Tuesday, December 7, 2010
If you are Korean...
If you are Korean.......
Woman
prefers to go to restroom with your buddy.
wears a baseball cap with high-heel.
has some high price bag.
Very sensitve with their weight.
Always take care of their appearence.
Interested in plastic surgery.
Consider double eye lid as a beautiful thing.
Man
Sensitive with military duty.
Often wears pink color shirt or couple T-shirt.
Knows how to use illegal download programs.
Often carries woman's bag.
Most of boys do Taek-Kwon-Do.
Society
Special interest in real estate investment and education.
Ask each other's age when they meet. (Even in a fight)
Usually go to the public bath and would like to say "Oh it's cool" when they get into hot water.
Children have no free time.
Share a one pot.
Tend to smile when we apologize.
Think about senioriry.
Doing study as a group to go to particular company.
Ask somebody "Did you eat"? when we greet.
If you feel your language is scientific, you're Korean.
Expecting olderperson pay you the meal in a restaurant.
Senior eats first.
English is most important language.
Concerning regional relation and school ties.
Prestigious university guarantees your future.
Proud of Samsung or Hyundai.
Korean moms are jealous of her son's wife.
Before your marriage mom asks Sa-Joo and Goong-Hab.
Wear the "be the Reds" t-shirt during the world cup.
In wedding, we just give the money and go to eat and take a picture.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Article Assigned for 30th of Nov. Park Ji Young
South Korea warns North Korea against further provocation
President Lee Myung-bak says he feels he failed to protect citizens, as China seeks urgent talks on crisis in peninsula
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak makes a special statement regarding North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island. Photograph: Yonhap/EPASouth Korea's president said early this morning he felt responsibility for failing to protect citizens from North Korea's shelling last week and warned the North against further provocations.
Lee Myung-bak described Tuesday's shelling of a tiny South Korean island, which killed four people, as an "inhumane crime".
As Lee spoke, a nuclear-powered US supercarrier and a South Korean destroyer held joint military exercises. The show of force came almost a week after the attack on Yeonpyeong Island killed four, including two civilians, and sent tensions soaring in the region.
China has called for a meeting of the six nations involved in the stalled North Korean denuclearisation talks.
South Korea and Japan gave a tepid response to the proposal today. Analysts believe negotiations are the most plausible outcome of the conflict, but predict it will take time for the parties to come to the table. The North Korean artillery attack was the most serious incident since the sinking of a warship by what was found to be a North Korean torpedo.
Media in Seoul reported today that the North had placed missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, as the South and the US mounted a show of force with joint military drills in the area.
Beijing, which objected to the exercises, sought a return to diplomacy, with its nuclear envoy calling for an urgent meeting with the nuclear negotiators from North and South Korea, Japan, the US and Russia. Wu Dawei said it would not be a resumption of the six-party talks but might "help create the conditions" for them to restart.
Seoul said it would "carefully consider" China's suggestion, a remark read by many as in effect a rejection. President Lee Myung-bak's office said earlier that he had told a visiting Chinese delegation Beijing should contribute to peace in a "more objective and responsible" manner.
China, the North's main ally, has not criticised Pyongyang over Tuesday's attack, merely urging all those involved to show restraint. Critics say it should be pushing harder, given the North's dependence on Chinese food and energy.
"I can see why China is doing this: 'We don't want war; we don't want to put pressure on North Korea'," said James Hoare, former British chargé d'affaires in Pyongyang. "It would be a good thing if they did start talking, but I think it will take a little bit more time before anything will happen.
"I suspect in the end it won't quite blow over, but it will calm down and the two sides will find some formula to back away from the immediate confrontation."
Andrei Lankov, an expert on the region at Kookmin University in Seoul, believed the six-party talks would resume "sooner or later" but suggested they were largely irrelevant to the current crisis, because the real question was whether and when South Korea and the US would provide more aid to the North. "This is a protection racket – you pay the local toughs, and if you don't your windows are going to be broken," he said.
Relations on the peninsula deteriorated sharply when Lee took office in 2008 and cut off free-flowing aid to the North. But Tuesday's attack marked a new level of hostility. The North said that civilian deaths "if true … [are] very regrettable", but blamed the South for using its citizens as human shields. It also accused the US of setting up Tuesday's incident to justify today's drills.
The drills are the largest of their kind yet, according to the South's Yonhap news agency, involving an aircraft carrier carrying 75 planes and at least four other warships. But US military officials said the training was routine and no live-fire exercises were planned. According to South Korean media they are taking place far south of the disputed maritime border.
Pyongyang's National Peace Committee said in a statement that the manoeuvres were creating "a state of ultra-emergency". It also renewed its threat of "merciless counter-military strikes", although it often makes similar warnings ahead of such exercises.
Yonhap said North Korea had moved surface-to-surface missiles to frontline areas, but military and government officials said they could not comment.
"It is impossible to confirm the report as it is classified as a military secret," one told Reuters.
An unidentified government source also told Yonhap that the North had deployed surface-to-air missiles along its western coastline, apparently targeting fighting jets near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
Yesterday, South Korea's marine commander vowed "thousand-fold" revenge if the North attacked again.
Earlier today the South Korean government ordered journalists to leave Yeonpyeong for safety reasons, but bad weather forced it to abort an attempted evacuation, leaving about 400 people there.
20101130, Article, contributied by Juhye, Lyu
The euro crisisSpreading from Ireland to Iberia To stop the euro's meltdown, Zapatero must revive Spanish reformNov 25th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION  HAD Ireland's government expected to be rewarded by investors after caving in to pressure to seek salvation from the European Union and the IMF, it was soon disabused. So were those who hoped that the crisis engulfing the euro could be contained at the River Liffey. Unlike the relief rally when the EU bailed out Greece in May, investors this time barely paused for breath before continuing to dump Irish assets, as well as those of Portugal and Spain. The euro's future will be secure only when this contagion is banished. And that, it is now clear, crucially depends on what happens in Spain. Europe's rescue plan is based on the idea that Ireland and the rest just need to borrow a bit of cash to tide them over while they sort out their difficulties. But investors increasingly worry that such places cannot, in fact, afford to service their debts—each in a slightly different way. In Ireland the problem is dodgy banks and the government's hasty decision in September 2008 to guarantee all their liabilities. Some investors think this may end up costing even more than the promised EU/IMF loans of some �85 billion ($115 billion)—especially if bank deposits continue to flee the country (see Buttonwood). Ireland's failing government adds to the doubt, because it could find it hard to push through an austerity budget before a new election (see article). In Greece the fear is that the government cannot raise enough in taxes or grow fast enough to finance its vast borrowing. Likewise in Portugal, which though less severely troubled than Greece nevertheless seems likely to follow Ireland to the bail-out window. If the panic were confined to these three, the euro zone could cope. But Europe's bail-out fund is not big enough to handle the country next in line: Spain, the euro's fourth-biggest economy, with a GDP bigger than Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined. On the face of it, the Spanish fears look exaggerated. Although it shares something of Ireland's banking woes and of Greece's wretched competitiveness, it is in less trouble than either. Its public debt, at around 60% of GDP, is below both Germany's and the EU average. Its big banks are strong. Its multinationals are increasing their exports. In May, when investors ditched Spanish assets during the Greek panic, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, abandoned the notion of spending his way out of recession. Instead he ordered spending cuts and then tax rises to trim the budget deficit from 11% of GDP in 2009 to 6% next year. And, prodded by the Bank of Spain, the authorities are trying to force through mergers of cajas, the troubled savings banks that financed Spain's disastrous property bubble. Then Mr Zapatero, who has shown no real understanding of the need for reform, made a big mistake. Partly because those measures won him some respite from the markets, and partly because his U-turn brought a ten-point fall in support for his Socialist Party and a general strike by his friends in the unions, he put off other reforms. Now he is once more facing wild-eyed markets and a widespread perception that Spain's economy will fail to grow. Unemployment is stuck at over 20%, while inflation is higher than in Germany. Public debt is low, but the debts of Spanish households and firms are far above the European average. They are being financed from abroad: the current-account deficit is still over 4% of GDP. The banks and the cajas have yet to own up to the full extent of losses on property loans; the impenetrable accounts of regional governments invite suspicion. When markets are eaten up by worry it is never easy to change their minds. If he is to do so, Mr Zapatero must take several steps fast. First he must produce a credible medium-term fiscal plan. That means coming clean about debts in the banking system and the regions and speeding up a plan to raise the pension age from 65 to 67. Second, he must do more to help Spanish firms compete—because once it is clear that Spain can grow, its debts will look a lot less scary. His labour-market reform was very timid. A rigidly centralised system of wage bargaining mandates annual pay rises, come what may. He has postponed reforms to pensions and collective bargaining until next year. They may then fall hostage to local and regional elections, before a general election in 2012 that the Socialists will surely lose. So he should redouble efforts to forge a pact with the opposition, and push on with reforms. The future of the euro rests with Germany and the European Central Bank—they, after all, are the places with the money. But right now, Mr Zapatero is the key. If he acts swiftly, he could play a vital part in saving the currency from collapse. Leaders |
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
Colleges Tell High Schools Logos Are Off Limits [From NYT By Jihwan Kim]
Colleges Tell High Schools Logos Are Off Limits
By ADAM HIMMELSBACH
Glades Day School sits on the edge of swampland in Belle Glade, Fla., and its headmaster, Dr. Robert Egley, often drives past alligators lazing in canals on his way to work. When the school was founded in 1965, its location made the Gator an ideal mascot, and its logo, aside from being green and gold, was nearly identical to the University of Florida's.
Egley, a Florida alumnus, said it was a form of flattery. But this year, Florida said it was a trademark violation, and the university demanded that the 390-student private school cease use of the designs.
"It just hurts; it has a sting to it," Egley said. "We send them our students, we send them our money and we support them. It just flies in the face of common sense that they would come after us."
Universities steadfastly protect their trademarked logos, which appear on everything from oven mitts to underwear, and their reach is increasingly stretching toward high schools. If a school's logo can be confused with a university's, or if it is capable of diluting its value, the universities often demand changes.
As high school sports have become more prevalent on television and the Internet, potential infringements have become more visible to licensing companies, universities and whistle-blowing college fans.
"Everybody's aware now, and there's nowhere to hide," said Rob Cleveland, Ohio State's assistant director for trademarks and licensing.
Universities have confronted high schools with which they have no discernible connection. Penn State, for instance, told Buna High School — 1,400 miles away in Texas — to change a Cougar logo that looked like its Nittany Lion. The University of Texas demanded that Gardner Edgerton High School in Kansas alter its Trailblazer logo, which was similar to the Longhorns' design. Pittsburgh instructed Whitmer High in Toledo, Ohio, to stop using its Panther mark.
The high schools must change logos on uniforms, repaint logo-covered walls and gym floors, and modify Web sites. Most are allowed to phase out the designs over several years to reduce the expense, though Egley said it would ultimately cost about $60,000 to replace the Gator logos.
Like most schools, Glades Day chose to comply with Florida's request rather than fight it in court.
"The problem when you're a defendant is you can spend the money to fight it, and if you lose, you also have to spend the money to change everything," said Dineen Wasylik, a trademark lawyer based in Tampa, Fla.
"It's not something we target, and it's not something we look for," said Jim Aronowitz, associate general counsel for the Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents about 160 colleges and universities. "But when it comes to our attention or our client's attention, as trademark owners, there is a responsibility to address these issues."
High schools have recently become more vigilant in protecting their designs as well, albeit on a smaller scale. Some stores sold unlicensed merchandise bearing logos of high schools, and the schools did not receive royalties.
So last year, the Licensing Resource Group and the National Federation of State High School Associations created a merchandising program. But as more schools join, the risk increases that some will be discovered selling apparel that bears logos similar to those owned by universities.
Although it seems the universities are motivated by money when they approach schools that are supplementing their dwindling athletic budgets, that is not necessarily the case.
"If they systematically don't protect their rights, then down the road someone who does really want to rip them off could theoretically have a defense," said Marty Brochstein, senior vice president of the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association. "They could say, 'Well, if you didn't protect the mark then, why are you protecting it now?' "
For many years, it was difficult for universities to learn of infringements. If a high school in North Dakota had a logo that was similar to one owned by a university in North Carolina, it likely went unnoticed. Today, logos are just a click away.
Glades Day School's logo came under scrutiny after its state championship football game was televised last December. At Buna High, the assistant principal Nathan Ross said a Penn State supporter found the school's design online and reported it.
"Previously, a lot of it was by happenstance," said Michael Van Wieren, vice president and general counsel of the Licensing Resource Group. "So-and-so from a college was traveling and said, 'Hey, that looks like our mark.' But as colleges and high schools became more high profile, colleges started to recognize the need for protection on all levels."
This year, the Collegiate Licensing Company identified four high schools with Gator logos similar to Florida's. In addition to Glades Day, cease-and-desist letters were sent to Palm Beach Gardens Community High School, Vicksburg High School in Mississippi and Ola High School in Arkansas. All four schools are making changes.
"We understand there's a lot of passion surrounding the Gator, and we certainly embrace all the high schools that want to be Gators," said Janine Sikes, the University of Florida's director of public affairs. "We only ask that they create their own logos."
Some high schools fight back. In August, Florida State sent a cease-and-desist letter to Southeast High School in Bradenton, Fla., regarding its Seminoles logo. Southeast argued that it had used the mark for 30 years without incident, and its colors are orange and blue — Florida's colors — unlike Florida State's garnet and gold.
"No self-respecting Florida State fan would buy an orange-and-blue Seminoles head," said John Bowen, a lawyer for the Manatee County School District.
The former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden made several recruiting visits to Southeast High, ostensibly becoming aware of the logos, but the university never pursued the issue.
"If you sit on your right as a plaintiff and don't go after someone as soon as you find out they're infringing on your rights, you may lose the ability to go after them," Wasylik said.
This month, Florida State and Southeast High reached an agreement that allowed the high school to use the logos as long as they were not used differently than they had been in the past. After Pittsburgh ordered Whitmer High School to stop using its Panthers design last spring, a senior at the high school created a new logo and the school district applied to register the design with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
"I never thought we'd be trademarking a high school logo," said Patrick Hickey, the Washington Local School District superintendent. "But I just didn't want to go through this again."
Article, "China moves to Korean tentions" contributed by Kyung Jin Lee
China Moves to Cool Korean Tensions
By OWEN FLETCHER
BEIJING—China on Sunday proposed emergency discussions among delegates to the six-party talks to discuss "complicated factors" on the Korean peninsula, as the U.S. and South Korea started a naval drill that has prompted dire warnings of reprisals from North Korea.
The move comes as Beijing engages in high-level diplomacy to try to cool tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul. China's special representative for Korean-peninsula affairs, Wu Dawei, proposed consultations in early December between the heads of the delegations to the stalled nuclear talks, which involve China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Russia.
"Although this does not mean the resumption of the six-party talks, we hope it can help create the conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks," Mr. Wu told a press briefing.
His comments came as Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday. Both countries "believe the current situation on the peninsula is worrying," Mr. Wu said. He reiterated China's opposition to any acts that harm the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.
Mr. Dai said China "has consistently committed itself to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, as well as promotion for dialogue," and the two sides agreed in the talks to further develop bilateral ties, Xinhua said.
A U.S. aircraft-carrier battle group started large-scale exercises with the South Korean navy in the Yellow Sea Sunday morning, in a show of strength five days after a North Korean artillery attack on a small South Korean island that killed four people. North Korea has condemned the naval drills and warned that if they go ahead, "no one can predict the ensuing consequences."
Mr. Dai arrived in Seoul on Saturday and discussed the situation on the peninsula with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, China's Foreign Ministry said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also discussed the situation by phone Saturday with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the ministry said.
Mr. Yang said "all sides should exert effort together, push for the situation to cool down as quickly as possible, and earnestly avoid conflict happening again," the ministry said.
He also said he "hopes all sides involved will take a rational and practical attitude, and actively create conditions for resumption of the six-party talks" on North Korea's nuclear program, the ministry said.
Mr. Yang on Friday also met with the North Korean ambassador to China and spoke by phone with South Korea's Mr. Kim and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Choe Tae Bok, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, will visit China from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 at Mr. Wu's invitation, Xinhua said Sunday.
China on Friday protested the U.S.-South Korean naval drill. "We oppose any party to take any military actions in our exclusive economic zone without permission," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement. China's stance appeared firmer in July, when officials said they opposed any military exercises in the entire Yellow Sea.
The Global Times, a generally nationalistic Chinese newspaper, said "the Chinese people oppose the U.S. aircraft carrier entering the Yellow Sea, and this opposition is resolute and definitely will not just be oral."
"Judging from the current situation, the act by [South Korea and the U.S.] to fully enhance their military alliance will not help ease the hostile sentiment between North Korea and South Korea, and instead it will only further intensify the tense situation on the Korea peninsula," Xinhua said Sunday.
—Sue Feng and Gordon Fairclough contributed to this article.
Monday, November 22, 2010
20101123, Article " North Korea Nuclear Fears Grow", contributed by Kyung Jin Lee
· ASIA NEWS
· NOVEMBER 21, 2010
North Korea Nuclear Fears Grow
U.S. in Recent Months Shared Concerns With Chinese and Russian Leaders, People Familiar With the Matter Say
By JAY SOLOMON And ADAM ENTOUS
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama and senior U.S. diplomats have in recent months privately shared with their Chinese and Russian counterparts growing U.S. concerns that North Korea was taking steps to enrich uranium and that the effort, unless stopped, would have serious national-security implications, according to people familiar with the matter.
North Korea's nuclear ambitions are back in the spotlight after U.S. scientist spots enrichment facility during North Korea visit this month. Video courtesy of Reuters.
But the revelation on Saturday that Pyongyang had already installed thousands of centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel at its Yongbyon nuclear facility is raising questions inside Washington's nuclear-nonproliferation community about why more wasn't done by a succession of U.S. administrations to block the North's atomic advances.
U.S. officials and nonproliferation experts are specifically trying to gauge whether North Korea might already have in place additional uranium-enrichment sites that could be used to produce nuclear fuel at levels closer to weapons grade. There is also a renewed focus on the role that third countries, such as Pakistan and Iran, might have played in Pyongyang's proliferation activities, and the possibility that the North could begin exporting centrifuges and nuclear fuel overseas.
"This is not a crisis," said the U.S. envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, after meeting with South Korea's foreign minister Monday. But, Mr. Bosworth said, North Korea's uranium program is a violation of several agreements it has made with the U.S. and others in the six-party talks and a violation of U.N. resolution 1874, which was imposed after Pyongyang tested a nuclear explosive last year.
North Korea's alleged role in supplying Syria with a nearly completed nuclear reactor is stoking new fears that Pyongyang could emerge as the new engine for global proliferation—a role once played by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
"It's a travesty and tragedy that we didn't stop this program when we had the opportunity," said David Asher, who helped direct efforts to counter North Korea's proliferation activities in the George W. Bush administration. "My fear is that just as Iran's demands for enriched uranium for a bomb are expanding, North Korea may be in the position to begin supplying."
On Saturday, a Stanford physicist, Siegfried Hecker, startled Washington and Asia by releasing a report that documented what he said were 2,000 centrifuges that had been installed by North Korea at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.
A satellite image released Friday shows construction at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex on Nov. 4.
Mr. Hecker said he saw the equipment during a North Korean-led tour of the site on Nov. 12. The North Koreans told the American scientist that the centrifuges were already beginning to enrich uranium to 3.5% purity for use in a light-water reactor that is under construction.
Mr. Hecker said in the report that he couldn't confirm that uranium gas had already been introduced into the centrifuges, but said he was "stunned" by the advancement and sophistication of the enrichment plant.
"Instead of seeing a few small cascades of centrifuges, which I believed to exist in North Korea, we saw a modern, clean centrifuge plant of more than a thousand centrifuges all neatly aligned and plumbed," Mr. Hecker wrote in his report.
Mr. Hecker estimated that the North Korean facility could produce around two tons of low-enriched uranium per year, or around ((40 kilograms)) 88 pounds of highly enriched uranium—nearly enough for a single atomic weapon.
Mr. Hecker's report seemed to put to rest a debate that has raged inside the U.S. intelligence community for nearly a decade: whether North Korea actually has a uranium-enrichment capacity. But the finger-pointing about how Pyongyang's facility grew so advanced without U.S. intervention only seemed to be beginning.
People familiar with issue said President Obama personally raised concerns about North Korea's uranium-enrichment activities with Chinese President Hu Jintao during a Nov. 11 meeting in Seoul.
Mr. Obama told Mr. Hu that, combined with the North's existing nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, the uranium-enrichment work raised serious national-security concerns for the U.S., one of the people said. The person wouldn't characterize Mr. Hu's response to Mr. Obama's presentation but said that "it got his attention."
§ Read Siegfried Hecker's assessment
Earlier this year, a U.S. delegation told Russian officials about Washington's concerns about the uranium-enrichment program, according to these people.
U.S. officials wouldn't confirm Sunday if the information presented by Mr. Obama and others was related to the same facility that Mr. Hecker visited.
However, an American intelligence official said, "American intelligence agencies have known about North Korea's uranium-enrichment activities for years. It's simply incorrect to suggest otherwise."
The Bush administration first raised concerns about Pyongyang's uranium-enrichment work in 2002.
U.S. intelligence agencies at the time detected North Korean efforts to acquire the aluminum tubes needed to build centrifuges from Pakistan and European suppliers. President Bush cited North Korea's suspected work as a reason to terminate a 1994 disarmament agreement reached with the North that sought to mothball the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for Western financial assistance.
Still, since 2002, current and former U.S. officials involved in counterproliferation said Washington and its allies have missed a string of opportunities to more clearly gauge North Korea's uranium-enrichment work and to move against it.
In 2003, German security forces foiled an attempt by a North Korean diplomat named Yun Ho-jin to import 22 metric tons of aluminum tubes into North Korea using Chinese front companies. The tubes were built to the exact same specifications as those used in Pakistan's centrifuge designs, according to current and former American officials, which U.S. intelligence officials believe Islamabad had shared with Pyongyang. But China's government balked at U.S. requests to detain Mr. Yun.
In May 2008, as part of another attempt to forge a disarmament agreement, North Korea handed over to the U.S. State Department 18,000 pages of operating records from the Yongbyon reactor that were contaminated with uranium particles from the Yongbyon facility. North Korea argued that the uranium was traced to equipment provided to Pyongyang by Pakistan, according U.S. officials involved in the exchange. But in retrospect, these officials said, there should have been more focus on the potential that North Korea was already beginning to enrich uranium.
The Obama administration this weekend dispatched Mr. Bosworth to South Korea, Japan and China to try to forge a united stand against North Korea. Mr. Bosworth and other U.S. officials are also seeking to gain a better understanding of the current state of North Korea's uranium-enrichment activities and how they fit into Pyongyang's broader nuclear program, according to American officials.
Nonproliferation experts are specifically wondering, however, whether North Korea might already have a second uranium-enrichment site that could produce nuclear fuel closer to the 90% enrichment level needed for a bomb. They also focused on whether Pyongyang already has an indigenous facility producing centrifuges on an industrial scale, possibly for export.
David Albright, a nuclear expert at Washington's Institute for Science and International Security, said the U.S. needs to understand what role third countries may have played in developing North Korea's facility. U.S. intelligence officials believe that Pakistan provided Pyongyang with the designs for the P-2 centrifuge, a more advanced centrifuge that can enrich uranium more efficiently and quickly than the P-1. But Mr. Albright believes countries like Iran may have played a role in helping the North obtain some of the sophisticated computer-control systems found at the Yongbyon facility.
"Iran and North Korea appear in some cases to use similar illicit procurement networks," Mr. Albright said.+
Mr. Bosworth and the Obama administration will also need to come up with a new longer-term strategy to confront North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Il, acknowledged U.S. officials.
Mr. Hecker argued in his report that the U.S. had no choice now but to directly sit down with the North Koreans to try to find new diplomatic tools with which to contain Pyongyang's nuclear activities. The U.S. has been working through a diplomatic process that also involves China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to try to end North Korea's nuclear program.
"It is clear that waiting patiently for Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks on terms acceptable to the United States and its allies will exacerbate the problem," Mr. Hecker wrote.
The new revelations, however, appeared to reinforce doubts within the administration about getting back into negotiations with North Korea that could result in the U.S. providing financial assistance to the North in exchange for the North taking disarmament steps it had already pledged to take. The White House is "prepared to negotiate with North Korea if it demonstrates that it is serious about honoring its commitments by taking concrete and irreversible steps towards denuclearization," a senior administration official said.
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