FIRECANDLES

One day after its nuclear test drew angry and widespread condemnation, North Korea continued to defy the international community on Tuesday by test-firing two more short-range missiles, a South Korean government official said.

The missile firings came just hours after South Korea said it would join an American-led operation to stop the global trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, an action the North has previously said it would consider a declaration of war.

The developments sharpened the confrontation between North Korea and much of the international community including the United States as the United Nations Security Council vowed to craft a resolution that could impose further sanctions on the increasingly isolated North.

The missiles launched Tuesday were surface-to-ship and surface-to-air projectiles, a South Korean official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The South Korean news agency Yonhap said the missiles had a range of 80 miles. They were apparently launched from a base on the central eastern coast into the sea opposite Japan, further rattling nerves in the region.

The South Korean Defense Ministry declined to confirm the report.

After its nuclear test on Monday — its second in less than three years — the North test-fired three short-range missiles, also off its east coast. An intelligence official in Seoul said that move indicated Pyongyang was “getting its back up” about the possibility that United States military aircraft would fly close to North Korea in an attempt to collect radiation data from the nuclear blast.



South Korea’s long-delayed participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a program to curb trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, followed a statement on Monday by the United Nations Security Council that unanimously condemned the nuclear test and called it a “clear violation” of a previous resolution.

In Japan, the lower house of Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday condemning the North’s nuclear test and threatened to step up sanctions against the communist regime.

“Japan, as the world’s only nation to ever suffer a nuclear attack, cannot condone” North Korea’s repeated nuclear tests, the resolution said. North Korea’s recent belligerence has also prompted Japan’s ruling party to debate whether Tokyo should consider preemptive strikes against states considered hostile — actions that would likely require changes to Japan’s pacifist Constitution.


North Korea appeared unfazed by the world’s condemnation, which included strong rebukes from allies such as China and Russia. In Tuesday’s editions of Rodong, its main party newspaper, Pyongyang declared that it was “fully ready for battle” against the United States, accusing President Obama of “following in the footsteps of the previous Bush administration’s reckless policy of militarily stifling North Korea.”

North Korean officials have said that South Korea’s full membership in the anti-proliferation initiative would be seen as a “declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war.” The international effort was begun in 2003 by the Bush administration in order to interdict shipments — especially at sea — of suspected weapons of mass destruction, their related materials and delivery systems.

Russia, Britain, France and Israel are among the 95 signatories to the initiative, which India, Pakistan and China did not sign.



South Korea decided to join the initiative to “counter the grave threat that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missiles poses to global peace and security,” Moon Tae-young, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday in a statement.

North Korea has called such interdictions “terrorism” and sees the initiative, which is largely aimed at its weapons sales, as proof of American bias. North Korean exports of missile parts to countries in the Middle East, particularly Iran, remain a key source of revenue for the impoverished nation.


South Korea had wavered on joining the initiative for fear of provoking the North. But on Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak, who came to power with a promise to take a tougher approach toward Pyongyang, spoke with Mr. Obama about the North Korean threat and the South’s decision to join the effort.


On the phone, Mr. Lee emphasized to Mr. Obama that the United States and its allies “should not repeat the pattern” of “rewarding” North Korea’s provocations with dialogue and economic aid, as they did after the North’s first nuclear test in October 2006.

Over the years, North Korea has gained confidence through its brinkmanship, Mr. Lee’s aides said, enough that it asked the Security Council to apologize for the sanctions it imposed following the North’s long-range rocket launch in early April.

Mr. Lee’s tougher approach to the North marks a sharp departure from the conciliatory gestures that were prevalent in Seoul during the 10 years of liberal rule under his two predecessors, and the current posture is more closely aligned with Washington and Tokyo.

On Monday, Mr. Lee’s defense minister, Lee Sang-hee, told a parliamentary hearing that a “very effective tool” to stop the North’s nuclear and missile programs would be to “cut off the money.”

The effectiveness of any United Nations sanctions will also depend, in large part, on the willingness of China, the North’s key ally and trading partner, to carry them out.

At the Security Council on Monday, the American ambassador, Susan Rice, said Washington would seek a “strong resolution with strong measures.” Britain, France and Japan were expected to join in the push for new sanctions.

“We are going to pursue a strong resolution with teeth,” Ms. Rice said Tuesday morning in an interview on CNN, though she declined to specify details about the discussions.

Russia and China are likely to remain reluctant to punish North Korea too harshly, although China on Monday said it was “resolutely opposed” to the nuclear test. The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, told reporters that the North’s action was “very serious and needs to have a strong response.”

North Korea has a history of flouting such international condemnation, especially recently: It launched a long-range rocket on April 5 despite international calls for restraint; quit nuclear negotiations; restarted its nuclear plants, and threatened more nuclear and long-range missile tests.

FINAL FOR A CORRUPT

Bowing deeply and laying white chrysanthemums before his portrait, tens of thousands of mourners journeyed Sunday to the southern village where former President Roh Moo-hyun killed himself by jumping off a rocky cliff overlooking his home.

But several top officials, including the prime minister, were turned away from the mourning rites for the liberal ex-leader, who had a fractious relationship with conservative opponents his supporters accuse of driving Roh to his death. They pelted a bus carrying conservative politicians with eggs and doused lawmakers with water.

The 62-year-old Roh, who relied on pluck and hard work to rise from his impoverished youth in rural Gimhae to become president in 2003, died Saturday after jumping from a promontory known as Owl's Rock that overlooks his home. He left behind a note describing his suffering over corruption allegations and asking to be cremated.

The government and Roh's family agreed to hold a public "people's funeral" after a seven-day mourning period, most likely on Friday, former Roh aide Han Hyung-min said.

Roh's suicide, just 15 months after he left office, came as he and his family faced intense questioning about $6 million given to the Rohs during his presidency by a Seoul businessman implicated in a number of bribery scandals.

The allegations weighed heavily on a man who prided himself on his "clean" record in a country struggling to shake a tradition of corruption. Prosecutors had been grilling Roh, his wife and their two children since last month.

"What's left for me for the rest of my life is just to be a burden to others," Roh wrote in a note on his computer minutes before leaving for the final hike to Owl's Rock with a security guard. "Don't be too sad. Aren't life and death both part of nature? Don't feel sorry. Don't blame anybody. It's destiny."

Roh's suicide stunned the nation of 49 million, which was divided during his presidency between those critical of his outspoken, antiestablishment ways and others who rallied around his efforts to promote democracy, fight corruption and facilitate rapprochement with North Korea.

Braving a downpour, nearly 80,000 trekked Sunday to Bongha, the village 280 miles (450 kilometers) south of Seoul where Roh had lived since leaving office, to pay their respects at mourning tents erected at the community center, police said. Hundreds of Buddhist monks in gray robes and wide-brimmed hats held a solemn prayer service.

But not all visitors were welcomed. Roh supporters accuse South Korea's conservative right, led by President Lee Myung-bak and the Grand National Party, of pushing the corruption probe believed to have driven Roh to despair.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo was turned away. Roh backers hurled eggs at a bus carrying Lee Hoi-chang, the conservative who lost the presidential election to Roh in 2002.

Supporters also reviled National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o, dousing him with water. His aides tried to protect him from the angry onslaught with their umbrellas. Former Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye, daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, also tried to pay her respects but wasn't able to reach the mourning site.

The mood Sunday in Seoul was somber. A line at Chogye Temple snaked around the lawn and into the street as Seoulites, many dressed in black and bearing flowers, waited to pay their respects. Many sobbed as they knelt before his smiling portrait.

At a mourning site outside Seoul's 16th-century Deoksu Palace, more than 16,000 waited in long lines to place white flowers, cigarettes — Roh had recently started smoking — and melons before portraits of the ex-leader.

"I'm really sad. I can feel how much pressure he had been suffering," said Moon Hye-kyung, a 47-year-old businesswoman, wiping away tears with a handkerchief. "I think he could have endured the pressure if it was leveled against only him, not his family members and aides."

She, like many others, blamed conservatives for Roh's suicide.

"The current government pushed this man into death. No doubt about that," said Moon.

But Hong Young-sik, 71, said the government wasn't to blame.

"Why are you guys gathering here? Did he do anything to be praised?" Hong, a former government official, shouted at the crowd. "He only killed himself because he was shamed out of the fact that his and his family's wrongdoing was revealed."

Scuffles broke out between riot police and Roh supporters collecting signatures for a petition calling for Lee's impeachment.

Along Seoul streets, mourners affixed yellow ribbons wishing Roh peace.

FAKE OR TRUE?

Some reasons this body may not be Prabhakaran'sIs the Sri Lankan government playing a trick on the international community by showing a body double and claiming it to be Prabhakaran? Here are some questions observers are asking.

Why is he so good looking?
Prabhakaran is 54, but the picture shows him without a single wrinkle. His son Charles looks older in the picture the Lankan army has released. There's something dubious about the way his face is shown. If his skull were blown off, as claimed by the army, how come his face is so neat and untouched? If he were hiding and on the run, as claimed by the army, how come he looks fresh and clean-shaven? Have the soldiers put a Prabhakaran mask on someone's face?

Why isn't his ear matching his face?
The skin tone of his ear is darker than the tone of his face. Have the soldiers hired a prosthetic expert to graft a face on to some corpse? Are they doing a Dasavatharam gag in real life? It looks like the mask is peeling off when the soldiers move the body.

How could they do a DNA test in two hours?
Experts say it takes at least four days to do a DNA test. How could the army do it in two hours, that when they say they found the body in a remote jungle? How did they move his blood or bone marrow sample to a forensic lab so quickly? Did the army have an ante-mortem report (say, tissue or blood samples from before his death) against which they could corroborate their theory that it was Prabhakaran who was dead? Questions, questions

Do Tamil politicians know something we don't?Nedumaran of Tamil Desiya Iyakkam said he knew for sure that Prabhakaran was alive. Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi said he wouldn't react to reports of Prabhakaran's death. What's stopping them from accepting the footage released by the Lankan army?



Wasn't cyanide Prabhakaran's preferred mode of exit?
He gave capsules to all his Tigers so that they could kill themselves instantaneously when cornered. Why didn't he bite his cyanide capsule when he knew his game was up? Few believe he was shot in battle. Tamil lore has it that he always carried two capsules with him. The army claimed to have identified him with the help of rebel LTTE leaders Karuna and Daya Master, and posted a picture of the body on the country's army website. The body here and the body in the TV footage don't match.

(These questions were asked as of 3.30 am today. Lanka may come up with some explanations through the day, but many questions are likely to remain unanswered).


DNA in 2 hours? Just impossible
Chandrashekhar G was a part of the forensic team assigned the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Now retired, he lives in Yelahanka. We asked him what he thought of the Lankan army claims about Prabhakaran, and he was incredulous they had done a DNA test within two hours. "It is impossible," he told MiD DAY. "We need at least four days to put it through a DNA sequencer and arrive at some conclusion."

In his own words:
When I visited Sri Lanka some years ago, they had no lab to do DNA tests. I had several questions when I saw the footage. I wondered if a prosthetic expert had been at work to put a face on top of some other. Ante-mortem reports, or reports from before death, are always necessary to confirm identity.

Whenever a leader dies, they need to keep the body till the case is done. But governments are sometimes in a hurry to dispose of the body like Pakistan did when Benazir was blown up. If they preserve the body, they can always get tissue samples for culture. I don't know if Lanka will keep this body and allow cross verification.


When Sivarasan was killed, we checked with people close to him. Indian law accepts identification by people close to the dead person. We look at moles and marks and such other identification indicators.

DANZA CATALANA