North Korea conducting drills: Seoul

Seoul/United Nations: North Korea is conducting a series of military drills and is getting ready for state-wide war practice of an unusual scale, South Korea’s defence ministry said on Thursday, as tensions grow ahead of more sanctions being devised against Pyongyang.

South Korea and the United States, which are conducting their own annual military drills until the end of April, are watching the North Korea’s activities for signs it will go from exercise to an actual attack, a South Korean official said.

“It hasn’t been frequent that the North conducted military exercise at the state level,” South Korea’s defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. “The North is currently conducting various drills on land, at sea and aerially.”

“We are watching the North’s activities and stepping up readiness under the assumption that these drills can lead to provocation at any time.”

Kim declined to confirm news reports that the North has imposed no-fly zones off its coasts in a possible move to fire missiles, but he said any flight ban limited to near the coast would not be for weapons with meaningful ranges.

Meanwhile, the United States and China will seek to tighten the UN sanctions screws on North Korea after its widely condemned nuclear bomb test last month.

After weeks of closed-door talks, the UN Security Council will vote at 1500 GMT on a resolution proposed by the two key powers that targets North Korean diplomats, finances and access to luxury goods, and blacklists its accused weapons dealers.

A unanimous vote by the 15-member council is certain. “The response by the worryingly unpredictable North Korean government is anyone’s guess,” said a UN council diplomat.

The North shrugged off sanctions imposed after its nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009 to stage a banned long-range rocket test in December and an even more provocative nuclear blast on February 12.

US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, vowed this riposte will “take the UN sanctions imposed on North Korea to the next level, breaking new ground and imposing significant new legal obligations.”

China is less keen on antagonizing its neighbor. But its UN ambassador, Li Baodong, said “a strong signal must be sent out that the nuclear test is against the will of the international community.”

The resolution expresses “gravest concern” over the nuclear test and adds three new individuals, a government science academy and trading company to the UN blacklist for a travel ban and assets freeze.

Yon Chong-Nam and Ko Chol Chae are the head and deputy chief of Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), which the resolution says is North Korea’s “primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.”

The third individual Mun Chong Chol of Tanchon Commercial Bank which is described as the North’s main “financial entity for sales of conventional arms, ballistic missiles” and related goods.

The government’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences carries out research on North Korea’s “advanced weapons systems, including missiles and probably nuclear weapons,” says the draft resolution.

Korea Complex Equipment Import Corporation is a subsidiary of a North Korean conglomerate that buys equipment for the North’s defense industries and giant military.

The resolution calls for “enhanced vigilance” over North Korean diplomats. US officials suspect the diplomats have been carrying suitcases of cash to get around financial sanctions.