*** TIP ON NORTH KOREA

Obama Reaffirms Security Commitment, Urges N.K. to Change Its Ways

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Nov. 11 urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and refrain from provocations, reaffirming that Washington's security commitment to South Korea "will never waver."

   "If they choose to fulfill their international obligations and commitments to the international community, they will have the chance to offer their people lives of growing opportunity instead of crushing poverty -- a future of greater security and greater respect; a future that includes the prosperity and opportunity available to citizens on this end of the Korean Peninsula," Obama said in a speech to U.S. soldiers at Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul.

   "In the wake of this aggression, Pyongyang should not be mistaken: The United States will never waver in our commitment to the security of the Republic of Korea," he said. "The alliance between our two nations has never been stronger, and along with the rest of the world, we have made it clear that North Korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will only lead to more isolation and less security."

   Obama was in Seoul to attend the summit of the Group of 20 leaders, who will meet for two days from later Nov. 11 to discuss ways for sustainable recovery from the worst global recession in decades.

   He spoke at the U.S. military base near downtown Seoul, the headquarters for the 28,500 American forces stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, a conflict technically still ongoing as it ended only in an armistice, not a peace treaty. More than 360,000 Americans were killed in the Korean War.

   South Korea and the U.S. are core members of the so-called six-party nuclear talks, aimed at having North Korea denuclearize in exchange for political and economic benefits. The talks, however, have been stalled for nearly two years over international sanctions on the North for its nuclear and missile tests early last year and most recently North Korea's torpedoing of a South Korean warship.

   Seoul and Washington continue to call on Pyongyang to show a commitment to denuclearization and apologize for the Cheonan's sinking, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea in March. The North denies responsibility for the ship sinking.

   The U.S. president said his country's participation in the Korean War was a victory, not a tie.

   "Because the Korean War ended where it began geographically, some used the phrase 'Die for a Tie' to describe the sacrifice of those who fought here," he said, addressing some 1,600 U.S. soldiers packing a gymnasium in the garrison. "But as we look around at this thriving democracy and its grateful, hopeful citizens, one thing is clear: This was no tie. This was a victory. It was a victory then, and it is a victory today."

   The friendship between the two countries that was forged in war "has become an alliance that has led to greater security and untold progress -- not only in the Republic of Korea, but throughout Asia," Obama said.

   "Today, the Korean Peninsula provides the world's clearest contrast between a society that is open and one that is closed; between a nation that is dynamic and growing, and a government that would rather starve its people than change," he said, describing South Korea's transition to "one of the fastest-growing, most prosperous democracies in all the world" from "little more than rice paddies and villages."

  
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North Korea Denies Sinking South Korean Warship in Letter to U.N.

  
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea recently circulated a letter to U.N. member nations, in which it refuted the results of a multinational probe that found it responsible for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, a Seoul official confirmed on Nov. 15.

   The Seoul-led team of civilian and military experts, including those from the United States, Britain, Australia, Sweden and Canada, concluded in May that a North Korean submarine fired an aluminum-made torpedo to sink the Cheonan corvette near the tense Yellow Sea border that divides the Koreas. The March sinking killed 46 South Korean sailors.

   "North Korea wrote a letter in English revealing the results of the National Defense Commission's investigation and circulated it among U.N. member states on Friday," the official said. The commission is the North's highest seat of power.

   "It is the right of all U.N. members to state their position on an issue, but (this) does not mean that the U.N. approves the contents of the letter," the official added.

   The North's official Korean Central News Agency also reported on Nov. 15 that the commission's investigation results were distributed in an official document of the U.N. Security Council.

   Pyongyang, in a move to back its denial, offered earlier November to hand over samples of its own torpedoes, which it claimed were made of steel alloy material, not aluminum. The communist nation has been demanding that the South allow its own investigators to carry out an on-site probe, which the South has refused.

   The South Korean government is expected to issue a letter to U.N. members, in which it will refute the contents of Pyongyang's letter.

  
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S. Korea Keeping Close Watch on N.K. Amid Reports of Nuke Test Preparations

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea is keeping a close watch on North Korea amid reports that the socialist nation might be preparing for a third nuclear test, an official said on Nov. 17.

   Japan's Sankei Shimbun reported earlier that recent satellite imagery shows tunneling and other activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in northeastern North Korea, where the country conducted its second atomic test blast in October 2009.

   "It appears to be true that some preparations are under way there, but we're not sure what they are for," a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity. "We're keeping a close watch."

   The reported signs of nuclear test preparations came as South Korea and the United States remain reluctant about North Korea's expression of willingness to rejoin the stalled international nuclear disarmament talks.

   Seoul and Washington have been pressing Pyongyang to take concrete steps demonstrating its denuclearization commitments before reopening the negotiations that involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

   The talks, which were last held in December 2008, have been stalled due to Pyongyang's boycott.

   In Washington, Jack Pritchard, a Korean Peninsula security expert, told reporters that North Korean officials told him during a trip to Pyongyang in early November that the country has begun construction on an experimental light-water nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

   The North wants to complete the construction of a 100-megawatt reactor by 2012, he said.

   The North's move could be an effort to pressure South Korea and the U.S. to resume the stalled six-nation negotiations, where the country could get economic and political concessions, by stoking concern about the country's attempt to enrich uranium for weapons.

   A light-water reactor uses low-enriched uranium as fuel. If highly enriched, uranium can be used to build atomic bombs. North Korea claimed last year that it succeeded in experimental uranium enrichment.

   Economic woes of the impoverished nation appear to have deepened in the wake of a series of international and bilateral sanctions for its nuclear test and the March sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the socialist nation.

   Diplomatic sources in Seoul said that the North could be employing technology used in the now-defunct international project to build a set of light-water reactors in North Korea's Sinpo area in exchange for Pyongyang freezing its nuclear activities under a 1994 deal.

  
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U.S. Not to Relist N.K. for Lack of Evidence of Terrorism: State Dept.

  
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States said on Nov. 17 it has found no evidence of North Korean support for international terrorism to merit relisting the regime as a state sponsor of terrorism.

   "North Korea right now does not meet the statutory criteria to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism," Daniel Benjamin, coordinator of the State Department's Office for Counterterrorism, told a Foreign Press Center briefing. "The information we have does not show the DPRK repeatedly providing support for international terrorism since the designation was rescinded in October of 2008." DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

   At the time, the previous Bush administration removed Pyongyang from the list to facilitate the six-party talks for the North's nuclear dismantlement.

   Shortly after the delisting, the North demolished a cooling tower at its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, north of its capital, Pyongyang, as part of the six-party deal involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

   The talks have been stalled since then as the U.N. imposed sanctions on the North for its nuclear and missile tests in early 2009 and Seoul and Washington blame Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

   Washington has dismissed calls by hardliners for relisting North Korea for the torpedoeing of the warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea. Pyongyang denies involvement.

   U.S. officials say the March incident is a violation of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, but does not merit relisting.

   "As a matter of law, in order to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, the secretary of state needs to determine that the government of a particular country has repeatedly provided support for active international terrorism," Benjamin said. "We are always looking at the information available to see if there's been any change. At this point, we are still confident we're in the right place on this issue, but if anything changes, we will take immediate action."

   The U.S. in August announced a new list of state sponsors of terrorism that does not include North Korea despite concerns over Pyongyang's suspected delivery of weapons to militant groups in the Middle East.

   North Korea was first put on the list after the downing of the Korean Air flight over Myanmar in 1987, which killed all 115 people aboard.

  
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U.S. Lists N.K. Among 8 Worst Countries in Religious Freedom: Report

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States on Nov. 17 listed North Korea as among the eight worst offenders of religious freedom, saying the socialist state severely restricts religious activity except for that supervised by the government.

   The 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom put the North on the list of "Countries of Particular Concern" for the 10th consecutive year.

   The seven others are China, Iran, Eritrea, Myanmar, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

   "Although the constitution provides for freedom of religious belief, genuine religious freedom does not exist, and there was no change in the extremely poor level of respect for religious freedom during the reporting period," the report said.

   The North Korean government "severely restricted religious freedom, including organized religious activity, except that which officially recognized groups linked to the government supervised tightly," the report said. "Some foreign visitors to the country stated that services at state-authorized churches appeared staged and contained political content supportive of the regime."

   U.S. President Barack Obama denounced "a North Korean regime that enslaves its own people" in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

   Obama also said at that time that improvements in human rights should be preconditions for North Korean and other "tyrannical" governments to be friends with the U.S.

   An annual human rights report released by the State Department in March said that North Korea's record remains "deplorable" under an "absolute" dictatorship by reclusive leader Kim Jong-il.

   Obama issued a memorandum in September to withhold funding from North Korea and several other countries, designated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as "Tier 3 countries," for fiscal year 2011 "until such governments comply with the minimum standards or make significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance."

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