North Korea challenged Obama with Nuke Iran with Missiles

Hard tasks lined up for Obama ahead:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081112/wl_nm/us_iran_missiles_test;_ylt=AgD2.5sHeRhao7zcSCT18Kms0NUE

<h3 style="color:blue">Iran test-fires new missile: media</h3>

1 hr 18 mins ago



TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missiles, state television reported on Wednesday.

Iran's armed forces have staged frequent maneuvers in recent months, coinciding with speculation of possible U.S. or Israeli strikes against the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear ambitions.

The reports came a day after Iranian media said the elite Revolutionary Guards had tested a new missile, named Samen, near the Iraqi border.

"Iran successfully test-fires new generation of ground-to- ground missiles," state television said in a scrolling headline.

Another Iranian channel, the English-language Press TV, said the missile, named Sejil, was of a type that used combined solid fuel and described it as a "deterrent."

"Launch aimed at clarifying Iran's conventional missile aims," Press TV said in a scrolling headline.

The Press TV newscaster said the missile had two stages and showed the Islamic state's capability to "defend its soil."

The United States and its Western allies suspect Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

Iran has said it would respond to any attack on its territory by targeting U.S. interests and Washington's ally Israel, as well as closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for world oil supplies.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian and Edmund Blair; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Louise Ireland)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081112/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear_1

<h3 style="color:blue">North Korea rejects request for nuclear sampling</h3>

22 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea says it has agreed to let nuclear inspectors visit its main atomic complex and interview scientists. But it refuses to let them take samples as part of any verification checklist.

The Foreign Ministry statement released Wednesday provides the first details from Pyongyang about last month's negotiations with a U.S. nuclear envoy.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill went to the North Korean capital in early October in a bid to rescue a disarmament-for-aid deal. The agreement stalled over how to verify Pyongyang's claims about its nuclear program.

Washington had requested soil samples, but North Korea says sampling was never part of the verification deal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081112/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_tensions_7

<h3 style="color:blue">North Korea to halt border crossings with South</h3>

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago
South Koreans use binoculars to look at the North side from Imjingak, an area AP – South Koreans use binoculars to look at the North side from Imjingak, an area near the border along the …

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea ratcheted up its threats to sever ties with South Korea by announcing Wednesday that it will halt cross-border traffic next month over what it calls Seoul's confrontational stance against Pyongyang.

The North's military is taking action to "restrict and cut off all the overland passages" across the frontier beginning Dec. 1, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's conservative government took over in February, pledging to get tough with Pyongyang. North Korea has stepped up the rhetoric against the South in recent weeks, warning that it will attack South Korea and reduce it to "debris" if Seoul continues what it says are confrontational activities against the communist country.

Inter-Korean relations "are at the crucial crossroads of existence and total severance," KCNA said Wednesday.

The KCNA report did not say how long the border ban would remain in place. Prohibiting passage through the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas primarily would affect South Korean firms operating factories in an inter-Korean business complex in Kaesong, and would halt popular tours to the ancient city just across the border in the North.

Another joint Korean project in the North — tours to one of Korea's most famous sites, Diamond Mountain — has been stalled since the fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in July.

Diamond Mountain and Kaesong had served as prominent symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation on the divided peninsula.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the North's threat to close the crossings would have a negative influence on reconciliation efforts.

"North Korea's move is aimed at pressuring South Korea to shift its policy toward the North," said Qiao Yuzhi, a North Korea expert at Peking University who is visiting Seoul. He said the North is likely to carry out its threat temporarily, calling it a short-term tactic.

South Korean tour operator Hyundai Asan Corp. said it has not received any notification from the North about halting its year-old program offering tours of Kaesong. More than 100,000 tourists, mostly South Koreans, have toured Kaesong — a city that served as the capital of the ancient Koryo Dynasty that ruled Korea from 918 to 1392 and changed hands repeatedly during the 1950-53 Korean war.

Kaesong is home to some 88 South Korean factories employing about 35,000 North Korean workers. Currently, about 1,600 South Koreans also live and work in Kaesong, and an average of 200 South Koreans visit Kaesong daily, according to Hyundai Asan and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

"There is no sign of tensions here and our factory is working normally," Kang Mi-wha, a South Korean manager at footwear maker Samduk Stafild, told The Associated Press by telephone from Kaesong.

The joint industrial complex has been a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

The move comes at a time of heightened tension between the two Koreas. Last month, the North warned that it would expel South Koreans from Kaesong if propaganda leaflets critical of Pyongyang keep floating across the border. The two Koreas agreed in 2004 to stop decades of propaganda warfare, but South Korea says it cannot stop activists from sending leaflets into North Korea by balloon.

"Such (a) stand and attitude are leading to the grave, wanton violation of all the north-south agreements," the KCNA report said.

A week ago, North Korean Lt. Gen. Kim Yong Chol inspected the Kaesong complex, and asked South Korean workers how long it would take for them to pull out, the South Korean government said.

Kim, the chief North Korean delegate to previous military talks with the South, informed his South Korean counterpart Wednesday of the decision to restrict border travel, KCNA said.

Seoul denies taking a hard-line stance toward the North. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim said South Korea respects the spirit of deals reached at two Korean summits held in 2000 and 2007. "We are willing to consult in detail," he told reporters.

The two Koreas fought a brutal three-year war that ended in 1953 in a truce, not a peace treaty. The two Koreas, technically still at war, remain divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders.