Japan Launches Spy Satellite

TOKYO - Japan launched a new spy satellite into orbit Dec. 12 amid concerns over North Korea's missile program and to monitor natural disasters in the region, officials said.

The Japanese H-2A rocket carrying an information-gathering radar satellite lifted off at 10:21 a.m. local time from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan.

"The rocket was launched successfully," said Toshiyuki Miura, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the satellite and worked on the launch with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

"The satellite was separated into orbit around the Earth later," Miura added.

The government decided to build an intelligence-gathering system after North Korea launched a missile in 1998 that flew over the Japanese archipelago and into the Pacific, shocking many in Japan.

In defiance of international pressure, North Korea launched what was believed to be a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile in April 2009, with an estimated range of 6,700 kilometers (4,100 miles).

Japan has three operating optical satellites. Two radar ones were successfully placed into orbit, but both broke down later. Another optical satellite was launched in September but is not yet functioning.

Demand for land surveillance grew, meanwhile, after Japan's March 11 quake and tsunami, which killed some 20,000 people and crippled cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, northeast of Tokyo, causing reactor meltdowns.

"The project is aimed at boosting security and monitoring land in case of sizable natural disasters like the one in March," a government official said, adding that the current three satellites were used to track the March calamity.

"If everything goes smoothly, it will be the first radar satellite under the program," the official said. "With the radar satellite, we can introduce wider usage of the system."

Radar satellites are able to capture images at night and in cloudy weather, something that optical satellites cannot.

The latest satellite cost some 39.8 billion yen ($512 million) to develop, while the launch cost about 10.3 billion yen, Kyodo News reported.

JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy had originally planned to launch the satellite Dec. 11, but it was postponed due to bad weather.

Afghanistan Needs Continuous Support After 2014: Karzai

BONN, Germany - According to President Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan will remain dependent on international assistance for the foreseeable future.

At the opening of the conference on Afghanistan here on Dec. 5, titled "From Transition to Transformation," he asked for further help from the international community for at least 10 years after 2014, when most foreign troops will leave.

More than 1,000 delegates, including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, met in the former German capital to discuss Afghanistan's future.

"Three key issues will be on the agenda for Bonn: the civilian aspects of transition until 2014, the political process in Afghanistan as well as a long-term commitment to Afghanistan beyond 2014," a German foreign office spokesperson said.

According to Ban, progress has already been made since the invasion in 2001.

"Together, we have supported the return of 4.6 million Afghan refugees," Ban said: "We have enrolled 7.3 million more children in school and helped deliver better health care.

"As Afghanistan assumes full responsibility for its security, the government and its international partners must shift and intensify their focus on the non-military aspects of transition - on development, on governance and on extending effective civilian authority throughout Afghanistan," Ban said.

In addition to delegates from other states and organizations, Ban and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ensured their support. However, both asked the Afghan president and his government to more aggressively fight corruption and drug-trafficking, and demanded greater efforts to promote women rights and national reconciliation.

"We will tackle corruption more effectively," Karzai had promised the delegates earlier. He also announced reforms to government institutions and the civil service. Afghanistan does not want to be a burden on the international community any longer than necessary, he said.

During the conference, many nations and organizations, including the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations, vowed to continue supporting Afghanistan after the troop withdrawal.

"A stable and peaceful Afghanistan which does not pose a threat to the world is in the interest of all of us," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said during his opening remarks.

Among the conference participants were about 60 foreign ministers, but there were no representatives of the Taliban or Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan. The latter boycotted the meeting because of a U.S. airstrike near the Afghan border on Nov. 26 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi used the meeting to demand the closure of all international military bases in Afghanistan and criticized the International Security Assistance Force.

Jo Nakano, Japanese vice minister of foreign affairs, announced that his country would host a ministerial conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo in July 2012.

"The conference will address, in addition to the coordination of international economic assistance through the transition period, Afghanistan's strategy for sustainable development including regional economic cooperation," he said.

Japan, China Eye Plan to Avoid Sea Disputes

BEIJING - Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba asked China's Premier Wen Jiabao to agree to set up a "crisis management mechanism" aiming to avoid conflict over disputed waters, reports said Nov. 23.
China and Japan have often had strained relations, particularly over claims to East China Sea gas fields and disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.

Gemba - on a one-day visit to Beijing - also called for the resumption of negotiations towards a treaty on a joint gas development project in the East China Sea, Kyodo News agency reported, quoting the Japanese foreign ministry.
His talks with Wen were also to lay the ground for a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to China later this year.
In his meeting with Gemba, Wen said Japan and China should work together to boost development in East Asia, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"The just-concluded East Asia Summit has demonstrated a strong trend of forging solidarity, development and cooperation within the region," Wen said, referring to the weekend meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Gamba later met his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, who told him Beijing would "seriously consider" further easing restrictions on food imports from Japan imposed after an earthquake and tsunami triggered the country's nuclear crisis in March, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported. Gamba was then due to return to Tokyo.
The crisis management mechanism has been described by Japanese media as a regular dialogue scheme that will involve the two countries' foreign and defense ministries, fisheries and energy agencies, and coastguards.
Japan has long expressed concern over China's growing assertiveness and widening naval reach in the Pacific and over what it calls the "opaqueness" of Beijing's military budget.
A major crisis erupted between the two countries in September 2010 when Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain near the disputed islands. China issued protests and scrapped meetings and cultural events in a diplomatic offensive that continued after Japan freed the captain, while nationalist sentiment sparked demonstrations in both countries.
Japan, meanwhile, has bitterly complained that China may have started drilling for gas in an offshore energy field in the disputed waters.

U.S. Marines to Be Based in Darwin: Report

SYDNEY - U.S. President Barack Obama will use a visit to Australia next week to announce that America will begin stationing Marines at a base in Darwin, reports said on Nov. 11.
In a front page exclusive, the Sydney Morning Herald said the new permanent military presence was a sign of heightened concern about the rise of China.

The U.S. currently has only a limited deployment in Australia, including the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility spy station near Alice Springs.
Obama arrives in the country on Nov. 16, visiting the capital Canberra before becoming the first U.S. president to travel to the Northern Territory when he lands in Darwin.
It is in the country's tropical north that he will make the announcement with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the newspaper said.
The Australian also reported the plan, saying that other locations for a U.S. presence were also possible, such as Perth in the west.
The U.S. will not be building a new base in Darwin, but instead will use the existing Robertson Barracks near the city.
The base is currently home to some 4,500 Australian soldiers and will need to be expanded to cater for the U.S. Marines, the reports said, citing sources who declined to detail how many troops or sailors would be rotating through.
U.S. Marines are already based at Okinawa in Japan and on Guam as America's chief combat force in the Pacific theater.
Federal cabinet minister Tony Burke would not confirm or deny the reports.
"Can't confirm it. I don't know the answer to your question," he told the Seven Network while Trade Minister Craig Emerson also would not comment when asked on Sky News.
The Herald cited former intelligence analyst Alan Dupont as saying the move was a response to the rise of China, which is boosting its military capabilities.
"And particularly, it's about the increased vulnerability of U.S. forces in Japan and Guam to the new generation of Chinese missiles."
Andrew Shearer, a former senior diplomat at the Australian embassy in Washington, told AFP: "There's no doubt we will see a significant announcement."
But he played down the China threat. "Everyone draws the China connection but it's as much to do with the rise of India as well. It's not all about defense, but to be able to conduct disaster relief, counter piracy and keep shipping lanes free.
"China certainly comes into their thinking, but it's not all about China," said Shearer, the director of studies at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

Chinese Military Leadership Reshuffle Approaching

TAIPEI - China's military still lags far behind the U.S., but a change in leadership in 2012 could herald a new era for the People's Liberation Army (PLA). That was the conclusion of senior analysts attending a conference on the PLA here this week.

With Hu Jintao expected to be replaced as the CCP secretary general and chairman of the Central Military Commission next year, experts believe a younger, better-educated and more tech-saavy group of leaders will take leadership positions in the PLA. (Kin Cheung-Pool / Getty Images)

The conference, "PLA in the Next Decade," sponsored by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies and the Institute of Chinese Communist Studies (ICCS), from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, focused in part on the upcoming 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012 and how the generational change of the top leadership will reshape the PLA.

Vice President Xi Jinping is expected to replace Hu Jintao as the CCP secretary general and chairman of the all-powerful Central Military Commission (CMC).
"This transition period will also be highlighted by a significant turnover in the composition of the CMC leadership with the majority of the 10-member panel to retire," said Zhang Xiao-ming, a China specialist at the U.S. Air War College.
Xi, who is also the vice chairman of the CMC, is seen as a pragmatist who will "accelerate the cultivation of elite personnel, emphasize basic military training, put forth new direction of cadre's ethics construction, and advance military transformation based on science and technology development," said Fu Li-Wen, a researcher at the ICCS.
Xi is known for his hardline and outspoken style, Fu said. Xi once told an expatriate group of Chinese "compatriots" in Mexico "there are a few foreigners, with full bellies, who have nothing better to do than try to point fingers at our country."
The CMC reshuffle will also mean a turnover of the directorship of the four general departments: General Staff, General Political, General Logistic and General Armament. This will include changes in the deputy directors and other subordinate leaders, Zhang said. The new crop of leaders will also be more tech-savvy with more hands-on experience in the military modernization process, he said.
The next leaders of the CMC will be "younger, better educated and mission capable," said Ji You, a specialist on the Chinese military at the University of New South Wales.
"The overwhelming majority of them have served in combat units and climbed through 'steps,'" he said.
This is also a leadership that rode the wave of a fivefold increase in the defense budget over the past 15 years.
China's booming economy and massive investment in infrastructure is in stark contrast to the U.S. financial crisis and anticipated slashing of the U.S. defense budget, said Jae-ho Hwang, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea.
China is the second largest defense spender in the world, said Richard Bitzinger, a defense industry specialist at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang University, Singapore.
China's military expenditures in 2011 totaled nearly $92 billion, "outstripping the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Japan," he said. It most likely has the world's second highest defense research and development budget, believed to be around $6 billion.
"In other words, China simply has more money to throw at its defense development, and this has begun to reap tangible benefits over the past decade," Bitzinger said.
However, predicting the future rise of China's military remains speculative.
"Our record is mixed, largely due to the speed of Chinese development since the early '90s," said Wallace "Chip" Gregson, the former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, who gave the keynote address at the conference.
Factors to consider are "legacy thinking," he said, which is often expressed in doctrine "that necessary evil that allows the orderly functioning of large bureaucracies."
Another factor is the mix of personalities, individuals and leadership, which contribute to a "bewildering array of conditions, events and personalities" that "collide in a profoundly random, human and subjective way to confound mankind's efforts to build a logical, peaceful and ordered world."

Panetta Pledges 'Nuclear Umbrella' for S. Korea

SEOUL - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pledged Oct. 26 to preserve a "nuclear umbrella" protecting South Korea, a day after the U.S. held talks with Seoul's hostile neighbor North Korea.
"I've come here because, in many ways, this is the front line," Panetta told some 300 U.S. troops at the Yongsan base in Seoul. "Six decades later [after the 1950-1953 Korean War], the U.S. remains fully committed to the security of South Korea," he said.

Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South. Cross-border tensions have been high for the past year, after the South accused the North of mounting two border attacks in 2010 that killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
The U.S. withdrew atomic weapons from the South almost 20 years ago but guarantees to provide a nuclear deterrent to any nuclear attack on it.
Panetta, who is on the last leg of a tour which also took him to Indonesia and Japan, emphasized the U.S. defense commitment despite a flurry of diplomacy designed to revive six-nation talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.
U.S. and North Korean officials held talks Oct. 24 and 25 in Geneva to try to set terms for a resumption of the negotiations, their second such meeting in three months.
Chief U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth described the talks as "very positive" but cautioned that not all differences could be quickly overcome.
The North quit the six-party forum in April 2009, a month before staging its second atomic weapons test.
It has since repeatedly said it wants to return without preconditions to the negotiations grouping the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Washington and its allies say it must first take action to show its sincerity, such as shutting down a uranium enrichment plant that could be converted to make nuclear weapons.
China, which has held the talks since 2003, sent Vice Premier Li Keqiang to North and South Korea this week to try to restart them.
Li met the North's leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang and held talks Oct. 26 with the South's president, Lee Myung-bak.
"I told Chairman Kim several times that it is important to realize denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and protect peace and stability," Lee's office quoted the vice premier as saying.
Lee told his guest that he hopes China - which is the North's closest ally but the South's biggest trading partner - "will continue to play an important role in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and leading North Korea to reform and openness."
Panetta, in an article in Chosun Ilbo newspaper Oct. 26, said the U.S. and South Korean military "stand prepared to defeat the North should it ever force war upon us.
"It is important to send this signal because North Korea remains a serious threat. Pyongyang has demonstrated its willingness to conduct provocations that target innocent lives," he wrote.
Panetta said the U.S. and South Korea are developing capabilities to address the North's ballistic missile threats, and strengthening operational planning.
In addition, the U.S. "will ensure a strong and effective nuclear umbrella over the ROK [South Korea] so that Pyongyang never misjudges our will and capability to respond decisively to nuclear aggression."
The defense secretary during his three-day visit will stress the two countries' capability to deter provocations and to defeat the North if deterrence fails, said a senior official traveling with Panetta.
"Our experience is that our North Korean friends go through cycles of diplomatic engagement and provocation. We need to be prepared for how that cycle may play itself out in the next turn," the official said.

Panetta Presses Japan on U.S. Base Move

TOKYO - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Oct. 25 that it was critical for Japan to press ahead with the relocation of a controversial air base on a southern island to ensure the region's security.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Ichikawa answer questions during a joint press conference Oct. 25. (Toru Yamanaka / AFP via Getty Images)

In an effort to galvanize the stalled move amid public opposition, Japanese leaders pledged to issue an environmental impact report on shifting the Futenma Air Station from a residential area on Okinawa to a nearby coastal spot.

"The minister assured me... the government of Japan's intention to move forward with steps necessary with the Futenma replacement facility," Panetta said during a joint press conference with Japanese Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa.
"This is a critical initiative in our effort to maintain a strong, forward-deployment presence in the Pacific region," Panetta said.
A long-standing agreement between Washington and Tokyo was set to see the Futenma air base moved by 2014.
But local objections and a policy flip-flop by a former prime minister have stalled the plan, putting a distinct chill on relations between the long-time security allies.
The governor of the area in which the new base is expected to be built will still have the final say on whether to allow the construction of a new facility, regardless of the environmental report by the central government.
Okinawa has long been a reluctant host to around half of the nearly 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan. Locals complain of noise, the risk of military accidents and of crimes committed by U.S. soldiers.
Panetta reiterated that the base realignment will come alongside the redeployment of about 8,000 U.S. service personnel from Okinawa to Guam.
"It is also important to reducing the impact of our bases in Okinawa," he said.
Meanwhile, Ichikawa and Panetta reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Japan security alliance as a "cornerstone" of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
The Pentagon chief, who also met with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, was in Japan on the second leg of a tour of Asian allies where he has repeatedly stressed Washington's commitment to remaining a Pacific power, as nations in the region nervously eye China's growing military might.
Panetta said Washington will jointly will work with Japan, South Korea and Australia to "effectively address many shared challenges" of living next to the communist country.
"Together, we will also work to encourage China's emergence as a responsible and positive partner in building regional stability and prosperity, cooperating on global issues, and upholding international norms and rules of behaviors," he said, without elaborating.
Panetta is scheduled to head to South Korea on Oct. 26.

U.S. Dismantles Last of Big Cold War Nuclear Bombs

WASHINGTON - Nuclear experts in Texas prepared Tuesday to dismantle the oldest, biggest and most powerful bomb in the U.S. nuclear arsenal from the Cold War era.
The last B-53 bomb - built in 1962, the year of the Cuban missile crisis - will be taken apart at the Pantex facility in Amarillo, the only place in the U.S. that builds, maintains and dismantles nuclear weapons.

Grey in color, weighing 10,000 pounds and as big as a minivan, the device had the power to wipe out a metropolitan area with its nine megaton yield when dropped from a B-52 bomber.
By comparison, the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, in the final days of World War II packed a yield of 12 kilotons, or 0.012 megatons.
"It's significant in the sense that it's the last of these multimegaton weapons that the nuclear powers used to build during the height of the Cold War," said Hans Kirstensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists.
Dismantling the B-53 bomb - retired from service in 1997 - involves separating 300 pounds of high explosive from the uranium "pit" at the heart of the weapon, Pantex spokesman Greg Cunningham told AFP.
"The world is a safer place with this dismantlement," Thomas D'Agostino, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said in a Pantex statement.

Japan cyber attackers may have military info

TOKYO - Information on military aircraft and nuclear power plants may have been stolen in a series of cyber attacks on Japanese defense contractor Mitsubishi Heavy, a report said Oct. 24.
Mitsubishi Heavy said in late September that 83 computers at 11 of its facilities had been hit by cyber attacks but no leakage of information on products and technologies had been confirmed.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that additional checks on other computers at Mitsubish Heavy facilities had shown traces of transmissions of information through some of the computers.
The daily, quoting unidentified officials, said part of the information concerned fighters and helicopters that the company is contracted to manufacture for the defense ministry.
"It is not known if these are classified as defense secrets," Asahi said.
Other pieces of information taken are likely to include the design, equipment and earthquake-resistant nature of nuclear power plants in which Mitsubishi Heavy was involved, the daily said.
Mitsubishi Heavy's public relations office said it could not confirm or deny the report.
Defense minister Yasuo Ichikawa said in September there was no indication that sensitive information had been stolen as a result of the attacks on the firm's computers, which came to light in August.

Panetta: U.S., Indonesia Continue to Develop Ties

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Oct. 23 that Washington will continue to develop military ties with Indonesia but keep a watchful eye on rights abuses, after over a decade of suspended cooperation.
He said closed-door talks with Indonesian counterpart Purnomo Yusgiantoro focused on "Indonesia's growing importance as a global leader and the long-term commitment of the U.S. to the security and prosperity of this region.

"This year alone the U.S. is conducting more than 150 activities, exchanges and visits with the Indonesian military," Panetta told reporters on the resort island of Bali.
Panetta said the U.S. was still monitoring possible rights abuses, noting last week's incident in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province where five people were found dead after security forces stormed a pro-independence assembly.
"We support Indonesia's efforts against separatism in that area but when it comes to any human rights abuses ... we want to ensure that discipline is taken and exerted against anyone who violates human rights," Panetta said.
"We expressed concerns about the events that have occurred there and the MoD made it clear that the matter is under investigation."
Relations with the Indonesian army had nearly screeched to a halt and remained frozen for 12 years over abuses during former dictator Suharto's 32-year rule, which ended in 1998.
Indonesia's Kopassus commando unit is accused of deadly abuses in Papua, East Timor and Aceh during that time. Bilateral cooperation was restarted in July 2010 by Panetta's predecessor, Robert Gates.
A senior defense official travelling with Panetta said cooperation that was initially focused on the highest echelons of the army now extended to the operational level, including training in human rights.
In his first trip to the region since taking the helm in July at the Pentagon, the former CIA director Panetta began his tour in Indonesia before heading to Japan on Oct. 24 and South Korea on Oct. 26.
His trip coincides with sensitive direct talks between the United States and North Korea in Geneva on Oct. 24 to try to lay the ground for reviving long-stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
During his stay in Bali, Panetta will also meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the sidelines of the bloc's meeting on the island.
"There's a clear message that I'm going to bring to the region ... we will remain a strong Pacific force in the 21st century, and we will maintain a strong presence in the Pacific in the 21st century," Panetta told reporters.
Disputes between ASEAN members and China over the resource-rich South China Sea are likely to feature high on the agenda, as Washington has called for a regional code of conduct and insisted on "freedom of navigation" through the crucial global shipping route despite Beijing's territorial claims.
Panetta's trip also comes as the United States and North Korea are to hold direct talks in Geneva.
Before any broader discussions, the U.S. and South Korea are insisting the North take concrete steps to demonstrate it is sincere about resuming full six-party nuclear talks which also include Japan, Russia and China.
The defense chiefs will consider steps to bolster diplomacy, but also ensure that they are prepared, should North Korea "choose to undertake a provocation," said the official.

Panetta Heads to Asia with Focus on North Korea

WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta embarks Oct. 23 on a tour of Asia to take the pulse of key allies as Washington prepares for rare direct talks with North Korea over its nuclear program.
In his first trip to the region since taking the helm at the Pentagon in July, the former CIA director will begin with a stop in Indonesia before heading to Japan on Oct. 24 and South Korea on Oct. 26.
The trip coincides with sensitive direct talks between the United States and North Korea in Geneva next week to try to lay the ground for reviving long-stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
Before any broader discussions, the United States and South Korea are insisting the North take concrete steps to demonstrate it is sincere about resuming the full six-party nuclear dialogue with Japan, Russia and China.
In meetings in Tokyo and Seoul, Panetta "will have an opportunity to discuss with his counterparts where we are in the diplomatic process," a senior defense official said.
The defense chiefs will examine what steps to take to bolster diplomacy but also insure that they are prepared, should North Korea "choose to undertake a provocation," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We are essentially exploring the proposition and trying to ascertain if the North Koreans are serious about engaging in nuclear diplomacy and serious about living up to their commitments under the six-party process," the official said.
In April 2009, the North formally quit the six-party forum a month before staging its second atomic weapons test. In 2010, Pyongyang torpedoed and sank a South Korean ship and unleashed an artillery barrage on a South Korean island.
"If they are serious and they are willing to take concrete steps, then there's a clear path back towards the six-party process and diplomacy," the defense official said. "But that yet has to be seen."
Apart from diplomacy focused on North Korea, Panetta's talks in Tokyo are expected to cover missile defense plans, potential U.S. arms sales and the controversial future of the U.S. Futenma air base on the island of Okinawa.
The Pentagon chief travels to Seoul for a two-day stop with U.S.-South Korean relations at a high point, after President Lee Myung-Bak's red carpet treatment this month in Washington and the approval of a free-trade agreement between the two countries.
Panetta was scheduled to meet Lee, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan and his counterpart, Kim Kwan-Jin, after South Korean and U.S. forces staged a major joint exercise this week over the Yellow Sea that simulated dogfights with North Korea.
Before Japan and South Korea, Panetta will start his trip on the Indonesia island of Bali, where he is due to arrive Oct. 22 before meetings with Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro to discuss maritime security and reforms in the country's military, another defense official said.
The United States last year resumed ties with Indonesia's special forces after a 12-year suspension following military reforms and pledges from Jakarta to safeguard human rights.
The Pentagon chief also will hold talks with defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the sidelines of the bloc's meeting in Bali.
Disputes between ASEAN members and China over the resource-rich South China Sea will likely feature high on the agenda, as Washington has called for a regional code of conduct and insisted on "freedom of navigation" through the crucial global shipping route despite Beijing's territorial claims.
China says it has sovereignty over essentially all of the South China Sea, where its professed ownership of the Spratly archipelago overlaps with claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.

U.S., South Korea Begin Drills; North Warns of War

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea and the United States launched a massive joint military exercise on Aug. 16, prompting the North to condemn the maneuvers as provocative and warn that war could erupt.
The two allies have described the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as defensive and routine, but the North habitually terms such joint drills a rehearsal for invasion and launches its own counter-exercises.

"The exercise started this morning," a spokesman of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC) told AFP, referring to the annual computer-assisted simulation command-post exercise.
All of CFC's major units are taking part, involving more than 530,000 troops, including some 3,000 military personnel from the United States and other bases around the Pacific region, CFC said.
CFC commander U.S. Gen. James D. Thurman said the drill was focused on "preparing, preventing and prevailing against the full range of current and future external threats" to South Korea and the region.
"We are applying lessons learned out of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those garnered by the Alliance's recent experiences with North Korean provocations on the peninsula and past exercises," he said.
Pyongyang condemned the exercise as "extremely provocative," calling it a preparation for an "all-out war" against the North and the "largest-ever nuclear war exercise".
"The Korean peninsula is faced with the worst crisis ever. An all-out war can be triggered by any accidents," the North's ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.
Seoul and Washington wanted to use the latest exercises to build up their capability to mount surprise attacks on the North's nuclear and missile facilities, it said.
"The U.S. warmongers are planning to carry out a realistic war drill to remove our nuclear facilities with a mobile unit led by the U.S. 20th Support Command, which was sent to Iraq to find and disable weapons of mass destruction," it said.
"Our military and the people will not sit idle as U.S. imperialists mobilize massive military forces and threaten our sovereign rights," the commentary said.
It accused the United States of seeking to bring war to the Korean peninsula after Afghanistan and Iraq as a way to "extricate itself from its worsening economic crisis."
The CFC spokesman said that during the exercise, troops would train for a "wide variety of missions including those involving the location and security of chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological threats."
The allies will simulate the detection and destruction of North Korean atomic bombs, missiles and chemical weapons, Yonhap news agency said last week.
Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the North was unlikely to escalate tensions despite its criticism of the exercise, one of two annual Korean peninsula-wide drills by the CFC.
"The North is unlikely to raise tension at a time when diplomatic efforts are underway to resume dialogue" even though the North's statement is strongly-worded, Yang told AFP.
The North's military urged Seoul and Washington last week to show their willingness to work toward denuclearization by scrapping the exercise.
In an open letter published by its state media, Pyongyang also called for a peacekeeping mechanism to replace the current armistice that ended the 1950-1953 war.
A flurry of diplomatic efforts have been underway to resume stalled six-party disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
Senior Pyongyang officials met their counterparts in Seoul and Washington last month. The meetings raised hopes that the talks - last held in December 2008 - could resume.
The North has repeatedly expressed a desire to return to the forum, but the United States has urged it to show more sincerity and mend ties with the South first.

Turkey Signs Deal To Buy Six CH-47 Copters

ANKARA - Turkey has signed a government-to-government deal with the United States to buy six CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift transport helicopters, worth up to $400 million, a senior procurement official said.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the Pentagon body that coordinates weapon sales, notified Congress of a potential sale of 14 CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters for $1.2 billion in December 2009, and Congress gave permission later that month.

But because of financial constraints, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), Turkey's arms procurement agency, later decided to buy only six CH-47Fs, five for the Army and one for the Special Forces Command, postponing a decision on the remaining eight aircraft. Contract negotiations among the SSM, the U.S. government and Chinook maker Boeing were launched last year.
"The contract was signed in late July," the procurement official said. "It was worth around $400 million. After the helicopters begin to arrive, we plan to make some modifications on them according to our needs."
The six CH-47F Chinooks will be the first heavy-lift helicopters in the Turkish Army's inventory. Their deliveries are expected to begin in 2013 and end in 2014.
"These helicopters have incredible capabilities. Three or four of them can transport a company-sized unit and its equipment to long distances only in a few hours," the procurement official said. The maximum speed of the CH-47F is about 312 kilometers an hour.
Developed in the 1960s, the Chinooks have been exported to many countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Japan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
The Chinook has been successfully operated in combat in several wars and armed conflicts.
The Chinook is a twin-engine, twin-rotor helicopter. The counter-rotating rotors eliminate the need for an anti-torque vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust.
The CH-47F is the upgraded version of the CH-47D, and is the latest model in this helicopter family. It can carry up to 60 troops and personnel.
A CH-47 Chinook was shot down by Taliban forces southwest of Kabul in Afghanistan in earlier this month, killing 30 U.S. troops, including 23 Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.
"These are not unsafe devices. On the contrary, these helicopters had mission flights of thousands of hours in Afghanistan only this year, and this was the first such incident," the procurement official said.
Turkey usually manufactures its own defense equipment, or jointly produces it with foreign partners. But since the number of heavy-lift helicopters being ordered is rather small, SSM decided on direct procurement from a single source, i.e. Boeing. The heavy-lift helicopter program is expected to be among Turkey's last direct foreign procurement projects.

Japan Calls for China To Explain Aircraft Carrier

TOKYO - Japan's defense minister called on China on Aug. 12 to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier, after Beijing sparked increased concerns over its military expansion by starting sea trials for the vessel.
"As an aircraft carrier, it is of a highly maneuverable and offensive nature. We want China to explain the reasons why it needs it," Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters.

"There is no doubt that it will have a big impact on the region," he added.
China put the revamped Soviet-built aircraft carrier Varyag to sea on Aug. 10, prompting the United States to call for an explanation.
Beijing has sought to play down the vessel's capability, saying it will mainly be used for training and "research."
In its annual defense report last week, Japan expressed concern over China's growing assertiveness and widening naval reach in nearby waters and the Pacific and over what it called the "opaqueness" of Beijing's military budget.
China criticized the report as "irresponsible," insisting its drive to modernize its forces was entirely defensive.

Japanese Inventor Develops Flying Sphere Drone

TOKYO - A Japanese defense researcher has invented a spherical observation drone that can fly down narrow alleys, hover on the spot, take off vertically and bounce along the ground.

It is powered by a propeller protected by a spherical shield with large openings for airflow, meaning a knock into a wall or a tumble to the ground will not damage it.

About the size of a beach ball and jet black, the remote-controlled Spherical Air Vehicle resembles a tiny Death Star from the "Star Wars" movies but has a more benign purpose - to transmit live images from a video camera.

Research to improve the device is continuing, but its designer says that in the future, it could be used as a formidable pursuit vehicle that can travel above traffic or spy on a target through a window.

Its inventor in pacifist Japan hopes it could also help with non-aggressive operations, such as search and rescue in disaster zones, where it could fly through buildings and even up and down stairways.

"This is the world's first spherical air vehicle," said its developer, Fumiyuki Sato, a research engineer at the Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute in Tokyo.

The latest model, the seventh prototype, is equipped with a single propeller shielded by the shell with flaps and wings to control its flight. It can zip through the air at up to 37 miles per hour.

Sato said all its components can be found on the Internet or in shops in Tokyo's electronic tech-geek heaven of Akihabara.

The motor at the core is contained by a modified plastic bottle, and the total cost for the parts come to 110,000 yen ($1,400) for the latest model, which weighs just 12.3 ounces and has a diameter of 16.8 inches.

Sato admits that many hurdles remain before the flying sphere can be put to practical use, including adding an autopilot function and finding ways to cope with turbulence and poor weather conditions.

The current model could not, for example, be used at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, because it can only fly within the field of vision of the controller, he said.

"Even though I can see footage from the mounted camera, it would be very difficult to control this" using the video, Sato said, noting that the drone floats in the air at a very delicate balance and cannot stop quickly.

Nonetheless, Sato sees a range of possible missions for the drone in future.

A more advanced model, he said, could hover above a motorcade for security, or if in pursuit of a fleeing target, "it could go below an electric cable, fly above the next one, and then turn a street corner."

China: Japan's Defense Comments 'Irresponsible'

BEIJING - China launched a series of blistering attacks on key rival Japan on Aug. 4 after a defense paper approved by Tokyo criticized Beijing's military build-up and growing territorial assertiveness.

State news agency Xinhua went further, accusing Japan of "China bashing" and warning the document could jeopardize relations between the neighbors, while the defense ministry also issued a statement condemning the paper.

China's foreign ministry branded the paper "irresponsible," insisting Beijing's drive to modernise its forces was entirely defensive, and expressed its "strong dissatisfaction".

Japan's annual defense report, released this week, voiced concern over China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, and what it called the "opaqueness" of Beijing's military budget.

"The Japanese 2011 defense white paper made irresponsible comments on China's national defense construction. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

"China's development is offering significant opportunities to all countries - including Japan - and China has not been, and never will be a threat to any other country."

China broke off all high-level contact with Tokyo last September after Japan detained a Chinese fishing boat captain whose vessel collided with Japanese coast guard patrol ships in waters claimed by both sides.

The row between Asia's two biggest economies was their worst in years and undermined painstaking recent efforts to improve relations marked by decades of mistrust stemming from Japan's 1930s invasion of China.

The Chinese skipper was released after more than two weeks and the two countries, which have deep trade ties, have been trying to mend fences.

Japan's defense report used a Japanese word that can be translated as "overbearing" or as "assertive" to describe China's stance over its "conflicting interests with neighboring countries, including Japan".

The paper also said China's defense spending was not transparent, saying that the budget publicly announced by China "is widely seen as only part of what Beijing actually spends for military purposes."

"Opaqueness in its defense policies and military movements are concerns for the region, including Japan, and for the international community, and we need to carefully analyze them," it said.

Xinhua called claims "groundless" and said the report "dutifully carries out its China-bashing tradition, nitpicking at China's defense expenditure growth and military modernization in the manner of a back seat driver".

Earlier this year, China announced military spending would rise 12.7 percent to 601.1 billion yuan ($91.7 billion) in 2011 after funding slowed last year.

Beijing has repeatedly sought to alleviate fears over its pursuit of sophisticated missiles, satellites, cyber-weapons and fighter jets, stressing that the nation's defense policy is "defensive in nature."

It has invested heavily in developing its first stealth fighter jet, revealed in January, as well as an aircraft carrier and anti-ballistic missile capable of piercing the defenses of even the most sturdy U.S. naval ships.

However, China has become increasingly assertive in its claims over the East China Sea and South China Sea, most of which it views as its maritime territory, but where several other Asian nations have competing claims.

Japan Warns of China's Growing Naval Muscle

TOKYO - Japan voiced concern Tuesday over China's growing assertiveness and widening naval reach in nearby waters and the Pacific and over what it called the "opaqueness" of Beijing's military budget.
In its annual defense report, Tokyo also pointed to threats from North Korea's series of nuclear tests and development of a new midrange ballistic missile, and at a lingering island dispute with Russia.

China has been embroiled in separate spats over islands - with Japan as well as with several Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines - which have flared up again over the past year.
The report, approved by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet, used a Japanese word that can be translated as "overbearing" or "assertive" for China's stance in the disputes with its neighbors, including Japan.
The report, released by the defense ministry, said that in this context, China's "future direction can be a source of concern".
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa later told reporters that the intended English translation was "assertive", Jiji Press reported.
"We used the expression, thinking the entire international community probably perceives it that way," he said. "This is one way of expressing our hope that China will address these issues through friendly relations."
The paper also said China's defense spending was not transparent, saying that the defense budget publicly announced by China "is widely seen as only part of what Beijing actually spends for military purposes."
"Opaqueness in its defense policies and military movements are concerns for the region, including Japan, and for the international community, and we need to carefully analyze them," it said.
The paper said China is expected to expand its routine activities in the South China Sea, East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
"Considering the recent modernization of China's maritime and air forces, the areas affected by the capabilities will likely expand beyond its nearby waters," the defense paper said.
Japan's defense outlook has moved away from a perceived Cold War threat of a Soviet invasion, while Japan has boosted ground, air and naval forces on the far-southern Nansei islands near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The paper for the first time also mentioned "risks to the stable use of the 'global commons' such as maritime, cyber and outer space as an emerging security issue in recent years."
The report also labeled North Korea's atomic bomb tests "a significant threat to Japan's security when the North is boosting capabilities of ballistic missiles that could carry weapons of mass destruction".
Japan also reiterated its claim of sovereignty over various islands that are in dispute with its neighbors China, Russia and South Korea.
A row over islands called Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo flared again this week when three Japanese conservative opposition lawmakers were denied entry to South Korea as they planned to visit a nearby island.
South Korea's defense ministry launched a protest over the claim in the defense paper and urged Japan "to realize they can never expect progress in bilateral military relations without giving up a claim to Dokdo."

North Korea Wants Early 6-Party Nuclear Talks

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Aug. 1 it wanted an early resumption of six-party nuclear negotiations following "constructive" talks with the United States last week.
The North "remains unchanged in its stand to resume the six-party talks without preconditions at an early date" and comprehensively implement a September 2005 denuclearization deal, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Pyongyang walked out of the negotiations in April 2009, a month before its second atomic weapons test. But it has indicated willingness to return to the dialogue also grouping South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.
Last month the chief nuclear negotiators from the two Koreas met in Bali in the first direct and high-level talks between the rivals on the issue since the collapse of the six-party negotiations.
The surprise Bali meeting was followed by discussions July 28-29 between the United States and North Korea at the United Nations in New York.
The United States gave a cautiously positive assessment of the New York meeting, saying the "path is open" to better relations if the North shows a firm commitment to disarmament efforts.
The North's first vice foreign minister, Kim Kye-Gwan, called the talks "very constructive and businesslike" but neither side said whether a follow-up meeting was planned.
The North's spokesman said Monday the "in-depth discussion" covered improving bilateral relations, ensuring stability on the Korean peninsula and resuming the six-party talks, in a "sincere and constructive" atmosphere.
"Both sides recognized that the improvement of the bilateral relations and the peaceful negotiated settlement of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula conform with the interests of the two sides and agreed to further dialogue," the spokesman told the official news agency.
North Korea agreed in principle in 2005 to scrap its atomic weapons program in return for economic aid and major security and diplomatic benefits.
But the agreement eventually broke down, amid accusations of bad faith by both sides.
The North's deadly artillery attack last November on a South Korean island further complicated efforts to restart nuclear dialogue.
About the same time, the North also revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon atomic complex to visiting US experts.
Pyongyang says its new operation is intended to fuel a nuclear power plant, but senior U.S. and other officials fear it could easily be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium to augment the country's plutonium stockpile.
The North, using plutonium extracted from its Yongbyon reactor, conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. It is believed to have enough plutonium for six to eight atomic bombs.
Last week's talks were the first high-level contacts between Pyongyang and Washington since Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative on North Korea, went to Pyongyang in December 2009.

Chinese General: Country Needs 3 Crriers

BEIJING - China needs at least three aircraft carriers to defend its interests, a general said, days after the state media broadcast footage of its first carrier in a rare public mention of the project.
"If we consider our neighbors - India will have three aircraft carriers by 2014 and Japan will have three carriers by 2014," Gen. Luo Yuan, a senior researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences, was quoted as saying by Beijing News.

"So I think the number [for China] should not be less than three so we can defend our rights and our maritime interests effectively."
His comments, published July 29, came after China sought to downplay the capability of its first aircraft carrier, saying July 27 the vessel would be used for training and "research."
Beijing believes that the three Japanese carriers it referred to, built for helicopter operations, could eventually be converted into full aircraft carriers.
China recently confirmed it was revamping an old Soviet ship to be its first carrier, a project that has added to regional worries over the country's fast military expansion and growing assertiveness on territorial issues.
"We are currently refitting the body of an old aircraft carrier, and will use it for scientific research, experiments and training," defense ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told a news briefing.
Asked whether the carrier's addition to China's military arsenal would significantly raise the country's military capability, Geng said only that to "overrate or underrate the carrier's role are both incorrect."
The United States has welcomed China's mention of the carrier, calling it a step toward better transparency between the Pacific powers.
China's People's Liberation Army - the largest armed force in the world - is extremely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a huge and expanding military budget boosted by the nation's runaway economic growth. The PLA also operates the country's navy.

U.S. Tried Halting Pakistan Nuclear Drive: Documents

WASHINGTON - The United States waged a secret diplomatic campaign in the 1970s to prevent Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons by pressing countries to control exports, declassified documents said.

In remarks with striking parallels to current U.S. debates, officials in President Jimmy Carter's administration voiced fear about Pakistan's trajectory and tried both pressure and aid incentives to seek a change in its behavior.

In a secret November 1978 memo, then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance instructed U.S. diplomats in Western Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan to warn governments that Pakistan or its covert agents were seeking nuclear material.

Vance acknowledged that Pakistan was motivated by concerns over historic rival India. But he voiced alarm that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, before being deposed as prime minister in a coup, said that Pakistan would share nuclear weapons around the Islamic world.

"We believe it is critical to stability in the region and to our non-proliferation objectives to inhibit Pakistan from moving closer to the threshold of nuclear explosive capability," Vance wrote, the year before the overthrow of Iran's pro-Western shah and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Britain was waging a parallel campaign, Vance said. Britain banned the export of inverters - which can be used in centrifuges that produce highly enriched uranium - and urged other countries to follow suit, Vance said.

Most countries sounded sympathetic, though West Germany - a major industrial exporter - insisted it already had adequate safeguards, memos said.

Pakistan nonetheless pursued nuclear weapons and detonated a bomb in 1998 in response to a test by India. The Pakistani scientist who built the bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had access to sensitive technology in the Netherlands.

Khan admitted in 2004 that he ran a nuclear black-market, selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan, who is considered a hero by many Pakistanis, later retracted his remarks and in 2009 was freed from house arrest.

The declassified documents were released after requests by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

William Burr, a scholar at the National Security Archive, said that a U.S. report from 1978 that could shed light on Khan's activities was missing and that he feared it had been destroyed.

The released documents said Pakistan wanted to maintain work on a reprocessing plant. France initially supported the project but backed out in 1978 due to fears that it would be used to produce weapons.

Then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher in a secret memo urged a "low profile" on France's decision, saying it would "severely embarrass" France's then-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and impede future cooperation if it appeared he was responding to U.S. pressure.

Christopher also said he was urging the U.S. Congress to consider economic assistance and military sales to Pakistan, which was considered a U.S. ally in the Cold War when India tilted toward the Soviet Union.

Assistance to Pakistan can "perhaps relieve some of the tension and sense of isolation which give Pakistan greater incentive to move covertly in the nuclear field," wrote Christopher, who later served as secretary of state.

The United States eventually pursued a major assistance package for Pakistan as part of a partnership against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The United States later cut aid due to nuclear concerns - only to resume it again as it sought Pakistan's cooperation in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

President Barack Obama's administration recently suspended about one-third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan to put pressure for more action against Islamic militants.