Now North Korea boasts advances in nuclear program

SEOUL (Reuters) – Secretive North Korea boasted advances in its nuclear program on Tuesday, making sure it held the world's attention, saying it had thousands of working centrifuges, as pressure built on China to rein in its ally.

Nuclear-armed Pyongyang's revelations about its uranium enrichment, which gives it a second route to make a nuclear bomb, came a week after it fired an artillery barrage at a South Korean island, killing four people, including two civilians.

Experts have voiced surprise at the sophistication of a uranium enrichment plant and light-water reactor at the North's main nuclear complex, which were shown to a U.S. scientist earlier this month. There has been no way to verify the North's claims.

The North is also seen as a proliferation risk, accused by the West of supplying Syria, and possibly Iran, with nuclear know-how.

"Currently, construction of a light-water reactor is in progress actively and a modern uranium enrichment plant equipped with several thousands of centrifuges, to secure the supply of fuels, is operating," the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

"Nuclear energy development projects will become more active for peaceful purpose in the future," added the paper, according the state news agency KCNA.

New revelations by whistle-blower WikiLeaks, meanwhile, suggested that some Chinese officials did not view North Korea as a useful ally and would take no action if it collapsed.

By staging provocations and flexing its nuclear muscle, analysts say the isolated North is seeking to increase its leverage as it pushes for a resumption of talks with regional powers, which it walked out of two years ago, in return for aid.

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Kookmin University, said Pyongyang was simply following a typical pattern.

"For the last two years, both Washington and Seoul have tried to ignore them, so now they use both artillery and centrifuges to say: 'we are here, we are dangerous, and we cannot be ignored. We can make a lot of trouble, but also we behave reasonably if rewarded generously enough'," Lankov wrote on the East Asia Forum website.

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests to date and is believed to have enough fissile material from its plutonium-based program to make between six and 12 bombs.

It is impossible to verify the North's uranium enrichment program, which it first announced last year. International inspectors were expelled from the country last year, but Washington has said since 2002 that it suspected Pyongyang had such a program.

Analysts say its actions are also linked to family politics, as ailing leader Kim Jong-il seeks to burnish a military image for his inexperienced son and chosen successor Kim Jong-un.

THREE-WAY MEETING

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the North's nuclear program, last week's attack on Yeonpyeong island and a Chinese proposal for emergency talks would be raised at meeting of foreign ministers in Washington in early December.

South Korea, Japan and the United States, three of the six countries involved in the on-off disarmament talks, will attend.

Talks host China has proposed a summit meeting of the six parties that have been trying to rein in North Korea's nuclear program. Russia and North Korea are also part of that group.

"Returning to consultation and talks is in the interests of all sides," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing.

"Ensuring the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula is the shared responsibility of all sides. We call on all sides to do more to stabilize the situation."

Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who advises leaders on foreign policy, would visit North Korea as early as Wednesday, likely to urge North Korea to take part in the talks.

South Korea has already said now was not the time for talks. Kyodo quoted Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief envoy to the six-party talks, as also saying it was too soon for talks.

The new Wikileaks revelations, purporting to be from U.S. State Department cables and published by several Western papers, raised questions about the future of the relationship between China and North Korea described in the past as being as close as "lips and teeth."

In one cable by the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, a top South Korean official is described as saying in February that some Chinese officials would not intervene if North Korea collapsed.

Ambassador Kathleen Stephens wrote that Chun Yung-woo, then the vice foreign minister for South Korea, said the younger generation of Communist leaders in China would not risk new armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the Guardian reported.

Some analysts were skeptical.

"My personal advice is that the report has been misplaced, said Wang Dong, a professor at Peking University. North Korea is a strategic question for China, not a financial or economic one. They've made a mistake about Chinas viewpoint.

The United States wants Beijing to use its leverage to restrain its ally North Korea, whose shelling of Yeonpyeong last week was the first attack on civilians on South Korean soil since the end of the Korean war in 1953.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries started a third day of large-scale joint exercises off the peninsula's west coast on Tuesday in a show of force they say is meant to deter Pyongyang from staging further provocations.

(Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik in Seoul; Chris Buckley in Beijing; and Patrick Worsnip in New York; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jonathan Thatcher)

Musharraf faces questions in Bhutto probe

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Investigators looking into the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto are questioning former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a director said.

A U.N. report on the assassination implicates the government of the former president, claiming Pakistani officials at the time "failed profoundly" to protect her.

The U.N. report on the Dec. 27, 2007, death of Bhutto in Pakistan's garrison city of Rawalpindi also dismissed a subsequent investigation into her death as prejudiced.

Bhutto was killed following a campaign rally for her Pakistan People's Party. She had returned to Pakistan from exile to run in January 2008 parliamentary elections.

Pakistani investigators said they have a 32-point questionnaire that they were sending to Musharraf in London, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reports.

"We have prepared a questionnaire for the former president to record his statement," said Waseem Ahmed, an investigator in the Bhutto probe.

Kamal Shah, Pakistan's former interior minister, said there was adequate security for the former prime minister and aides to Musharraf said he had nothing to do with security details.

A Pakistani team blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the assassination, though the U.N. panel said that was an effort to divert the investigation, Dawn added.

Bhutto was allegedly wary of Musharraf as she attempted to return to power in Pakistan.

Saudi king scathing of 'rotten' Pakistan president: US leaks

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – The Saudi king considers President Asif Ali Zardari the greatest obstacle to progress in Pakistan, according to scathing comments reported by the New York Times in leaked US diplomatic cables.

"When the head is rotten it affects the whole body," King Abdullah was quoted as saying.

Zardari is deeply unpopular at home. Tainted by corruption allegations and nicknamed "Mr 10 Percent," he spent 11 years in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder, but has never been convicted.

The Pakistani government immediately dismissed the reported insult from one of Pakistan's closest allies.

Zardari considers King Abdullah "his elder brother", presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP from Colombo where the Pakistani leader is paying an official visit.

"The so-called leaks are no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries," Babar said.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said the "extremely negative reports" on relations with Saudi Arabia were "misleading and contrary to facts," and took a veiled swipe at US interpretations.

"It is quite evident that these mischievous reports reveal the utter inadequacy of the author to grasp the essence of the Pakistan-Saudi relationship," it said.

"Pakistan enjoys a very special and unique relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," it said, calling it one between "true friends and brothers".

Pakistan has strongly condemned the staggered release of up to quarter of a million confidential American diplomatic cables by website WikiLeaks, calling the leaks an "irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents".

Saudi king urged U.S. to attack Iran: WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran's nuclear program and China directed cyberattacks on the United States, according to a vast cache of diplomatic cables released on Sunday in an embarrassing leak that undermines U.S. diplomacy.

The more than 250,000 documents, given to five media groups by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, provide candid and at times critical views of foreign leaders as well as sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation filed by U.S. diplomats, according to The New York Times.

The White House condemned the release by WikiLeaks and said the disclosures may endanger U.S. informants abroad. WikiLeaks said its website was under attack and none of the underlying cables was visible there Sunday night, though some were posted by news organizations.

Among the revelations in Britain's Guardian newspaper, which also received an advance look at the documents along with France's Le Monde, Germany's Der Spiegel and Spain's El Pais, King Abdullah is reported to have "frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program."

"Cut off the head of the snake," the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, quotes the king as saying during a meeting with General David Petraeus in April 2008.

The leaked documents, the majority of which are from 2007 or later, also disclose U.S. allegations that China's Politburo directed an intrusion into Google's computer systems, part of a broader coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by Chinese government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws, the Times reported.

MEDVEDEV "PLAYS ROBIN TO PUTIN'S BATMAN"

As described by German news weekly Der Spiegel, the cables contain tart comments such as a U.S. diplomat's description of German Chancellor Angela Merkel as someone who "avoids risk and is seldom creative."

Another document described by The New York Times cites a U.S. embassy cable raising the possibility that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may have had a romantic relationship with his Ukranian nurse, who is described as a "voluptuous blonde."

The newspaper said many of the cables name diplomats' confidential sources, from foreign lawmakers and military officers to human rights activists and journalists, often with a warning: "Please protect" or "Strictly protect."

Comments such a description of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's head of state, as playing "Robin to (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin's Batman," are sure to embarrass the Obama administration and to complicate its diplomacy.

The White House said the release of the documents could endanger the lives of people who live under "oppressive regimes" and "deeply impact" the foreign policy interests of the United States, its allies and partners around the world.

"To be clear -- such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals," he said.

"DEVASTATING"

Security analysts tended to agree that the release of the documents was a severe blow to U.S. diplomacy, undermining the confidentiality that is vital for foreign leaders and activists to talk candidly to U.S. officials.

"This is pretty devastating," Roger Cressey, a partner at Goodharbor Consulting and a former U.S. cyber security and counter-terrorism official, said in an e-mailed comment.

The U.S. government, which was informed in advance of the leaked cables' contents, contacted governments including Russia, and in Europe and the Middle East, to try to limit damage.

The White House also warned readers that the field reporting in the documents is often incomplete and does not necessarily reflect, or even shape, U.S. policy decisions.

Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the dramatic revelation that Saudi King Abdullah counseled a U.S. strike on Iran may have been exaggerated for diplomatic effect.

"It's very possible that the Gulf states have in private adopted very aggressive rhetoric just to stress the urgency of the issue," Hokayem said. "But I personally doubt that there is an appetite for war as such."

Among the disclosures reported by The New York Times were:

-- suspicions Iran has obtained sophisticated missiles from North Korea capable of hitting western Europe, and the United States is concerned Iran is using those rockets as "building blocks" to build longer-range missiles;

-- allegations that Chinese operatives have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002;

-- talks between U.S. and South Korean officials about the prospects for a unified Korea should the North's economic troubles and a political transition lead the state to implode;

-- the South Koreans considered commercial inducements to China to "help salve" Chinese concerns about living with a reunified Korea that is in a "benign alliance" with Washington, according to the American ambassador to Seoul;

-- reporting that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the "worst in the region" in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December;

-- Since 2007, the United States has mounted a secret and so far unsuccessful effort to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani research reactor out of fear it could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Missy Ryan, Phil Stewart and John Whitesides in Washington; William Maclean in London and Brian Rohan in Berlin; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Philip Barbara and Jackie Frank)