Interesting.
Well... I'll reserve judgement on this. North Korea is full of bluster, won't do anything and expect if they do the South and US will beat them to a bloody pulp.
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Interesting.
Well... I'll reserve judgement on this. North Korea is full of bluster, won't do anything and expect if they do the South and US will beat them to a bloody pulp.
Is it me, or is there a presumption in most articles that China is preparing to counter the military actions of North Korea? In my humble opinion... no freaking way. NK is China's attack dog, a happy little proxy to initiate whatever global strife is contained within China's master plan. China has spent decades arming NK. There's no way they're turning on their own. I keep ringing the same bell, but am overly aware that very few in the media seem to get this.
I don't BELIEVE the articles.
Everything China is doing is in support of North Korea. This is 1950 all over again. In June of 1953 somewhere between 75000 and 100,000 North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel - the latitude line between the two countries. North Korea was backed by the Soviets. A U.N. counter-offensive then drove the North Koreans back past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, when the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of North Korea. Chinese intervention forced the Southern-allied forces to retreat behind the 38th Parallel. While not directly committing forces to the conflict, the Soviet Union provided material aid to both the North Korean and Chinese armies.
I guess we're looking at a similar situation coming. If they can, the North WILL drop a nuke on Seoul to aid them in defeating the government.
However, if they are smart, they won't do it. We'll nuke them back. In a heartbeat and they know it, the Russians and Chinese know it. And that right there is what is causing the tension.
We ALL KNOW nukes can and will be involved on all sides if something like that triggers it.
I still think the NK scenario is an ongoing distraction. Something bigger is in the works.
Iran?
Everything seems to point to mainland US, in my opinion. We'll see how things progress. Meanwhile, I'm going to read up on some relevant analysis.
South Korea Calling Home Remaining Managers at Kaesong Complex
Steve Herman April 26, 2013
SEOUL — The only remaining economic link between the two Koreas, already on the edge of falling apart, further frazzled on Friday. South Korea is recommending its remaining citizens at the idled Kaesong industrial complex in the North return home.
The top government official in Seoul charged with handling North-South relations said the time has come for South Koreans remaining at the Kaesong factory zone to return home.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said the government has made an "unavoidable decision" for everyone remaining at the complex to return for their protection because of North Korea's "unfair measures which created difficulties for South Korean citizens still there."
Ryoo also is calling for North Korea to ensure the safe passage of the South Koreans out of Kaesong and to protect their equipment and property that will remain at the complex.
South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye - meeting earlier in the day with her security-related ministers - questioned how much longer they should wait for a resolution to the issue of the idled Kaesong industrial zone.
The president said the prolonged suspension, due to North Korea's action, is taking a heavy toll on South Korean companies and the people there who have not been able to be resupplied with food and materials since April 3.
Seoul on Thursday had given Pyongyang little more than 24 hours to respond to an offer of official talks on the fate of their joint venture. Otherwise, the government warned, it would take significant measures regarding the complex, located just north of the border.
Two hours after Friday's deadline passed, Pyongyang rebuffed Seoul's offer of talks as "fraudulent," declaring any further ultimatums from South Korean officials will lead to "their final destruction."
The statement is in the name of a spokesman for the policy department of North Korea's national defense commission.
The commission is the highest-level state organ whose first chairman is the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
An announcer on the central broadcasting station in Pyongyang read the 10-minute long statement, which informed Seoul that if it is so anxious about the safety of the South Koreans remaining at the complex, then it should withdraw them and the North "will take necessary humanitarian measures to guarantee their safety."
The announcer, also quoting the spokesman, concludes with a warning that if South Korean authorities continue to aggravate the situation, the North will take "final and decisive significant measures" before the South can enact their threatened "significant measures."
The Kaesong industrial zone is primarily composed of small textile factories, operated by South Koreans.
During normal operations at Kaesong about 800 South Korean managers of more than 120 factories supervised 53,000 North Korean workers.
Officials say 176 South Koreans and one Chinese national remained inside the complex as of Friday afternoon.
The Kaesong project, opened in 2004 during the South's "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with the North, was hailed as a hallmark of cooperation between the two Koreas, which lack diplomatic relations and have technically remained at war since the early 1950s.
In exchange for cheap labor, the impoverished and isolated North gained a significant source of hard currency from Kaesong. The bulk of the workers' salaries was retained by the North Korean government.
North Korea, nearly three weeks ago, pulled out its workers from the complex and prohibited fresh supplies to Kaesong from the South.
North Korea said it took the action to protest Seoul using the project to insult Pyongyang's leadership.
The impasse over Kaesong comes amid sharply rising tension on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea has in recent weeks warned of imminent warfare, contending joint military drills between South Korea and the United States are a prelude to an invasion.
Although North Korea frequently makes such claims when Seoul and Washington conduct their annual war games, this year Pyongyang issued unprecedented and specific warnings, including that it would conduct a preemptive nuclear strike against the United States.
North Korea's ballistic missile and atomic weapons development, which continues in defiance of U.N. sanctions, is of high concern to the international community. Most defense analysts do not believe Pyongyang yet has the capability to deploy a miniaturized nuclear warhead atop a multi-stage rocket.
http://gdb.voanews.com/E70E88D9-AEA8...34_w113_r1.jpg
Steve Herman
A veteran journalist in Asia, Steven L Herman is the Voice of America bureau chief and correspondent based in Seoul.
N. Korea says it will try detained Korean-American for 'crimes'
SEOUL, April 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday it will try a Korean-American detained in Pyongyang for unspecified "crimes" he has admitted to committing.
In a short dispatch, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, said Pae Jun-ho will soon be taken to the North's Supreme Court to face trial.
The report said the preliminary inquiry into Pae's crimes has been closed. It said Pae entered Rason City in the North on Nov. 3 of last year and was arrested "for committing crimes" against the communist country. The crimes were not specified.
"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," the report said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "His crimes were proved by evidence."
In South Korean media, the man has been identified as Kenneth Bae. Reports here said he entered North Korea with five other tourists.
Several U.S. citizens have been detained in recent years in North Korea, but all were released after negotiations.
The United States has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, and its interest in the isolated country has often been represented by the Swedish Embassy there.
Last year, Eddie Yong Su Jun, a Korean-American missionary, was released after facing indictment on charges of committing an unspecified crime against the North.
In 2010, North Korea set free Robert Park, a Korean-American Christian activist who entered the country on Christmas Day 2009 to draw international attention to the North's human rights abuse.
In 2009, former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists arrested during a reporting tour covering North Korean defectors.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
(END)
North Korean Missiles Moved Away From Launch Site
May 6, 2013
It looks like North Korea will not be firing its Musudan mobile missiles, after all.
A potential missile launch had been expected for weeks and had drawn international concern over what was seen as the latest in a series of provocations directed at the United States by the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
However, U.S. intelligence has determined that over the past 24 to 36 hours, North Korea transported two Musudan missiles away from the potential launch site in the eastern part of the country, a U.S. official said. It was not believed that they were being moved to an alternate launch location.
For weeks, American satellites have focused on a potential launch location near the North Korean city of Wonsan, where the missiles had been transported in early April. U.S. officials warned that a launch could occur at any time as the mobile missiles were spotted being placed in an upright firing position.
With a potential range of 2,000 miles, the missiles had drawn concern because mobile missiles do not need much time to be fired. First displayed in a 2010 military parade, the missiles have never been tested by North Korea.
Kept hidden in forest cover at the suspected launch site, one of the missiles would routinely be spotted being placed into an upright launch position, presumably fueled for launch. Then, it would be seen getting lowered back down and transported back into the forest cover. That routine was taking place as recently as last week.
Today, Pentagon spokesman George Little described what he called a pause of military provocations on the part of North Korea.
"What we have seen recently is a provocation pause and we think that's obviously beneficial to efforts to ensure that we have peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," Little said.
He "obviously can't speak for the North Koreans" on the motive for the pause, he added.
"Historically, North Korea's going through cycles of provocations [that] then come to an end," he said. "That's been helpful. And we do think that they probably heard very loudly from us, and from others, the need to ratchet it back and to lower the temperature. That was our desire, but also from the South Koreans and the Japanese and the Chinese government, [which] also made some helpful statements. So I can't say with certainty, but I think those are some of the factors. "
U.S. officials said that despite the North Korea's bellicose rhetoric warning of nuclear missile strikes, North Korea's military was never seen escalating its annual training levels. If anything, its levels were said by U.S. officials to be on a par with or lower than normal.
Officials now say that most of North Korea's military is where it was expected to be at this time of year: in the fields helping to plant this year's crops.
Funny how the Norks shut right the fuck up after the Boston Bombing.
They knew were were a buzzing hornets nest.
Yes they can, no they can't... we don't know, yes we do know.
Geez...
SENIOR US OFFICIAL: No, North Korea Can't Fit A Nuke On A Missile
Agence France Presse | May 15, 2013, 8:11 AM | 238 | 1
North Korea Missile
AP
North Korea has yet to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile, a senior US official said on Wednesday, contradicting a recent US military intelligence report.
The North claimed its third atomic test staged in February involved a "miniaturised and lighter" warhead, prompting speculation that it had acquired the crucial technology to fit nuclear devices to a missile delivery system.
The latest test -- the North's most powerful to date -- came only two months after it successfully launched a long-range rocket in what was widely viewed as a ballistic missile test.
"I don't believe they have the capability to miniaturise the nuclear warhead, put it on top of the missile, work the launch and reentry problem, and target," said the senior US official who declined to be identified.
"I don't think they have been able to put the whole piece together," he told a press briefing for foreign media in Seoul.
His comments countered a recent report by the US military's Defense Intelligence Agency which suggested the North may have succeeded in miniaturising its warheads.
The February test drew UN sanctions which in turn triggered a cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula that are only now beginning to subside.
At the height of the tensions, Pyongyang threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea.
The threats prompted some hawkish politicians in Seoul to call for the South to develop its own unilateral nuclear deterrent separate from the "nuclear umbrella" provided by its US ally.
The US official said the deployment of nuclear-capable US B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in recent joint drills with South Korea were proof of US commitment to providing a complete nuclear deterrent.
"I don't think South Korea needs to develop its own nuclear capability," he said, adding that such a move carried "a lot, a lot, a lot of responsibility".
"And the headache it brings is more than you understand right now. And I think that the US is able to be there to provide what we call an extended nuclear deterrence," he said.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/senio...#ixzz2TNU8ZslY
But, don't count out the Norks... They aren't going away, they aren't giving up, and even if they DID move those missiles back off the coast without a whimper, they are still here.
The Other DoD Report You May Have Missed: North Korea
By Harry Kazianis
http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-b...29-400x299.jpg
Last week, lost in the buzz that was the U.S. Department of Defense's latest assessment of China (see Andrew Erickson's Take here), DoD released another very important report with some crucial information all its own.
Entitled Military and Security Developments Involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 2012, the report, in its unclassified format, attempts to provide information concerning "the current and future military power of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)."
There are quite a few important nuggets of information in the report. I would encourage Flashpoints readers to read the document in its entirety, but here are some of the highlights:
From the Executive Summary:
"North Korea fields a large, forward-deployed military that retains the capability to inflict serious damage on the ROK, despite significant resource shortfalls and aging hardware. The DPRK continues to be deterred from conducting attacks on the ROK largely because of the strength of the U.S.-ROK Alliance. On a smaller scale, however, the DPRK has demonstrated its willingness to use military provocation to achieve national goals, such as in 2010 when it sank the ROK naval vessel CHEONAN, killing 46 ROK Navy sailors, and shelled Yeonpyeong Island, killing two ROK Marines and two civilians."
North Korean Security Perceptions:
"North Korean threat perceptions are shaped by a legacy of guerilla warfare dating back to its anti–colonial struggle against the Japanese, political and economic isolation, experience during wartime, and a political culture that is defined by an unending existential struggle with outside forces. North Korea has portrayed the ROK and the United States as constant threats to North Korea’s sovereignty, in a probable attempt to legitimize and justify the Kim family rule, its draconian internal control mechanisms, and its existing strategies as the best defense against encroachments on the North’s sovereignty."
Strategic Goals:
"Since the loss of the Soviet Union as a principal benefactor, devastating famine of the 1990s, and the economic rise and political maturation of the ROK, North Korea has largely abandoned unilaterally enforced reunification as a practical goal. North Korean goals and strategies reflect the reality of political isolation, significant economic deprivation, a deteriorating conventional military, and the increasing political and military power of nearby states. Nevertheless, the North has pursued a military posture that allows it to influence coercively South Korea through provocation and intimidation, and to attempt to have as equal a voice as possible in the future of the Peninsula."
One area the report touches on that is of major importance to security watchers is North Korea's other weapons of Mass Destruction that are non nuclear; mainly Biological:
"Open sources have often reported defector allegations of a North Korean biological warfare program. North Korea continues to research bacterial and viral biological agents that could support an offensive Biological Weapons program. Infrastructure, combined with its weapons industry, gives North Korea a potentially robust biological warfare capability."
And Chemical:
"North Korea probably has had a longstanding Chemical Weapons (CW) program with the capability to produce nerve, blister, blood, and choking agents and likely possesses a CW stockpile. North Korea probably could employ CW agents by modifying a variety of conventional munitions, including artillery and ballistic missiles. In addition, North Korean forces are prepared to operate in a contaminated environment; they train regularly in chemical defense operations. North Korea is not a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention."
Such reports, as can be seen in the recent China DoD report, give scholars without security clearance a window into modern U.S. national security thinking. They can serve as a guide to the capabilities and assets potential adversaries may pose, potential military strategies and doctrines, and even sometimes areas of cooperation and hopes for compromise.
The danger in such reports is that certain lines or phrases can be cherry picked by various parties for agenda setting or even domestic propaganda. Just a quick survey over China's reaction to the recent DoD report as well as various pundits' reactions to Australia's recent white paper demonstrate this point. Nonetheless, such defense assessments are important for researchers, scholars, and interested parties to move beyond the headlines and take a more analytical view.
So North Korea watchers and media, read the report in full. It's worth your time.
N. Korea launches three short-range missiles: defense ministry
SEOUL, May 18 (Yonhap) - North Korea on Saturday launched three short range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, South Korea's Ministry of Defense said.
The ministry said it detected two launches in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon. It said the missiles were fired in a northeasterly direction away from South Korean waters.
"A more detailed analysis will be needed but the missiles launched may be a modified anti-ship missile or the KN-02 surface-to-surface missile derived from the Soviet era SS-21 that has a range of about 120 kilometers," a Seoul official said.
He said judging by the trajectory and distance traveled, those missiles fired were not medium- or long-range ballistic missiles.
The communist country had deployed two Musudan intermediate-range missiles on its east coast along with medium-range Rodong missiles in April in an apparent countermeasure against joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises under way but they were later pulled back.
The Musudan is estimated to have a range of up to 4,000 kilometers that could reach the U.S. territory of Guam, while Nodong with a reach of 1,500 kilometers can cover all of South Korea and parts of Japan.
"All missiles launched fell into the sea," a South Korean Defense Ministry official said, requesting that he not be identified. He speculated that the launch is likely part of a military exercise or a missile test.
Defense Ministry officials said they have beefed up monitoring on North Korea and are maintaining a high-level of readiness to deal with any risky developments.
The launches come a little over two months after the North fired off two short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said it has been closely watching the North's move to test-launch the missiles.
"All information has been shared real time between the presidential office and the defense ministry," Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Haing said.
She said South Korea does not consider the North's latest missile launches a serious threat to its security.
"The situation is being monitored carefully," she said.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)
Did they even hit the water?
LOL
North Korea fires two more missiles
Missile launches bring total to six in three days as Pyongyang defends right to carry out drills
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...-launc-008.jpg A South Korean man watches TV news broadcast reporting a missile launch by North Korea, at a Seoul train station in Seoul. Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/AP
North Korea has fired two more short-range missiles, making six launches in three days, and condemning South Korea for criticising what it said were its legitimate military drills.
South Korea's defence ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon. Both were fired into the sea off North Korea's east coast, a ministry official said.
The launches followed more than two months of threats from North Korea that it would wage a nuclear war against South Korea and the US if it were attacked. The North condemned joint US and South Korean military exercises, that ended in late April, as a rehearsal for an attack on its territory.
"We are conducting intense military exercises to strengthen our defence capacity," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the body that handles inter-Korean issues, as saying on Monday.
"Our military is conducting these exercises in order to cope with the mounting war measures from the US and South Korea, which is the legitimate right of any sovereign country."
North Korea frequently fires short-range missiles, although the current spate of launches has drawn criticism from Seoul and Washington after the recent threats from the North.
Seoul condemned the launches for stoking tension in the region while Beijing, the North's sole major ally, called for restraint.
"These launches are its tactic of signalling to the world that the regime is willing to negotiate now, while at the same time saving face," Kim Yeon-su, a professor at Korea National Defence University in Seoul, which is part of the defence ministry, said of North Korea. Kim said North Korea had an arsenal of hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles.
There appears to be little prospect of talks between North Korea and the US as Washington insists Pyongyang needs to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, something the isolated and impoverished state has said it will not do.
Here's an oddity....
North Korean pirates seize Chinese hostages, demand a ransom
A group of Chinese fishermen are said to be held hostage in North Korea, straining ties already frayed by North Korea's missile launches.
By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / May 20, 2013
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• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
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Arthur Bright Europe Editor
Arthur Bright is the Europe Editor at The Christian Science Monitor. He has worked for the Monitor in various capacities since 2004, including as the Online News Editor and a regular contributor to the Monitor's Terrorism & Security blog. He is also a licensed Massachusetts attorney.
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition
The Chinese embassy in North Korea is "working on" securing the release of the crew of a Chinese fishing boat held by unidentified armed North Koreans, who are reportedly seeking a ransom.
The Associated Press reports that, according to the ship owner Yu Xuejun, the Liaoning-based boat was seized on May 5 by kidnappers demanding 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom for the 16 crew members' safe return.
In another plea for help on Monday, Yu wrote on his blog that he received another call from “the North Korean side” on Sunday night, still demanding money.Yu told Agence France-Presse that he believes the kidnappers are part of the North Korean military, though he is not certain. He reported the incident to the Chinese government, but took to social media to publicize his crew's predicament after becoming frustrated with a lack of official action.
“My captain gave me the phone, his voice was trembling, could feel he was very afraid, told me no later than 5 p.m. today,” Yu wrote. He said he suspected his crew had been mistreated.
"It has almost been two weeks, but I haven't seen any results," he told AFP.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua published its first report on the matter on Sunday, writing that the Chinese embassy in North Korea "is working on the detention" and is "asking Pyongyang to ensure the safety and legitimate rights and interests of the fishermen."
The incident comes amid a tense situation on the Korean peninsula. North Korea in recent months has conducted several missile launches and nuclear tests, including six short-range rocket launches over the weekend and two more today. China, a traditional ally of North Korea, has been showing greater irritation with its neighbor, including supporting UN sanctions against Pyongyang over its most recent nuclear test.
AP writes that kidnappings of Chinese nationals by North Korean pirates are actually fairly common – including a similar event last year in which 29 fishermen were seized by armed North Koreans and later released.
“Whatever you call North Korea – rogue state or whatever – these kind of cases just keep happening,” said a Liaoning Maritime and Fishery Administration official who identified himself only by his surname, Liu. “We had such cases last year and the year before. There’s very little we can do to prevent them.”The Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, suggests that the current tension between Beijing and Pyongyang may result in a greater willingness for the Chinese to publicize the incidents – and that North Korea is deliberately targeting China.
Cui Zhiying, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at the Shanghai-based Tongji University, told the Global Times that as the relations between China and North Korea are gradually changing from traditional ideological allies to normal bilateral relations, these kinds of reports are being disclosed more frequently than before.
Jin Qiangyi, director of the Asian Studies Center at Yanbian University, told the Global Times Sunday that China has been inclined to deal with such disputes in a low-key manner, which has been taken advantage of by North Korea to infringe upon Chinese fishermen's interests.
"It's also possible that the nuclear state is taking revenge on China after the UN imposed a series of sanctions on it following its third nuclear test," said Jin, stressing that the Chinese government should hold firm in safeguarding the safety of its citizens, otherwise, such incidents will reoccur in the future.
Yeah? Really?
U.S. General: Nuclear-Capable Bomber Cameo Quieted North Korea
June 7, 2013
By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire
http://www.nti.org/media/images/June...g?_=1370627827
A U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber, left, flies over South Korea in March. The inclusion of nuclear-capable aircraft in exercises helped stanch North Korean belligerence, a two-star general said (AP Photo/Yonhap News Agency).
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Air Force general on Friday said the appearance of nuclear-capable B-2 and B-52 bombers in military exercises with South Korea earlier this spring had the intended effect of easing tensions with North Korea.
The value of nuclear deterrence is “no better shown” than in the recent flyovers of the Korean Peninsula by bombers based in the United States, Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak said at a breakfast event on Capitol Hill.
The decision to include the mammoth strike aircraft in the March-April bilateral exercises was made after weeks of repeated North Korean threats to attack the United States and South Korea. Pyongyang was responding to the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of its underground nuclear explosive test in February, its third since October 2006.
Some Obama administration officials reportedly expressed concern in April that the bomber overflights during the exercises were overly provocative, potentially heightening the risk that Pyongyang would trigger a war with its neighbor to the south.
Harencak insisted, though, that the South Korean flyovers had just the opposite effect, signaling to key Asian nations Washington’s resolve protect Seoul and its allies.
“It sends a message,” said the Air Force assistant chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration. “More importantly, it showed the enduring value of the strategic nuclear deterrent.”
He made the assertion in advocating that the United States continue plans to develop and field a next-generation bomber called the Long-Range Strike aircraft. Like the B-2 and B-52, the new bomber is to include a capacity to launch either conventional or nuclear weapons.
Taking audience questions, Harencak was asked whether the presence of the bombers in South Korea inadvertently demonstrated to Pyongyang just how indispensable long-range nuclear weapons could be for the North itself to obtain.
North Korea appears intent on developing missiles with increasingly longer reach, but widespread doubts remain about its ability to build a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on such weapons.
“That idea that we would entice people to move away from their own pursuit of a particular course by not demonstrating [our nuclear capability] might work” in some instances, he suggested.
However, “the calculus was, that hasn’t worked in the past with that particular country,” Harencak said. “You’re going to have to deal with each potential adversary there differently. And one size doesn’t fit all.”
Could such posturing actually stoke belligerence and undermine longtime efforts to convince North Korea to abandon its atomic program and relinquish its estimated stockpile of fewer than 10 nuclear warheads?
The general, a 30-year veteran bomber pilot, responded that he had not personally taken part in internal Defense Department debates over how best to handle the heightened tensions with North Korea.
“But I believe that the deliberations in this particular” case revolved around the view that responding to Pyongyang’s escalatory rhetoric with words alone “hasn’t worked in the past and would not work” this time, he said. “I believe that having a strong, credible deterrent and the capabilities to deter other people is far more effective than unilaterally just backing away.”
Harencak also poked fun at the idea that nuclear weapons could be eliminated anytime soon, despite President Obama’s iconic 2009 speech in Prague. At that time, the president promised “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” albeit “perhaps not in my lifetime.”
“I hope that day comes. I hope that day comes soon. And when it does, I want to invite you all over to my house for a party,” Harencak said of eliminating nuclear arms worldwide. “I’d just ask that you don’t feed any of the hors d’oeuvres to my unicorn.”
Photos Show N. Korean Work Stoppage at Launch Site
July 23, 2013
http://www.nti.org/media/images/July...g?_=1374592669
North Korea’s Musudan-ri missile complex, shown in a May 26 satellite image. Pyongyang does not appear to have resumed construction at the facility since halting the work in late 2012, experts said in an analysis released on Tuesday (AP Photo/Astrium – 38 North).
Recently taken satellite photographs reveal that North Korea has stopped work on a complex intended for the launching of long-range ballistic missiles, according to a new expert analysis published on Tuesday.
Previous building efforts at the Musudan-ri missile complex to construct a new launch platform, launch control headquarters, and a facility for assembling rockets — all activities that would enable the firing of bigger missiles — have evidently ceased, concluded the website 38 North, which closely tracks developments in North Korea.
Construction at Musudan-ri, located in North Korea’s eastern region, was halted at the end of last year but it had been anticipated that work would resume this spring.
However, by the end of May, building activity had not been restarted, according to 38 North, which is a project of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
“Exactly why construction has halted remains unclear. Initial speculation at the end of 2012 focused on the need for equipment and troops elsewhere to repair damage done by last summer’s typhoons and heavy rains,” reads the 38 North analysis by image specialist Nick Hansen. “That explanation now seems less plausible, given the amount of time that has passed since last year’s rains.”
Another possibility is that Pyongyang has determined that its facilities at another missile launching site at Dongchang-ri are all that is needed for its rocket program, according to Hansen.
“Or the stoppage may reflect a decision either to slow or even halt development of larger rockets,” he said. Should building efforts be reinvigorated, the effect of the delay still may be that the missile complex could not be fully constructed for another four years, 38 North said.
Joel Wit, the website’s editor, in an e-mail to the Associated Press said, “If Pyongyang ultimately abandons facilities to launch large rockets it only began building in 2011, that could have important implications for North Korea’s space launch program as well as the development of long-range missiles intended to deliver nuclear weapons.”
- See more at: http://www.nti.rsvp1.com/gsn/article....Vi8rkDUY.dpuf
North Korea Collapse “Imminent”
By Robert Gehl
According to a new report by the Rand Corporation, collapse in North Korea is not a question of if, but when.
The situation under current leader Kim Jong-un hsd become more desperate and unstable, accelerating timetables for complete economic and social ruin in one of the last remaining communist-dictatorships in the world.
None of the scenarios in the 342-page report is positive. Everything from civil war, a nuclear attack on regional players (including the US) to a massive humanitarian crisis is detailed.
“The current North Korean government, led by Kim Jong Un, has showed signs of instability for some time and most experts agree that a collapse is likely,” said Bruce Bennett, the study’s author and a senior defense analyst. “It is more a matter of ‘when’ than ‘if’ it will occur.”When Eastern Europe suddenly collapsed, the West faced similar issues, but nothing on this scale. Not only is the DPRK more economically impoverished than the former Soviet Bloc countries ever were, but the brainwashing and isolationism that North Koreans have endured will likely increase the chance of some sort of deadly military conflict with South Korea and the American forces helping to guard the Demilitarized Zone.
To make matters worse, China has a vested interest in North Korea – long a steady ally. A sudden collapse could send millions of refugees swarming across the border.
The report states that while there are cracks in the 50-plus years of isolationism, the vast majority of the population believe North Korea is a “paradise on earth,” and will vigorously defend their leadership, especially Kim Il-sung’s 30-year-old grandson, who has shown no signs of letting up on his family’s legacy o death camps and starvation.
North Korea has the largest military organization on earth, with 9,495,000 active, reserve and paramilitary personnel – essentially every citizen between the ages of 20 and 45. In addition, they have a vast stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and have recently announced the completion of at least two nuclear weapons.
Source
Here we go again....
North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Strikes against South Korea and US
http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/imag.../07/416648.jpgA file photo from North Korean military parade - (Reuters)
North Korea has threatened to launch strikes against its enemy South Korea and the US, to pre-empt an attack by the two countries on its nuclear facilities.
The threat follows an agreement between Seoul and Washington over the introduction of nuclear deterrents against Pyongyang.
Under the US-South Korea agreement, the two countries vowed to attack North Korea if there are indications it will use its nuclear weapons. The strategy is being dubbed as "customised deterrence".
North Korea has denounced the agreement and said it will not hesitate to attack US and South Korean interests if they resort to "such military provocations".
The North Korean spokesperson added: "If our enemies try to threaten us in the slightest, the country will launch ruthless pre-emptive strikes of annihilation."
Meanwhile a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), claimed that "the military plot aims to derail the ongoing peace process and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula and can fuel tensions that can lead to a nuclear conflict."
North Korea has also condemned a large military parade held by South Korea to showcase its latest missiles and torpedoes, marking the 65thanniversary of the country's armed forces.
The US is due to hold a joint naval exercise with Japan and South Korea. However officials in Seoul claim the programme "is a humanitarian training exercise to search and rescue private ships that meet with a disaster."