalation der Situation bei.

Spekulationen, wonach in Japan vorläufig die Zinsen auf dem derzeit niedrigen Niveau bleiben werden, trugen laut Händlern zusätzlich zu Yen-Verkäufen bei. Gebremst wurde der Rückgang des Yen allerdings durch Spekulationen, die Notenbanken könnten in den Markt eingreifen. Beim jüngsten Treffen der Finanzminister und Notenbankchefs der sieben führenden Industrieländer (G7) hatten vor allem europäische Vertreter vor einem zu starken Verfall der japanischen Währung gewarnt.

WARTEN AUF EZB-ZINSENTSCHEIDUNG AM DONNERSTAG

Händler sprachen insgesamt von einem ruhigen Geschäft, da viele Anleger die Zinsentscheidung der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) am Donnerstag abwarten wollten. Eine Zinserhöhung von 25 Basispunkten auf dann 3,25 Prozent gilt als so gut wie sicher.

Mit Spannung werde der Markt aber die Pressekonferenz von EZB-Chef Jean-Claude Trichet verfolgen. "Dabei könnte er einen etwas moderateren Ton anschlagen, da erst wieder im Dezember eine Zinserhöhung erwartet wird", sagte ein Händler.

[Benjamin]

Nukleartest-Drohung belastet den Won kaum

04. Oktober 2006


http://www.faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/...m-1380637.html

[Benjamin]

October 3, 2006
North Korea Plans Its First Nuclear Test
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — North Korea announced Tuesday that it intended to conduct its first nuclear test, prompting warnings from Tokyo to Washington that an underground explosion would lead to a sharp response and could undermine the security balance in Asia .

The North did not say when it would attempt to test a weapon, and experts inside and outside the Bush administration said the announcement itself is a negotiating ploy, intended to force the White House into lifting economic sanctions and conducting one-on-one talks with the isolated country .

American intelligence officials said they saw no signs that a test was imminent. But they cautioned that two weeks ago, American officials who have reviewed recent intelligence reports said American spy satellites had picked up evidence of indeterminate activity around North Korea’s main suspected test site. It was unclear to them whether that was part of preparations for a test, or perhaps a feint related to the visit at that time to Washington of South Korea’s president, Roh Moo Hyun .

At that meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Roh discussed the possibility of a test, and Mr. Roh said the event would “change the nature” of South Korea’s policy of economic engagement with the North, Mr. Roh told Americans he met afterward. But they did not appear to have a coordinated strategy, and a senior Asian diplomat in Washington said today “no one is quite sure how to respond” if the North conducts a test in coming weeks or months.

In public, the Bush administration’s response was muted on Tuesday and left the American response as unclear as the North Korean threat .

North Korea has long possessed plutonium fuel needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, and American intelligence agencies believe the country expanded its fuel stockpile in recent years so that it could now manufacture roughly six to eight weapons , and perhaps more. That inventory was increased, the North says, since it evicted international inspectors in early 2003, just as the Bush administration was focused on the Iraq invasion.

The North claimed more than a year ago that it possessed a “nuclear deterrent,” but the absence of a test has created a convenient diplomatic ambiguity, allowing China to raise doubts about how far the country has come and giving Washington room after President Bush’s declaration in the first term that he would never “tolerate” a nuclear armed North Korea .

It is unclear whether the North Koreans have now determined that ambiguity is no longer in their interests. In a statement issued today on KCNA, the North’s official news outlet, the country’s foreign ministry said that “the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defense measure in response.”

But earlier this month a North Korean general, Ri Chan Bok, told a visiting American expert, Selig Harrison, that no test was necessary.

“If we have an underground test, it could have radioactive leakage,” Mr. Harrison, who has been visiting the country for three decades, quoted the general as saying last week. “These rumors are spread by U.S. agencies to smear us. I have never heard indications of a nuclear test in our government or armed forces.”

In a statement, Frederick Jones, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said a test would “severely undermine our confidence in North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization” and “pose a threat to peace and security in Asia and the world.”

“A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the North the benefits offered to them” in six-nation talks that have not reconvened in more than a year, the White House statement said. But behind closed doors, the announcement touched off a flurry of meetings, as officials wrestled with uncertain intelligence, questions about whether China or South Korea could prevent a test, and the possibility that a test could take place before the elections. {hier wohl gemeint: Den USA-Kongresswahlen. Ein Atomwaffenversuch könnte den Republikanern bei dieser US-Wahl helfen.}

The American statement did not set forth the lines in the sand that marked the North Korean nuclear standoffs of the 1990’s, when the Clinton administration began reinforcing American forces on the Korean peninsula in response to a threat by the North to convert its supply of spend nuclear reactor fuel into bombs. Mr. Clinton’s advisers recommended at the time that if the North began to move that supply to a facility where it could be fashioned into bomb fuel, the president should order an airstrike to destroy the facility. Mr. Clinton never had to face that choice.

But American officials, declining to be identified because they are not authorized to speak about North Korean policy, have said in recent weeks that the administration assumed that sooner or later, the North would conduct a test . “You could argue that it wouldn’t be an all-bad thing,” one Administration hawk said recently, “because it would finally unify the Chinese and the Russians and the South Koreans,” all of whom have been reluctant to pressure the North .

Michael Green, who handled North Korea issues for the National Security Council until he left the White House last year, said that “the evidence has grown, especially with the missile launch, that North Korea has its own escalation ladder, and they would agree to postpone a test only for the right price.” He thought it unlikely that price would be met, and said “the North has calculated that they can take the heat from China and Japan, and they are not losing much from South Korea anyway.”

In Tokyo , North Korea’s sudden announcement was the first international test to face Japan’s newly inaugurated prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a nationalist who has vowed to make security a top priority. Mr. Abe warned Pyongyang against the test in stern terms rarely seen in the cautious language of Japanese diplomacy. “Japan and the world absolutely will not tolerate a nuclear test,” he told reporters, in a statement worded more sharply than the Bush administration’s. “The international community would respond harshly.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Cairo, where she met with her counterparts from several Arab nations on regional issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, that the North’s announcement was disturbing and that a nuclear test would be “a very provocative act by the North Koreans.”

Reporting was contributed by Choe San-Hun from Seoul, Robert Pear from Managua, Nicaragua, Philip Shenon from Cairo, and Martin Fackler from Tokyo.

[Benjamin]

Asian leaders caution N. Korea on nuclear test
By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune

Published: October 4, 2006


South Korea and China warned North Korea on Wednesday that if it tested a nuclear weapon it would face a chill in relations with Seoul and Beijing, its two key aid sources.


Analysts in the region warned, meanwhile, that the Pyongyang was likely to test a bomb if Washington does not relax sanctions.

North Korea's announcement Tuesday that it would conduct a test triggered alarms from Washington to Tokyo but also raised suspicions that it may be using its threat as a leverage to win U.S. concessions, including direct negotiations with Washington that the Bush administration has so far rejected.

The public announcement, which North Korea was broadcasting repeatedly to its citizens on Wednesday, also could mean that the regime will be left with no option but to carry out a test if Washington does not soften its position, analysts said.

That leaves the Bush administration with crucial questions. A successful test could trigger a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia, analysts say, while skepticism about Washington's North Korea policy will deepen in the region as well as at the U.S. Congress ahead of the November elections.

Washington's financial sanctions have hurt Kim Jong Il's regime by reducing his cash flows from illicit trading and counterfeiting. But the U.S. options are limited , experts say.


Unrest to be spawned by a total economic blockade, not to mention military action, against North Korea is anathema to China and South Korea, which share their borders with the North.

"We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing, said Wednesday.

In China's first official reaction to Pyongyang's pronouncement, Liu also urged "all relevant parties," including the United States, to "address their concerns through dialogues and consultations instead of taking actions that may intensify the situation."

In Seoul, the rhetoric was sterner. President Roh Moo Hyun said: "We need to let North Korea know very clearly what situation its nuclear test would create."

But officials were cautious not to specify what punishment the North could expect , especially whether Seoul would suspend its joint industrial complex and tourism project which provides the impoverished North with millions of dollars a month in worker wages and tourist fees.

"Our government will step up efforts to bring an early end to the North Korean nuclear problem through negotiation and dialogue. We think a more intensified diplomacy is necessary," said Song Min Soon, Roh's chief national security adviser.

The North Korean announcement intensified diplomacy among the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan. Top diplomats exchanged phone consultations on how to address the spike in tensions. China, Japan and South Korea all announced separate bilateral summits among their leaders next week.

The five nations' talks with North Korea on its nuclear weapons programs have stalled since last September in a dispute over Washington's crackdown on offshore North Korean bank accounts. North Korea on Tuesday said that it would conduct a nuclear test in an unspecified time to complete its nuclear weapons development as "self-defense" against U.S. hostilities.

U.S. intelligence officials said they saw no signs that a test was imminent. But they cautioned that two weeks ago, U.S. officials who have reviewed recent intelligence reports said U.S . spy satellites had picked up evidence of activity around North Korea's main suspected test site. It was unclear to them whether that was part of preparations for a test or perhaps a provocation related to the visit at that time to Washington of South Korea's president, Roh Moo Hyun.

At that meeting, Bush and Roh discussed the possibility of a test, and Roh said the event would "change the nature" of South Korea's policy of economic engagement with the North, Roh was quoted as saying.

But Bush and Roh did not appear to have a coordinated strategy, and a senior Asian diplomat in Washington said Tuesday "no one is quite sure how to respond" if North Korea conducts a test in coming weeks or months.

Kim Keun Sik, a North Korea expert in Kyungnam University in Seoul, noted that the North Korean threat came as Seoul and Washington were working on a so-called "common joint approach," a new set of initiatives that Seoul officials hope will break the impasse between Washington and Pyongyang.

"It's a bargaining card. North Korea is telling Washington, 'It's a good time for you to make a concession because I might test a bomb,'" Kim said. "But what makes this different from the other North Korean bluffing is that if the United States doesn't react, North Korea will have no choice but to test a bomb.

"North Korea has chosen to burn the bridge behind it."

A nuclear test could give the Bush administration an opportunity to muster global support for a stronger United Nations Security Council resolution and tighter economic sanctions against the North.

U.S. officials, declining to be named because they are not authorized to speak about North Korean policy, have said in recent weeks that the administration assumed that sooner or later, North Korea would conduct a test.

"You could argue that it wouldn't be an all-bad thing," one administration hawk said recently, "because it would finally unify the Chinese, and the Russians and the South Koreans," all of whom have been reluctant to pressure North Korea.

"There is a high possibility that the United States will earnestly shift its policy toward a 'regime change' or 'regime toppling' in North Korea," said Paik Hak Soon at Sejong Institute in South Korea.

In comments that appeared primarily aimed at China and South Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prodded Asian nations on Tuesday to "reassess" their relationships with the North Koreans. But a nuclear test, experts say, can also highlight a blame game between the United States, which believes that the soft approach by Beijing and Seoul has emboldened North Korea, and the Asian countries, which have been displeased with Washington's campaign to use sanctions to bring North Korea to heel.

"Frankly, I think China will just accept it if North Korea tests a bomb," said Kim. "Beijing will side with North Korea with nuclear arms, rather than with the United States, because it wants to keep North Korea as a buffer between it and U.S. influence in South Korea and Japan."

Michael Green, who handled North Korea issues for the National Security Council until he left the White House last year, said, "I think that the evidence has grown, especially with the missile launch, that North Korea has its own escalation ladder, and they would agree to postpone a test only for the right price."

He thought it unlikely that price would be met, and said he thinks "the North has calculated that they can take the heat from China and Japan, and they are not losing much from South Korea anyway."

Shen Dingli, executive deputy director of the Institute of International Issues at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that North Korea "is bound to hold that the advantages of conducting a nuclear test outweigh the disadvantages.

"Hence it will proceed with a nuclear test," Shen said in an article circulated by the California-based Nautilus Institute. He added that China only needed to "symbolically take part in the sanctions" once North Korea conducts a test . "In the choice between limited sanctions that demonstrate our country is a responsible power and harsh sanctions that forces the DPRK to go to extremes or bring about 'regime change,' China can only afford to take the lesser evil approach," he said. DPRK is short for Democratic republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

David Sanger of The New York Times contributed to this article from Washington

[Benjamin]

Kospi: http://www.traderboersenboard.de/sho...258#post233258

[simplify]

nun hat nordkorea den test auch durchgeführt. die asiatischen börsen die heute geöffnet haben sind auch in den keller gefallen. südkorea hat erhöhte bereitschaft für seine truppen ausgerufen.

ich bin gespannt wie die welt das problem lösen will? zumindest beweist es, dass selbst ein steinzeitstaat wie nordkorea in der lage ist so ein ding zu bauen. dem iran muss man dann wohl auch abnehmen, dass er die atombombe fertigen kann.

[OMI]

Ja, da bricht nun ein schwelender Brandherd immer mehr auf.
Unterschied zu den bisherigen Brandherden: Auch China hat hier ein massives Problem mit den Geschehnissen und wird sicher auch aktiv an einer "Lösung" mitarbeiten ...

[romko]

Haben die Chinesen denn keine Atomwaffen?

[OMI]

Aber natürlich!

Nur: bei Irak, Israel, also dem ganzen Thema Naher Osten haben sich die Chinesen immer sehr zurückhaltend geäußert - waren eher gegen engsprechende Aktionen.

Dies sieht diesmal aber ganz anders aus .... da ist von Zurückhaltung keine Spur mehr..

[PC-Oldie-Udo]

Na das wäre doch mal wieder eine schöne Gelegenheit für die Ölmultis die Preise zu erhöhen, es stinkt denen doch eh schon das der Preis so tief gefallen ist