Security Council and UN officials condemn DPR Korea’s nuclear test
South Korea Shows Military Muscle in Sparring With North
Published: February 14, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea staged large
military drills and disclosed a new cruise missile capable of hitting any
target in North Korea,
just days after the North said it detonated its third nuclear device and as Pyongyang
became increasingly candid about its intentions to build intercontinental
ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.
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South Korean army soldiers set up a barbed wire fence during
an exercise near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on
Thursday.
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“We no longer hide but publicly declare: If the imperialists have nuclear weapons,
we must have them, and if they have intercontinental ballistic missiles, we
must have them, too,” the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the most
authoritative mouthpiece for the North’s leadership, said in a commentary
published Thursday. “Anger seeks weapons.”
North Korea uses the word
“imperialist” to refer to the United States.
Washington and its allies have condemned North Korea’s rocket launching in
December as a cover for developing the technology needed to build ballistic
missiles capable of reaching North America. But only recently did the North
begin publicly indicating that it intended to build such missiles.
Last month, the North said that Washington’s attitude toward it, pushing for
United Nations sanctions against the country, was forcing it to redirect its
rocket and nuclear programs to “target against the U.S.”
Although blustering is a common propaganda tactic for North Korea, its
increasingly public boasting comes amid growing concerns that the country is
moving closer to building workable long-range nuclear missiles.
If unchecked, American officials fear, the North’s drive will embolden Iran
to pursue its own nuclear ambitions despite stiff sanctions.
“It’s important for the world to have credibility with respect to our
nonproliferation efforts,” Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday
in urging the world to make a “swift, clear, strong and credible response” to
the North’s third nuclear test. “What our response is with respect to this will
have an impact on all other nonproliferation efforts.”
South Korea’s reaction has been a rapid attempt to show North Korea its own
military strength. On Thursday, the South’s political parties put aside their
bickering over domestic politics and passed nearly unanimously a parliamentary
resolution condemning the North’s nuclear test. Its navy deployed destroyers
and submarines off its eastern coast to test their combat readiness.
South Korea started a similar naval drill off the western coast on Wednesday
and planned on Friday to begin live-fire drills involving rockets and artillery
near the land border with North Korea. The American military, which keeps
28,500 troops in South Korea, was staging an air drill mobilizing jet fighters
of the two allies.
Also on Thursday, the South’s Defense Ministry offered a rare glimpse of its
military abilities by releasing a 50-second video clip that showed two cruise
missiles blasting targets after they were launched by a South Korean submarine
and destroyer. It was the first time the South Korean military had publicly
disclosed the recently deployed missiles, believed to have a range of 620
miles, and it did so with a bravado that reflected the tension on the divided
peninsula after the North Korean test.
“Our cruise missile shown today is a precision-guided weapon so accurate
that it can be directed to smash through the window of a North Korean command
post from anywhere on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim Min-seok, a ministry
spokesman, said during a news briefing.
On the same day, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin of South Korea visited his
military’s rocket command, as well as its Agency for Defense Development, which
is in charge of developing ballistic missiles able to reach any target in the
North.
“North Korea as a whole is a hopeless rogue state, and it will continue to
launch provocations,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying by the national news agency
Yonhap during his visit to the rocket command.
The North’s nuclear test deepened doubts about the effectiveness of the
efforts by the United States, China and other regional powers to curb its
nuclear and missile ambitions. North Korea has recently warned that United
Nations sanctions would cause it to take “second and third measures of greater
intensity” and could even ignite an “all-out war.”
“We are neither surprised nor confused by them; they were imposed on us
regularly and countless times,” Rodong, the North Korean newspaper, said Thursday,
about the prospects of more United Nations sanctions, which it called part of
Washington’s long effort to subjugate the recalcitrant nation. “They are not
fighting against our nuclear weapons or satellites but against our
sovereignty.”
Nuclear
Power in South Korea
(Updated February 2013)
- South Korea is set to
become a major world nuclear energy country, exporting technology. It
won a $20 billion contract to supply four nuclear reactors to UAE, and the
first of these is under construction.
- Today 23 reactors provide
one third of South Korea's electricity from 20.7 GWe of plant. The
aim reaffirmed in mid 2011 is to provide 59% of electricity from 40 units
by 2030.
- Nuclear energy remains a
strategic priority for South Korea, and capacity is planned to increase by
56% to 27.3 GWe by 2020, and then to 43 GWe by 2030.
South
Korea imports almost all of its energy, by ship.
Power
demand in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) has increased by more than 9% per
year since 1990 but slowed to about 2.8% pa 2006-10
and projected 2.5% pa to 2020. Per capita consumption in 2010
was 9200 kWh, up from 850 kWh/yr in 1980. Over the last three decades,
South Korea has enjoyed 8.6% average annual growth in GDP, which has caused
corresponding growth in electricity consumption - from 33 billion kWh in 1980
to 406 billion kWh in 2009.
In
2011 electricity production was 519 TWh gross, with 233 TWh of this from coal,
150 TWh (29%) from nuclear, 109 TWh from gas, 15 TWh from oil and 8 TWh from
hydro.
Generation
capacity of 80.5 GWe in 2010 is expected to grow to 101 GWe total in 2022. In
2010 nuclear capacity was 17.7 GWe net (21% of total), supplying 30% of total
(149 billion kWh gross). By April 2012 it was 20.7 GWe. In 2020 nuclear
capacity of 27.3 GWe is expected to supply 226 billion kWh - 43.4% of
electricity, rising to 48% in 2022, though more recent projections suggest 50%
by 2020, with the use of gas strongly reduced. By 2030 the government expects
nuclear to supply 59% of the power (333 TWh), from 41% of the installed
capacity. This will require expanding nuclear capacity from 26% of total,
adding about 24 GWe nuclear by 2030. In 2022 nuclear capacity of 32.9 GWe is
expected to be 32.6% of the national total of 100.9 GWe.
Nuclear
power costs are low in Korea: for 2008 KHNP reports 39 won (KRW) per kWh (about
3c/kWh), compared with coal 53.7 won, LNG 143.6 won and hydro 162 won. KHNP
average price to KEPCO is 68.3 won (about 5c) per kWh.
From
1961 until April 2001 South Korea's sole electric power utility was Korea
Electric Power Company - KEPCO. Set up as a government corporation, 49% of its
shares are now held by public and foreign investors. The power generation part
of KEPCO was then split into six entities and all the nuclear generation
capacity, with a small amount of hydro, became part of the largest of these,
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd Ð KHNP. KEPCO remains a transmission and
distribution monopoly. Korea Power Engineering Company is another KEPCO
subsidiary.
KHNP
expects to spend 4.7 trillion won ($3.68 billion) on nuclear plants in 2009. It
plans to complete 18 nuclear power plants by 2030 at a cost of 40 - 50 trillion
won ($32 to 40 billion), to provide 59% of the country's electricity.
This target was endorsed by the Prime Minister in March 2010. In December
2010 the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) projected 14 new nuclear reactors
on line by 2024, to provide almost half of the country's electricity.
Development
of nuclear program & policy
Shortly
following its sale of four modern nuclear power reactors to the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) declared
in January 2010 that it aimed to achieve exports of 80 nuclear power reactors
worth $400 billion by 2030, in the course of becoming the world's third largest
supplier of such technology, with a 20% share of the world market, behind the
USA and France or Russia. "Nuclear power-related business will be the most
profitable market after automobiles, semiconductors and shipbuilding," It
said, adding that: "We will promote the industry as a major export
business." The Korean industry aims to be 100% self-sufficient by 2012,
with no residual intellectual property constraints. Following the UAE sale, it
is marketing to Turkey, Jordan, Romania and Ukraine, as well as South East
Asian countries. In addition to exporting reactors, it also plans to enter the
$78 billion market for the operation, maintenance and repair of reactors.
Nuclear
activities were initiated when South Korea became a member of the International
Atomic Energy Agency in 1957. In 1958 the Atomic Energy Law was passed and in
1959 the Office of Atomic Energy was established by the government. The first
nuclear reactor to achieve criticality in South Korea was a small research unit
in 1962.
Ten
years later construction began of the first nuclear power plant - Kori-1, a
Westinghouse unit built on turnkey contract. It started up in 1977 and achieved
commercial operation in 1978. After this there was a burst of activity, with
eight reactors under construction in the early 1980s.
South
Korean energy policy has been driven by considerations of energy security and
the need to minimise dependence on current imports. Policy is to continue to
have nuclear power as a major element of electricity production.
After
drawing on Westinghouse and Framatome (now Areva) technology for its first
eight PWR units, and Combustion Engineering (which became part of Westinghouse)
for two more, the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNP) became a
recognised design, and evolved a little to KSNP+. In 2005 the KSNP/KSNP+
was rebranded as OPR-1000 (Optimised Power Reactor) apparently for Asian
markets, particularly Indonesia and Vietnam. Six operating units and four
under construction are now designated OPR-1000.
Under
the country's 5th long-term power development plan, finalised in January 2000,
eight more nuclear units (9200 MWe) were to be constructed by 2015 (in addition
to the four then under construction), while two units would be decommissioned
about 2008 if licences were not extended. This would bring nuclear to one third
of the country's total generating capacity and it would supply 45% of the
electricity.
The
Ministry of Education, Science & Technology's third comprehensive nuclear
energy development plan, for 2007-11, projected that South Korea should develop
its nuclear industry into one of the top five in the world, with about 60% of
electricity from nuclear by 2035. As well as emphasis on production of nuclear
fuel, the report envisaged construction of the Korean APR-1400 reactor, which
was in fact also sold to UAE. In the country's 2008 Energy Plan to 2030,
totalling some $100 billion, the increase was quantified as ten or eleven new
nuclear power units.
In
November 2011 the government reaffirmed it commitment to nuclear energy, and
targeted completion of six new reactors by 2016. The Ministry for Knowledge
Economy announced plans for 59% of domestic electricity to be from nuclear by
2030, and for South Korea to be the third largest rector exporter by 2030,
supplying 20% of the market, under a plan known as Nu-Tech 2030. This involves
the development of indigenous reactor technology with full intellectual
property rights known as the Innovative, Passive, Optimised, Worldwide
Economical Reactor (I-POWER) by late 2012.
KHNP
and MEST are negotiating licence renewals to extend 30-year operating
lifetimes by ten years, starting with Kori-1 and Wolsong-1. A six-month
upgrading and inspection outage at Kori-1 in the second half of 2007 concluded
a major refurbishment program and enabled its relicensing for a further ten
years. At Wolsong-1, considerable refurbishment was undertaken in a
longer outage from April 2009 to to July 2011, including replacement of all 308
calandria tubes, to give it a further 25 years operational life. It had been
operating at slightly derated capacity (622 MWe gross) since 2004, but the
refurbishment restored it to design level of 691 MWe gross.
Power
uprates of most units occurred at the end of 2005, totalling 693 MWe and
reflecting the fact that may had been declaring load factors of over 100% for
some time.
Power reactors operating in South Korea
|
Reactor
|
Type
|
Net capacity
|
Commercial
Operation
|
Planned
Close
|
|
Kori 1
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
576 MWe
|
4/78
|
2017
|
|
Kori 2
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
637 MWe
|
7/83
|
|
|
Wolsong 1
|
PHWR - Candu 6
|
666 MWe
|
4/83
|
2036
|
|
Kori 3
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
1007 MWe
|
9/85
|
|
|
Kori 4
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
1007 MWe
|
4/86
|
|
|
Yonggwang 1
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
953 MWe
|
8/86
|
|
|
Yonggwang 2
|
PWR - Westinghouse
|
947 MWe
|
6/87
|
|
|
Ulchin 1
|
PWR - Framatome
|
945 MWe
|
9/88
|
|
|
Ulchin 2
|
PWR - Framatome
|
942 MWe
|
9/89
|
|
|
Yonggwang 3
|
PWR (Syst 80)
|
997 MWe
|
12/95
|
|
|
Yonggwang 4
|
PWR (Syst 80)
|
994 MWe
|
3/96
|
|
|
Wolsong 2
|
PHWR - Candu
|
710 MWe
|
7/97
|
|
|
Wolsong 3
|
PHWR - Candu
|
707 MWe
|
7/98
|
|
|
Wolsong 4
|
PHWR - Candu
|
708 MWe
|
10/99
|
|
|
Ulchin 3
|
OPR-1000
|
994 MWe
|
8/98
|
|
|
Ulchin 4
|
OPR-1000
|
998 MWe
|
12/99
|
|
|
Yonggwang 5
|
OPR-1000
|
988 MWe
|
5/02
|
|
|
Yonggwang 6
|
OPR-1000
|
996 MWe
|
12/02
|
|
|
Ulchin 5
|
OPR-1000
|
1001 MWe
|
7/04
|
|
|
Ulchin 6
|
OPR-1000
|
1001 MWe
|
4/05
|
|
|
Shin Kori 1
|
OPR-1000
|
1001 MWe
|
2/11
|
|
|
Shin Kori
2
|
OPR-1000
|
1001 MWe
|
7/12
|
|
|
Shin
Wolsong 1
|
OPR-1000
|
1001 MWe
|
7/12
|
|
|
Total: 23
|
20,787 MWe
|
|
Net capacities
updated from PRIS Jan 2011, and re Wolsong 1 in July 2011, but for last
five OPR units there is some confusion regarding net output. KHNP web
site shows actual gross around 1050 MWe.
In
recent years the capacity factor for South Korean power reactors has averaged
up to 96.5% - some of the highest figures in the world.
In
2005 permits for construction of Shin Kori 1 & 2 and Shin Wolsong 1 & 2
(all basically 1000 MWe gross) were authorised. First concrete for Shin Kori-1
& 2 was in June 2006 and August 2007 respectively. For Shin Wolsong first
concrete for unit 1 was December 2007 and for unit 2 September 2008. Shin
Kori 1 started up in July, was grid connected in August 2010, and entered
commercial operation at the end of February 2011. Unit 2 started up at the end
of December 2011, was grid connected in January 2012 and entered commercial
operation in July. Shin Wolsong 1 started up in January 2012, was grid
connected later in the month and entered commercial operation at the end of
July. Shin Wolsong 2 is expected to start up in mid 2013 and enter commercial
operation in October 2013.
South Korean reactors under construction or planned
|
Reactor
|
Type
|
Gross capacity
|
Start construction
|
Commercial operation
|
|
Shin Wolsong 2
|
OPR-1000
|
1050 MWe
|
September 2008
|
10/2013
|
|
Shin Kori 3
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
October 2008
|
12/2013
|
|
Shin Kori 4
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
August 2009
|
9/2014
|
|
Shin Ulchin 1
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
July 2012
|
4/2017
|
|
Shin Ulchin 2
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
August 2013
|
2/2018
|
|
Shin Kori 5
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
8/2014
|
12/2019
|
|
Shin Kori 6
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
8/2015
|
12/2020
|
|
Shin Ulchin 3
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
|
6/2021
|
|
Shin Ulchin 4
|
APR-1400
|
1350 MWe
|
|
6/2022
|
|
Total 9
|
|
12,250 MWe
(c 11,680 MWe
net)
|
|
|
Those not under
construction are listed as planned in the WNA reactor table. Bold dates
= under construction.
Construction
of the first pair of third-generation APR-1400 reactors - Shin Kori 3
& 4 - was authorised in 2006 though the actual construction licence was not
issued until April 2008. In anticipation of it KHNP placed a US$ 1.2
billion order with Doosan Heavy Industries for major components of these in
August 2006. Westinghouse has a $300 million contract with Doosan for
part of this order. In February 2007 a contract was let to a consortium
led by Hyundai to build the two plants, subsuming the Doosan order. KHNP
expects the APR-1400 reactors to cost a total of around $6.3 billion ($2333/kW).
Site works started in November 2007 and first concrete for unit 3 was poured at
the end of October 2008 and that for unit 4 in mid September 2009.
Construction time of 51 months is envisaged for these first units.
In
April 2009 the government authorised construction of Shin Ulchin 1 & 2 and
contracts for major components were signed in March 2010. First concrete for
unit 1 was poured at the end of July 2012, with completion expected in April
2017. Unit 2 is a year behind it. The two units will be the first to be
virtually free of Westinghouse IP content and are expected to cost US$ 4.7
billion. Site works commenced in May 2012.
A
further plant at either Samcheok or Yeongdeok, 190 km east of Seoul, is
envisaged, with the site to be decided at the end of 2012.
KEPCO
is actively marketing OPR-1000 and APR-1400 units in Middle East and North
African countries. In December 2009 the APR-1400 was selected as the
basis of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nuclear power program, with the first
four reactors to be operating by 2020 under a $20.4 billion contact, and
another ten to follow. Construction has commenced. The choice was
on the basis of cost and reliability of building schedule. An application for
US Design Certification is likely.
Korean
government data is reported to put the overnight cost of APR-1400 at the end of
2009 as $2300/kW, compared with $2900/kW for EPR and $3580/kW for the GE
Hitachi ABWR. The same data puts the generation cost for the APR-1400 at US$
3.03 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with an estimated 3.93 cents/kWh for
EPR, and 6.86 cents/kWh for ABWR.
South
Korea is very constrained in its fuel cycle policy by the 1970s Korea-US
Atomic Energy Agreement. This constrains raw material supply and disallows
uranium enrichment and reprocessing used fuel. Following the UAE agreement, the
government has described these US constraints as "excessive", and
will continue to push for them to be eased, preferably before the Agreement is
due for renewal in 2014. The main Korean concern appears to be
reprocessing.
Reactor
development, intellectual property
The
first three commercial units - Kori 1 & 2 and Wolsong-1, were bought as
turnkey projects. The next six, Kori 3 & 4, Yonggwang 1 & 2, Ulchin 1
& 2, comprised the country's second generation of plants and involved local
contractors and manufacturers. At that stage the country had six PWR units
derived from Combustion Engineering in USA, two from Framatome in Europe and
one from AECL in Canada Ð of radically different design.
Then
in the mid 1980s the Korean nuclear industry embarked upon a plan to
standardise the design of nuclear plants and to achieve much greater
self-sufficiency in building them. In 1987 the industry entered a ten-year
technology transfer program with Combustion Engineering (now Westinghouse) to
achieve technical self-reliance, and this was extended in 1997.
A
sidetrack from this was the ordering of three more Candu-6 Pressurised Heavy
Water Reactor (PHWR) units from AECL in Canada, to complete the Wolsong power
plant. These units were built with substantial local input and were
commissioned 1997-99. (see also DUPIC in R&D section below)
In
1987 the industry selected the CE System 80 (2-loop) steam supply system as the
basis of standardisation. Yonggwang 3 & 4 were the first to use this, with
great success, and they marked significant technical independence for
Korea. A further step in standardisation was the Korean Standard Nuclear
Plant (KSNP), which from 1984 brought in some further CE System 80 features and
incorporated many of the US Advanced Light Water Reactor design requirements.
It is the type used for all further 1000 MWe units as well as the two under
construction in North Korea.
In
the late 1990s, to meet evolving requirements, a program to produce an Improved
KSNP, or KSNP+, was started. This involved design improvement of many
components, improved safety and economic competitiveness, and optimising plant
layout with streamlining of construction programs to reduce capital cost.
Shin-Kori 1&2 will represent the first units of the KSNP+ Program.
This Generation II design is being offered for export as the Optimised Power
Reactor - OPR-1000.
Beyond
this, the Generation III Advanced Pressurised Reactor-1400 draws on CE
System 80+ innovations, which are evolutionary rather than radical. The System
80+ has US Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification as a
third-generation reactor. The APR-1400 was originally known as the Korean
Next-Generation Reactor when work started on the project in 1992. The basic
design was completed in 1999 and design certification by the Korean Institute
of Nuclear Safety was awarded in May 2003. It offers enhanced safety with
seismic design to withstand 300 Gal ground acceleration, and has a 60-year
design life. Cost is expected to be 10-20% less than KSNP/OPR-1000.
The first APR-1400 units - Shin Kori 3 & 4, are under construction, and
operation is expected in 2013 and 2014. A 48-month construction period is
envisaged. Korea Power Engineering Company (KOPEC) is the main designer,
and Doosan the main manufacturer. In June 2010 it signed a $3.9 billion
contract to supply heavy reactor components and turbines to KEPCO for four
APR-1400 reactors in UAE.
KHNP
decided not to renew its reactor technology licence agreement with Westinghouse
in 2007 but to embark upon a business cooperation agreement instead, whereby
KHNP would join with Westinghouse in marketing jointly-developed technology
while KHNP completes the development of its own components to replace those, eg
in the APR-1400, dependent on the licensing. This will lead into a KHNP $200
million program to develop an exportable advanced APR+ large (1500
MWe net) reactor design by 2015, though Westinghouse is not likely to let it
compete in main markets such as USA and China without KEPCO buying the rights
to the design. However, securing the $20.4 billion contract to build four
APR-1400 reactors in UAE is a major boost for KEPCO. Moving on from that,
KOPEC is developing an APR1400-EUR for the European market, specifically
Finland. This will have double containment, core-catcher and extra safety
train.
Early
in 2010 KEPCO announced that it was designing an APR-1000 as a
Generation III type, based on the OPR-1000 but incorporating APR performance
and safety features and with 60-year operating life. Basic design was due to be
finished in August 2011, but there is no schedule for detailed design. The
APR-1000 is intended for overseas markets, notably Middle East and Southeast
Asia, and will be able to operate with an ultimate heat sink of 40°C, instead
of 35°C for the OPR-1000. Improved safety and performance would raise the
capital cost above that of the OPR, but it this would be offset by reduced
construction time (40 months instead of 46) due to modular construction.
KEPCO
signed an agreement with Indonesia's PT Medco Energi Internasional, an
independent power producer, in 2007 to conduct a feasibility study - with KHNP
- for Indonesia's first nuclear power plant. This would probably be one or more
OPR-1000 units.
KEPCO
and Doosan were reported to be offering Jordan their OPR-1000 nuclear reactor.
However, the OPR is designed for 200 Gal seismic acceleration and would need to
be upgraded to at least 300 Gal for Jordan and Turkey. Jordan then considered
the APR-1400, but did not proceed with it.
The
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing the SMART
(System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor) - a 330 MWt pressurised water
reactor with integral steam generators and advanced passive safety features. It
is designed for generating electricity (up to 100 MWe) and/or thermal
applications such as seawater desalination. Design life is 60 years, with a
3-year refuelling cycle. While the basic design is complete, the absence of any
orders for an initial reference unit has stalled development. KAERI is
proceeding with licensing the design and expects design approval from NSSC in
May 2012, with a view to then building a 90 MWe demonstration plant to operate
from 2017. In mid 2010 a consortium of 13 South Korean companies led by
Kepco pledged 100 billion won ($ 83 million) to complete the design work.
US-based engineering company URS is providing technical services to
KAERI. Cost is expected to be about $5000/kW.
KAERI
has designed an integrated desalination plant based on the SMART reactor to
produce 40,000 m3/day of water and 90 MWe at less than the cost of
gas turbine. The first of these was envisaged for Madura Island, Indonesia.
Fuel
cycle
South
Korea has had an open fuel cycle, without enrichment or reprocessing, due to
the terms of its 1974 nuclear cooperation agreement with the USA, which needs
to be renewed in 2014. In recent years diplomatic efforts have sought to remove
these constraints so as to get some 30% more energy from imported uranium and
reduce the amount of high-level wastes. Reprocessing is the main issue,
but recent reports suggest that a Korean enrichment plant under international
control is a possibility, with reprocessing being done in a third country such
as Japan. Both questions are sensitive due to US efforts to constrain North
Korea’s nuclear activities.
Uranium
for fuel comes from Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia, Niger and elsewhere - 4500
tU being required in 2011, and 8900 tU being anticipated demand in 2020.
KEPCO, KNFC, Hanwha and KHNP are together becoming involved with uranium
exploration in Canada. The state-owned Korea Resources Corporation
(KORES) has declared an intention to invest heavily in uranium and copper mines
in Africa and South America. In December 2009 KEPCO agreed to take a 20%
interest in the Imouraren operating company in Niger, along with 10% of the
product - expected to be 500 tU/yr over 35 years. The figure of US$ 360
million in uranium projects to 2026 has been mentioned. KEPCO also owns
17% of Denison Mines and is entitled to 20% of its product.
Korea
had no known and quantified uranium resources, though Perth-based Stonehenge
Metals has acquired Chong Ma Mines Inc which holds the rights to the Daejon
uranium deposit, identified by the Korean Institute of Energy and Resources (KIER)
in a 1986 report. A JORC-compliant inferred resource of 25,000 tU at 0.027%U
was announced in 2011. Uranium mining is now planned from 2015, and test
work on recovering vanadium by-product is proceeding. The Korean Resources
Corporation (KORES), which discovered Daejon in 1979, holds the adjoining
Gumsan deposit along strike to the south from Daejon. Stonehenge has two other
deposits further north in the same Ogchon geological formation: Miwon and
Gwesan.
In
2006 enrichment demand was 1.8 million SWU, supplied from overseas. Tenex,
Urenco and USEC have previously supplied this, but in mid 2007 KHNP signed a
long-term (10+ years) EUR 1 billion contract with Areva NC for enrichment
services at the new Georges Besse II plant in France. Then in mid 2009 it
took a 2.5% equity stake in the plant. In 2012 Kepco was considering
investment in phase 2 of Urenco USA’s New Mexico plant, according to MKE.
KAERI
has developed both PWR and Candu fuel technology. It and KEPCO Nuclear Fuel
Company (KNFC) have supplied PWR fuel since 1990 and Candu PHWR fuel
(unenriched) since 1987. KNFC has capacity of 700 t/yr for PWR fuel and 700
t/yr for Candu PHWR fuel, and supplies all KHNP's needs. From 2015 KNFC
plans to supply HIPER and X-gen design code fuel.
In
February 2009 Westinghouse announced that it and KNFC will manufacture control
element assemblies for Combustion Engineering-design power reactors in the USA
and South Korea. A new joint venture (Westinghouse 55%, KNFC 45%), KW
Nuclear Components, will make the elements at KNFC's fuel fabrication facility
in Daejeon. The Shin Kori-4 APR-1400 under construction is likely to
include the first control elements manufactured by the venture.
Radioactive
Waste Management
The
Korea Radioactive Waste Management Co. Ltd (KRWM) was set up early in 2009 as
an umbrella organisation to resolve South Korea's waste management issues and
waste disposition, and particularly to forge a national consensus on high-level
wastes. Until then, KHNP had been responsible for managing all its radioactive
wastes.
The
Atomic Energy Act of 1988 established a 'polluter pays' principle under which
KHNP was levied a fee based on power generated. A fee was also levied on KNFC.
The fees were collected by MEST and paid into a national Nuclear Waste Management
Fund. A revised waste program was drawn up by the Nuclear Environment
Technology Institute (NETEC) and approved by the Atomic Energy Commission in
1998. These arrangements are superseded by KRWM, and KHNP now contributes
a fee of 900,000 won (US$ 705) per kilogram of used fuel to KRWM.
Used
fuel is stored on the reactor site pending construction of a centralised
interim storage facility which is planned to be operational by 2024, eventually
with 20,000 tonne capacity. About 12,300 t was stored in mid 2012, with
onsite pool capacity being 12,000 t, about half of both figures being for Candu
fuel at Wolsong. About 6000 t was stored at end of 2002. Dry
storage is used for Candu fuel after 6 years cooling. Long-term, deep
geological disposal is envisaged, though whether this is for used fuel as such
or simply separated high-level wastes depends on national policy.
Reprocessing,
either domestic or overseas, is not possible under constraints imposed by the
country's cooperation agreement with the USA which expires in March 2014.
However this is being appealed in the renegotiations. KHNP has considered
offshore reprocessing to be too expensive, and recent figures based on Japanese
contracts with Areva in France support this view, largely due to transport
costs. A public consultation on storage of used fuel pending disposal was
announced in November 2012, since at-reactor storage was said to be already 71%
full.
Low
and intermediate-level wastes (LILW) are also stored at each reactor site,
the total being about 60,000 drums of 200 litres. Volume reduction (drying,
compaction) is undertaken at each site. A 200 ha central disposal repository at
Gyeongju is now being built for all this.
NETEC
took over the task of finding repository sites after several abortive attempts
by KAERI and MEST 1988-96. In 2000 it called for local communities to volunteer
to host a disposal facility. Seven did so, including Yonggwang county with 44%
citizen support, but in 2001 all local governments vetoed the proposal. The
Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy (now the Ministry of Knowledge
Economy - MKE) then in 2003 selected four sites for detailed
consideration and preliminary environmental review with a view to negotiating
acceptance with local governments from 2004. Buan, in North Jeolla
province was reported to be favoured.
The
area selected for the LILW facility will get 300 billion won (US$ 260 million)
in community support according to "The Act for Promoting the Radioactive
Waste Management Project and Financial Support for the Local Community"
2000. The aim of this is to compensate for the psychological burden on
residents, to reward a community participating in an important national
project, and to facilitate amicable implementation of radioactive waste
management.
In
November 2005, after votes in four provincial cities, Kyongju /Gyeonju on the
east coast 370 km SE from Seoul was designated as the site. Almost 90% of its
voters approved, compared with 67 to 84% in the other contender
locations. It is close to Wolsong.
In
June 2006 the government announced that the Gyeongju LILW repository would
provide shallow geological disposal of conditioned wastes, with vitrification
being used on ILW to increase public acceptability. It will have a number of
silos and caverns some 80m below the surface, initially with capacity for
100,000 drums and costing US$ 730 million. Construction started in April 2008.
Further 700,000 drum capacity would be built later, total cost amounting
to US$ 1.15 billion. As well as the initial US$ 260 million grant, annual
fees will be paid to the local community.
In
December 2010 KRWM commenced operation of the Gyeongju facility, accepting the
first 1000 drums of wastes there from the Ulchin plant. These will be held in
outdoor storage until the underground repository itself is commissioned in mid
2014. About nine such shipments are expected annually. The site covers 2.1 sq
km.
Regulation
and safety
The
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) is the highest decision-making body for nuclear
energy policy and is chaired by the Prime Minister. It was set up under the
Atomic Energy Act.
The
Ministry of Education, Science & Technology (MEST) has overall
responsibility for nuclear R&D, nuclear safety and nuclear safeguards.
The
high-level Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) chaired by the Minister of
Education, Science & Technology was responsible for nuclear safety
regulation until 2011. It was independent of the AEC and was set up by
amendment of the Atomic Energy Act in 1996. The regulatory framework is largely
modelled on the US NRC.
The
government launched the new Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC)
in October 2011. It is the new independent regulator, reporting to the
president, and its chairman has ministerial rank. The Korean Institute of
Nuclear Safety (KINS), formerly the expert safety regulator under MEST, became
a technical support organisation under it, while MEST simply promotes nuclear
power. The NSSC's scope covers licensing, inspection, enforcement, incident
response and emergency response, non-proliferation and safeguards,
export/import control and physical protection. In 2012 the NSSC signed an
agreement with its Canadian counterpart (CNSC) to strengthen cooperation.
The
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), responsible for R&D, comes
under the Korea Research Council of Public Science & Technology (KORP).
The
Technology Centre for Nuclear Control, responsible for nuclear material
accounting and the international safeguards regime, was transferred from KAERI
to KINS at the end of 2004 and was then replaced by the National Nuclear
Management and Control Agency (NNCA). In June 2006 this was replaced by the
Korean Institute of Nuclear Non-proliferation and Control (KINAC), with greater
independence, under MEST. However this role has now apparently been
transferred to NSSC.
The
Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) is responsible for energy policy, for the
construction and operation of nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel supply and
radioactive waste management. KEPCO, KHNP, KNFC, NETEC and heavy
engineering operations come under MKE, and KEPCO seems to have a controlling
role re the others. The Korea Nuclear Energy Foundation (KNEF) is a
public information body also under MKE.
After
the Fukushima accident there was immediate assessment of each site followed by
a MEST special safety review of all plants (with special attention to Kori-1)
and then IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service check of the whole South
Korean situation. A number of measures were initiated: the coastal barrier at
Kori 1 was raised to 10m, watertight doors were fitted to emergency diesel
generator buildings, battery power supplies were secured form possibility of
flooding, a vehicle with portable diesel generator was situated at each site,
pumps were waterproofed, passive hydrogen removal systems not dependent on
electricity were installed, exhaust and decompression equipment was improved,
and the seismic performance of automatic shutdown and cooling systems was
improved. All this represents an investment of about US$ 1 billion over five
years.
R&D
The
main roles of nuclear R&D are to ensure that the national energy supply is
secure, and to build the country's nuclear technology base so that it becomes a
nuclear exporting country by early in the 21st century. KAERI is the main body
responsible for R&D.
Particular
goals established in 1997 include reactor design and nuclear fuel, nuclear
safety, radioactive waste management, radiation and radioisotopes application,
and basic technology research. The last, taking 27% of the funds, includes:
development of liquid metal reactors, Direct Use of spent PWR fuel In Candu
reactors (DUPIC), application of lasers, and research reactor utilisation.
The
DUPIC program is the subject of South Korea's national case study
for the IAEA's INPRO project, evaluating new fuel cycle technologies. It
involves taking used fuel from light water reactors such as PWRs, crushing it,
heating it in oxygen to drive off some 40% of the fission products, and
re-forming it into PHWR fuel. It still contains all the actinides including
about 1% plutonium, and about 96% uranium including approx 1% U-235. So the
fissile content is about 1.5%, more than double that of natural uranium usually
used for today's PHWRs. DUPIC research has been supported by Canada and is described
more fully in the Processing Used Nuclear Fuel paper.
The
other major research initiative by KAERI related to used fuel is an advanced
spent fuel conditioning process - ACP. Development of this process
involves substantial US-South Korean nuclear cooperation, since the USA
effectively controls what is done with the country's used fuel, and will be
central to the renewal of the US-ROK agreement in 2014. Much of the
R&D has been done in the USA, based on earlier US work in 1970s, but paid
for by KAERI. However, the US government then suspended this. South
Korea has declined an approach from China to cooperate on electrolytic
reprocessing, and it has been rebuffed by Japan's CRIEPI due to government
policy.
The
US Department of Energy included in its 2008 budget funding for pyroprocessing
R&D. This is significant in that the USA had strongly discouraged
reprocessing in Korea previously. But after the USA announced its Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) early in 2006, the S. Korean government
pressed it to include KAERI's R&D in GNEP, including particularly ACP. The
DOE funding request for KAERI links pyroprocessing research to GNEP, while US
DOE laboratories work with KAERI staff on ACP.
Using
electrometallurgical pyroprocessing to close the fuel cycle with oxide fuels
however requires them to be reduced to the metal on a commercial basis.
It involves heating the pulverised used fuel to drive off volatile fission
products and then reducing it to metal. This is put into a bath of molten
lithium and potassium chloride, and uranium is recovered electrolytically. The
remaining tranuranics (Pu, Np, Am, Cm) are concentrated and removed with the
remaining fission products (notably cerium, neodymium & lanthanum) to be
fabricated into fast reactor fuel without any further treatment. This is
intrinsically proliferation-resistant because it is so hot radiologically, and
the curium provides a high level of spontaneous neutrons. Also it recycles
about 95% of the used fuel.
In
2008 IAEA approved an electrorefining laboratory - the Advanced Spent Fuel
Conditioning Process Facility (ACPF) at KAERI, which was to be built and
expanded to engineering scale by 2012. Demonstration work is to proceed to
2016. This is envisaged as the first stage of a Korea Advanced Pyroprocessing
Facility (KAPF) to start experimentally in 2016 and become a commercial-scale
demonstration plant in 2025. In connection with renewal of the US-ROK
agreement in or by 2014, discussions are proceeding on pyroprocessing.
Closely
related to this, and designed to be fueled by the product of it, KAERI has
proposed development of a sodium-cooled fast reactor, the SFR,
which will operate in burner (not breeder) mode. This was supported by
the USA in connection with GNEP and a demonstration Korean fast reactor is
planned for 2028.
As
well as the fast reactor means of burning actinides, KAERI is researching HYPER
(HYbrid Power Extraction Reactor), a kind of subcritical reactor which will be
activated by a proton accelerator.
KAERI
has constructed 30 MW thermal research reactor based on the Canadian Maple
design called HANARO, which started up in 1995. In contrast
to Canada's experience with Maple, this apparently works very well. It is the
basis of the JRTR being designed for and built in Jordan, the contract being
signed in March 2010. It will be 5 MW with potential to upgrade to 10 MW.
In
February 2012 MST announced that 20 MW research reactor and radioisotope
facility (notably for Mo-99) would be built in Busan by 2016, with the 290
billion won ($259 million) project partly funded by Busan. The justification
includes export of radioisotopes.
KALIMER
(Korea Advanced LIquid MEtal Reactor) is a 600 MWe pool type sodium-cooled fast
reactor designed since 1992 to operate at 510ºC. A transmuter core
consisting of uranium and transuranics in metal form from pyro-processing is
being designed, and no breeding blanket is involved. Future deployment of
KALIMER as a Generation IV type is envisaged.
A
150 MW fast reactor has also been designed by KAERI.
A
second stream of fast reactor development is via the Nuclear Transmutation
Energy Research Centre of Korea (NuTrECK) at Seoul University (SNU), drawing on
Russian experience. It is working on lead-bismuth cooled designs of 35,
300 and 550 MW which would operate on pyro-processed fuel. The 35 MW unit
is designed to be leased for 20 years and operated without refuelling, and then
returned to the supplier. It would be refuelled at the pyro-processing
plant and have a design life of 60 years.
KAERI
has also submitted a Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) design to the
Generation IV International Forum with a view to hydrogen production from it.
This is envisaged as 300 MWt modules operating at 950ºC each producing 30,000
tonnes of hydrogen per year. KAERI expects the engineering design to be
completed in 2014, construction start 2016 and operation in 2020. An
agreement with steelmaker Posco envisages using the VHTR for smelting
iron.
In
2005 KAERI embarked upon a US$ 1 billion R&D and demonstration program
aiming to produce commercial hydrogen using nuclear heat around 2020. KAERI has
close links on hydrogen with the Institute of Nuclear & New Energy
Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University in China, based on China's HTR-10
reactor, and is forming other links with its counterpart in Japan. In 2005 it
set up a South Korea-US Nuclear Hydrogen Joint Development Center involving
General Atomics.
It
plans to develop the sulfur-iodine (SI) process for hydrogen production while
also developing high-temperature reactors and the alloys enabling them to be
used with heat exchangers for chemical plants. Prototype SI hydrogen production
is expected about 2011, followed by a pilot plant in 2016, which will then be
connected to a high-temperature reactor. Which type of reactor will be decided
in 2006.
Beyond
fission, KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) was launched
in December 1995 and began operating in September 2007 at Daejeon. The US$ 330
million facility is the world's eight fusion device and will be a major
contribution to world fusion research, contributing to the ITER project taking
shape in France.
Non-proliferation
South
Korea is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear
weapons state. Its safeguards agreement under the NPT came into force in 1975
and it has signed the Additional Protocol in relation to this.
North
Korea
In
the 1990s there was a proposal to build two KSNP reactors at Sinpo in North
Korea. See: North Korea section of Emerging Nuclear Energy Countries paper for
details.
References:
Country Nuclear Power Profiles, IAEA, 1998, p.331-346.
OECD/IEA 1994 Energy Policies of the Republic of Korea
Westinghouse World View, August 2002, Korea's Nuclear Strategy.
Chung, Bum-Chin, 2001, Growth in Korean Nuclear Activity, The Nuclear
Engineer 42,3.
KHNP Trust 2002 and web site.
Song, M-J. 2003, Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal in Korea, KAIF/KNS
conference.
Hong J-H 2006, Status and plans for nuclear power in Korea, WNFC
conference April 2006.
Presentation at WNU Summer Institute, Cheongju, August 2007.
Korea
Atomic industrial Forum, 2008, Nuclear Industry in the Republic of Korea.
US, South Korea to stage major joint exercises
![AFP News]() AFP News – Thu,
Feb 21, 2013
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The United States and South Korea announced plans on Thursday
for major annual joint military exercises as regional tensions run high
following North Korea's third nuclear test.
A joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle
will be held from March 1 to April 30. Separately, US and South Korean troops
will stage a computer-simulated drill named Key Resolve from March 11-21.
Pyongyang habitually denounces the joint drills as a rehearsal for invasion.
Seoul and Washington insist the manoeuvres are defensive in nature.
"The exercises are designed to enhance the security and readiness of
(South Korea) and are deterrent in nature," they said in a statement.
Foal Eagle will include about 10,000 US forces along with a far bigger
number of South Korean troops. Key Resolve involves about 3,500 US and 10,000
South Korean soldiers.
The United States has based troops in the South since the 1950-53 war and
the force currently numbers 28,500.
South Korea has staged a series of military drills separately or jointly
with the United States since the North launched a long-range rocket in
December.
Earlier this month Seoul and Washington conducted a joint naval exercise
with a US nuclear submarine off South Korea's east coast, followed by a joint
air force drill.
Pyongyang insists the December launch put a satellite into orbit for
peaceful research, but critics said it amounted to a banned ballistic missile
test that marked a major advance for the communist state's nuclear weapons
programme.
Tension grew further on the Korean peninsula following the North's nuclear
test on February 12.
North Korea said the test -- widely condemned by the international community
-- was a direct response to UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after last year's
rocket launch.
Pyongyang is already under international sanctions for conducting two
nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, which both came after long-range rocket
launches.
South Korea Says It Has New Missile
Published: April 19, 2012
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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Thursday that it had developed and
deployed a new cruise missile capable of a precision strike anywhere in North Korea.
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for international breaking news and headlines.
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List: Reporters and Editors
Although it had been widely reported that South Korea had developed its
Hyunmoo series of cruise missiles with a range of up to 930 miles, it was the
first time that the government had publicly confirmed the deployment of such a
missile and released video of it hitting a target during a test launching.
The disclosure came just days after North Korea launched a long-range rocket
to put a satellite into orbit. Although the rocket failed, the United States
and its allies condemned the launching as a cover for developing
intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of eventually carrying nuclear weapons.
The North followed that test with the display on Sunday of what looked like
a powerful new missile during a military parade. Weapons experts who have pored
over photographs of what appeared to be a launcher for the missile have said
that it might have come from China, and that if true, China might have violated
United Nations sanctions to keep the North from developing its missile program.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in a Congressional
hearing that “I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China,” though he
declined to elaborate because of the “sensitivity of that information.”
Also on Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said in
a news conference in Beijing that China was “firmly against the spread of
weapons of mass destruction and carriers of such weapons.” He added that China
follows all related laws issued by the United Nations Security Council.
South Korea’s acknowledgment of its cruise missile was meant to send a
message to the North, and its own people, as tensions mount over fears the
North will stage a third nuclear test.
Edward Wong contributed reporting from Beijing.
South Korea calls for development of nuclear weapons
US ambassador
responds that it would be a "huge mistake."
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A South Korean protester sprays on a North Korean national
flag during a rally a day after North Korea announced they conducted a third
nuclear test on Feb. 13, 2013 in Seoul. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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SEOUL, South
Korea — South Korean lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, the country's
conservative ruling party, stepped up their battle cry at the National Assembly
this week: It's time for South Korea to man up and make its own nuclear
weapons, they said.
“The only way to defend our survival would be to maintain a balance of
terror that confronts nuclear with nuclear,” said Representative Shim Jae-cheol
at a National Assembly meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, as quoted in the Joongang Ilbo.
Lawmakers also called for greater measures in launching preemptive strikes
on critical targets and lifting the maximum limit on South Korean ballistic
missiles as mandated by law.
The proclamation comes in response to North Korea's third nuclear test on
Feb. 12, sparking a war of words between the divided peninsula.
Some analysts are speculating that North Korea could carry out a fourth test
soon as a show of strength. The allegation isn't certain despite satellite
imagery of increasing activity at the Punggye-ri test site, in the country's
far north.
KBS reports:
"The images KBS secured from US-based Digital Globe show signs of snow
being removed and materials being transported around key facilities and roads
along the site’s southern tunnel. Snow on the road along the perimeter of the
site also appears to have been cleared."
Government officials in Seoul, however, do not believe North Korea will
carry out another test soon.
That's not reassuring for regular South Koreans. Two-thirds of the country
supports the creation of a nuclear program in response to the North Korean
threat, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
The popular sentiment comes at a touchy time for president-elect Park Geun-hye,
who is set to take office on Monday. Park has promised to warm ties with the
hermit kingdom, hoping that tit-for-tat gestures from both sides will improve
relations on the peninsula.
But Park condemned the nuclear test, saying her incoming government would
not tolerate a nuclear-armed North.
The US has taken its usual role, urging restraint from Seoul after a
provocation from the North. The US ambassador to South Korea, Sung Kim, said
that the country developing its own nuclear capability, or the US redeploying
tactical nuclear weapons, would be a "huge mistake."
Fearing a peninsular arms race, Washington has sought to limit South Korean
military capabilities since the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/130221/south-korea-nuclear-weapons
Obama tells Congress U.S. military personnel arrive in Niger
Reuters – 7
hrs ago
Reuters/Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama
speaks against automatic budget cuts scheduled to take effect next week, while
in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in
the …more
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Video:
US plans to open new drone base in North Africa5:11
Video:
Troops from Niger and Chad on the ground in Mali0:56
Sat, Feb 16, 2013
Wed, Feb 20, 2013
Thu, Feb 21, 2013
7 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 40 U.S.
military personnel have arrived in Niger,
President Barack Obama told Congress on Friday, the
last of a deployment of about 100 to help coordinate intelligence sharing with
French forces operating in Mali.
The U.S. forces are equipped with "weapons for the purpose of providing
their own force protection and security," Obama said, and are there with
Niger's consent.
France intervened in Niger's neighbor Mali last month as Islamist forces,
who seized control of the north in the confusion following a military coup in
March 2012, pushed towards the capital Bamako.
That had pushed Mali to the forefront of U.S. and European security concerns,
with fears the Islamists would turn the country into a base for international
attacks.
Niger gave permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its
territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in
northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior Niger
government source said in January.
The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting
with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source
said.
(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Vicki Allen
Russia accuses U.S. of double standards over Syria
By Alessandra
Prentice | Reuters – 1
hr 13 mins ago
Reuters/Reuters - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov speaks at a news conference after a meeting of the Russia-Arab cooperation
forum in Moscow February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
3 hrs ago
51 mins ago
4 hrs ago
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States on Friday of having
double standards on Syria, saying it had blocked
a U.N. Security Council statement condemning a
car bomb attack in Damascus.
Washington denied it had blocked the statement and said it had only asked
for balance. The disagreement was likely to sour the atmosphere before Lavrov
meets newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry next week in Berlin.
Lavrov told a news conference Washington had disappointed Moscow by blocking
a statement condemning "terrorist attacks" near the Russian embassy
in Damascus that killed more than 50 people and that Washington
was threatening international unity in the "war on terror".
"We believe these are double standards," Lavrov said after talks
with China's foreign minister.
"And we see in it a very dangerous tendency by our American colleagues
to depart from the fundamental principle of unconditional condemnation of any
terrorist act, a principle which secures the unity of the international
community in the fight against terrorism," he said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. mission at the United Nations said it had not
blocked any statement of condemnation but had sought to balance the text with
criticism of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, which it said Russia had rejected.
"We strongly condemn all indiscriminate terrorist attacks against
civilians or against diplomatic facilities," said Erin Pelton, spokeswoman
for the U.S. mission.
Ties between Washington and Moscow have worsened since Vladimir Putin
returned to Russia's presidency last May.
The passage of U.S. legislation intended to punish Russian officials accused
of human rights abuses and a Russian ban on American families adopting Russian
children have also contributed to the deterioration in recent weeks.
CHINESE AND RUSSIAN UNITY
Lavrov made his comments at a joint news conference with Chinese Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi after talks that underlined the closeness of their views
on policy in Syria and North Korea.
China and Russia, both permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council, have blocked attempts by the West to mount pressure
on Assad to end the violence in the nearly two-year-old conflict that has
killed some 70,000 people.
The two ministers condemned North Korea's nuclear test last week but said
that any response should go through the U.N. Security Council.
China and Russia had agreed that it was "vitally important not to ...
allow the situation to be used as a pretext for military intervention,"
Lavrov said.
North Korea's latest test, its third since 2006, prompted warnings from
Washington and others that more sanctions would be imposed on the isolated
state. The U.N. Security Council has only just tightened sanctions on Pyongyang
after it launched a long-range rocket in December.
The North is banned under U.N. sanctions from developing missile or nuclear
technology.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magazine Russia
in Global Affairs, said the alignment of Russian and Chinese positions was
meant to give them more leverage when negotiating with the West.
"Chinese and Russian positions so far on a global level are almost identical.
This is an important factor, because if Russia were alone it would be much less
powerful. This is a factor Western powers cannot ignore, that Russia and China
act together," said Lukyanov.
He added: "China is ready to support Russia in the Middle East on
issues which are politically important for Russia, so when it comes to
questions of vital importance to China, like North Korea, of course it expects
reciprocity - that Russia endorse China's position."
(Writing by Thomas Grove; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Sonya Hepinstall)
========================
Russia,
China oppose military intervention in North Korea
Reuters – 7 hrs ago
![Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks at a news conference after a meeting of the Russia-Arab cooperation forum in Moscow February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin]()
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Photo
Reuters/Reuters - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
speaks at a news conference after a meeting of the Russia-Arab cooperation
forum in Moscow February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
MOSCOW
(Reuters) - Russia and China said on Friday they would oppose any foreign
military intervention in North Korea over its recent nuclear test.
The
two countries' foreign ministers condemned last week's test but said any action
against North Korea had to be agreed at the United Nations, where Russia and
China have the right of veto as permanent members of the Security Council.
"We
are against the carrying out of a nuclear test in North Korea," Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a joint news conference after talks with
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
"The
U.N. Security Council should give an adequate response ... but the action
should be directed towards peace on the Korean peninsula," he said.
Lavrov
said China and Russia had agreed that it was "vitally important not to ...
allow the situation to be used as a pretext for military intervention."
North
Korea's latest test, its third since 2006, prompted warnings from Washington
and others that more sanctions would be imposed on the isolated state.
The
U.N. Security Council has only just tightened sanctions on Pyongyang after it
launched a long-range rocket in December.
The
North is banned under U.N. sanctions from developing missile or nuclear
technology after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
(Reporting
by Alessandra Prentice, Writing by Thomas Grove, Editing by Timothy Heri
North Korea cites "tragedy" of countries that give up nuclear
programs
Reuters – 2
hrs 46 mins ago
![North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (4th R) and officials attend a wreath laying ceremony in front of a statue of North's founder Kim Il-Sung and his son and late leader Kim Jong-Il at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang on the occasion of birth anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong-Il, which falls on Saturday, in this undated recent picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency on February 16, 2013. REUTERS/KCNA]()
View Photo
Reuters/Reuters - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un
(4th R) and officials attend a wreath laying ceremony in front of a statue of
North's founder Kim Il-Sung and his son and late leader Kim Jong-Il at the
Mangyongdae …more
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has
bolstered its defenses against a "hostile" United
States with its third nuclear test, it
said on Thursday, noting that countries that had bowed to U.S. pressure to
abandon their nuclear plans had suffered "tragic
consequences".
The North carried out its largest nuclear test to date last week, in
defiance of U.N. resolutions, prompting warnings of tougher sanctions for the
isolated and impoverished state and its young ruler, Kim Jong-un.
Libya abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 in
a bid to mend relations with the United States and later saw leader Muammar Gaddafi overthrown in an uprising that was
eventually supported militarily by Washington.
In apparent reference to Libya, North Korea said it never backed down.
"The tragic consequences in those countries which abandoned halfway
their nuclear programs... clearly prove that the DPRK (Democratic People's
Republic of Korea) was very far-sighted and just when it made the (nuclear)
option," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.
North Korea has told China, its sole major ally, that it plans to stage more
nuclear tests, according to a source with close connections to the top
leadership in both countries.
It staged the latest test in response to tighter U.N. sanctions imposed in
January after the country launched a long-range rocket last year in a move that
critics said was designed to prove technology for an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
North Korea has recently stepped up its rhetoric against South Korea, threatening to destroy its rich,
democratic neighbor.
Most military assessments suggest that North Korea would lose any war
against the U.S.-backed South and that its leaders would not risk a major
conflict.
In 2010, North Korea was blamed for sinking a South Korean naval vessel and
in the same year it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people,
including two civilians.
(Reporting by David Chance;
Editing by Nick Macfie)
North Korea Launches Third Nuclear Missile Test: U.S., U.N., China Condemn
By Cole Hill | First Posted: Feb 12, 2013 11:15 AM EST
Tags North Korea
![http://images.latinospost.com/data/images/full/9222/a-screen-shows-a-rocket-being-launched-from-a-launch-pad-at-the-west-sea-satellite-launch-site-at-north-koreas-satellite-control-centre-in-cholsan-county-north-pyongan-province.jpg?w=600]()
(Photo : Reuters) A screen
shows a rocket being launched from a launch pad at the West Sea Satellite
Launch Site, at North Korea's satellite control centre in Cholsan county, North
Pyongan province, in this photo released by Kyodo December 12, 2012.
North Korea made good on its promise Tuesday, conducting a third nuclear
missile test launch in defiance of U.N. international law.
"The test was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level, with
the use of a smaller and light A-bomb, unlike the previous ones, yet with great
explosive power," announced North Korea's official Korean Central News
Agency, according to Reuters.
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The missile launch test proves to the rest of the
world that North Korea is a "nuclear weapons state that no one can
irritate," 42-year-old Pyongyang resident Kim Mun Chol said to the Associated Press.
"Now we have nothing to be afraid of in the world."
North Korea claimed the missile test was just the
"first response" to threats from the U.S., and vowed it would move
forward with "second and third measures of greater intensity" if
America remains hostile toward the nation, USA Today reported.
The "explosion-like" nuclear missile test
launch produced a seismic magnitude about twice the size of a 2009 test, the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization said at a news conference,
Reuters reported.
The test quickly drew condemnation from numerous
countries such as the U.S. and North Korea's only major ally, China, with many
nations pressing for increased sanctions to stop the insular country from
continuing its nuclear program. The U.N. assembled for an emergency meeting
Tuesday to determine the best course of action to respond to North Korea's
insistence on violating the harsh sanctions already levied against the
country.
Scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address
later Tuesday, President Barack Obama denounced the nuclear launch, saying such
tests "do not make North Korea more secure," the Associated Press
reported. Rather, North Korea's continued nuclear missile focus has
"increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised
pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," President Obama announced in a
statement.
North Korea denounced the U.S. as its "sworn
enemy" and announced more nuclear tests earlier in January in retaliation
for the United Nations Security Council's unanimous decision to tighten
sanctions in the insular nation. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was said to
have ordered his military and government to take "high-profile"
measures earlier in the month, according to the country's media, the New York
Times reported, that indicated a third nuclear test could happen soon.
Experts believe gauging the intensity of China's
objection to the missile test could suggest the likelihood of the country
supporting sterner measures against North Korea in the future, according to USA
Today.
While China had only vaguely opposed North Korea's
testing efforts in the past, the country's Foreign Minister firmly came down in
opposition of the most recent test, imploring North Korea's ambassador to
demand his government stop threatening others with its nuclear program.
"Yang Jiechi demanded that the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea side cease talk that further escalates the situation
and swiftly return to the correct channel of dialogue and negotiation," a
statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, according to Associated
Press.
Prior to the most recent test, China's state-run
Global Times newspaper, a publication many in the country view as symbolic of
the opinions of the Chinese government, also voiced its opposition to North
Korea's nuclear testing through a strongly-worded editorial.
"If North Korea insists on a third nuclear test
despite attempts to dissuade it, it must pay a heavy price," wrote the
Global Times. The paper also called on China to cease giving North Korea
financial aid as punishment.
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