So North Korea gets $25m that had been frozen in a Macau bank at U.S. insistence.

Maybe this brings us a step closer to halting North Korea's nuclear activities.

Or maybe--perhaps more likely--it's the prelude to still more demands and stalling by Pyongyang.

The US said $25m of North Korean funds, which were frozen in a Macau bank amid money laundering allegations, would be transferred to an account in Beijing.

The North has not yet officially commented, but had warned it would not proceed with a deal to shut its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon without the money....

But there is still a long way to go. Ahead of Monday's resumption, Pyongyang condemned joint US-South Korean military exercises set for this month, saying they were intended to "poison the atmosphere of the talks".

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Posted at 11:00 AM in Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

John Tkacik argues that "China's intent is to challenge the U.S. as a military superpower." Looking at the kind of arsenal that China is putting together, there's good reason to believe that he's right.

China is assembling a blue-water navy, with a fleet of 29 modern submarines, including 13 super-quiet Russian-made Kilo class subs and 14 Chinese-made Song and Yuan class diesel electric submarines. At least 10 more of these submarines are in China's shipyards, together with five new nuclear ballistic missile and attack boats. China's surface fleet is also undergoing a similar modernization.

China's power in the air and in space is also on the rise. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has about 300 Russian-designed fourth-generation Sukhoi-27 Flankers and a number of Chinese-built Jian-11 planes and 76 Sukhoi-30 multi-role jets. With Russian and Israeli assistance, the PLA Air Force has acquired an additional 50 or so Jian-10 fighters based on U.S. F-16 technology, and reportedly plans to build 250 more.

China's rocket forces are also expanding at an unprecedented pace, with production and deployment of short-range ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan increasing from 50 per year during the 1990s to between 100 and 150 per year today.

[Link]

Posted at 10:45 AM in Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. Schools opened for girls and boys, women started working outside their houses and started taking part in politics. Our various media have grown and improved. Many foreign companies have invested and created job opportunities for thousands of Afghan citizens.

So it is not surprising that around 85 percent of the Afghan people support the United States of America for overthrowing the Taliban regime, and of their continued presence here.

[Link]

Posted at 12:54 PM in Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

Under new rules that were said to take effect immediately, the state-run New China News Agency said it would become the de facto gatekeeper for foreign news reports, photographs and graphics entering China. The agency announced in its own dispatch that it would censor content that endangers “national security.”

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Posted at 10:46 AM in Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS, blog and search engine under control," said Cai Wu, director of the Information Office of China's Cabinet, quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

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Posted at 9:43 AM in Technology, Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

Tokyo and Washington on Friday also signed an agreement to expand their cooperation on a joint ballistic missile defense shield, committing themselves to joint production of interceptor missiles.

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Posted at 9:43 AM in Defense, Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations, said members of the Security Council had begun '��preliminary' discussions on how to respond to any test.

"We are discussing a range of things that fall within the Security Council'�s domain given that this launch would constitute a threat to international peace and security,"�� Mr Bolton said in Washington.

[Link]

Posted at 9:57 AM in United Nations, Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

Beijing and Moscow are using the SCO as a tool to eliminate U.S. influence in the Eurasian heartland - the home to half the world's population, a key front in the War on Terror and the location of key world energy supplies.

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Posted at 11:42 AM in Europe, Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course....

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

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Posted at 9:27 AM in Technology, Asia by Andrew Grossman [?] | Permalink

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