N. Korea Vows to Use Nuclear Weapons If Attacked

HAVANA - North Korea's ambassador to Cuba said Aug. 28 that, ifattacked, his country would respond with nuclear weapons and engage ina "sacred war," Cuban state media reported.

KwonSung Chol, quoted by the Prensa Latina government agency, spoke at anevent late Aug. 27 marking 50 years of diplomatic relations betweenCuba and North Korea.



If North Korea is attacked by U.S. and South Korean forces, "we willrespond with a sacred war based on the strength of our nucleardeterrent forces," Kwon said.
"Our government will make an efforttowards the denuclearization of the peninsula and the establishment ofa system of lasting peace based on the principle of the reunificationof both Koreas," Kwon said, according to Prensa Latina.
NorthKorea on July 24 threatened a "powerful nuclear deterrence" in responseto joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercises then taking place.
NorthKorea was prepared for a "retaliatory sacred war," North Korea'sNational Defense Commission (NDC) said in a statement carried then bythe official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Source Here

N.Korea develops camouflage tactics: reports

North Korea has developed camouflage materials suchas stealth paint to hide its warships, tanks or fighter jets fromforeign reconnaissance satellites and aircraft, reports said Monday.A confidential field manual used by the communist North's militaryshowed the isolated regime has also built a network of foxholes andcaves, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.
The newspaper said the manual quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il assaying: "Modern warfare is stealth warfare. We can say that victory ordefeat will be determined by how we carry out stealth warfare."
The handbook, printed in 2005, was smuggled out of the North by asource through Caleb Mission, a South Korean Christian organisation.
It gives detailed instructions on how to make and apply the stealth paint, which absorbs radar waves, Chosun Ilbo said.
The South's defence ministry confirmed the North's military had used the manual for years.
"We have already acquired a copy of the manual and are fully aware ofthe North's tactics," a ministry spokesman told AFP, declining to givedetails.
The manual describes how to conceal facilities or equipment and how tomake military units look as though they are moving when they are not,to deceive South Korean and US reconnaissance.
Chosun Ilbo quoted an unnamed intelligence expert as saying he wassurprised to find that the North's military has done "more intensiveand careful research into stealth tactics than we thought".
Yonhap news agency carried a similar report.
The handbook describes concealing long-range artillery equipment by applying radar-reflective materials, it said.
The North's military was also ordered to pave fake aircraft runways to deceive foreign prying eyes, Yonhap said.

Abnormal radiation detected near intra-Korean border

SEOUL (AP) -- Abnormally high radiation levels were detected nearthe border between the two Koreas days after North Korea claimed tohave mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogenbomb, Seoul said Monday.
The Science Ministry said itsinvestigation ruled out a nuclear test by North Korea but failed todetermine the source of the radiation. It said there was no evidence ofa strong earthquake, which follows an atomic explosion.
On May12, North Korea claimed its scientists succeeded in creating a nuclearfusion reaction, a technology necessary to manufacture a hydrogen bomb.In its announcement, the North did not say how it would use thetechnology, only calling it a "breakthrough toward the development ofnew energy."

South Korean experts doubted the North actually madesuch a breakthrough. Scientists around the world have beenexperimenting with fusion for decades, but it has yet to be developedinto a viable energy alternative.
On May 15, however, theatmospheric concentration of xenon -- an inert gas released after anuclear explosion or and radioactive leakage from a nuclear power plant-- on the South Korean side their shared border was found to be eighttimes higher than normal, according to South Korea's Science Ministry.
SouthKorea subsequently looked for signs of a powerful, artificially inducedearthquake. Experts, however, found no signs of a such a quake in NorthKorea, a ministry statement said.
"We determined that there was no possibility of an underground nuclear test," it said. The ministry said the gas is not harmful.
Whileany fusion test would have registered seismic activity, according tonuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of South Korea's Kyung Hee University, thepresence of xenon could also have come from a leak.
Since thewind was blowing from north to south when the xenon was detected, aScience Ministry official said the gas could not have originated fromany nuclear power plants in South Korea.
But the official --speaking on condition of anonymity, citing department policy -- saidthe xenon could have come from Russia or China. Mr. Whang agreed,saying a nuclear test or radioactive leakage would be the only reasonsthat could explain the atmospheric concentration of xenon reported bythe ministry.

DEFENCE NEWS AT

ASIAN DEFENCE