SEOUL (AFP) -
North Korea' on Thursday test-fired two short-range missiles, less than two weeks after its previous launch, the South Korean military said.
The communist state fired two missiles into the Yellow Sea, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.
They are believed to be ground-to-ship or ship-to-ship missiles with a range of some 100 kilometres (62.5 miles), he said. All landed in North Korean waters.
The spokesman said the launches were among the routine missile tests North Korea carries out every year. "We consider today's launch as part of routine military training, as was the May 25 launch."
Japan said the latest tests were unlikely to pose an immediate threat and it had no plans to heighten its alert against North Korea, Jiji Press quoted a defence ministry official as saying.
But the tests come at a sensitive time as US and other negotiators are struggling to settle a banking row which is blocking a start to the North's promised nuclear disarmament.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe criticised the launches, in a comment from a G-8 summit.
"The United States and our allies believe that North Korea should refrain from testing missiles," said Johndroe.
"North Korea should focus on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and fulfil its obligations under the February 13 agreement. This kind of activity is not constructive."
Under the six-nation February pact, the North agreed to disable its nuclear programmes in return for massive aid and diplomatic benefits.
But it refuses to make a start until it receives 25 million dollars which had been frozen in a Macau bank since 2005 at US instigation.
The US says the funds have been freed but the North has been unable to find a foreign bank willing to make the transfer.
The May 25 launch came on the same day South Korea launched its first Aegis destroyer, which is equipped with advanced defences against air and sea attack.
Analysts said at the time the launch may have been timed to coincide with that event, or might be an expression of frustration at the delay in solving the banking row.
The North's missile launches have heightened tensions in the region in the past decade. In 1998 it sparked alarm in Japan by test-firing a missile over that country.
In July last year it test-fired seven missiles, including its Taepodong-2 that in theory could reach the US west coast. Those launches brought UN condemnation and missile-related sanctions.
In October last year the North heightened alarm worldwide by carrying out its first nuclear test. Analysts say it is not yet thought to have the expertise to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Korean generals hold rare talks
May 8, 2007 - Senior army generals from North and South Korea have met for rare talks that could see the first border rail crossings in more than 50 years. More here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6623095.stm
Thousands of S.Korean POWs 'Disappeared in Russia'
April 13, 2007 - North Korea sent thousands of South Korean prisoners of war to the former Soviet Union during the Korean War, the U.S. edition of the Hankook Ilbo reported citing a newly declassified U.S. document on Wednesday. The South Korean POWs have never been repatriated.
Entitled “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union,” the report was written in August 1993 based on testimony obtained by the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission Support Branch of the Research and Analysis Division under the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) after the Cold War ended.
South Korean prisoners of war step out of an ambulance in Munsan, South Korea after they were released following an April 26, 1953 agreement to exchange war prisoner during the Korean War.
According to the report, the former North Korean officer Kan San Kho stated in November 1992 that he assisted in the transfer of thousands of South Korean POWs into 300 to 400 camps in the Soviet Union, most in the taiga but some in Central Asia as well. Already in May 1953, Zygmunt Nagorski, a reporter with the magazine Esquire, covered the transfer of South Korean POWs and their life in the Soviet Union in an in-depth report based on testimony from two agents of the Russian Interior Ministry and an employee of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
The witnesses testified the transit point was through the North Korean-Soviet border at Pos'yet between November 1951 and April 1952 when ice closed the Pacific coast and the Tatar Straits. “These POWs were taken from Pos'yet through Chita by rail to Molotov” now Perm. According to the 1993 report, “The exploitation of POWs as Soviet state policy was blatantly contained in the minutes of a Sept. 19, 1952 meeting between Stalin and Chinese Foreign Minister Chou en-lai in which he recommended that the Communists keep back 20 percent of United Nations POWs as hostages.” The POWs sent to the Chukotsk Peninsula, apparently at least 12,000 of them, “were used to build roads, electric power plants, and airfields. There was a high mortality rate among all these prisoners.”
Entitled “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union,” the report was written in August 1993 based on testimony obtained by the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission Support Branch of the Research and Analysis Division under the Defense POW/MIA Office (DPMO) after the Cold War ended.
South Korean prisoners of war step out of an ambulance in Munsan, South Korea after they were released following an April 26, 1953 agreement to exchange war prisoner during the Korean War.
According to the report, the former North Korean officer Kan San Kho stated in November 1992 that he assisted in the transfer of thousands of South Korean POWs into 300 to 400 camps in the Soviet Union, most in the taiga but some in Central Asia as well. Already in May 1953, Zygmunt Nagorski, a reporter with the magazine Esquire, covered the transfer of South Korean POWs and their life in the Soviet Union in an in-depth report based on testimony from two agents of the Russian Interior Ministry and an employee of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
The witnesses testified the transit point was through the North Korean-Soviet border at Pos'yet between November 1951 and April 1952 when ice closed the Pacific coast and the Tatar Straits. “These POWs were taken from Pos'yet through Chita by rail to Molotov” now Perm. According to the 1993 report, “The exploitation of POWs as Soviet state policy was blatantly contained in the minutes of a Sept. 19, 1952 meeting between Stalin and Chinese Foreign Minister Chou en-lai in which he recommended that the Communists keep back 20 percent of United Nations POWs as hostages.” The POWs sent to the Chukotsk Peninsula, apparently at least 12,000 of them, “were used to build roads, electric power plants, and airfields. There was a high mortality rate among all these prisoners.”
Koreas Debate Mineral Exploration Rights
North and South Korea opened working-level talks Thursday to work out a deal swapping raw materials for mineral exploration rights, the South's Unification Ministry said. The two-day meeting at the North's border city of Kaesong comes a month after Seoul agreed to give Pyongyang $80 million worth of raw materials for making clothes, shoes and soap in exchange for rights to develop mineral resources in the North. More here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_bi_ge/koreas_economic_talks_2;_ylt=AvglQ3W3yzBFXE7AHTxNU3Tjr4cA
Monday, June 4, 2007
What is Globalisation?
In economic terms, globalisation refers to the growing economic integration of the world, as trade, investment and money increasingly cross international borders (which may or may not have political or cultural implications).
Globalisation is not new, but is a product of the industrial revolution. Britain grew rich in the 19th century as the first global economic superpower, because of its superior manufacturing technology and improved global communications such as steamships and railroads.
But the pace, scope and scale of globalisation have accelerated dramatically since World War II, and especially in the last 25 years.
The rapid spread of information technology (IT) and the internet is changing the way companies organise production, and increasingly allowing services as well as manufacturing to be globalised.
Who leads in global IT outsourcing
Globalisation is also being driven by the decision by India and China to open their economies to the world, thus doubling the global labour force overnight.
The role of trade
Trade has been the engine of globalisation, with world trade in manufactured goods increasing more than 100 times (from $95bn to $12 trillion) in the 50 years since 1955, much faster than the overall growth of the world economy.
Since 1960, increased trade has been made easier by international agreements to lower tariff and non-tariff barriers on the export of manufactured goods, especially to rich countries.
Globalisation is not new, but is a product of the industrial revolution. Britain grew rich in the 19th century as the first global economic superpower, because of its superior manufacturing technology and improved global communications such as steamships and railroads.
But the pace, scope and scale of globalisation have accelerated dramatically since World War II, and especially in the last 25 years.
The rapid spread of information technology (IT) and the internet is changing the way companies organise production, and increasingly allowing services as well as manufacturing to be globalised.
Who leads in global IT outsourcing
Globalisation is also being driven by the decision by India and China to open their economies to the world, thus doubling the global labour force overnight.
The role of trade
Trade has been the engine of globalisation, with world trade in manufactured goods increasing more than 100 times (from $95bn to $12 trillion) in the 50 years since 1955, much faster than the overall growth of the world economy.
Since 1960, increased trade has been made easier by international agreements to lower tariff and non-tariff barriers on the export of manufactured goods, especially to rich countries.
Globalisation Good or Bad?
Globalisation is a word that is on everyone's lips these days, from politicians to businessmen. BBC News is launching a major examination of the subject.
Few places in the world have seen the dramatic effects of globalisation more than Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, which is experiencing an unprecedented IT boom that is transforming the prospects of the Indian economy.
For Santosh, a tour guide in Bangalore, life is good. As a result of the IT boom, he has launched his own web-based travel firm, getoffurass.com, and is doing a booming business selling weekend getaway holidays to stressed-out IT workers.
Globalisation: Key facts
Globalisation: Have Your Say
For Dean Braid, a skilled car engineer in Flint, Michigan, life is not so good. He - and 28,000 other workers - were laid off from Buick City when GM closed the complex in 1999, and hasn't worked since.
Globalisation is blamed for many of the ills of the modern world, but it is also praised for bringing unprecedented prosperity.
But what is globalisation, and what are the forces that are shaping it?
Globalisation - good or bad?
The accelerating pace of globalisation is having a profound effect on life in rich and poor countries alike, transforming regions such as Detroit or Bangalore from boom to bust - or vice versa - in a generation.
Many economists believe globalisation may be the explanation for key trends in the world economy such as:
Lower wages for workers, and higher profits, in Western economies
The flood of migrants to cities in poor countries
Low inflation and low interest rates despite strong growth
And globalisation has played a key role in the unprecedented increase in prosperity in the last 50 years, which is now spreading from the United States and Europe to include many formerly poor countries in Asia, including China and India.
Few places in the world have seen the dramatic effects of globalisation more than Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, which is experiencing an unprecedented IT boom that is transforming the prospects of the Indian economy.
For Santosh, a tour guide in Bangalore, life is good. As a result of the IT boom, he has launched his own web-based travel firm, getoffurass.com, and is doing a booming business selling weekend getaway holidays to stressed-out IT workers.
Globalisation: Key facts
Globalisation: Have Your Say
For Dean Braid, a skilled car engineer in Flint, Michigan, life is not so good. He - and 28,000 other workers - were laid off from Buick City when GM closed the complex in 1999, and hasn't worked since.
Globalisation is blamed for many of the ills of the modern world, but it is also praised for bringing unprecedented prosperity.
But what is globalisation, and what are the forces that are shaping it?
Globalisation - good or bad?
The accelerating pace of globalisation is having a profound effect on life in rich and poor countries alike, transforming regions such as Detroit or Bangalore from boom to bust - or vice versa - in a generation.
Many economists believe globalisation may be the explanation for key trends in the world economy such as:
Lower wages for workers, and higher profits, in Western economies
The flood of migrants to cities in poor countries
Low inflation and low interest rates despite strong growth
And globalisation has played a key role in the unprecedented increase in prosperity in the last 50 years, which is now spreading from the United States and Europe to include many formerly poor countries in Asia, including China and India.
China Starts A New Bankruptcy Law
China has introduced a new bankruptcy law that gives creditors precedence over workers when it comes to claiming the assets of failed companies.
The law also means that, for the first time, private Chinese firms that have failed will be allowed to collapse.
Previously they existed in a legal limbo - their assets could not be released and their debts could not be struck from their creditors' books.
The change is seen as another step in China's move to a capitalist economy.
The new law further means that failed state enterprises can also now be officially liquidated for the first time.
Until now, studies estimate that there are about 30 million Chinese people listed on the employment rolls of public companies that are no longer operational.
The law also means that, for the first time, private Chinese firms that have failed will be allowed to collapse.
Previously they existed in a legal limbo - their assets could not be released and their debts could not be struck from their creditors' books.
The change is seen as another step in China's move to a capitalist economy.
The new law further means that failed state enterprises can also now be officially liquidated for the first time.
Until now, studies estimate that there are about 30 million Chinese people listed on the employment rolls of public companies that are no longer operational.
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