Swiss Nuke Protesters Cleared

Wednesday, September 1, 1999; 6:07 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990901/V000005-090199-idx.html

DAENIKEN, Switzerland (AP) -- Police cleared away Greenpeace demonstrators blocking a shipment of radioactive waste from a Swiss nuclear plant Wednesday, cutting away part of a railway track and lifting away a 1 1/2-ton iron block to which protesters had chained themselves.

Around a dozen protesters from the ecological group had maneuvered the giant barrier Tuesday onto the railway line railway line from the Goesgen nuclear power station in northern Switzerland, blocking the shipment of 12 spent nuclear fuel rods. Four protesters chained themselves to the block.

Greenpeace is protesting the export of a total 48 spent rods to a French reprocessing factory.

On Wednesday, police sawed through the tracks and used a crane to lift the block off the line. A Greenpeace spokesman said the protesters then unchained themselves voluntarily.

Ten people were questioned and then released, said a police spokesman, adding that the protest was ended peacefully. A new piece of track was laid and the transfer of the 12 rods went as planned.

The Swiss federal energy office decided on Aug. 13 to allow the transfer of the fuel rods. Their transport by train had been stopped for 15 months after some wagons were found to be above the permitted level for radioactivity.

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Swiss welders scupper bid to halt nuclear shipment

10:49 a.m. Sep 01, 1999 Eastern
http://www.dogpile.com - search Infoseek

ZURICH, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Swiss police on Wednesday cut through railway tracks with welding equipment and used a crane to haul away Greenpeace environmentalist protesters who tried to halt a shipment of spent nuclear fuel.

Police spokesman Urs Eggenschwiler told Reuters the demonstrators had chained themselves and a 1.5-tonne metal box to the tracks near Goesgen, north of the capital Berne, in a bid to stop the shipment of spent fuel rods to France.

Police welders sliced through the tracks and a special crane lifted the four activists, about two meters (yards) of tracks and the metal box away from the site.

``Of course the tracks were immediately repaired and the shipment could proceed on schedule,'' Eggenschwiler said.

The spent fuel is due to go from the Goesgen plant to a reprocessing complex at La Hague in France. Greenpeace says nuclear reprocessing pollutes the oceans and has staged a series of protests against the shipments.

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U.S., Russia plan safe Y2K

September 1, 1999, BY LISA HOFFMAN SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/def01.html

Efforts to avoid accidental nuclear war January 1 are back on track
http://detnews.com/1999/technology/9909/01/09010142.htm

WASHINGTON--U.S. and Russian efforts to avoid an accidental nuclear war on New Year's Day 2000 is back on track now that relations between the two countries are improving.

Discussions, suspended last spring over Russia's opposition to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, resumed last week on a plan for American and Russian nuclear weapons officers to jointly man an early warning missile launch center in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the turn of the year.

The purpose is to eliminate the possibility that the Russians might think an American attack had begun if their early warning computer systems crash, or otherwise malfunction, as a result of the 2000 millennium bug.

If no further diplomatic glitches develop, an agreement could be signed Sept. 13, when Defense Secretary William Cohen and Russian counterpart Igor Sergeyev are scheduled to meet, Pentagon officials say.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has decreed that U.S. cities and counties will be on their own in dealing with any domestic disruptions that might result from 2000 foul-ups in power plants, water supplies or other such systems.

The reason given is that such problems are strictly a domestic matter, about which the military by law is generally forbidden to act. Some thought had been given early on in planning for possible disruptions to giving the Pentagon a backup role. But since then, the threat of 2000-related problems has ebbed as tests of utilities and other public systems have showed little reason to worry.

Even so, the National Guard, controlled by state governors, plans to be prepared to intervene if problems occur. The Pentagon predicts that state and local governments won't need assistance beyond that.

The U.S. military also is expressing growing confidence about its own ability to make the year leap without much note. That is particularly the case with NORAD--America's own early-warning system--which months ago was certified as glitch-free.

However, the Defense Department still is concerned about Russia's preparedness.

With a devastated economy and other crises under way, Russians have placed a low priority on taking the measures needed to reprogram computers and chips.

The nightmare scenario is that computer screens in Russia's nuclear weapons command would suddenly go blank or jumbled information would appear. Fearing an attack in progress, the Russians might order a devastating counterstrike.

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Russia arrests uranium smugglers

BBC World: Europe, September 1, 1999 Published at 09:56 GMT 10:56 UK
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid%5F435000/435320.stm

The authorities in Russia say that a group of people in the country's Far East have been arrested for trying to sell highly radioactive uranium stolen from military facilities.

Six kilograms of uranium alloy, two-thousand times more toxic than the level considered safe for humans, are said to have been smuggled out of defence factories and facilities of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Six people were reportedly arrested after trying to sell the material to undercover police.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

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Russia May Sell Nuke Subs to China

Wednesday, September 1, 1999; 10:25 a.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990901/V000614-090199-idx.html

HONG KONG (AP) -- Amid lingering tensions across the Taiwan Strait, China is planning to buy two Russian submarines capable of firing long-range missiles that could hit the mainland United States, two Hong Kong newspapers reported Wednesday.

Beijing has reached a tentative agreement with Moscow on the purchase of the Typhoon-class nuclear-powered submarines -- a move apparently aimed at deterring U.S. involvement in relations between China and Taiwan, the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily reported.

The $1 billion deal was endorsed by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin during a five-nation summit in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan last week, said the Hong Kong Standard, Sing Tao's English-language sister paper.

The newspapers quoted diplomatic sources in Beijing that they did not identify.

The Typhoon-class submarines -- one of the largest, most modern nuclear-powered submarines -- are equipped with SSN-20 ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 5,100 miles, Sing Tao added.

Am official in the Russian Embassy in Beijing, Vladimir Zakharov, told The Associated Press he had no information on any submarine sales to China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong declined comment.

China is a top client for Russia's ailing military industrial complex, purchasing billions of dollars worth of jets, missiles and submarines.

The reported deal would come at a time when relations between China and the United States have frayed as Beijing's relations with Moscow have improved.

Tensions between China and Taiwan have risen since July 9, when Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said relations with mainland China should be conducted on a ``state-to-state basis'' -- an assertion that infuriated Beijing.

China considers the island, ruled separately since a 1949 civil war, as a renegade territory to be recaptured by force if necessary.

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China Won't Use Nukes Vs. Taiwan

By CHARLES HUTZLER Associated Press Writer September 2 6:53 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19990902/wl/china_taiwan_2.html

BEIJING (AP) - While declaring its resolve to retake rival Taiwan by force if necessary, China removed one threat today by promising not to use nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict.

The pledge, issued by the Foreign Ministry, was the most explicit, public renunciation of the nuclear option China has ever given Taiwan and suggested a slight easing of their latest tensions.

Divided after the Nationalists lost the mainland to Mao Tse-tung's communists in 1949, China and Taiwan long maintained they were both part of a single Chinese nation. While Taiwan has backed away from its claim to China over the past decade, Beijing still regards the island as a rebel province.

Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui provoked the latest round of Chinese anger, saying in a radio interview in July that the two sides should deal with each other as separate states. Such a suggestion of parity smacked to Beijing as another move toward outright independence.

In July, as the war of nerves heated up, China announced it had developed a neutron bomb and did nothing to dampen media speculation that the announcement served as a warning to Taiwan.

When asked by a foreign reporter today whether China would use the neutron bomb against Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi extended to Taiwan China's 35-year-old promise not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict.

``We will not be the first to use nuclear weapons and will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons countries and regions, let alone against our Taiwan compatriots,'' Sun said at a news conference.

Far from signaling a truce, Sun reiterated that China stood by a threat to use force if Taiwan moves toward independence or foreign forces interfere in attempts to reunify the island and mainland. He implied that China would try to further isolate Taiwan by wresting concessions from the United States at a meeting between leaders of the Asia-Pacific region later this month.

Members of China's military and hard-liners in the communist leadership have called for a show of force. The threats have been met by expressions of concern by the United States, which recognizes Beijing's claim to the island but is bound by U.S. law to aid Taiwan's defense.

Taiwan is likely to come up at a meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and President Clinton, their first since relations soured over U.S. allegations of Chinese espionage and NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia during the war over Kosovo.

When asked about the meeting, Sun, the Chinese spokesman, urged the United States to honor commitments to support Beijing's reunification with Taiwan ``with concrete actions.'' He declined to elaborate, but China has been pressuring the United States to forgo arms sales to the island.

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Taiwan Military a Message to China

By The Associated Press, September 1, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Taiwan-Military.html

KANGSHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan displayed some of its best defense assets on Wednesday amid tensions with China -- advanced fighter jets that military leaders say give the island air superiority against the mainland through at least 2005.

The display of cutting-edge fighters was staged to celebrate the founding of the air force academy, but it also seemed calculated to send the message that Taiwan can defend itself and won't be pushed around.

``The air force's successful front line is the secure shield of our nation's defense,'' President Lee Teng-hui told air force cadets at the military base that houses the academy near the southern port city of Kaohsiung, 185 miles south of Taipei.

Lee's appearance was seen as an attempt to bolster public confidence in the wake of China's renewed threat to use force to bring Taiwan to heel, although he didn't specifically mention the tensions on Wednesday.

China was enraged by Lee's July 9 statement that relations between the sides should be termed ``state-to-state,'' wording that flies in the face of Beijing's claim that Taiwan is a subordinate renegade province. The sides split amid civil war in 1949.

China saw Lee's declaration as a stride toward formal independence by the island, a development it says would lead to war, and Beijing has renewed its military threats against the island.

Celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the air force academy featured a display of aerial stunts and fly-overs by jets including the Mirage 2000 fighters purchased from France and IDF fighters developed in Taiwan with U.S. technical help.

Also flying were F-5 Tigers from the United States, converted from a combat to a reconnaissance role, and Taiwan's own AT-3 fighter-trainers, streaming smoke in Taiwan's national colors -- red, white and blue -- under a scorching sun.

Taiwan's other advanced fighters, F-16s bought from the United States, remained on the ground during the display while investigators continue to investigate the crash of one last month. The pilot bailed out and survived, but it was the fourth crash of an F-16 in 17 months. Five pilots died in the previous crashes.

The advanced jets will ensure Taiwan's superiority for at least another five years over the Chinese air force, which though much larger in number of planes is considered outdated in equipment and training, air force officials say.

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Is a Renewed Japan a Threat to Its Neighbors?

September 2, 1999 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/lkim.html

To the Editor:

Re "Japan Discovers Defense" (editorial, Aug. 26, 1999 - http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/08269926thu1.html):

You state that Japan's military buildup is "a healthy development," since Japan is "now committed to democracy and is unlikely to repeat . . . violent history."

But how can you say that Japan is committed to democracy when it still refuses to acknowledge the country's legal responsibility for the victims of war crimes committed during World War II, and when it continues to discriminate against minority groups like Koreans?

In fact, all indications point to Japan moving back to its past militarism, portending new troubles for its neighbors and the United States. Instead of adopting a formal apology and compensation law for the victims of its war crimes, Japan has officially adopted the old symbols of its imperialism, the Rising Sun flag and its hymn to the Emperor as its national anthem.

JOHN KIM New York, Aug. 27, 1999
The writer is president of the New York Coalition on Comfort Women Issues.

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Japan,US,S.Korea to discuss N.Korea missile at APEC

07:04 a.m. Sep 01, 1999 Eastern
http://www.dogpile.com - search Infoseek

TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Leaders from Japan, South Korea and the United States will meet this month to discuss North Korea's missile threat, a senior Japanese official said on Wednesday.

Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and U. S. President Bill Clinton will discuss North Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Auckland, New Zealand, said Akitaka Saiki, an Obuchi spokesman.

``The three leaders will meet specifically to discuss North Korea,'' Saiki told reporters. The exact time and date have not been set, but the meeting will take place either on September 12 or 13 when the leaders of APEC nations gather in Auckland, he said.

Saiki said the leaders will likely reconfirm the need for the three countries to maintain cooperation and coordination in their effort to persuade the Stalinist state not to test-launch a missile.

``We want to make sure they (North Korea) will behave as a responsible member of the international community and listen to voices from the outside,'' Saiki said.

North Korea shocked the international community by test-launching a long-range missile over Japanese territory last year.

Amid rising concern that it may launch another missile soon, foreign ministers from the three countries met in July and issued a joint statement warning North Korea of ``serious consequences'' if it went ahead with a launch.

Since then Pyongyang has appeared to take a more flexible stance, saying it was willing to discuss its missile programme with the international community.

Saiki said intelligence information did not show that Pyongyang was set to launch a long-range missile in the imminent future. He added, though, that North Korea has made it clear it has not abandoned the plan.

The trilateral summit will follow a meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials in Berlin from September 7 to 11, where the United States is expected to try to dissuade Pyongyang from testing an enhanced Taepodong missile believed capable of reaching the U.S. states of Hawaii and Alaska.

Ambassador Charles Kartman, special envoy for Korean peace talks, will try to persuade the North Koreans to abandon the test in return for improved relations with the United States and other countries, U.S. officials said.

((Tokyo Newsroom, +813 3432-8018)

tokyo.newsroom+reuters.com))

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Japan,S.Korea urge North to refrain from test-firing

01:19 a.m. Sep 02, 1999 Eastern
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TOKYO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The prime ministers of Japan and South Korea on Thursday jointly urged North Korea to refrain from test launching a ballistic missile, saying Pyongyang would be rewarded for doing so.

``If (North Korea) were to suspend the missile launch, it would be possible for Japan, South Korea and the United States to proceed in their relations with the North in a constructive way,'' Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told a joint news conference following a meeting with Kim Jong-pil, the South Korean prime minister, who arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday.

``I would like the North to know that if they deal with the missile issue in a constructive way, there will be an appropriate benefit for them,'' Kim added.

Kim is on a state visit to Japan until Sunday.

Obuchi and Kim reiterated that their two nations, along with the United States, will cooperate closely to prevent North Korea from test launching a missile believed capable of reaching the U.S. states of Hawaii and Alaska.

The Stalinist state rattled neighbouring countries by test firing a missile in August 1998 that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Obuchi said he had no evidence that Pyongyang had abandoned its plan to test-fire another missile. But he said North Korea recently had shown a ``flexible attitude.''

Both Obuchi and Kim also said they hoped North Korea would show a constructive attitude on the issue in talks with the U.S. beginning next Tuesday, adding they hoped the negotiations would yield results.

On Thursday, however, optimism that North Korea was adopting a more conciliatory tone was punctured by news the North Korean army had declared as ``invalid'' the border separating the rival Koreas in the Yellow Sea.

North Korea vowed to defend its own unilaterally demarcated line ``by various means and methods,'' the official Korean Central News Agency said, quoting a statement from the Korean People's Army.

North and South Korean naval ships exchanged fire in the disputed Yellow Sea border area on June 15 in their first Yellow Sea naval clash since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as their conflict ended in an armed truce, not a formal peace agreement.

((George Nishiyama, Tokyo newsroom +81-3 3432-8018

tokyo.newsroom+reuters.com))

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SKorea KEPCO to spin off power plants

September 2, 2:04 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990902/bq.html

SEOUL, Sept 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's state-run power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) said on Thursday it would spin off its power generation division by the end of this year.

KEPCO said in a statement the company's 42 thermoelectric and water-power generators would be split, almost evenly, into five subsidiaries and the nuclear-power generators would be handed over to another independent affiliate.

The spin-off plan would be submitted to the National Assembly late this year after passing a directors' meeting in October and a shareholders' meeting in November.

KEPCO said some 46 percent of the company's 35,000 employees would move to new subsidiaries as a result of the spin-off and about 55 percent of the company's assets of 62 trillion won would be passed to the power generation companies.

Unionised workers in KEPCO opposed the spin-off plan, fearing that such plan would lead to massive layoffs.

A union spokesman said KEPCO's 25,000-strong union was planning a strike to thwart the company's plan, but did not elaborate.

KEPCO was seeking to sell two co-generation power plants this year, which were not included in the spin-off plan.

The government earlier said KEPCO would sell all five thermoelectric and water-power generator subsidiaries by 2002 as part of a privatisation programme.

But KEPCO would continue to run nuclear power plants through its affiliate.

KEPCO has a 94.2 percent market share in South Korea's power generation and enjoys a monopoly over power transmission and distribution.

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North Korea Vows To Protect Waters

By The Associated Press, September 2, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Koreas-Territorial-Dispute.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea said today it will use military force to defend its control over contested waters in the Yellow Sea, raising concern about possible new armed clashes with rival South Korea.

South Korea's efforts to gain sovereignty over the area led to a bloody naval clash with North Korea in mid-June. About 30 North Korean sailors were believed to have died when their torpedo boat was hit and sunk. Several South Korean sailors suffered minor wounds.

``Our self-defensive right to the military demarcation line at the West (Yellow) Sea of Korea will be exercised by various means and methods,'' North Korea's military said in a statement issued through the country's media.

South Korea's Defense Ministry brushed off the North Korean statement.

``It's their old, worn-out tactics,'' ministry spokesman Yoon Il-young said. ``Our will to defend the area is firm and resolute.''

The North Korean statement, monitored in Seoul, declared ``invalid'' a U.N.-set ``Northern Limit Line'' that has effectively served as a border between the two Koreas since the end of their war in the early 1950s.

The 1953 Korean armistice agreement never demarcated a sea border. The American-led U.N. Command subsequently set the Northern Limit Line as a buffer to avoid armed clashes between the two sides.

The two countries largely honored the border until mid-June, when North Korean warships passed it repeatedly, touching off the first naval clash between the two Koreas since the division of their peninsula in 1945.

The North Korean statement came a day after a border meeting between generals of the two sides that failed to achieve a breakthrough on the issue.

North Korea proposed that the disputed zone be redrawn, moving the sea border farther south. The U.N. Command rejected the North Korean offer, saying that the existing buffer zone is realistic.

The United Nations encouraged the two Koreas to discuss the issue between themselves.

The development worsened tension caused by North Korea's threat to test-fire a new long-range missile. The United States, Japan and South Korea warn of economic and other penalties if North Korea goes ahead with a new missile launch.

North Korea sent shock waves through the region in August last year by test-firing a multistage missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific. Experts say the new missile North Korea reportedly plans to test-fire can reach as far as Hawaii and Alaska.

Tension is always high on the Korean Peninsula, divided into the communist North and the capitalist South in 1945. They are still technically at war, with no peace treaty signed at the end of the three-year Korean conflict.

The United States and 15 other Western countries fought under the U.N. flag on South Korea's side in the Korean War. About 37,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea under a defense treaty.

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NKorea Says Sea Border Invalid, Will Draw Own Line

Updated 1:51 AM ET September 2, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990902/01/international-korea-north

SEOUL (Reuters) - The North Korean army Thursday declared the sea border separating the rival Koreas in the Yellow Sea was invalid and said it would defend its own unilaterally demarcated line "by various means and methods."

"We declare that the brigandish 'northern limit line' unilaterally defined by the U.S.-forces side inside our territorial waters of the West Sea (Yellow Sea) of Korea is invalid," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, quoting a statement from the Korean People's Army.

"Our self-defensive right to the military demarcation line at the West Sea of Korea will be exercised by various means and methods," it said.

North and South Korean naval ships had a furious exchange of fire at the disputed Yellow Sea border on June 15 in the bloodiest skirmish since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Both sides blamed each other for provoking the clash, in which a North Korean torpedo boat was sunk and several patrol boats heavily damaged.

The U.N. Command, which fought the Chinese-backed North Koreans in the Korean War, unilaterally demarcated the line in 1953. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their conflict ended in an armed truce, not a peace agreement.

The KCNA report said the Korean People's Army wanted to find a negotiated solution to the sea border issue, but the United States was insisting on maintaining the present border.

The KCNA report said the North Korean army had delineated a new sea boundary which was basically an extension of the land border out to the Yellow Sea.

Some two million troops face each other across the world's most militarized land border and the Cold War's last frontier.

Military generals from North Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. Command met Wednesday for the sixth time since the June 15 clash to find ways of reducing tensions in the Yellow Sea but failed to reach an agreement, said reports from both sides.

The U.N. Command insists the border issue be discussed solely by the two Koreas. Pyongyang, which refers to Seoul as the "U.S. puppet," wants Washington included in the negotiations.

A separate communiqu De from the Korean People's Army said an "unstable, tense military situation persists on the Korean peninsula in which a war may break out any moment."

"This situation has been getting more grave since the June 15 exchange of fire at the West Sea of Korea," KCNA quoted it as saying.

The statement said the North Korean side "expressed our generous intention" to allow South Korea to participate in the talks even though Seoul was not a signatory to the armistice.