CINA

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The following is a summary of the joint communique issued last Friday(10.8) by South Korean 'Defense' Minister Kim Tae-young and U.S. 'Defense' Secretary Robert Gates after the 42nd Security Consultative Meeting in Washington:

 
The South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates...

...reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. and ROK presidents to build a comprehensive strategic alliance of bilateral, regional and global scope, based on common values and mutual trust, as set forth in the June 2009 Joint Vision for the Alliance of the ROK and the U.S.

...reaffirmed their shared view expressed at the ROK-U.S. Foreign and Defense Ministers' Meeting in July that both sides acknowledged the close bilateral cooperation regarding the North Korean nuclear issue, and urged North Korea to carry out the complete and verifiable abandonment of all its nuclear programs and pursuit of nuclear weapons and demonstrate through concrete actions its genuine will to denuclearize.

 
...reaffirmed that North Korean aggression and provocation are not to be tolerated and that the U.S. and ROK intend to work shoulder-to-shoulder to demonstrate their combined resolve. They also reaffirmed their shared view that the ROK ship Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean attack.

 
...reaffirmed the two nations' mutual commitment to the fundamental mission of the alliance to defend the Republic of Korea through a robust combined defense posture, as well as to the enhancement of mutual security based on the Mutual Defense Treaty.

 
...agreed to institutionalize an Extended Deterrence Policy Committee, which will serve as a cooperation mechanism to enhance the effectiveness of extended deterrence.

 
...received a report on the results of the U.S.-ROK Military Committee Meeting from the commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, General Walter L. Sharp, which highlighted that the combined defense posture is capable and ready to "fight tonight," and that it is prepared to effectively respond to any provocation, instability or aggression.

 
...confirmed a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the alliance in years to come, including achieving the transition of wartime operational control to the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2015.

...affirmed and signed the Guidelines for U.S.-ROK Defense Cooperation, a document that seeks to embody the future vision of the U.S.-ROK alliance, as agreed through the Joint Vision Statement last year.

 
...affirmed and signed the Strategic Planning Guidance, which provides the U.S.-ROK Military Committee with the strategic guidance and authorization necessary to direct the development of operational planning.

  
Related articles:
☞ S.K., U.S. to organize... extending nuclear deterrence (Hankyoreh, 10.9)

☞ Korea, U.S. form group to deter North’s nukes (JoongAng Ilbo, 10.9)

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Last Thursday's Guardian(UK) had a beautiful, impressive example of lived solidarity between Israeli and Palestinian women:

Sun, sea and grit: Israeli and West Bank women

risk jail for day at the beach

The day starts early, at a petrol station alongside a roaring Jerusalem road. The mood among the 15 Israeli women is a little tense, but it's hardly surprising – they're about to break the law and with it one of the country's taboos. They plan to drive into the occupied West Bank, pick up Palestinian women and children and take them on a day trip to Tel Aviv.

Today's is the second such trip – another group of women went public with a similar action last month. It is hoped that these will become regular outings, designed to create awareness of the laws that govern movement for Palestinians, and to challenge the fears that Israelis have about travelling into the West Bank.

Riki is a 63-year-old from Tel Aviv who, like the other women did not want to give her surname. She said it took her time to sign up to the trips. "I was resistant to breaking the law. But then I realised that civil action is the only way to go forward, that breaking an illegal law becomes legal."

The women take off in a convoy of cars, through an Israeli checkpoint used by settlers and into several villages around Hebron. There are dozens of Palestinian women waiting for them and each Israeli driver is allocated passengers.

As two young Palestinian women climb into the car, they remove hijabs, scarves and floor-length coats to reveal skinny jeans and long hair – a look that ensures they pass through the Israeli settler-only checkpoint without scrutiny. "I am afraid of the soldiers," said 21-year-old Sara, nervously. But she and 19-year-old Sahar, visibly relax as the car breezes past the checkpoint.

They pull CDs out of bags and are soon listening to loud Arabic dabke music as the car heads along a road that joins the main highway to Tel Aviv. "It's like we are using the tools of the occupation," said Irit, one of the drivers. "It just wouldn't occur to the soldiers at the checkpoints that Israeli women would want to do this."

As Tel Aviv nears, the Palestinian passengers silently survey the tall buildings and outdoor cafes and seem especially taken with the ubiquitous motorcycles and mopeds that speed around the city. "I would like to ride on one, like that," said Sara, pointing to a woman in shorts perched on the back of a bike. But all the Palestinian women have just one request: to go to the sea. For most, it's their first trip to the seaside, even though it is a short drive from home.

The passengers join another carload and head to the promenade in Jaffa, the mixed Arab-Israeli city stuck to the tail-end of Tel Aviv, where the Palestinian women race to greet the waves crashing against the bright rocks. "It is so much more beautiful than I thought," said Nawal, watching her gleeful seven-year-old daughter skipping backwards to avoid being sprayed by the waves. "It is more beautiful than on TV, the colour is amazing."

Fatima, 24, gazes out at the horizon. "I didn't know that the sound of the sea is so relaxing," she said. Sara asks for a sheet of paper, speedily folds it into a paper boat and writes her name on it, intending to set it out to sea. "So that it will remember me," she said.

The group convenes at a Jaffa restaurant – about 45 of them in total, including seven children. They are a cheerful party stretched across two long tables. From afar they seem just like any other restaurant party, as the women chat about children, weight gain and health.

But the excursion is far from ordinary. All Palestinians need permits to enter Israel and the penalties for not doing so can involve imprisonment. It is also against the law for Israelis to "smuggle" Palestinians without a permit across the Green Line.

A few months ago Ilana Hammerman, an Israeli journalist, wrote an account of her day trip to Tel Aviv with West Bank Palestinians in Haaretz newspaper. That prompted a criminal investigation against her, for violating Israel's law of entry. But it also inspired a group of women to take the same trip and then take an advertisement in the newspaper to publicise the fact. Since then, there have been hundreds of signatories to a petition of support and many women, on both sides, ready to defy the law.

That's one of the purposes of the action, said Esti, who has been on both trips. "We want more Israelis to realise that there is nothing to be scared of. We want more people to refuse to accept the ideology that keeps us apart – and to just refuse to be enemies."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/palestinian-women-smuggled-israeli-beaches

Related article:
☞ Palestinian women smuggled into Tel Aviv for day of fun (Haaretz, 8.10)

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Tokyo, Yasukuni Shrine, two days ago: Representatives of European and Japanese ultra-nationalist/racist/fascist organisations honored the war criminals of the Imperial Japanese Army. The European delegation, which included ultra-right/fascist politicians from France, GB, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Belgium, has been invited to Japan by Issuikai, an extreme right-wing association that denies Japanese war crimes and wants to build a global alliance of nationalist groups to fight American "hegemony".

Yesterday's Xinhua (P.R. China) reported the following:

  
       European right-wing politicians visit Yasukuni Shrine 
 
European right-wing politicians including French Jean-Marie Le Pen on Saturday paid a visit to Japan's Yasukuni Shrine that has drawn outrage for honoring war criminals.

The visit came one day ahead of the 65th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.

Le Pen, leader of the far-right French National Front, told reporters after the visit that the move was to pay respect to those who died in war for their country.

The Japanese shrine, which is located in Tokyo, honors 2.5 million war dead including 14 top war criminals. China, Korea and other Asian countries regard that it glorifies Japan's past militarism.

In the past, Asian countries had been outraged by visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese politicians.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said earlier that he will not visit the Yasukuni Shrine during his tenure. All of the ministers of Kan's Cabinet also said they will not visit the shrine Sunday.

Tens of thousands of soldiers as well as civilians of European countries were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army as they waged war of aggression against former colonies of Europe in Asia at the beginning of World War II. Thousands of them were believed to have been executed, tortured and starved to death in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/14/c_13445030.htm

Related articles:
☞ Far right pays tribute to Japan's 'war heroes' (Independent, 8.14)

☞ European Right-Wing Leaders Visit Japan War Shrine (WSJ, 8.14)

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Today's "top story" in the int'l (at least 'western') media:

A huge cache of secret US military files provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how "coalition forces" have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks ("The Afghanistan War Diary") in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years...

Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing...

The war logs also detail:
• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.
• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date...

But while the war logs/diary shows the true face of the war in Afghanistan the White House (surprise, surprise!) is attacking WikiLeaks, according to today's Spiegel online edition...

For more detailed info please check out Guardian's special section "Afghanistan War Logs" or WikiLeaks' "Afghanistan War Diary"!

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1. The North Korean envoy to the United Nations, Shin Son-ho, called the statement condemning the sinking of the S. Korean warship Cheonan, which the Security Council passed unanimously Friday, “our great diplomatic victory” according to NYT(7.09).

2. The following is the full text of the "Presidential Statement" adopted last Friday(7.09) by the U.N. Security Council on the March 26 sinking of South Korean warship Cheonan:

 
The Security Council notes the letter dated 4 June 2010 from the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2010/281), and the letter dated 8 June 2010 from the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2010/294).

 
The Security Council deplores the attack on 26 March 2010 which led to the sinking of the ROK naval ship, the Cheonan, resulting in the tragic loss of 46 lives.

 
The Security Council determines that such an incident endangers peace and security in the region and beyond.

 
The Security Council deplores the loss of life and injuries and expresses its deep sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families and to the people and Government of the ROK, and calls for appropriate and peaceful measures to be taken against those responsible for the incident aimed at the peaceful settlement of the issue in accordance with the UN Charter and all relevant provisions of international law.

 
In view of the findings of the Joint Civilian-Military Investigation Group led by the ROK with the participation of five nations, which concluded that the DPRK was responsible for sinking the Cheonan, the Security Council expresses its deep concern.

 
The Security Council takes note of the responses from other relevant parties, including from the DPRK, which has stated that it had nothing to do with the incident.

 
Therefore, the Security Council condemns the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan.

 
The Security Council underscores the importance of preventing further such attacks or hostilities against the ROK or in the region.

 
The Security Council welcomes the restraint shown by the ROK and stresses the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in northeast Asia as a whole.

 
The Security Council calls for full adherence to the Korean Armistice Agreement and encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean peninsula by peaceful means to resume direct dialogue and negotiation through appropriate channels as early as possible, with a view to avoiding conflicts and averting escalation."

 
The Security Council reaffirms the importance that all Member States uphold the purposes and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

3. NK's FM on Presidential Statement of UNSC on "Cheonan" Case: 
  
A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry on Saturday gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA as regards the issue of the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council on the "Cheonan" case:

The south Korean authorities brought up the case for discussion at the UNSC, but it concluded the discussion on this issue by issuing its presidential statement devoid of any proper judgment and conclusion without adopting any resolution on it.

A particular mention should be made of the fact that the UNSC took heed of the reactions of the countries concerned including the DPRK which clarified that it had nothing to do with the case.

The discussion could not have ended up otherwise as the UNSC hastily tabled and handled the case before the truth of the case has been probed.

This clearly proves what a foolish calculation the U.S. and south Korea made when they were recklessly behaving in so great haste to do harm to the DPRK for no reason.

We take note of the presidential statement saying that "the Security Council encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean Peninsula by peaceful means to resume direct dialogue and negotiation through appropriate channels."

The "Cheonan" case should have been settled between the north and the south without referring it to the UN.

The DPRK remains unchanged in its stand to probe the truth about the case to the last.

The south Korean authorities should strictly preserve the scene of the incident including the state of seabed as they were till the inspection team of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK reaches there.

The recent development in which the overall situation on the Korean Peninsula reached a point of explosion in a moment due to a conspiratorial farce once again reminds us of the danger of the present cease-fire and the urgency to establish a peace-keeping regime.

The DPRK will make consistent efforts for the conclusion of a peace treaty and the denuclearization through the six-party talks conducted on equal footing.

If the hostile forces persist in such provocations as demonstration of forces and sanctions in contravention of the presidential statement which calls for "avoiding conflicts and averting escalation" on the Korean Peninsula, they will neither be able to escape the DPRK's strong physical retaliation nor will be able to evade the responsibility for the resultant escalation of the conflict.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201007/news10/20100710-09ee.html

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First of all, here's the quotation of the week (my top favorite... well, I really, really like it!!): If the south Korean puppet forces show any sign of the slightest provocation, political, military and economic, against the DPRK, backed by the U.S. imperialists, we will immediately react to them by the just tactics of wiping out one by one, eliminate all rubbish of the nation from the Korean Peninsula and build on it rich and powerful reunified Korea where all Koreans enjoy prosperity (source: "A military commentator" via KCNA, 5.25).

Yesterday's KCNA "reported" the following:

KPA to Destroy Means of S. Side's Psychological Warfare 

 As already reported, the south Korean puppet military gangsters have carved slogans for anti-DPRK psychological warfare on walls of MP posts in the Demilitarized Zone along the Military Demarcation Line and are busy resuming the loudspeaker propaganda as part of the said warfare.

The head of the north side delegation to the north-south general-level military talks Wednesday sent the following notice to the south side as regards the reckless moves of the bellicose forces of the puppet military to resume the psychological warfare against the DPRK:

Recently the south side frantically conducted the operation to distribute anti-DPRK leaflets despite our side's repeated warnings and, not content with this, is going reckless to resume even the said anti-DPRK broadcasting in the frontline area.

Such act is nothing but a deliberate and premeditated provocation aimed to push the daily aggravating inter-Korean relations to the brink of war.

If the south side persists in scattering leaflets and resumes even the above-said broadcasting, the Korean People's Army will be compelled to promptly take its strong counter-actions including physical actions.

If the south side sets up even loudspeakers in the frontline area to resume the broadcasting, in particular, the KPA will take military steps to blow up one by one the moment they appear by firing sighting shots because such action will be tantamount to a blatant abrogation of the north-south military agreement and a military provocation against the DPRK.

Moreover, measures will be taken to totally ban the passage of personnel and vehicles of the south side in the zone under the north-south control in the western coastal area.

The south Korean puppet war-like forces would be well advised to act with discretion, bearing deep in mind that such measures of the KPA will not end in an empty talk.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201005/news26/20100526-15ee.html

Related articles:
☞ North Korea Likely to Attack Broadcasting (DailyNK, 5.27)
☞ N. Korea wary of Seoul’s psychological campaign (K. Herald, 5.26)
☞ CPRK Declares Resolute Actions against S. Korea (KCNA, 5.25)

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Today's 'top stories' in the int'l media:

Seoul resumes psychological warfare with Pyongyang
North Korea 'on combat alert'

Already y'day Korea Times reported the following:

NK threatens to fire at loudspeakers 
 

North Korea threatened to fire at South Korean loudspeakers along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and destroy them, Monday, if Seoul resumes propaganda broadcasting...

"If South Korea installs new speakers for psychological warfare, we will directly aim at them and open fire to destroy them," an unnamed North Korean military commander said in a statement, carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

"If the South Korean traitors challenge our rightful response, we will counter with mightier physical strikes to eliminate the root cause of their provocation," the statement said...

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said, along with other measures, the South would restart psychological operations against the communist North, including loud broadcasts of propaganda along the DMZ.

Kim warned of counter attacks if the North fires at the speakers: "If the North disrupts our psychological warfare by opening fire at loudspeakers, we will counterattack immediately,"...

 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/116_66406.html

Meanwhile, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) reported today, “On the 20th when the announcement of the results of the Cheonan incident investigation were revealed, Oh Keuk-ryul, the Vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission stated on the Third Broadcast, cable radio for North Korean residents, ‘Chairman Kim Jong Il has ordered the entire army, the People’s Safety Ministry, the National Security Agency, Worker and Peasant Red Guard and the Young Red Guard to move to a war footing.’” (source: DailyNK, 5.25)

Well, it seems that we're approaching f*cking "interesting times"!!

Related articles (just as examples):
☞ S Korea resumes border broadcasts (al-Jazeera, 5.25)
☞ Kim Jong-Il Orders Military to Prepare for Combat (Bloomberg, 5.25)
 

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Barely disguised as "just a foreigner's opinion" Korea Times published y'day the following piece of sh... : "Should Seoul Ready Itself for Korean War II?"

Quote: "North Korea is Korea's implacable enemy. They are recalcitrant, violent, and predictably treacherous...
The more I look upon this great and present danger, this large and looming evil, the more I feel my neo-con friends may have it right: we may need to reduce Pyongyang to dust and shadow..."

Looks like the ghosts of the past are greeting... But possibly it's still the wet dream of the S. Korean ruling class (resp. its most reactionary parts, incl. the LMB administration)??!!
At least it's a f***ing "great" opportunity for the N. Korean propaganda machine to exploit it (^^Good job, dear K. Times!!^^)...

Related article:

☞ Seoul may cut trade with N. Korea (K. Herald, 4.25)

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Asia Times(HK) published last week(4.07) the following excellent piece:

Collateral Pentagon
By Pepe Escobar

"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

That was General Stanley McChrystal, supreme commander of United States forces in Afghanistan, late last month - during one of the virtual "town hall" meetings held with US troops every two weeks, as reported in the New York Times.

McChrystal added, "To my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it."

So here's the war hero responsible for conducting President Barack Obama's "good war" in Afghanistan admitting on the record what really goes on at times in these checkpoints, while also shedding some light over those recurrent missile bombings of Afghan wedding parties.

Since Obama's summer 2009 surge in Afghanistan, US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops killed 30 and wounded more than 80 Afghans in convoy and checkpoint shootings; that's only the "official", documented list.

McChrystal's spokesman, Tadd Sholtis, said the general was basically using his comments to urge his soldiers to exercise "courageous restraint". Public opinion in the Pentagon-defined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia may see it for what it is: the "rules of engagement" for a Pentagon serially engaged in perpetrating "collateral damage".

'Look at those dead bastards'

 
The direct connection between the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the prevailing "shoot an amazing number of people" rules of engagement in both, has just been provided by the small, independent Wikileaks website.

This Monday, Wikileaks released an up-to-now secret, decrypted air strike video of a massacre of civilians in the southeastern suburb of New Baghdad on July 12, 2007, conducted by the 30mm cannon fire of Apache helicopters. The website said the video and supporting documents were offered by "military whistleblowers".

Wikileaks calls it "Collateral Murder" (see the video at www.collateralmurder.com) . This is definitely not Academy Award winner The Hurt Locker - where American soldiers are selfless heroes and Iraqis are faceless ghosts. This is real life - with American soldiers as video game killers and Iraqis as corpses. These are the kind of heroes who mistake a telephoto lens for an rocket-propelled grenade.

The video speaks for itself. Among those gunned down from above were Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40 (both shot dead), as well as two Baghdad kids (both seriously wounded).

Reuters had been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act since 2007. David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters news, released a statement on Monday saying, "The video ... is graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result." No criticism of the Pentagon, not even when all the signs point to a Pentagon-orchestrated cover-up. "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said at the time.

As a document of the tragedy and absurdity of the continuum Afghanistan-Iraq - and of a series of Pentagon-sanctioned war crimes - this video tells it like it is, louder than any anti-war manifesto published or broadcast since 2001. And no - it will not be running for Best Documentary Short in the 2011 Oscars.

"Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards."
"Nice."
"Good shoot'n."
"Thank you."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LD07Ak01.html

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