Monday, June 29, 2009

DTN News: North Korea Threatens To Shoot Down Japanese Planes

DTN News: North Korea Threatens To Shoot Down Japanese Planes
*Sources: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) SEOUL, South Korea - June 29, 2009: North Korea warned June 27 that any Japanese plane entering its airspace would be shot down for spying, as recent surveillance suggests Pyongyang may be preparing to fire more missiles. A Korean Airlines plane carrying South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak taxies at Tokyo International airport in Tokyo, on June 28, 2009. President Lee is on a one-day visit to Japan for talks with Prime Minister Taro Aso, with simmering tensions over North Korea's nuclear programmes topping the agenda. "The air force of the Korean People's Army will not tolerate even a bit the aerial espionage by the warmongers of the Japanese aggression forces but mercilessly shoot down any plane intruding into the territorial air of the DPRK [North Korea] even 0.001 millimeter," the North Korean Air Force said in a statement. It said a Japanese AWACS aircraft made a long shuttle flight into airspace between the cities of Wonsan and Musudan-ri on June 26. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak hold a joint press conference at Aso's official residence in Tokyo on June 28, 2009. South Korea and Japan "will never tolerate" a nuclear-armed North Korea, Lee said after talks with Aso. Similar aerial espionage was committed June 25, it said. The North used Musudan-ri for its three previous long-range missile launches, in 1998, 2006 and April 5. North Korea will likely fire short- or mid-range missiles in waters off its east coast from which it has banned shipping, a senior South Korean government official said June 24. The North has warned foreign ships to stay clear of an extensive area for 16 days starting June 25 because of unspecified military exercises. South Korean students look at a uranium monitor at the Seoul Science Research Institute in Seoul, South Korea. After repudiating negotiations on dismantling its plutonium-based nuclear program, North Korea admitted in June 2009 to having an even more worrying way to make bombs. After nearly seven years of adamant denials, North Korea announced it can enrich uranium, a simpler way to build nuclear weapons than using plutonium. The Korean letters read: "Uranium Atomic Nucleus." Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said the communist state would probably fire Scuds with a range of up to 500 kilometers (312 miles) or ground-to-ship missiles with a 160-kilometer range into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea. Washington has said it is prepared for the possibility that the North could also fire a long-range missile toward Hawaii, perhaps July 4, which is U.S. Independence Day.

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