Naval Open Source INTelligence: North Korea reportedly developing tactical nuclear...

Naval Open Source INTelligence: North Korea reportedly developing tactical nuclear...: North Korea is developing new missiles capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads, a Seoul daily reported Tuesday, citing South Korean in...

North Korea reportedly developing tactical nuclear missiles: paper
KYODO
SEP 23, 2014
ARTICLE HISTORY
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SEOUL – North Korea is developing new missiles capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads, a Seoul daily reported Tuesday, citing South Korean intelligence authorities.

The JoongAng Ilbo said North Korea has performed a series of test-firings of new short-range missiles since Aug. 14. It was the first time the government had detected Pyongyang developing a tactical nuclear missile, according to the report.

Designated as KN-10, the new ground-to-ground missiles are believed to be designed to carry nuclear payloads, the report said.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that the rockets test-fired three times since last month are new missiles based on their speeds and altitudes,” a senior South Korean government official was quoted as saying.

A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman denied the report. “Our military authorities don’t have intelligence that missiles North Korea recently test-fired can carry tactical nuclear warheads,” Kim Min-seok said at a press briefing.

While strategic nuclear weapons are designed to be used to destroy large targets such as cities and factories, tactical nuclear weapons are intended to be used on a battlefield. They are developed by placing a relatively smaller nuclear payload on a short-range missile to destroy a military target.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/09/23/asia-pacific/north-korea-reportedly-developing-tactical-nuclear-missiles-paper/#.VCPFh_n_svk

Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti given life, blamed for 2009 Urumqi riots
Staff Reporter 2014-09-25 15:27 (GMT+8)
Ilham Tohti is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Urumqi, the capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, on Sept. 23. (Photo/CNS)
Ilham Tohti is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Urumqi, the capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, on Sept. 23. (Photo/CNS)

The Uyghur university professor who received a life sentence for separatism on Tuesday was assigned blame for the bloody July 2009 Urumqi riots that killed nearly 200 people, according to court documents released from his two-day trial that has been condemned as a travesty of political persecution by international media outlets.

Ilham Tohti, who taught economics at Beijing's Minzu University, was sentenced to life in prison by the court in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, on Sept. 23, just five days after his two-day trial ended on Sept. 18. The 44-year-old also had his personal property confiscated and his political rights rescinded for life after the court accepted the prosecution's request for severe punishment given his unwillingness to plead guilty.

Ilham Tohti was found guilty of spreading lessons containing separatist thoughts via his website, Uyghur Online, which published and reprinted translated articles–often from overseas sources on the other side of China's internet firewall–advocating Xinjiang's independence from China, including through the use of violence.

The court, which said it received 32 categories and 210 pieces of evidence, including witness testimonies, documents and video footage, said the website attacked China's ethnic, religious, economic and family planning policies and incited ethnic hatred by distorting the causes of a number of riots and disputes that occurred in Xinjiang and Beijing.

In his defense, Ilham Tohti said he set up Uyghur Online to eliminate misunderstandings between the various ethnic groups and promote exchanges, and that there was not a single article on the website advocating separatism. His defense attorney also said that Ilham Tohti's classes did not have many students and therefore did not have much of an impact.

One of the biggest charges against Ilham Tohti was that his "fabricated articles" and "manipulated facts" about government suppression against Uyghurs were partly to blame for the deadly riots in Urumqi that broke out on July 5, 2009. Official numbers place the total number of deaths at 197 and injuries at 1,721, though Uyghur exile groups say the death toll is higher as many people disappeared during wide-scale police sweeps in the days following the riots.

The verdict and sentence has been met with condemnation by Western nations, with US secretary of state John Kerry saying that he was "deeply disturbed" by the news. Both Kerry and the White House called for the scholar's immediate release.

The BBC likened Ilham Tohti to Nelson Mandela, sparking a terse response from China's foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, who said there is "no way that these two people can be mentioned in the same breath."

"Some countries wave the banner of 'democracy' and 'human rights' and take advantage of the Ilham Tohti case to point fingers at China, and even raise the absurd request of his 'release'," Hua said, adding that China has urged "relevant countries" to immediately discard their "double standards" and stop interfering in China's internal affairs.

"I would like to remind you that no country would tolerate words or deeds that incite ethnic hatred, foment national separatism, and disseminate and encourage violence and terrorism. I believe your country is no exception," she added.

The Chinese Mission to the European Union on Wednesday also expressed "strong dissatisfaction" after the bloc criticized Ilham Tohti's life sentence.

Ilham Tohti's sentence came just two days after a series of explosions killed two people and injured a number of others in several locations in Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongolian autonomous prefecture. The attack was just one of many allegedly carried out by Uyghur extremists in and out of Xinjiang in recent years, including multiple assaults on police stations and public markets. In late July, as many as 100 people were killed and more than 200 were arrested following a riot in Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture. This was preceded by a mass stabbing at Kunming Train Station in southwestern China's Yunnan province in March that killed 33 people and injured 140, and a jeep crash last October in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that caused five deaths and 40 injuries.

References:

Hua Chunying 華春瑩