The World Tribune reported: "North Korea is strengthening its huge military with
       missiles and biological weapons, a South Korean defense report said Tuesday. The
       report said North Korea is believed to be spending more than 30 percent of its budget
       this year on its military. North Korea has announced a $9.5 billion budget for this year.
       North Korea, the report said, is constructing five new tactical missile-launching bases.
       Four of them are along the border with South Korea and one near the border with
       China. In addition, North Korea's navy increased the number of its submarines from 60
       to 90 in the past year. Pyongyang, with 1.1 million soldiers has the fifth largest military
       in the world. Moreover, North Korea has stockpiled up to 5,000 tons of chemical
       weapons and has acquired biological warfare capabilities. The report said South
       Korea's 690,000-member armed forces, supported by 37,000 U.S. troops stationed
       here, can handle any military threat from Pyongyang. ‘The strength of our military is
       numerically inferior to that of North Korea, but given the power of the combined [South]
       Korea-U.S. forces, we are superior in certain fields in terms of quality,’ it said. The
       report said North Korea remains the world's leading exporter of missile equipment and
       technology, selling at least 490 Scud missiles to Pakistan, India and Middle Eastern
       countries since 1991. But the arms exports have not made a dent in Pyongyang's
       deteriorating economy. Officials said North Korea's economy could grow for the first
       time in a decade because Western aid. That growth, however, is expected to be
       short-lived. In Seoul, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung told the Kyodo news
       agency that he welcomes normal relations between Japan and North Korea..."

       The BBC reported today: “Russian forces have been bombarding areas around the
       Chechen capital, Grozny, as the latest stage of their offensive against Islamic militants
       pushes deeper inside Chechen territory. Several villages north and east of Grozny were
       shelled and intensive artillery bombardment and air strikes were reported around
       Urus-Martan, a town southwest of Grozny. Russian troops are reported to be now
       positioned less than 20km from Grozny. A senior Russian military commander said his
       troops' entry into Grozny depended on Chechen actions. The BBC correspondent in
       Moscow, Jonathan Charles, says that battlefield successes during the past few days
       seem to have given Russian soldiers renewed confidence to press on with their
       advance..."

         The London Telegraph reported: “A potentially damaging split in Palestinian ranks emerged last night as
         Israel teetered on the brink of war on two fronts. It came as Arab leaders debated their response to an
         Israeli ultimatum to end the protests that began 11 days in which 84 people have died. In the latest violence,
         an Arab was killed when several hundred Israelis attacked an Arab settlement near Nazareth. Ehud Barak,
         Israel's Prime Minister, said Palestinians must end their protests by tonight, or he would declare the peace
         process dead and order harsh retaliation. If Yasser Arafat failed to comply he would be treated ‘not as a
         peace partner but as a rival’. Tension increased as Israel began 25 hours of fasting and prayer for the Day
         of Atonement, the Jews' holiest day. When the fast is over, the country could be facing war against the
         Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and against Lebanon, from where Hizbollah guerrillas kidnapped
         three Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on Saturday. The deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh,
         warned the Palestinians that Israel had so far used ‘only one per cent’ of its firepower. There were
         conflicting signals from the Palestinians. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, one of the main flashpoints,
         militants posted handbills calling for a ‘popular war’ against the Israelis...”

Arafat views Israeli air raids as "war"

GAZA CITY, Oct 12 (AFP) -

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat considers Israel's air raids on targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Thursday as "war," his international cooperation minister
Nabil Shaath said.

Arafat "realizes it is a war, an Israeli war on our land and our people and we are treating it as such," Shaath told reporters as he accompanied the Palestinian leader
on a tour of sites damaged in Gaza during the attacks.

Israeli combat helicopters carried out several waves of attacks on Palestinian security and administrative buildings in Ramallah in the West Bank and in Gaza City
following the death of two Israeli soldiers in a lynching by angry Palestinians.

Arafat was not hurt in the helicopter attacks.

Asked how Palestinians could respond to the attacks, Shaath said: "In terms of military capability we don't have rockets, we don't have airplanes and we don't have
tanks.

"It is the Israeli army that has the aggressive attacks, but just by sticking to our country we will make the whole world realize that there is aggression that has to stop."

The lynching and subsequent air raids followed more than two weeks of fierce street battles in the Palestinian teritories that also spilled over into Israel and has
claimed at least 100 lives, most of them Palestinians.

                                  North Korea's state radio warned America yesterday that the
                                  scrapping of a 1994 agreement to help Pyongyang to build
                                  nuclear reactors would amount to "a declaration of war".

                                  Under the accord, America agreed to provide North Korea
                                  with two light water nuclear reactors and 500,000 tons of
                                  heavy oil a year until the completion of the project. In
                                  exchange, North Korea was to abandon its nuclear missile
                                  programme.

                                  Both sides have failed to honour the agreement. President
                                  George W Bush spoke of his reluctance to hold talks with the
                                  North when President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea - who
                                  favours dialogue - visited Washington last week.

   Source: SMH|Published: Sunday April 1, 3:50 PM

   North Korea has moved forward the deployment of its ground-to-air missiles along the border with South Korea, prompting a close watch from South
   Korea, reports said today.

   The advance deployment of North Korea's "SA-2 missile units" along the border came on the heels of the communist country's anti-US tirade, said
   the South's Yonhap news agency.

   An unnamed South Korean government official told Yonhap: "We are closely watching the advance development of North Korean missiles along the
   demilitarised zone (DMZ)."

   The DMZ, which divides the Korean peninsula, has been heavily militarised since the 1950-53 Korean War was ended by a fragile armistice.

   "The reason is not clear. But we believe the North's military movement might have been linked to its propaganda war against the United States," he
   was quoted as saying.

   North Korea has made angry attacks on the United States since President George W Bush took office in January and effectively froze contacts
   with the communist state.

   But Pyongyang has generally eased its propaganda war against the rival South since a historic summit between their leaders last June.

   North Korea pulled out of ministerial talks in March and last week cancelled a planned joint team at the world table tennis championships in Japan
   later this month.

   General Thomas Schwartz, commander of US troops in South Korea, said last week in Washington that the North had stepped up military drills
   since last June's summit.

   "The (military) threat is more serious today than it was last year when I testified," Schwartz told a US Senate committee.

   North Korea was "bigger, better, closer, deadlier", its armed forces were training at a higher level and it continued to sell missiles abroad, he said,
   opposing a reduction of the 37,000 US forces on the Korean peninsula.

   The North has accused the US general of betraying "the US criminal intention to chill the atmosphere for reconciliation on the Korean peninsula and
   strain the situation there".

   AFP