S. Korea to Make Bunker-Buster Bombs: Lawmaker

SEOUL - South Korea is developing a bomb capable of penetrating North Korean bunkers or caves housing artillery pieces, according to a member of parliament's defense committee.

An aide to lawmaker Song Young-Sun quoted her as saying that the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD) launched a 6.2 billion won ($5.35 million) project last year to develop the "bunker-buster."

ADD officials declined to comment.

"ADD is developing a bomb capable of penetrating 1.5-metre-thick (4.95 feet) concrete walls with a view to completion by 2013," Song was quoted assaying in comments Dec. 15. "When developed, this weapon will be used for precision strikes against military strongholds in the North."

A military official told Chosun Ilbo newspaper the new bombs would be capable of destroying most bunkers and other structures hiding airplanes and tanks.

North Korea's long-range artillery is often hidden in fortified caves and rolled out to fire shots before being rapidly pushed back. For this reason, South Korean troops were unable to retaliate effectively with their K-9 howitzers when the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed Yellow Sea border in November last year. Four South Koreans including two Marines were killed.

The ADD also plans to develop another bomb capable of penetrating five-six meters once the initial bunker-buster is completed, Chosun said.

Bids Submitted for Aegis Follow-On System

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing have submitted proposals to take over support and development of the Aegis combat system, the companies said Dec. 14.

The Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) competition also is intended to provide a follow-on system to Aegis, the U.S. Navy's most capable weapon system and the foundation for its fleet air defense, surface warfare and ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions.

Lockheed has held the Aegis development and support contract since 1995, when it acquired Martin Marietta. The system was first developed by RCA starting in the late 1960s. General Electric then bought the company, which in turn was sold to Martin Marietta and subsequently merged with Lockheed.

Aegis, perhaps the world's most effective naval combat system, has been worth many billions of dollars to Lockheed over the years. All 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers and at least 70 DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers have been built with the system. Spain, Norway, Japan and the Republic of Korea operate Aegis warships, and Australia is building a new class of Aegis destroyers.

A combination of radars, computers and weapons, Aegis was first developed to counter massed attacks by Soviet anti-ship missiles, and has evolved into an effective surface warfare system. Although not designed to target ballistic missiles, the system has been modified with more powerful processors as the basis for the Navy's BMD systems, and is the foundation for the Phased Adaptive Approach effort for the land-based missile defense of Europe.

According to the Missile Defense Agency, 24 Aegis ships - five cruisers and 19 destroyers - have BMD capability. That number is to increase to 32 ships by the end of 2013 as more units are upgraded.

The CSEA effort is intended to provide for the design, development and integration of Aegis weapon system and Aegis combat system future capabilities for existing cruisers and destroyers, and potentially create a new system for DDG 51 Flight III ships beginning in 2016.

Dependent on development, Flight III ships may be fitted with a new combat system or continue with Aegis.

The Navy is expected to award the CSEA contract in the fall of 2012.

A separate competition is underway to develop a new phased-array radar for Aegis. The Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) is to provide new radars to replace existing SPY-1 radars beginning with the U.S. Navy's 2016 Flight III destroyers.

Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop are working to develop the AMDR, which will be a dual-band system. All three companies are working under Navy contracts to develop an S-band (AMDR-S) radar, with development contracts yet to be issued for the AMDR-X X-band system. The AMDR systems will also include a radar suite controller to integrate the radars.

Rafale Best Jet On Offer for Brazil: French PM

SAO PAULO - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Dec. 14 he was confident of selling Rafale fighter jets to Brazil and could beat off rival bids because the aircraft's technology cannot be matched.

The Rafale is competing against Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and Saab's Gripen for a tender from Brazil to supply 36 multi-role combat aircraft.

The French premier begins a three-day visit to Brazil on Dec. 15."We are confident because we believe that the French offer has the best possible transfer of technology, without equivalent," Fillon said in an interview published with local media.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet was quoted earlier this month in Le Monde as saying that unless the Rafale can find a foreign buyer, the government will have to stop funding its production by Dassault Aviation.

The Rafale was used in the recent war in Libya but the fighter has repeatedly lost out in tenders in countries including Singapore, South Korea, Morocco and, earlier this month, Switzerland.

DoD Urges Stronger Ties to Stop Chem-Bio Attack

The Pentagon sees stronger allied partnerships as key to preventing chemical and biological attacks, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official.

Agreements with the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia to work together to thwart "the unique threats that are coming our way" are even more critical as defense budgets decline globally, the officials said.

"We recognize, more so than ever, it's our partnerships that's going to enable us to field the best capabilities for our forces, for our nations working together," the official said Dec. 8. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of topic.

The Pentagon is facing a more than $450 billion reduction to planned spending over the next decade. It is unclear how the Pentagon budget reductions will impact the chemical and biological division. However, "there's a shared understanding that the [weapons of mass destruction] threat is very real, very serious and it is still a very high priority."

To that end, Pentagon officials are conducting a "strategic review and analysis" of chemical and biological defense programs, which kicked off in August, the official said. To address the spending reductions, officials realize "we needed to relook the whole" chemical and biological defense enterprise.

In addition, the Pentagon has started participating in a series of exercises with South Korea that are "taking a look at the bio defense problem in that region," the official said. The drill uses a "whole-of-government approach" and includes Seoul's Ministry of Defense, Center for Disease Control, law enforcement and others.

"We're helping our colleagues there go through some of the learning experiences we had in the United States in that interagency environment," the official said. "It's a new challenge for them, but the threat is ever more present on the peninsula today."

S. Korean Official Warns of Provocations from North

SEOUL - South Korea's defense chief said Dec. 1 that North Korea may use provocations next year to deal with economic woes and political instability stemming from a second dynastic succession.

Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin described 2012 as a critical year for security saying the military should stay alert against any provocations by North Korea.

The regime has set the goal of becoming a "great, powerful and prosperous" country by 2012, Kim said.

It also faces "economic hardships, public discontent and political instability" next year as the third-generation hereditary succession is under way, Kim added.

"To address these issues and find a breakthrough, North Korea may again resort to provocations," he told a meeting of key military commanders.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, 69, is believed to have speeded up the succession plan after suffering a stroke in August 2008.

In September last year he gave his youngest son Jong-Un senior party posts and appointed him a four-star general, in the clearest sign yet that he is the heir apparent.

The North suffers severe economic problems, exacerbated by sanctions, and persistent serious food shortages. It is also under international pressure to shut down its nuclear weapons program.

"In these extremely difficult times, our military should stay focused on our missions. As in the past, our enemy could catch us by surprise when we appear vulnerable," the minister said.

Relations have been tense since Seoul accused its neighbor of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March 2010 near the Yellow Sea border, with the loss of 46 lives.

The North denied sinking the ship, but South Korea has since staged a series of military drills alone or jointly with U.S. troops.

Three-Way U.S.-China Drills Possible: Australia

SYDNEY - Defence Minister Stephen Smith on Nov. 22 said Canberra would seriously consider trilateral military training with the United States and China following the announcement of a US troop buildup in Darwin.
Smith said the move was suggested by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono following talks with Australian leader Julia Gillard at last weekend's East Asia Summit in Bali after Beijing criticized the troop boost.

"We don't see it as something which would necessarily occur in the short term, but it's a good suggestion. It's an interesting suggestion," Smith said. "It's a positive suggestion and one which I think in the longer term could fall for serious consideration."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa expressed reservations about the plan to bring some 2,500 U.S. Marines to northern Australia by 2016-17. The plan was unveiled by President Barack Obama during a flying visit to Canberra last week.
Natalegawa warned that it could inflame relations and create a "vicious circle of tensions and mistrust" in the region, urging transparency, particularly about the motives behind the move.
Indonesia is building up its own military cooperation with U.S. forces.
The United States and its allies have expressed concern over the intentions behind China's military build-up and called for greater transparency.
Smith said Australia already did training and exercises with China and had completed joint live-firing drills with its navy for the first time last year.
"We're working very hard with China and the PLA (People's Liberation Army) to do precisely that, to do some training, to do some exercises, and we encourage China and the United States to do that themselves as well," Smith said.
Such training "reduces the risk of miscalculation or misjudgment", he added.
Jeffrey Bleich, U.S. ambassador to Australia, said there were "a lot of variables" but Washington was interested in strengthening military ties.
"For the broad brushstrokes, yes, we want to work more with the Chinese military, and we're looking for opportunities to cooperate with all countries in the region," Bleich told The Australian newspaper. "If you have a lot of nations rising quickly and not understanding each other's intentions, you're always concerned about the risk of a misunderstanding. You want to be prepared for that."
The U.S. and Chinese navies have held joint search-and-rescue drills.
The two sides would carry out humanitarian rescue-and-disaster relief drills next year and joint anti-piracy drills in the Gulf of Aden this year, they announced in July.
But they do not stage joint live-fire drills like those the U.S. has with its ally South Korea.

Philippines Asks S. Korea For Military Hardware

Manila - Philippine President Benigno Aquino asked his visiting counterpart from South Korea on Monday for aircraft, boats and other hardware to help boost his country's military, amid rising tensions with China.
Aquino said he and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak discussed their respective regional security concerns, which for the Philippines is the disputed South China Sea, where China has been accused of bullying.

"On defence cooperation, I expressed to President Lee the interest of the Philippines to gain some specific defence articles such as military-grade helicopters, boats and aircrafts," Aquino said in a joint forum.
"This is in consonance with the upgrading and modernisation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines."
Lee did not disclose any response to the specific request but said South Korea wanted to cooperate with the Philippines to resolve its maritime problems.
"We agreed that we will continue to work together so that we can peacefully resolve this issue according to international rule, norms and standards," said Lee, who is on a three-day visit to the Philippines.
Aquino has this year begun upgrading the Philippines' military, which is one of the weakest in the region with its navy made up of mostly World War II-era ships and its air force consisting of Vietnam War-vintage planes.
He has said the Philippines needs to be able to defend its claims to waters and islands of the South China Sea.
China and Taiwan claim the South China Sea in full, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have claims to parts of the area, which is believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits.
The Philippines has accused the Chinese military of aggressive acts in the Philippine-claimed areas of the sea this year, including firing on Filipino fishermen, laying buoys and harassing an oil exploration vessel.
Aquino and Lee also oversaw the signing of economic agreements, the most significant of which will see South Korea provide the Philippines with up to $500 million in development loans from 2011 to 2013.
South Korea will also help build a coal-fired power plant in a free-trade zone on the main Philippine island of Luzon, and a dam on a river in the central island of Panay.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the dam project was worth $300 million.

India Cancels Wheeled Howitzer Purchase

NEW DELHI - The Indian Defence Ministry has canceled the tender to purchase 180 wheeled 155mm/52-caliber howitzers, another in a series of setbacks for the long-delayed Army program.
The Indian Army has failed to induct a single 155mm howitzer since 1987.

Defence Ministry sources said the purchase of the wheeled guns is being canceled following complaints to Defence Minister A.K. Antony about technical snags that came to light when a gun from one of the competitors, Konstrukta of Slovakia, burst during trials last year.
Currently Rheinmetall of Germany and Konstrukta are in the race for the $1 billion wheeled gun competition after Samsung of South Korea was eliminated from the procurement process in 2009.
After the howitzer burst during the trials last year, a Defence Ministry committee concluded the guns offered by Rheinmetall and Konstrukta are prototypes that are not in use even in their home countries.
In 2008, the tender for the wheeled guns was sent to the U.K.'s BAE Systems; Slovakia's Konstrukta; France's Nexter; IMI and Soltam of Israel; Samsung of South Korea; United Defense of the U.S.; Rheinmetall of Germany; and Rosoboronexport of Russia.
Only Rheinmetall, Konstrukta and Samsung were shortlisted after the technical evaluations.
The Indian Army requires that the wheeled 155mm/52-caliber guns be able to travel up to 40 kilometers and fire 150 rounds of ammunition in six to eight hours.
The gun should be able to operate day and night and receive data from the command post in digital and audio form.
The howitzer procurement is already delayed by more than 10 years, mainly due to India's blacklisting first of Denel of South Africa and then Singapore Technologies in 2008 because of alleged corruption.
The Army plans to buy 145 ultralight howitzers, 158 towed and wheeled, 100 tracked and 180 wheeled and armored guns in the first phase of its program to upgrade its artillery divisions.

Towed Guns

In May, BAE Systems opted out of the towed howitzer competition because the Indian Army changed requirements in the reissued tender of early 2011.
The Army's 2008 attempt to acquire the towed guns failed when BAE, which had fielded the FH-77B-5 gun, became the sole vendor after the other shortlisted competitor, Singapore Technologies, was blacklisted following allegations of corruption by India's Central Bureau of Investigation. The Army could not make an award if only one bidder qualified.

Light Howitzer

The purchase of light howitzers from BAE's U.S. subsidiary also was delayed when Singapore Technologies went to court and challenged the decision, claiming its gun was superior.
The Indian court has not issued a decision, although the Army strongly favors the immediate purchase of the 147 BAE light howitzers, Army officials said.

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.

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. Intel Software Crashes During Korea Exercise

Intelligence software that the U.S. would rely on in a war with North Korea froze up repeatedly during a joint military exercise in South Korea in August, hampering the ability of U.S. and South Korean commanders to watch the movements of simulated enemy forces, a senior intelligence official said.
The Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) software is designed to link intelligence analysts to processed communications intercepts, imagery and radar collections stored in massive databases. When American intelligence analysts tried to use the software to track simulated North Korean troop movements, the screens on their DCGS-A workstations sometimes went black, forcing them to reboot the software, the senior intelligence official said.

Analysts could not always feed the latest enemy positions into the Command Post of the Future, the large computer displays that U.S. commanders would rely on to view troop positions and orchestrate defenses with their South Korean counterparts.
"What happened is the volume of information essentially crashed the software," the senior intelligence official said. "We learned to manually do [data retrieval] in chunks of information so DCGS would not crash."
The problem was discovered during the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, a computer-generated North Korean attack in which tens of thousands of American and South Korean troops were mobilized in and around Seoul. The Pentagon billed the exercise as a "command post exercise" that would improve coordination of U.S. and South Korean forces.
"Initial analysis indicates that the use of legacy hardware was likely the primary cause of the system reliability issues," said a spokesman for the DCGS-A office in an email. "Personnel running current DCGS-A hardware during the same exercise in Yongin reported no major interruptions, issues, or outages. The issues identified during this exercise are currently being evaluated/corrected as needed."
U.S. intelligence officials have lately expressed concern that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have honed their ability to untangle insurgent networks and track people, but at the expense of practicing the more traditional military intelligence role of tracking forces during high-intensity conflicts involving artillery, tanks and fast-moving troop formations. This year's Freedom Guardian exercise offered a chance to show that DCGS-A, which is used by analysts and troops in Afghanistan, could perform well in a conventional war.
Software engineers will need to explore whether the greater volume of data stored in the conventional warfare database caused DCGS-A to lock up, the official said.
In a related problem, the DCGS-A system took 2 to 2½ minutes to nominate targets for bombing, a process that should take seconds.
Despite the problems, the senior intelligence official said the exercise should not be viewed as an indictment of the multibillion-dollar DCGS-A initiative.
"I'm going to make DCGS-A work," the official said.
All told, the DCGS-A system spent 10 out of 96 hours of planned operations locked up or being rebooted, the official said.

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.

North Korea Fires Shells Near Border With South

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea twice fired shells near the flashpoint Yellow Sea border with South Korea on Aug. 10, prompting warning shots from the South's marines in response, Seoul's military said.
The incidents fuelled already high tensions along the disputed sea border, which saw bloody naval skirmishes in recent years and a deadly shelling attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island last November.

The first incident came at 1 p.m. local time, when Seoul's defense ministry said a North Korean shell landed near the border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL).
Marines based on Yeonpyeong island broadcast a warning and then fired three warning shots from K-9 self-propelled guns.
The North's coastal artillery fired again at 7:46 p.m. towards the border and the South again fired warning shots in response, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
"There were no more shots afterwards, but we're now closely watching the situation," he said, declining to say how many rounds were fired.
Yonhap news agency quoted a resident of Yeonpyeong island as saying the North fired three shots in the evening, the same number as earlier in the day.
The ministry said the initial shells may have been fired during a training exercise.
The border firing came after the North made apparent peace overtures in recent weeks and expressed interest in restarting stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
Nuclear envoys from the two Koreas held rare talks in Bali last month, and a senior North Korean official visited New York later for discussions with U.S. officials.
Troops on Yeonpyeong and other frontline islands have been on high alert since last November's bombardment, which killed four South Koreans including two civilians and damaged scores of buildings.
The government has reinforced troops and sent extra weaponry to the islands.
The firing in early afternoon briefly sparked alarm on Yeonpyeong, where some 1,800 civilians live along with the Marine garrison.
"The residents were preparing to evacuate their homes for shelters since they went through a similar thing in the past," a spokeswoman for Ongjin county, which oversees the island, told AFP.
But they did not actually move to shelters since things have calmed down," the spokeswoman said, speaking before the evening firing.
The NLL was drawn unilaterally by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war. The North refuses to accept it and says it should run further to the south.
The boundary line was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and November 2009. The South also accuses the North of torpedoing one of its warships near the NLL in March 2010, with the loss of 46 lives.
The North denied the charge but last November shelled Yeonpyeong in the first attack on a civilian-populated area in the South since the war.
The North said it was responding to a South Korean artillery drill which encroached into its waters.

Huge Cyber Spying Effort Revealed, China Suspected

WASHINGTON - The United States, United Nations, defense contractors and the International Olympic Committee were targets of a massive global cyber spying campaign, a computer security firm said on Aug. 3, with China seen as the likely culprit.

McAfee vice president for threat research Dmitri Alperovitch described it as a "five-year targeted operation by one specific actor" but declined to identify the country responsible.

California-based McAfee said in a report it had identified 72 victims in 14 countries of a sophisticated hacking effort dubbed "Operation Shady RAT," which it traced back to at least 2006.

The "compromised parties" included the governments of Canada, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam, McAfee said, as well as a U.S. Department of Energy research laboratory and around a dozen U.S. defense contractors.

Others included computer networks of the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the International Olympic Committee, Asian and Western national Olympic committees and the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency.

In a conference call with reporters, Alperovitch, the lead author of the report, said the intrusions into the systems of defense contractors targeted "sensitive military technologies."

He said McAfee had notified law enforcement about the cyber espionage campaign, briefed the White House and members of the U.S. Congress and was working with some of the targeted companies on remediation efforts.

"We believe based on the targeting and the scale and the impact of these operations, and the fact that they didn't just have an economic gain in mind but also political and military, that that this is clearly a nation-state but we're not pointing the finger at anyone," Alperovitch said.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the evidence may not be "conclusive in a legal sense," but suspicion points towards China.

"You can think of at least three other large programs attributed to China that look very similar," Lewis told AFP. "It's a pattern of activity that we've seen before."

Google said in June that a cyber spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior U.S. officials, military personnel, journalists and Chinese political activists.

In January of last year, Google announced it was halting censorship of its Internet search engine in China after coming under attack along with 20 other companies from hackers based there.

In February, McAfee said in another report that hackers in China have penetrated computer networks of global oil companies, stealing financial documents on bidding plans and other confidential information.

McAfee said it had discovered the "Shady RAT" series of cyber attacks by gaining access to a command and control server in a Western country used by the intruders and examining its logs.

"After painstaking analysis of the logs, even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," McAfee said.

McAfee said attacks on Asian and Western national Olympic committees, the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency occurred in the lead-up and immediate follow-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It described this as "particularly intriguing and potentially pointed a finger at a state actor behind the intrusions, because there is likely no commercial benefit to be earned from such hacks."

Other targets included a private Western organization focused on promoting democracy, two U.S. national security think tanks, South Korean steel and construction firms, a Danish satellite communications company, a Singapore electronics company, a Taiwanese electronics firm, Vietnam's government-owned technology company and U.S. state and county governments, McAfee said.

It said a major U.S. news organization - identified as the Associated Press by The Washington Post - was "compromised at its New York headquarters and Hong Kong bureau for more than 21 months."

McAfee said the attacks involved sending infected emails to employees of the targeted companies. When opened, the emails implanted malware and established a backdoor communication channel to the command and control server.

Data theft appeared to be the chief objective of the attackers but Alperovitch warned the "potential exists for even more insidious activity."

"These intruders are in our systems, in the systems of all these companies, in all these government systems," he said. "The likelihood that they'll escalate the activity from just stealing data to modifying data or destroying data or destroying systems is also there."

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.

U.S., North Korea Hold Nuclear Talks

UNITED NATIONS - The United States opened discussions July 28 with North Korea, in a move testing Pyongyang's willingness to negotiate giving up its nuclear arsenal.

The U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, greeted North Korea's first vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan at the entrance to the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York before they set the talks underway.

Neither side many any comment before the meetings, which were expected to go on into July 29. The United States has stressed however that these are "exploratory talks" to see if the Pyongyang regime is serious about living up to past commitments on its nuclear program.

The United States considers progress on disarmament to be key to any hopes of improving six decades of hostile U.S.-North Korea ties.

It is the first talks since Bosworth visited Pyongyang in December 2009.

The invitation to New York was made after a meeting between nuclear envoys from North and South Korea at an Asian security forum in Indonesia last week.

The international community is anxious to see North Korea return to six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons, which broke down in late 2008.

North Korea agreed in principle at the six-nation talks in 2005 to scrap its weapons program, but staged nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

The North's disclosure in November that it had a uranium enrichment plant, adding a new means to produce atomic weapons, has become a new complicating factor in the talks the North has held with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited the North Korea minister for what she called "exploratory talks."

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said July 27 that the Indonesia meeting had been "constructive" but that the communist state needs to do more.

"What we're looking for is in our mind a clear indication that North Korea is serious about moving forward," Toner told reporters.

The United States will be watching to see if the North will recommit to the 2005 agreement "as well as take concrete and irreversible steps towards denuclearization," Toner said.

The North highlighted its mistrust of U.S. motives ahead of the talks.

At a U.N. debate on disarmament on Wednesday, the North's U.N. ambassador said a proposed U.S. missile defense shield in Europe would spark a "new nuclear arms race."

The ambassador, Sin Son Ho, said the United States was seeking "absolute nuclear superiority" and had no "moral justifications" to lecture other countries about proliferation.

North Korea's official news agency said in a commentary July 27, however, that an agreement with the United States formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War could become a "first step" to peace on the Korean peninsula and "denuclearization."

Diplomats have warned that the North is unlikely to make concessions in the talks.

"North Korea is in trouble again. It needs food supplies and its economy is falling deeper and deeper into crisis," an Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"But it cannot afford to give up the nuclear weapons, which are its main bargaining point."

In a sign of the diplomatic minefield that the United States has been going through in its dealings with North Korea in the past six decades, an aide accompanying Bosworth was seen carrying a copy of "How Enemies Become Friends," a recent book by Charles Kupchan, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, into the meeting.

Kupchan champions the cause of U.S. engagement with its enemies in the book.

N.Korea Warns of New Nuclear Arms Race Ahead Of Talks

UNITED NATIONS - North Korea said July 27, ahead of landmark talks with the United States, that a U.S. missile defense shield will set off a new nuclear arms race.

The new diplomatic attack on the United States came as the U.S. government said it wanted to see signs in talks due to start on July 28 in New York that North Korea is "serious about moving forward."

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But the North's U.N. envoy said the United States was aiming through its proposed missile defense shield to gain "absolute nuclear superiority and global hegemony over the other nuclear power rivals."

The ambassador, Sin Son Ho, said the shield showed the United States has no "moral justifications" to lecture other countries about proliferation.

"In this current changing world, one can easily understand that this dangerous move will eventually spark a new nuclear arms race," Sin said of the shield which the United States wants to build over Eastern Europe. Washington says the shield is aimed at preventing attacks by rogue states such as Iran.

"This shows that the world's largest nuclear weapon state has lost its legal or moral justifications to talk of proliferation issues before international society, on whatever ground," the envoy added.

North Korea and the United States are to hold two days of talks in New York from Thursday on issues including the North's nuclear arsenal.

Vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan is leading the North's delegation at the New York talks. Kim arrived in the United States late Tuesday.

Kim and U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, are expected to discuss improving U.S.-North Korean ties and ways to relaunch six-nation talks on the North giving up its nuclear weapons.

Talks between North Korea and the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have been frozen since December 2008.

The North staged nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 which sparked international concern and outrage.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the New York talks on July 24, two days after the nuclear envoys of South and North Korea held a surprise meeting on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Bali, Indonesia.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Bali meeting had been "constructive" but that the communist state needs to do more.

"What we're looking for is in our mind a clear indication that North Korea is serious about moving forward," Toner told reporters.

The United States will be watching to see if North Korea will recommit to a 2005 agreement made at the six party talks "as well as take concrete and irreversible steps towards denuclearization," the spokesman said.

South Korea, a key observer in the new contacts between the North and the world superpower, has also demanded signs that its arch-rival is sincere about wanting good relations before it agrees to concrete action to help its beleaguered neighbor.

South Korea remains furious over a deadly attack last year on an island on the tense frontier between the two.

The North's disclosure in November that it had a uranium enrichment plant, which could give it another way to make atomic weapons, has become a new complicating factor.

The North's official news agency, in a commentary July 27, said a peace agreement with the United States formally ending the 1950-53 war could become a "first step" to peace on the Korean peninsula and "denuclearization".

The North and South fought a bitter war in 1950-53, with the United States fighting with the South. The conflict ended 58 years ago on July 27 with an armistice but no full peace treaty.

"It is impossible to wipe out the mutual distrust, nor is it possible to achieve a smooth solution of the issue of denuclearization, as long as there persists the hostile relationship" between North Korea and the United States, the news agency said.