Morning Brief: Watching North Korea

Fri, 05/29/2009 - 8:24am

TOP STORY: North Korea continued its provocations by firing a short-range missile off its east coast today. It is the sixth such test since the country's nuclear test on Monday. The U.S. and South Korean militaries have raised the alert level for the peninsula as North Korea announced it will no longer respect the disputed western sea border between the two countries. The U.N. Security Council's five permanent powers, plus South Korea and Japan, have begun work on a resolution condemning North Korea's test.

At the same time, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that a U.S. military buildup in the region would be unnecessary and that diplomatic measures were still the best option. "I don't think that anybody in the administration thinks there is a crisis," Gates said.

UNDER THE RADAR: A new report from the Global Humanitarian Forum calls climate change a "silent crisis" that is already killing 300,000 people every year.

Asia

  • An investigation by Britain's Times concluded that more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the final days of Sri Lanka's offensive against the Tamil Tigers.  
  • Pakistani police have arrested suspected Taliban militants among the refugees fleeing the fighting in Swat Valley.
  • Thousands of Koreans came out to pay their final respects to former president Roh Moo-Hyun, who committed suicide last week. 

Middle East

  • Iran has blamed the U.S. for a deadly mosque bombing that killed 20 people in the country's southeast.
  • U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners at the State Department and urged the Egyptian regime to respect human rights.
  • Months after Israeli troops left, Gaza is still largely cut off from aid and the area's poverty is growing desperate.

Americas

  • President Obama will give a speech announcing the creation of a cyber-security office at the White House today. 
  • Despite warnings from the Venezuelan government, visiting author Mario Vargas Llosa gave a speech in Caracas saying that the country was moving toward a Cuba-like dictatorship.
  • Armed smugglers took 60 Haitian migrants hostage before they were to be apprehended by the U.S. Coast Guard. 

Africa

  • Sudanese government troops have retaken control of a town near the Chadian border from rebels.
  • African ministers called for more funding to combat climate change, saying that they contribute little to the process but suffer disproportionately from its effects. 
  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu pressed for more support for Zimbabwe's unity government, saying the country had become "hell on earth."

Europe

  • With U.S. officials in attendance Russia opened a new facility to destroy chemical weapons. 
  • Several policemen were beaten and stabbed by anti-government protesters in Georgia.
  • Even if the U.S. does not move ahead with a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, Poland is still pushing hard to have a battery of Patriot missiles stationed in the country.
JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Word of fairness!

by Alhashmi on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 6:41am

North Korea has the right of self defence as any other country do!Why the so-called free world panic when they see acountry which isn't uder their influence is taking measures to secure its safety and security against their enemies if any?! North Korea is seeking peace and security and not asking to go into any sort of conflict with any other country, but it feels not secured when its neighbor South Korea is strongly supported by USA with all the weapons of mass destruction and neoclear missles are closed to its door step!
North Korea has to feel safe and secured in order not to approach for other means of protecting itself from those who have greedness of interests in other regions which belongs to other nations!.
Leave North Korea alone and it will not form a threat to any one, unless you instigate such agression to happen!.

what investigation by "times"?

by sfernando on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:48am

what investigation by "times"? anyone but a racist can see that the article (and nothing more) is full of sloppy, silly, biased claims, nothing more . no facts, but lot of unsubstantial allegations( some straight from known ltte terrorist sympathizers).
and as for opinions; no briton has any moral right to pass judgment on anything sri lankan, given the documented genocides they carried out here and not even mentioned in western history books.

racists at fp as usual has ears only for western "opinion". well that is why it is getting everything wrong lately . real world is passing you by.