North Korea could conduct another nuclear test as early as this month given Pyongyang’s methods since the early 1960s, a Korean professor at America’s Tufts University predicts.

Foreign Affairs magazine published an article entitled “The Pyongyang Playbook” in which Prof. Lee Sung-yoon writes that the North’s strategy has been to “lash out at its enemies” when they seem weak or distracted, fueling international condemnation, and then negotiate for concessions in return for peace.

Based on this formula Lee speculates that the North will likely conduct another nuclear test possibly next Wednesday, the eve of North Korea’s anniversary, or on Oct. 10 (Chosun Ilbo)

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/09/03/2010090300884.html

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had hoped to see Chinese President Hu Jintao in Pyongyang for a summit rather than visit China again last week, a source claimed Thursday.

Hu had accepted the invitation during Kim’s last visit in May but decided such a visit would send the wrong signal amid international sanctions against the North after it sank the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan.

A diplomatic source in Beijing familiar with North Korean affairs said Thursday, “Back in July, the North asked China if Hu could visit Pyongyang, but it seems China declined saying it was not a good time.”

China already faced condemnation from South Korea and the U.S. because it welcomed Kim Jong-il in May, and apparently Beijing felt a visit from Hu to the renegade country would be too much, according to the source. Instead, the two sides agreed a compromise meeting in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun. (Chosun Ilbo)

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/09/03/2010090300498.html

The U.S. on Wednesday set three conditions for the resumption of six-party talks aimed at North Korea’s nuclear disarmament during a visit of chair country China’s chief nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, “What’s crucial here is what North Korea does in the coming weeks… We will be guided by what North Korea does” as far as the resumption of the six-nation talks is concerned.

He urged the North to stop provocations, implement a statement of principles agreed on Sept. 19, 2005 and dismantle its nuclear program, and take responsibility for the sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March.

“There are specific steps under the 2005 joint statement that North Korea can take to demonstrate that it is in fact committed to denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. We are prepared to engage North Korea as part of this process, but in light of the sinking of the Cheonan and other provocative steps that North Korea has taken in recent months, including nuclear tests, including missile firings, we want to see a fundamental change in North Korea’s behavior.” (Chosun Ilbo)

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/09/03/2010090300833.html

President Lee Myung-bak rejected a defense policy commission’s proposal Friday to reverse the ongoing reduction of South Korea’s mandatory military service period, his spokeswoman said.

   South Korea has been curtailing the period under the “Military Reform Plan 2020″ crafted in 2005 by the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which sought to ease military tensions on the peninsula by engaging the North.

   The program calls for the country to cut the service period to 18 months, beginning in 2014, from the previous two years. Currently, the duration of the military service is 21 months. If implemented, the move will slash the number of South Korean troops to around 500,000 by 2020 from the current 650,000. All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to serve in the country’s military confronting the North’s 1.1-million military troops.

   But the Presidential Commission for National Security Review, launched after the March sinking of a South Korean warship by an apparent North Korean torpedo attack, advised the president to reconsider the controversial plan, citing growing security threats from the communist neighbor. (Yonhap)

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/09/03/55/0301000000AEN20100903003500315F.HTML

South Korea and the United States will hold joint anti-submarine exercises in another show of force against North Korea, officials said Friday, as Pyongyang renewed threats against the drills.

The exercises will be the second in a series of joint maneuvers the allies planned to conduct in response to the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March that they blame on the North. The two sides staged large-scale joint naval drills in July followed by South Korea’s own naval drills last month.

The drills, set to run from Sunday through Thursday off the Korean peninsula’s west coast, will involve about 17,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, seven ships and two submarines as well as aircraft, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. military in Seoul.

The exercises are “designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea, while improving overall alliance anti-submarine warfare capabilities,” the U.S. military in Seoul said in a statement. (AP)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_KOREAS_US_MILITARY_DRILLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The Presidential Commission for National Security Review reportedly plans to establish a combined provisional National Defense Academy under the Defense Ministry by integrating the three different military academies of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The establishment of an integrated military academy is aimed at enhancing the combined operational capability of the armed forces in the wake of the Cheonan sinking and overcoming deep-rooted factionalism in each branch of the military.

Maximizing our security capacity by rejuvenating the combined operation capabilities at a time of crisis has long been one of the major tasks facing our military. However, several policies have fallen short of our expectations, primarily due to the imbalance in the number of soldiers in each military branch. For instance, the Army has eight or nine times as many troops as the Navy or Air Force, respectively. Such heavy dependence on the Army may be inevitable, considering our security situation, in which Army soldiers face their counterparts along the heavily guarded, 155-mile border with North Korea.

Combining the Army, Navy and Air Force academies into a broader and bigger entity has long been mentioned as one of the most effective ways to strengthen the integrated operational capability of our military. We believe it is definitely a good solution and needs to be accomplished as soon as possible. (JoongAng Daily)

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2925488

Many areas of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been struck by torrential rains and windstorms in consequence of Typhoon No. 7 moving towards the East Korean Bay from the northeastern sea of the Philippines.

Thaetan County had a rainfall as much as 74mm from 20:00 to 21:00 on Wednesday, Suan County 65mm from 21:00 to 24:00, Sungho County 55mm and Sinwon County 53mm from 00:00 to 03:00 on Thursday, Kowon County 36mm from 04:00 to 05:00, and Mangyongdae and Samsok districts, Pyongyang, 80mm and 65mm respectively from 03:00 to 06:00.

From 06:00 Wednesday to 06:00 Thursday Wonsan had 167mm, Pongchon County 165mm, Thongchon County 162mm, Sinchon County 154mm, Songrim City 152mm, and Hwangju and Anbyon counties 151mm. Some 20 areas were visited by more than 80mm in the same period. (KCNA)

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201009/news02/20100902-18ee.html

The United States has identified a range of North
Korean entities believed to be helping Iran’s missile and nuclear programs.
The administration of President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions on
five North Korean entities and three individuals linked to Pyongyang’s
weapons of mass destruction program. The targets were also said to have
exported WMD components to Iran, Syria and other clients (Middle East Newswire)

http://www.menewsline.com/article-1173,20646-N-Korean-Firms-Help-Iran-Syria.aspx

Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, is expected to convene a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in coming days to pave the way for his son to succeed him, a feat of political engineering that would be a first in the Communist world: extending dynastic rule to a third generation.

Ahead of the national congress, the first ceremonial conclave of the party’s delegates in decades, Mr. Kim’s propaganda machine is busily reminding North Koreans that their nation owes it existence to Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Il-sung, who was a leader of anti-Japanese guerrillas in Manchuria in the early 20th century.

The meeting, like all political events in the North, will be secret, and even the precise starting date has not been publicly confirmed. North Korea has said that the party’s “highest leading body” will be elected at the meeting; beyond that, the agenda is unknown, and it is unclear how the expected promotion of Mr. Kim’s third son, Kim Jong-un, will be presented. But Mr. Kim’s recent trip to China, North Korea’s main patron and supporter, which followed the announcement of the meeting, has fueled speculation that a momentous transition is under way.

“This party meeting will be a coming-out party for Kim Jong-un,” said Peter Beck, a North Korea expert at Keio University in Japan. (New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/world/asia/03nkorea.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

North Korea is preparing its biggest political gathering in 30 years, drawing parallels with the 1980 summit that ensured Kim Jong Il’s succession amid speculation he will transfer power to his youngest son.

Delegates from the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea held meetings in the past week ahead of the congress to pledge loyalty to Kim, according to reports published by the official Korean Central News Agency. Troops and tanks have been deployed near Pyongyang to plan military parades to mark the party gathering, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Aug. 24.

Kim, 68, last week made his second trip this year to China in what analysts said was an effort to win the endorsement of his closest ally for a power transfer to his son, Kim Jong Un. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao lauded the congress as “a political event of great significance,” KCNA reported yesterday.

“The fact that Kim has visited China twice this year and so shortly before the meeting indicates that he has sought support for his upcoming decisions,” said Rudiger Frank, professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna. “These will have to do with succession, both directly and indirectly, as this is the most pressing issue for North Korean domestic politics at the moment.” (Bloomberg)

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-02/north-korean-congress-may-discuss-kim-s-successor.html