Indian BMD will offer false sense of security

[Abu Zarrar]

Amidst the aftershocks of Donald Trump’s new South Asia policy, scant attention was paid to the recent strategic development on the Pakistan-India border. India is preparing to deploy the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield to deter Pakistani missiles. The purpose is to provide security to New Delhi and Mumbai. Since 1999, India has carried out several tests to complete the BMD programme.



The Indian BMD, on paper, has the capability of intercepting a missile in the terminal phase. In that phase, the destruction of an incoming missile with nuclear warhead by an anti-missile has its fallout in the target area.

The Indian plan to develop and install BMD systems dates back to May 2001, when former US president George W. Bush offered Atal Behari Vajpayee assistance for the acquisition of missile defence. The offer came despite the fact that India was actively involved in the nuclear and missile proliferation to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. Though Pakistan has long been an ally of the US in the global war on terror, it was not promised the same assistance — which has increased the country’s security challenges vis-à-vis India.


There are a number of reasons for the Indian desire to acquire BMD by every means available. None of these more important than its lust for global power status and its wish to serve as a US counterweight to China.


Harsh V. Pant, a professor at King’s College, argues that the Indian BMD will fuel instability and affect bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, which might further lower the nuclear threshold and tempt Pakistan to go for a nuclear first strike. The offence/defence paradox explains that in the mind of a state without BMD, the threat of a pre-emptive strike will increase.

South Asia is thought to possess one-third of the total ballistic missile capability in the world. With regard to changing missile technology, BMD is too expensive and a variable programme for a country to engage in. In such an environment, the BMD capability will give India a false sense of security and will push India to go for a first nuclear strike. Thus, it could seriously undermine the deterrence stability in South Asia.

The proficiency of the Indian BMD system is exceedingly debatable with respect to the geographical contiguity of India with Pakistan and China. During the Cold War, the distance between the US and the Soviet Union provided a necessary time for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system to intercept an incoming missile. In case of India and Pakistan, the time gap is relatively too short to entirely attain necessary reconnaissance to efficiently intercept an incoming missile.

India’s long borders with Pakistan and China could generate additional complications for the effectiveness of its BMD system. Pakistan can exploit unconventional means to counter its neighbour’s defence shield. India is geographically vulnerable in terms of a long coastline/border with Pakistan and the missile defence system will provide a false sense of security for Indian policymakers.

An exaggerated BMD option by India is not a security route but an offensive strategy. The strategy will challenge the security of the opponents and will trigger a fresh arms race in the region. Notwithstanding hefty spending on the project, it will not be able to accomplish complete security.

For Pakistan, it is a good option to multiply its efforts to develop offensive means to penetrate the Indian BMD. Therefore, Pakistan tested Ababeel surface-to-surface missile, capable of delivering multiple warheads using Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.


Pakistan must commence a cognisance narrative about BMD effects on world security while underlining the fact that BMD is against the concept of disarmament. It must continue to pursue modernisation of its space programme to handle any prospective threats. This will allow it an alternative way of shadowing Indian military strategy, troops and assets deployment and ensure effective manoeuverability to deploy ballistic and cruise missiles.

Source:https://tribune.com.pk/story/1503613/indian-bmd-will-offer-false-sense-security/
Date:13-09-2017

 

[StraightShooter]

They may also create illusion of deterrence...to the opponent.

 

[Dark Lord Forever]

more hot air from india.

no contry has true bmd. pakistan has marv and working on mirv. so this little toy is useless.

also looking at other fail of india. we must also think ho big fail indian bmd must be. contry that can't make ammo can't bost about bmd.

They may also create illusion of deterrence...to the opponent.

all world knows about indian lies. no one is living in ilusion.

 

[Mujraparty]

The offer came despite the fact that India was actively involved in the nuclear and missile proliferation to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. Though Pakistan has long been an ally of the US in the global war on terror, it was not promised the same assistance — which has increased the country’s security challenges vis-à-vis India

Author was probably thinking of Pakistan while writing this article ....seriously though when did we proliferate nuclear and missile tech to those countries ...?

 

[T90TankGuy]

Author was probably thinking of Pakistan while writing this article ....seriously though when did we proliferate nuclear and missile tech to those countries ...?

Let them live in their delusions . Dont disturb !!!

 

[Srinivas]

Yay !

Now pakistan can issue nuke threats and feel superior !

Amidst the aftershocks of Donald Trump’s new South Asia policy, scant attention was paid to the recent strategic development on the Pakistan-India border. India is preparing to deploy the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield to deter Pakistani missiles. The purpose is to provide security to New Delhi and Mumbai. Since 1999, India has carried out several tests to complete the BMD programme.



The Indian BMD, on paper, has the capability of intercepting a missile in the terminal phase. In that phase, the destruction of an incoming missile with nuclear warhead by an anti-missile has its fallout in the target area.

The Indian plan to develop and install BMD systems dates back to May 2001, when former US president George W. Bush offered Atal Behari Vajpayee assistance for the acquisition of missile defence. The offer came despite the fact that India was actively involved in the nuclear and missile proliferation to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. Though Pakistan has long been an ally of the US in the global war on terror, it was not promised the same assistance — which has increased the country’s security challenges vis-à-vis India.


There are a number of reasons for the Indian desire to acquire BMD by every means available. None of these more important than its lust for global power status and its wish to serve as a US counterweight to China.


Harsh V. Pant, a professor at King’s College, argues that the Indian BMD will fuel instability and affect bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, which might further lower the nuclear threshold and tempt Pakistan to go for a nuclear first strike. The offence/defence paradox explains that in the mind of a state without BMD, the threat of a pre-emptive strike will increase.

South Asia is thought to possess one-third of the total ballistic missile capability in the world. With regard to changing missile technology, BMD is too expensive and a variable programme for a country to engage in. In such an environment, the BMD capability will give India a false sense of security and will push India to go for a first nuclear strike. Thus, it could seriously undermine the deterrence stability in South Asia.

The proficiency of the Indian BMD system is exceedingly debatable with respect to the geographical contiguity of India with Pakistan and China. During the Cold War, the distance between the US and the Soviet Union provided a necessary time for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system to intercept an incoming missile. In case of India and Pakistan, the time gap is relatively too short to entirely attain necessary reconnaissance to efficiently intercept an incoming missile.

India’s long borders with Pakistan and China could generate additional complications for the effectiveness of its BMD system. Pakistan can exploit unconventional means to counter its neighbour’s defence shield. India is geographically vulnerable in terms of a long coastline/border with Pakistan and the missile defence system will provide a false sense of security for Indian policymakers.

An exaggerated BMD option by India is not a security route but an offensive strategy. The strategy will challenge the security of the opponents and will trigger a fresh arms race in the region. Notwithstanding hefty spending on the project, it will not be able to accomplish complete security.

For Pakistan, it is a good option to multiply its efforts to develop offensive means to penetrate the Indian BMD. Therefore, Pakistan tested Ababeel surface-to-surface missile, capable of delivering multiple warheads using Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.


Pakistan must commence a cognisance narrative about BMD effects on world security while underlining the fact that BMD is against the concept of disarmament. It must continue to pursue modernisation of its space programme to handle any prospective threats. This will allow it an alternative way of shadowing Indian military strategy, troops and assets deployment and ensure effective manoeuverability to deploy ballistic and cruise missiles.

Source:https://tribune.com.pk/story/1503613/indian-bmd-will-offer-false-sense-security/
Date:13-09-2017

 

[Gurjot.S]

For Pakistan, it is a good option to multiply its efforts to develop offensive means to penetrate the Indian BMD. Therefore, Pakistan tested Ababeel surface-to-surface missile, capable of delivering multiple warheads using Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.

Why pakistanis think that india will rely on BMD only and wont go offensive inside pakistan ?

 

[unbiasedopinion]

The offer came despite the fact that India was actively involved in the nuclear and missile proliferation to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea

I laughed very high at this and then stopped reading.

 

[Reichsmarschall]

India's embarrassing North Korean connection
Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny after revelation that it trained North Korean scientists.

• 
• 

• 

The CSSTEAP was set up in Dehradun in 1995 by the UN [Al Jazeera/Screenshot]

by
Nilanjana Bhowmick





New Delhi, India - Hong Yong-il is the North Korean embassy’s new first secretary to India and has been in the country for just a month.

He lives on the first floor of a two-storey house in a tree-lined lane in Delhi’s busy Lajpat Nagar.

The apartment is huge but nondescript, sparsely furnished; a modest affair as compared with many other diplomatic residences in the Indian capital.

Hong wears on his shirt a miniature badge, with the face of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un says North Korea is a responsible nuclear state

This is not Hong's first stint in India. In 1996, he stayed in the country for nine months, studying a course in remote sensing technology at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP).

The research centre is located in Dehradun, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 235km from the Indian capital New Delhi.

"Dehradun is a very quiet town," Hong said in an interview with Al Jazeera. "The course was very informative, the teachers were very good."

Hong was, in fact, one of the first students North Korea sent to train at the centre, a school set up in 1995 by the United Nations, to ensure that "in years to come, no country in the region will have to look abroad for expertise in space science & technology application".

Training North Korean students
Since then, North Korea has sent at least 30 students to train at the institute.

Two are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the country's nuclear development programme.

And it kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.

The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.

The "repeated applications" by North Korea, the report said, indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006.

North Korea: Challenges of a 'pariah state'


However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.

For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that "could be directly relevant" to "designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems".

Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in violation of a resolution banning "any transfers" to or from North Korea, "technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes".

Not traditional allies
India and North Korea are not traditional allies. They have shared diplomatic relations since the 1970s, but India has also been one of the staunchest opponents of North Korea's nuclear weapons development programme.

The centre is funded in part by the UN, along with India and several other organisations. It said that the sanction was taken into account in the admission process.

India justified the content of the courses, saying that the topics covered are "very general" and the basic principles of these courses "are available from open-source".

It also said that topics covered "would certainly not contribute to acquiring expertise in those specific areas by the participants".

Dehradun, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is home to several elite Indian defence institutes [Reuters]
However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.

After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.

Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea's first satellite launch in 2012.

The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN's sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.

"The training may very well have helped North Korea's military programmes," Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.

But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe "does not necessarily make India complicit" with North Korea's programme.

Global navigation studies
According to the report, North Korea tried to send at least one student to the institute in 2015 to attend a global navigation satellite systems course, although his application along with those of four others was rejected.

"I don't know why they have rejected all the applications," Hong, of the North Korean embassy in Delhi, told Al Jazeera.

"I have contacted the university officials but they are yet to give me an explanation."

Hong seems unaware of the Security Council report, or that India has been asked for an explanation over the apparent lapse.

'Kimjongilia' display celebrates late N Korea leader

Skand Tayal, a former Indian ambassador to South Korea, told Al Jazeera that "whatever cooperation" India has with North Korea is meant for "civilian application".

"India has been consistently opposing North Korea's nuclear development programme," said Tayal, who has observed North Korea for many years.

"If there has been a violation, it would be an oversight."

The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was inadvertent.

An email to the institute requesting for comment went unanswered.

Sarnam Singh, programme coordinator and director of one of the courses, said the institute was not accepting applications from any more North Korean students.

'Serious error'
India is due to present a detailed report to an UN advisory committee on the issue.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme," Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email.

"The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth."

RP Singh, a former Indian ambassador to North Korea (2002-2004), said the idea behind the courses is to provide professional and not technical training.

"India won't knowingly violate US sanctions," he said.

Earlier in January, India condemned North Korea's claim of detonating a hydrogen bomb, and called it a matter of "deep concern".

India eyes nuclear technology deal with Japan



India is concerned about "proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood", Vikas Swaroop, India's foreign office spokesman, had said, in an indirect reference to Pakistan's AQ Khan network.

The network was ran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and who is credited with selling sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea.

In 2004, Khan got a pardon from then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and made a televised confession saying he acted alone and absolved the Pakistan government of any hand or knowledge in the network.

Pakistan, backed by China, and India, backed by the US, are currently seeking the much-coveted membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an elite group of 48 nuclear supplier countries.

On Monday, the NSG begins a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to decide on the membership of both India and Pakistan.

The controversy surrounding the training of North Korean scientists may or may not have much bearing on the outcome of the Seoul meeting, but it does amount to a curious footnote to the global debate on nuclear non-proliferation and missile technology control.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006 [Reuters]

India, North Korea nuclear nexus exposed

• National

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

An unholy connection between India and North Korea has come to the fore at the recently held 17th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela where India used its influence to get slashed a paragraph in condemnation to the nuclear test by North Korea.

The Indian support for North Korean nuclear tests has proved an evil nexus between the two states. But this was not the only objective India gained at the summit by using its muscle at the NAM. It also used influence to bash Pakistan at NAM.

The report has raised serious questions for Indian bid to get included in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). While India has been manoeuvring the world opinion for NGS membership, the report is being seen as a major dent for the Indian efforts.

“The way the NAM works is on consensus so we have to have consensus among all countries but that said we have been able to get references to terrorism (put in the declaration) which are purely and largely language suggested by India,” Indian media outlet First Post quoted India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin as telling journalists at a briefing.

During the preparations for the final declaration of the summit, Columbia proposed a paragraph to condemn the nuclear test conducted by North Korea recently. All the member-states, except India, supported the idea and agreed to include the paragraph in the Disarmament and International Security section of the declaration.

However, being one of the five founding members of NAM, the Indian representative pressurised other members to get the proposed paragraph removed from the final document of the 21-point NAM declaration.

The paragraph to denounce the North Korean nuclear test was initially a part of the Disarmament and International Security section. However, Indian representative made sure to get the para removed from the final draft.

But this is not for the first time that Indian and North Korean connection has surfaced. In a report published by AlJazeera in June 2016, titled “India’s embarrassing North Korean connection”, an Indian journalist Nilanjana Bhowmick came up with expose of Indian secret training to North Korean scientists for development of ballistic missiles at a Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny where North Korean scientists were trained.

The report claimed that at least 30 students had been sent to North Korea for training at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP).

Two of them are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the North Korean nuclear development programme.

And North Korea kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.

“The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.

The ‘repeated applications’ by North Korea,” the report said, adding that it indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006. However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.

For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that “could be directly relevant” to “designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems”.

Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in violation of a resolution banning “any transfers” to or from North Korea, “technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes.

However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.

After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.

Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea’s first satellite launch in 2012.

The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN’s sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.

“The training may very well have helped North Korea’s military programmes,” Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.

But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe “does not necessarily make India complicit” with North Korea’s programme.

However, the UNSC response over the probe report was interesting. The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was “inadvertent”.

India is due to present a detailed report to a UN advisory committee on the issue.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme,” Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email to Al-Jazeera.

“The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth,” Nicholas maintained, the report concludes

 

[AnnoyingOrange]

North Korea factories humming with 'Made in China' clothes

Chinese textile firms are increasingly using North Korean factories to take advantage of cheaper labor across the border, traders and businesses in the border city of Dandong told Reuters.

The clothes made in North Korea are labeled “Made in China” and exported across the world, they said.

Using North Korea to produce cheap clothes for sale around the globe shows that for every door that is closed by ever-tightening U.N. sanctions another one may open. The UN sanctions, introduced to punish North Korea for its missile and nuclear programs, do not include any bans on textile exports.

“We take orders from all over the world,” said one Korean-Chinese businessman in Dandong, the Chinese border city where the majority of North Korea trade passes through. Like many people Reuters interviewed for this story, he spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Dozens of clothing agents operate in Dandong, acting as go-betweens for Chinese clothing suppliers and buyers from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Russia, the businessman said.

“We will ask the Chinese suppliers who work with us if they plan on being open with their client -- sometimes the final buyer won’t realize their clothes are being made in North Korea. It’s extremely sensitive,” he said.

Textiles were North Korea’s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totaling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Total exports from North Korea in 2016 rose 4.6 percent to $2.82 billion.

The latest U.N. sanctions, agreed earlier this month, have completely banned coal exports now.

Its flourishing textiles industry shows how impoverished North Korea has adapted, with a limited embrace of market reforms, to sanctions since 2006 when it first tested a nuclear device. The industry also shows the extent to which North Korea relies on China as an economic lifeline, even as U.S. President Donald Trump piles pressure on Beijing to do more to rein in its neighbor’s weapons programmes.

Chinese exports to North Korea rose almost 30 percent to $1.67 billion in the first half of the year, largely driven by textile materials and other traditional labour-intensive goods not included on the United Nations embargo list, Chinese customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters.

Chinese suppliers send fabrics and other raw materials required for manufacturing clothing to North Korean factories across the border where garments are assembled and exported.


FACTORIES HUMMING
Australian sportswear brand Rip Curl publicly apologized last year when it was discovered that some of its ski gear, labeled “Made in China”, had been made in one of North Korea’s garment factories. Rip Curl blamed a rogue supplier for outsourcing to “an unauthorized subcontractor”.

But traders and agents in Dandong say it’s a widespread practice.

Manufacturers can save up to 75 percent by making their clothes in North Korea, said a Chinese trader who has lived in Pyongyang.

Some of the North Korean factories are located in Siniuju city just across the border from Dandong. Other factories are located outside Pyongyang. Finished clothing is often directly shipped from North Korea to Chinese ports before being sent onto the rest of the world, the Chinese traders and businesses said.

North Korea has about 15 large garment exporting enterprises, each operating several factories spread around the country, and dozens of medium sized companies, according to GPI Consultancy of the Netherlands, which helps foreign companies do business in North Korea.


File photo: North Korean workers make soccer shoes inside a temporary factory at a rural village on the edge of Dandong October 24, 2012. REUTERS/Aly Song
All factories in North Korea are state-owned. And the textile ones appear to be humming, traders and agents say.

“We’ve been trying to get some of our clothes made in North Korea but the factories are fully booked at the moment,” said a Korean-Chinese businesswoman at a factory in Dalian, a Chinese port city two hours away from Dandong by train.

“North Korean workers can produce 30 percent more clothes each day than a Chinese worker,” said the Korean-Chinese businessman.

“In North Korea, factory workers can’t just go to the toilet whenever they feel like, otherwise they think it slows down the whole assembly line.”

“They aren’t like Chinese factory workers who just work for the money. North Koreans have a different attitude -- they believe they are working for their country, for their leader.”

And they are paid wages significantly below many other Asian countries. North Korean workers at the now shuttered Kaesong industrial zone just across the border from South Korea received wages ranging from a minimum of around $75 a month to an average of around $160, compared to average factory wages of $450-$750 a month in China. Kaesong was run jointly with South Korea and the wage structure - much higher than in the rest of North Korea - was negotiated with Seoul.


FILE PHOTO - A North Korean waitress cleans the floor of a North Korean restaurant in Dandong, Liaoning province, China, September 12, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
WORKERS IN CHINA
Chinese clothing manufacturers have been increasingly using North Korean textile factories even as they relocate their own factories offshore, including to Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.

“Wages are too high in China now. It’s no wonder so many orders are being sent to North Korea,” said a Korean-Chinese businesswoman who works in the textiles industry in Dandong.

Chinese textile companies are also employing thousands of cheaper North Korean workers in China.

North Korea relies on overseas workers to earn hard currency, especially since U.N. sanctions have choked off some other sources of export earnings. Much of their wages are remitted back to the state and help fund Pyongyang’s ambitious nuclear and missile programmes, the U.N. says.

The new U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea this month ban countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad.

China does not disclose official figures for the number of North Koreans working in factories and restaurants in China, although numbers are down from a peak period two to three years ago, according to Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea specialist at Beijing’s Renmin University.

“It’s a hassle to hire North Korean workers though,” the Korean-Chinese businesswoman from Dalian said. “You need to have the right set-up. Their living space has to be completely closed off, you have to provide a classroom where they can take classes every day. They bring their own doctor, nurse, cook and teachers who teach them North Korean ideology every day.”

One clothing factory that Reuters visited in Dandong employs 40 North Korean workers. They fill smaller orders for clients who are more stringent about their supply chains and expressly request no production inside North Korea.

North Korean factory workers in China earn about 2,000 yuan ($300.25), about half of the average for Chinese workers, the factory owner said.

They are allowed to keep around a third of their wages, with the rest going to their North Korean government handlers, he said. A typical shift at the factory runs from 7:30 a.m. to around 10 p.m.

The workers - all women dressed in pink and black uniforms - sat close together behind four rows of sewing machines, working on a consignment of dark-colored winter jackets. The Chinese characters for “clean” and “tidy” were emblazoned in bold blue lettering above their heads and the main factory floor was silent but for the tapping and whirring of sewing machines.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...se-to-north-korea-nuclear-tests-idUSKCN1BN214

 

[Kedardel]

False sense of security is all India needs to attack Pakistan

 

[Chhatrapati]

India's embarrassing North Korean connection
Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny after revelation that it trained North Korean scientists.

• 
• 

• 

The CSSTEAP was set up in Dehradun in 1995 by the UN [Al Jazeera/Screenshot]

by
Nilanjana Bhowmick





New Delhi, India - Hong Yong-il is the North Korean embassy’s new first secretary to India and has been in the country for just a month.

He lives on the first floor of a two-storey house in a tree-lined lane in Delhi’s busy Lajpat Nagar.

The apartment is huge but nondescript, sparsely furnished; a modest affair as compared with many other diplomatic residences in the Indian capital.

Hong wears on his shirt a miniature badge, with the face of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un says North Korea is a responsible nuclear state

This is not Hong's first stint in India. In 1996, he stayed in the country for nine months, studying a course in remote sensing technology at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP).

The research centre is located in Dehradun, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 235km from the Indian capital New Delhi.

"Dehradun is a very quiet town," Hong said in an interview with Al Jazeera. "The course was very informative, the teachers were very good."

Hong was, in fact, one of the first students North Korea sent to train at the centre, a school set up in 1995 by the United Nations, to ensure that "in years to come, no country in the region will have to look abroad for expertise in space science & technology application".

Training North Korean students
Since then, North Korea has sent at least 30 students to train at the institute.

Two are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the country's nuclear development programme.

And it kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.

The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.

The "repeated applications" by North Korea, the report said, indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006.

North Korea: Challenges of a 'pariah state'


However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.

For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that "could be directly relevant" to "designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems".

Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in violation of a resolution banning "any transfers" to or from North Korea, "technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes".

Not traditional allies
India and North Korea are not traditional allies. They have shared diplomatic relations since the 1970s, but India has also been one of the staunchest opponents of North Korea's nuclear weapons development programme.

The centre is funded in part by the UN, along with India and several other organisations. It said that the sanction was taken into account in the admission process.

India justified the content of the courses, saying that the topics covered are "very general" and the basic principles of these courses "are available from open-source".

It also said that topics covered "would certainly not contribute to acquiring expertise in those specific areas by the participants".

Dehradun, in the foothills of the Himalayas, is home to several elite Indian defence institutes [Reuters]
However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.

After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.

Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea's first satellite launch in 2012.

The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN's sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.

"The training may very well have helped North Korea's military programmes," Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.

But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe "does not necessarily make India complicit" with North Korea's programme.

Global navigation studies
According to the report, North Korea tried to send at least one student to the institute in 2015 to attend a global navigation satellite systems course, although his application along with those of four others was rejected.

"I don't know why they have rejected all the applications," Hong, of the North Korean embassy in Delhi, told Al Jazeera.

"I have contacted the university officials but they are yet to give me an explanation."

Hong seems unaware of the Security Council report, or that India has been asked for an explanation over the apparent lapse.

'Kimjongilia' display celebrates late N Korea leader

Skand Tayal, a former Indian ambassador to South Korea, told Al Jazeera that "whatever cooperation" India has with North Korea is meant for "civilian application".

"India has been consistently opposing North Korea's nuclear development programme," said Tayal, who has observed North Korea for many years.

"If there has been a violation, it would be an oversight."

The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was inadvertent.

An email to the institute requesting for comment went unanswered.

Sarnam Singh, programme coordinator and director of one of the courses, said the institute was not accepting applications from any more North Korean students.

'Serious error'
India is due to present a detailed report to an UN advisory committee on the issue.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme," Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email.

"The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth."

RP Singh, a former Indian ambassador to North Korea (2002-2004), said the idea behind the courses is to provide professional and not technical training.

"India won't knowingly violate US sanctions," he said.

Earlier in January, India condemned North Korea's claim of detonating a hydrogen bomb, and called it a matter of "deep concern".

India eyes nuclear technology deal with Japan



India is concerned about "proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood", Vikas Swaroop, India's foreign office spokesman, had said, in an indirect reference to Pakistan's AQ Khan network.

The network was ran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and who is credited with selling sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea.

In 2004, Khan got a pardon from then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and made a televised confession saying he acted alone and absolved the Pakistan government of any hand or knowledge in the network.

Pakistan, backed by China, and India, backed by the US, are currently seeking the much-coveted membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an elite group of 48 nuclear supplier countries.

On Monday, the NSG begins a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to decide on the membership of both India and Pakistan.

The controversy surrounding the training of North Korean scientists may or may not have much bearing on the outcome of the Seoul meeting, but it does amount to a curious footnote to the global debate on nuclear non-proliferation and missile technology control.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006 [Reuters]

India, North Korea nuclear nexus exposed

• National

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

An unholy connection between India and North Korea has come to the fore at the recently held 17th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Venezuela where India used its influence to get slashed a paragraph in condemnation to the nuclear test by North Korea.

The Indian support for North Korean nuclear tests has proved an evil nexus between the two states. But this was not the only objective India gained at the summit by using its muscle at the NAM. It also used influence to bash Pakistan at NAM.

The report has raised serious questions for Indian bid to get included in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). While India has been manoeuvring the world opinion for NGS membership, the report is being seen as a major dent for the Indian efforts.

“The way the NAM works is on consensus so we have to have consensus among all countries but that said we have been able to get references to terrorism (put in the declaration) which are purely and largely language suggested by India,” Indian media outlet First Post quoted India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin as telling journalists at a briefing.

During the preparations for the final declaration of the summit, Columbia proposed a paragraph to condemn the nuclear test conducted by North Korea recently. All the member-states, except India, supported the idea and agreed to include the paragraph in the Disarmament and International Security section of the declaration.

However, being one of the five founding members of NAM, the Indian representative pressurised other members to get the proposed paragraph removed from the final document of the 21-point NAM declaration.

The paragraph to denounce the North Korean nuclear test was initially a part of the Disarmament and International Security section. However, Indian representative made sure to get the para removed from the final draft.

But this is not for the first time that Indian and North Korean connection has surfaced. In a report published by AlJazeera in June 2016, titled “India’s embarrassing North Korean connection”, an Indian journalist Nilanjana Bhowmick came up with expose of Indian secret training to North Korean scientists for development of ballistic missiles at a Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny where North Korean scientists were trained.

The report claimed that at least 30 students had been sent to North Korea for training at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP).

Two of them are currently studying there, one of whom is affiliated with the National Aerospace Development Administration, which, the report says, plays a key role in the North Korean nuclear development programme.

And North Korea kept sending scientists and space employees, even after the UN issued the first set of nuclear sanctions in 2006, prohibiting member countries from providing technical training to North Korea.

“The lapse was exposed only in March 2016 in an annual report to the UN Security Council.

The ‘repeated applications’ by North Korea,” the report said, adding that it indicates the courses were relevant to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programme.

The UN has issued five major sanctions against North Korea since 2006. However, some of the course modules at the centre training the North Koreans might have violated provisions of the sanctions.

For example, the report states, one of the courses offered instructions that “could be directly relevant” to “designing and testing a launch vehicle using ballistic missile technology, such as those on launch vehicles, attitude control, and telemetry, tracking, command and data-handling systems”.

Investigators also found a course on satellite communications, which is in violation of a resolution banning “any transfers” to or from North Korea, “technical training, advice, services or assistance related to nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction- related programmes.

However, North Korean students who trained in the school have gone on to occupy important state positions in Pyongyang.

After finishing his course in India, Hong, the official at the North Korean embassy in Delhi, went on to head a research group on remote sensing technology at the State Commission for Science and Technology, where he worked until his assignment in India.

Paek Chang-ho, who had been on the satellite communications course at the institute in 1999-2000, before the sanctions were issued, became the head of an agency involved with North Korea’s first satellite launch in 2012.

The 52-year-old Paek, who ended up on the UN’s sanctions list for his role in the 2012 launch, is now a senior official at a scientific research agency.

“The training may very well have helped North Korea’s military programmes,” Bruce Bechtol, president of the International Council on Korean Studies, said in an email.

But the Texas-based professor and Korea expert said that the result of the probe “does not necessarily make India complicit” with North Korea’s programme.

However, the UNSC response over the probe report was interesting. The Security Council report said it too believes that the slip-up was “inadvertent”.

India is due to present a detailed report to a UN advisory committee on the issue.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise how extraordinarily unwise, and indeed irresponsible, it is nowadays to train North Korean operatives in technologies that can be used to improve and perfect their ballistic missile programme,” Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, said in an email to Al-Jazeera.

“The government of India needs to acknowledge the seriousness of this error, take accountability for it, and publicly commit that it will not be an enabler of North Korean WMD programmes thenceforth,” Nicholas maintained, the report concludes

Lol, that's a UN affiliate. Not Indian. Then UN sponsored North Korean nukes?

 

[SingaporeGuy]

Not practical to cover india with BMD.

India got problems supporting itself already...

 

[Dark Lord Forever]

speculate speculate and speculate even more pakistanis, but false or true is decided only during the war.

no need to war. india will destroy itself. india will devide in 30 litle contris. another 1000 year rule of pakistan in india.

 

[Dark Lord Forever]

hahahahah india is not pakistan bozo keep dreaming

india isnot pakstan will never be.

in india people riot for gov jobs in pakistan don't

in india people ask for aazadi in every province in pakistan don't

in india people go t0ilet in steet in pakistan don't

in india people r@pe everywomen in pakistan don't

india soon will get destroy pakistan don't

so now cry cry cry poor india.

pakistan is new asian superpower.