The Gates of Hell

This, from: CNN.com

North Korea said Tuesday it has stopped disabling its nuclear plants and will consider restoring them because the United States has not removed it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

N. Korea demolished the cooling tower at its main reactor complex in Yongbyon in June.

The communist nation said it halted the  dismantling of the plutonium-producing plants on August 14, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The North “will consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in (Yongbyon) to their original state,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that KCNA carried.

North Korea agreed to a complete dismantling of its Yongbyon nuclear complex by October. In return, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would lift some U.S. sanctions against North Korea and remove it from a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.

And this also, via: CNN.com

Russia’s president said Tuesday he has signed an order recognizing the independence of two Georgian breakaway provinces, a move likely to increase tensions with the West over the conflict in the region.
Russia President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and S. Ossetia.

Dmitry Medvedev blamed Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, for forcing his hand by launching a military assault South Ossetia rebels, triggering a major invasion by Russia’s military.

“This is not an easy choice but this is the only opportunity to preserve the lives of the people,” Medvedev said, according to a translation from Russia Today.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the decision “regrettable,” echoing comments a day earlier by President Bush.

Medvedev called on other countries to follow Russia’s lead. The Russian president signed the order to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia, a day after it was overwhelmingly approved by both houses of Russia’s parliament.

That vote was rejected by Saakashvili, who called it an attempt by Russia to “justify the occupation” by its forces, which remain in parts of Georgia.

Via: FT.com

Japan’s decision to place the spread of nuclear weapons technologies on the agenda of the Group of Eight summit reflects, in significant part, Tokyo’s long- standing disquiet about developments in nearby North Korea.

The isolated dictatorship has missiles easily capable of reaching Japan, and tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006.

Since then, the US government has provided evidence suggesting North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor that was destroyed in an Israeli raid last September, perhaps indicating that Pyongyang has been more active than hitherto believed in spreading nuclear technologies and know-how.

In spite of signs of deep divisions within the US government about policy on North Korea, this evidence has not so far derailed negotiations - in which the US participates in so-called six-party talks with North and South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - aimed at persuading Pyongyang to end its nuclear programme.