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US says open to talk if North Korea ready to disarm
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Aug 15, 2017


Kiev says engine type 'used in N.Korea missiles' made for Russia
Kiev (AFP) Aug 15, 2017 - Ukraine's space agency said Tuesday that an engine type reportedly used in North Korean missiles was made at a Ukrainian factory, but solely for use in space rockets supplied to Russia.

The development came after an expert report published Monday said Pyongyang's recent rapid progress in developing a long-range missile appeared to have come after it refurbished rocket engines procured from a plant in the former Soviet Union.

These could have been bought from corrupt workers at arsenals in Russia or Ukraine and smuggled to North Korea by criminal networks at some point between the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Ukraine's current crisis, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said.

"Such engines were made up to 2001 by Ukraine's Yuzhmash (plant),", Ukraine's acting space agency chief Yuriy Radchenko told journalists. He said the RD-250 engines were used in Cyclone-2 and Cyclone-3 space rockets supplied to Russia.

Both the engines and the space carrier rockets "were made at Yuzhmash in the interests of Russia," Radchenko said. In total, 233 such rockets were produced, used in space launches.

The space agency chief said that according to Ukrainian information, "Russia today has between 7 and 20" of the Cyclone rockets and could do whatever it wanted with the engines and blueprints.

"They have these engines, they have the documentation. They can supply these engines from the finished rockets to whoever they want."

- Questions over rocket fuel -

The IISS report suggests Kim Jong-Un's regime, which successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles in July that are believed to have brought the US mainland within reach, has abandoned attempts to modify the Russian-built OKB-456 rocket engine and has now switched to the once Ukrainian-made RD-250.

During the Soviet era, the RD-250 was produced at the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro, a city that is today in Kiev government-held central Ukraine, around 150 kilometers (80 miles) from an active frontline held by Russian-backed separatists.

Ukraine did not act as a supplier of the engines to any other country, Radchenko said.

"Ukraine did not carry out any supplies of engines during the whole period of its independence (from the USSR), since it started producing the technology."

Radchenko also said that in his view, it was only possible to use these engines with technology for producing rocket fuel that only Russia and China have at their disposal.

"In order to use these engines and a missile properly, you need to have access to technology to produce rocket fuel. North Korea doesn't have such technology and basically only two countries have this: Russia and China."

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said it was not possible for North Korea to have copied such engines without help from Ukrainian specialists and smuggled engines or blueprints.

"In order to make a copy, you need to have either the original engine or detailed blueprints," he wrote on Facebook.

"And you can't manage without the Ukrainian specialists capable of and ready to set up production.

"So in one way or another, we are talking about smuggled supplies, evading all the current extremely harsh international bans," he concluded.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday, after North Korea's Kim Jong-Un postponed a threat to fire missiles towards the US territory of Guam, that Washington remains ready for talks.

But the top US diplomat said it would be up to Kim when such negotiations would begin, having previously insisted Pyongyang must demonstrate that it accepts it will have to give up its nuclear program.

"I have no response to his decisions at all at this time," Tillerson said, when asked about Kim's decision to hold off. "We continue to be interested in finding ways to get to dialogue, but that's up to him."

Speaking after the launch of a religious freedom report, Tillerson would not go into more detail as to how North Korea could demonstrate a commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"North Korea would have to take some very serious steps and show us that they are serious about their interest and intent in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula," Tillerson's spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

"It would have to do a lot more. Secretary Tillerson has talked a lot about that. He's also said 'I'm not negotiating my way back to the negotiating table,' and North Korea knows exactly what it has to do."

He has previously said Pyongyang must halt ballistic missile and nuclear tests for an unspecified amount of time before negotiations can begin on how to halt the stand-off and any threat of US military action.

Earlier Tuesday, the unpredictable and isolated North Korean leader had been briefed by his missile forces on a "plan for an enveloping fire at Guam," according to the North's official KCNA news agency.

But afterwards, according to KCNA, he decided to postpone the operation to "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees" and not to go ahead unless the US commits more "reckless actions."

North Korea leader holds off on Guam missile plan
Seoul (AFP) Aug 15, 2017 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said Tuesday he would hold off on a planned missile strike near Guam, but warned the highly provocative move would go ahead in the event of further "reckless actions" by Washington.

Some analysts suggested Kim's comments opened a possible path to de-escalating a growing crisis fuelled by bellicose words between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leadership.

Their recent exchanges were focused on a North Korean threat to fire a volley of four missiles over Japan towards the US territory of Guam, which hosts a number of strategic military bases.

The North's official KCNA news agency said Kim was briefed on the "plan for an enveloping fire at Guam" during an inspection on Monday of the Strategic Force command in charge of the nuclear-armed state's missile units.

But Kim said he would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees" before executing any order.

If they "persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula," then North Korea would take action "as already declared," he was quoted as saying.

"In order to defuse the tensions and prevent the dangerous military conflict on the Korean peninsula, it is necessary for the US to make a proper option first," he added.

China said Tuesday that the North Korean nuclear crisis had reached a "turning point" and it was time to enter peace talks.

Beijing, which is Pyongyang's main diplomatic ally, has repeatedly called on the United States and North Korea to tone down their rhetoric in recent days.

"We now hope that all the concerned parties, in what they say and what they do, can contribute to extinguishing the fire (of the tense situation), rather than adding fuel to the fire," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

- 'De-escalating' -

The remarks from Pyongyang would appear to bring into play the large-scale military exercises held every year by South Korea and the United States that are expected to kick off later this month.

The North has always denounced the drills as provocative rehearsals for invasion and has in the past offered a moratorium on further nuclear and missile testing in exchange for their cancellation -- a trade-off promoted by Beijing, but repeatedly rejected by Washington and Seoul.

Some analysts said Kim was seeking a similar quid-pro-quo this time around, using the Guam missile threat as leverage.

"This is a direct invitation to talk reciprocal constraints on exercises and missile launches," said Adam Mount, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

John Delury of Yonsei University in Seoul said Kim was "de-escalating, putting Guam plan on ice" -- at least for now.

The United States and South Korea insist their annual joint exercises are purely defensive, and cannot be linked to the North's missile programme, which violates a host of UN resolutions.

North Korea Tuesday also appeared to link the fate of its US prisoners to ongoing tensions, saying now is not the right time to discuss their release.

Three Americans, accused of various crimes against the state, are behind bars in the hermit nation.

- 'Fire and fury' -

The North Korean announcement prompted joy in Guam, where officials described themselves as "almost ecstatic that Kim Jong-Un has backed off".

Tensions have been mounting since the North tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, which appeared to bring much of the US within range.

Responding to the tests, US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang of "fire and fury like the world has never seen", while the North responded with the Guam threat.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In weighed in on Tuesday, saying Seoul would avoid a second Korean War at all costs and "no one may decide to take military action without the consent of the Republic of Korea".

But he added there could be no dialogue before the North halts its "nuclear and missile provocations".

Moon's comments came after US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson penned an opinion piece in the The Wall Street Journal insisting that America has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang.

"We do not seek an excuse to garrison US troops north of the Demilitarized Zone," they wrote. "We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang."

Mattis and Tillerson called on China, which is North Korea's main trading partner, to take advantage of an "unparalleled opportunity" to assert its influence on Pyongyang, and bring its errant neighbour to heel.

NUKEWARS
Haunted by memories of war, Korean-US seniors on edge
New York (AFP) Aug 11, 2017
Memories of war haunt elderly Koreans in New York when they think about the gathering nuclear crisis between their homeland and the country they adopted in search of the American dream. Four million people perished in the 1950-53 Korean War between a US-backed South and China-backed North Korea. It was a bloodbath that ended in stalemate and today lies behind diplomatic panic, depressed mark ... read more

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com


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