Korean Peninsula On The Brink Of War

[BRVoice]

DPRK accuses South Korea of lying in artillery shelling incident
English.news.cn 2010-12-13 13:41:43

PYONGYANG, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) - A leading newspaper of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused South Korea of lying in its propaganda over last month's Yonphyong Island shelling incident.

South Korea's claim that the DPRK provocated the incident is "a lie to the world," Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary on the meeting of top U.S., Japanese and South Korean diplomats in Washington on December 6.

South Korea used the incident as an excuse to accelerate its confrontation with the DPRK with the help of other countries, it said.

The move, the commentary said, has intensified the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula and brought dark clouds of nuclear war to the peninsula.

South Korea would suffer "painful consequences" of the tension while the outsiders would benefit, and South Korea's action to "jugulate" fellowmen with outsiders is an intolerable "move of traitor," it said.

It was the first time that DPRK media commented on the December 6 meeting of the top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and the United States, who threatened to jointly confront any "provocation and threats" of the DPRK in a post-meeting statement.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been heightened since South Korea and the DPRK exchanged artillery fire on November 23.

After the incident, South Korea and the United States staged joint naval drills from November 28 to December 1 in waters west of the peninsula. On December 3, Japan and the United States launched their biggest-ever joint military exercises at bases across Japan and in the air and on waters around them, with South Korea taking part as an observer.

[BRVoice]

Seoul readies more naval drills
Source: Global Times
[08:18 December 13 2010]

By Jia Cheng

South Korea will conduct live-fire drills at sea today, the latest in a series of military exercises taking place amid heightened tension with North Korea, a military official told Reuters Sunday.

"The drills running through Friday are routine," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

However, the official added that drills were not being conducted in waters off the west coast where a deadly artillery exchange occurred last month.

Tensions between the two Koreas have been at their highest in decades since the November 23 attack, which killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong Island.

Washington and its ally Seoul have staged joint naval exercises to deter Pyongyang, and they have threatened a tough response to any future attacks.

Separately, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun left for Russia on Saturday amid a flurry of diplomatic attempts to ease tensions, AFP reported.

"Recently, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has been at quite a dangerous stage, while inter-Korean relations are worse than ever," Pak told Russia's Interfax News Agency in an interview, according to AFP.

He said the Yeonpyeong incident was a plot designed by Seoul to drag Pyongyang into conflict and to deceive the international community.

Pyongyang is "assured of the rectitude of our choice of the songun (army first) policy, and in strengthening a defense that relies on nuclear forces as deterrents," Pak told Interfax, according to AFP.

"Pak's visit is likely aimed at winning diplomatic support from Moscow," said Cai Jian, vice director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University. "This is a good sign because diplomatic efforts are much more useful for easing tensions than firing guns."

According to AFP, US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is scheduled to visit Beijing in the coming week for talks over the Korean tensions; and Seoul’s chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, will visit Russia for talks with his counterpart, Alexei Borodavkin.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is also to visit North Korea from Thursday to December 20, and he hopes "to be helpful during this volatile period." Pak told Interfax that Pyongyang was always ready to resume international talks on denuclearizing the peninsula, according to AFP.

"Even in the atmosphere of the escalated situation, we have expressed support for resuming the six-party negotiation process," he said.

Agencies contributed to this story

[BRVoice]

Yeonpyeong shelling causes inflation in Pyongyang
12-13-2010 18:48
By Kim Young-jin

North Korean merchants are exchanging their local currency en masse as war jitters in the wake of Pyongyang’s attack on Yeonpyeong Island have stoked fears that the won may lose its value in the case of war, a report said.

According to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS), a Seoul-based NGO comprised of defectors with lines into the North, currency exchange rates have skyrocketed since the Nov. 23 incident. One hundred yuan, which before the shelling went for 2,000 won, is now worth 35,000 won, NKIS said in a report released Sunday.

“Merchants have heard rumors that if there is war, North Korean bills will become worthless scraps of paper,” NKIS quoted a source as saying, causing traders to exchange their won while they can.

Price of daily goods have also skyrocketed, the report said, with rice jumping from 900 won per kilogram to 1,600 won. Corn climbed from 4,000 won per kilogram to 6,000 won, it said.

The source said the soaring prices have been caused by jitters in the market over the heightened tensions in the wake of the Nov. 23 attack, saying the North’s military has been in a “quasi state of war” since the incident.

The rumors that the won will lose its value in case of a war have slowed market activities as merchants have raised prices and are waiting to see if further military action is on the cards.

Traders in China, from who markets in the North secure much of their goods, have also become reluctant to make transactions involving North Korean currency and are trading what won they have, the source said.

The price jump comes on the heels of reportedly enormous inflation caused by a botched currency reform last year.

The regime redenominated banknotes at a ratio of 100:1 in November last year in a move to squelch a bourgeoning private sector. But the move led to runaway inflation as the price soared by some forty times within the year, according to reports.

The U.N. estimated last month that some 5 million North Koreans will face food shortages this year due to lack of staple grains, while the economy is believed to be suffering heavily from international sanctions imposed for the regime’s missile and nuclear tests.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang, which claims Seoul instigated the shelling by firing into its territory during a military drill, continued to threaten the South over the weekend, saying, “The army and the people of the DPRK are ready for both an escalation and an all-out war.”

yjk@koreatimes.co.kr

[BRVoice]

How Pyongyang Wins the Information War
The Chosun Ilbo

North Korea is stepping up provocations, preparing to fire a missile near the East Coast, refusing to recognize the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border, and restricting border crossings from the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex. What do North Korean citizens think about these provocations?

Many North Koreans now use Chinese mobile phones along the border with China, so their reactions are not that difficult to find out. But once the connection is established, North Koreans prove more curious to learn what is going on in the South. "Is South Korea preparing for war? Is that true?" they ask.

Preposterous though it may sound, North Koreans are given the impression that it is not the North that is provoking the South but the other way around. The North Korean authorities creating a war atmosphere by saying things like, "The traitor Lee Myung-bak and the puppet South Korean military have declared a preemptive attack against our republic" and that no one knows when a war will break out.

Pyongyang has succeeded in misleading the public that it was not North Korea but the United States and South Korea that started the Korean War, so it is no great leap to start false propaganda about the future. The problem is that North Koreans are denied other sources of information and therefore often believe their government.

This thoroughgoing information control provides the authorities with a sturdy background for their manipulation of inter-Korean relations. The North has the confidence that it can always gain political victories even in military defeats by the South. Following its defeat in the first Yeonpyeong Naval Battle of June 1999, the North publicized it "a victory that crushed an enemy provocation." Even when it cannot conceal a military defeat, the North is capable of controlling the public by publicizing that it was ambushed, and urging people to "sharpen the sword of revenge." The

South Korean government does not have that option. Even if only one or two soldiers are killed in a victorious military action, the opposition and civic groups will protest that lives have been sacrificed to the wrong North Korea policy. And the media slam the government for causing an economic downturn by failing to resolve tensions. In short, the South Korean government cannot win politically even if it wins militarily. The difference is that South Korea lives in the flood of information, while North Korea lives in a desert.

The first Gulf War offers another example of a military victory not leading to a political one due to such an asymmetric approach to information. In 1991, the U.S. drove Iraq out of Kuwait, but concluded the war without advancing to Iraq. Collin Powell, who commanded "Operation Desert Storm," stopped because he expected that Saddam Hussein, having been defeated in the war, would soon be deposed. But Saddam was left in complete control of information at home, and built a stronger base for his dictatorship.

The same applies to North Korea. To win a political victory over Kim Jong-il, the Lee administration must break the wall that blocks information. The EU and Reporters without Borders have recently decided to support private radio stations providing accurate information to North Koreans. The EU and the U.S. now participate in the campaign to convey accurate information to North Korean citizens. Only South Korea has yet to come on board.

The South Korean government must win the hearts of North Koreans by getting its point of view across to them. So long as Kim Jong-il monopolizes the eyes and ears of the North Koreans, Lee Myung-bak will sustain one political defeat after another even if he wins military victories.

By Ha Tae-keung the president of Open Radio for North Korea

englishnews@chosun.com / Mar. 27, 2009 13:14 KST

[BRVoice]

Foreigners sell Korean bonds massively
The Korea Times - 12-13-2010 18:10
By Kim Da-ye

Have Korean bonds become less attractive to foreign investors?

Foreigners net-sold listed bonds worth 3.7 trillion won between December 1 and 13 in a stark contrast to the rest of the year during which time they bought several trillion won more than they sold.

They net-bought bonds worth 3.15 trillion won in September, 6.18 trillion won in October and 2.57 trillion won in November, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Such a trend is extending to the over-the-counter market in which the amount of Korean bonds foreigners net-bought plunged in November to 2.3 trillion won from 6.4 trillion won a month earlier. The Korea Financial Investment Association says that it is the lowest figure since April 2009.

The association says that the drop was triggered by concerns over possible regulations of capital flows, geopolitical risks highlighted by North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island and the higher value of the Korean won.

“As the market expected, the short-term investment in bonds that mature within a year decreased by a huge margin. Foreigners net-sold short-term bonds worth 400 billion won. But the net-buying of 2-year and 3-year bonds increased to 2.1 trillion won,” said the association in a Dec. 8 report.

Foreigners buying fewer Korean bonds won’t seriously affect the domestic bond market, experts say.

“After November 23, foreign investors net-sold bonds worth more than 3.7 trillion won, but the domestic bond market remains steady,” the Korea Center for International Finance said in a December 10 report. “As uncertainty over the two events - possible taxes on bonds and the Yeonpyeong Island attack - clears, foreigners seem to recognize now as an opportunity to expand the purchase of safe assets.”

The center still warned the market to remain vigilant on volatility in the market.

“European investors, especially German ones, have significantly reduced their holdings of Korean bonds recently. In relation to Europe’s sovereign debt problem, the market needs to be cautious over the volatility in foreign capital flows.”

kimdaye@koreatimes.co.kr

[BRVoice]

Park's Appearance Unlikely to Mean Real Reform
Daily NK
By Kim So Yeol
[2010-12-13 17:58]

▲ In this image broadcast by Chosun Central Television on the 11th, Park Bong Ju can be clearly seen on the left (circled). (source: Yonhap News)

An oft-cited example of an advocate of reform within the North Korean leadership, former Prime Minister Park Bong Ju appeared alongside Kim Jong Il during a recent onsite inspection at a Pyongyang sock factory, leading to suggestions that North Korea may again be contemplating the idea of embracing economic reform.

However, this is less likely than another explanation; that Park was brought back into the fold to oversee a number of revisions to the legal code during 2010.

Park, whose appearance at the onsite inspection was verified in five images broadcast by Chosun Central Television on the 11th, was a leading architect of the July 1st Economic Management Reform Measure of 2002, which formalized a number of relatively liberal economic policies.

He then became Prime Minister in September 2003, but was deposed during a period of economic retrenchment in April 2007, sent into virtual exile in South Pyongan Province as manager of Suncheon Vinalon Complex.

As a result of this career path, Park is seen by many as a reformist thinker in the North Korean elite.

Therefore, when he stepped back onto the main political stage this August, three years and four months later, mentioned in a report published by Chosun Central News Agency on August 21st about the 50th anniversary of a well-known Pyongyang restaurant, Okryugwan, it led to suggestions that North Korea might be set to head down the road to economic reform, led by Park as Party First Vice Director.

However, Park’s re-emergence does not mean that North Korea is about to turn towards market mechanisms on an official basis; conversely, it is more likely to be related to the revision this year of a number of laws which were actually designed to strengthen the control and supervisory functions of state institutions.

North Korea officially revised the People’s Economic Planning Law on April 6th alongside the Pyongyang Management Law, revised on March 30th, and both its Labor Protection and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Laws, revised on July 8th.

In revealing the legal revisions to The Daily NK in an interview in November, an inside North Korean source commented on the intention behind the changes, saying, "The People's Economic Planning Law of 2001 alleviated national controls and supervision, even though it came before the July 1st measure of 2002. However, the revised bill strengthens national controls."

Additionally, the source went on, "This series of bills including the revised People's Economic Planning Law are the basis of the nation's control, management and supervision. It should be understood as being part of the same flow as the series of measures undertaken during the succession process since October of 2007, when market controls began wholeheartedly; the 150-day Battle, 100-day Battle and currency redenomination."

Accordingly, research suggests that North Korea probably chose to play the Park Bong Ju card now to revise state policy to try and sort out the problems left behind by the failure of the 2009 currency redenomination and to address the pressing need to improve the state of the domestic economy, whilst also hoping that the appointment of an official with a reformist image might attract investment from Northeast China and further afield.

[BRVoice]

S. Korea launches committee on N. Korea's wartime abductions

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea launched a government-led committee on Monday aimed at identifying citizens kidnapped by North Korea during the two countries' war six decades ago and calling for their repatriation.

The committee is chaired by the prime minister and includes three civilians whose family members were abducted during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, Unification Ministry officials in Seoul said.

The Seoul-based Korean War Abductees' Family Reunion estimates more than 110,000 South Koreans were kidnapped during the invasion by North Korea, which denies any such activity and argues that many South Koreans voluntarily defected to the communist country during the war.

The committee, which South Korean lawmakers have proposed for years, comes amid high tension between the Koreas after the North shelled a South Korean border island last month, killing two marines and two civilians.

The committee is comprised of 15 members, including the unification, foreign and defense ministers. South Korea also demands that its soldiers captured during the Korean War be returned by North Korea, which has tacitly allowed a handful of temporary reunions between the former prisoners of war and their families.

samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

[American Patriot]

World News: North Korea warns drills could lead to nuclear war

Published Date: 13 December 2010

North Korea warned today that US-South Korean co-operation could bring nuclear war to the region.

The warning came as the South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island.

The South's naval live-fire drills are due to run until Friday at 27 sites.

The regularly-scheduled exercises are getting special attention following a North Korean artillery attack on front-line Yeonpyeong Island which killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.

A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer tried to play down the significance of this week's drills, saying they were part of routine military exercises and would not occur near the disputed western Korean sea border.

North Korea, however, lashed out at Seoul, accusing South Korea of collaborating with the US and Japan to step up pressure on Pyongyang.

That co-operation "is nothing but treachery escalating the tension between the North and the South and bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean peninsula", Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

[BRVoice]

South Korea stages more military drills
BBC News - 13 December 2010 Last updated at 09:38 GMT


Both Japan and South Korea have carried out joint military exercises with the US in the past few weeks


South Korea has begun another week-long series of live-fire military exercises along most of its coastline.

However, the drills will avoid the disputed western sea-border, where North Korea shelled an island last month, killing four South Koreans.

North Korea said that attack was in direct response to South Korean military exercises there. It says drills by the South are a provocation.

There have been intense international diplomatic efforts to calm the crisis.

Last week, China's top diplomat met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, with Chinese state media reporting a "consensus" had been reached.

The US has been putting pressure on China - the North's main ally - to intervene in the crisis.

Top US military official Adm Mike Mullen has accused China of "enabling" North Korea's "reckless behaviour".

China has hit back, saying military threats cannot resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.

In a hardening of policy, South Korea has threatened to mount air strikes on the North if it carries out further attacks.

China, which supplies food and fuel to North Korea, has so far refused to condemn the attack on Yeonpyeong, the first attack of its kind on South Korean civilians since the Korean War ended in a ceasefire in 1953.

Both Japan and South Korea have carried out joint military exercises with the US in the past few weeks.

China has criticised those exercises as an attempt at US containment in an area Beijing sees as its own responsibility.

North Korea has been defending its shelling of Yeonpyeong as a response to extensive live-firing from the South.

[American Patriot]

Updated: 8:02 AM Dec 13, 2010
N. Korea Warns Of Nuclear War
North Korea issued a warning Monday that the U.S. and South Korea were courting nuclear war by joining forces as tension escalates on the Korean peninsula.
Posted: 8:02 AM Dec 13, 2010
Reporter: KKTV

(Local to Colorado Springs)

North Korea issued a warning Monday that the U.S. and South Korea were courting nuclear war by joining forces as tension escalates on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. reaffirmed its alliance with South Korea following the November 23 artillery barrage, when North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island, its first assault on a civilian area since the end of the Korean War. Two civilians were among the four people killed in the attack. The U.S. and South Korea have staged joint military drills since the attack despite warnings from the North.

The U.S. and South Korea have also began talks Monday morning on security issues; according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry, some of the items on the agenda are standard for defense talks, but plans concerning North Korea are also expected to be discussed. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg will be visiting China, a North Korean ally, Wednesday.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson leaves the U.S. for North Korea on Tuesday. Richardson, who has acted as a diplomatic troubleshooter on a number of occasions, has made regular visits to North Korea. He has also hosted North Korean officials in New Mexico.

[American Patriot]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Artillery drills set to be conducted by South Korea this week have prompted a fresh salvo of hostile rhetoric from North Korea.


It says U.S.-South Korea cooperation could bring a nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula.


The warning comes amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island. Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed. The attack came during a military drill. But the South says it fired shells southward, not toward the North, as part of routine exercises.


A military official downplayed this week's drills, saying they were regularly scheduled.


Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, leaves the U.S. for North Korea on Tuesday. Richardson, who has often acted as a diplomatic troubleshooter, has made regular visits to North Korea and has also hosted North Korean officials in New Mexico

[BRVoice]

North Korea: Cold-war legacy
CSMonitor.com - December 12, 2010


The World War II Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula ended in 1945 when the United Nations gave control of the North to the Soviets and the South to the United States. Separate nations - North Korea and South Korea - were established in 1948. But North Korea, seeking unification, invaded the South in 1950, sparking the Korean War in which the UN supported the South, and China and the Soviet Union backed the North. The uneasy cold-war legacy of confrontation-rapprochement-confrontation has characterized the past half century:


1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, a Navy spy ship; its crew of 83 is released 11 months later.

1969 - North Korea shoots down a US spy plane over the Sea of Japan; its 31-member crew perishes.

1976 - In the "ax murder" incident, North Korean troops kill two US Army officers as they prune a tree in the demilitarized zone to improve surveillance.

1988 - US imposes sanctions on North Korea, which is added to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

1989 - US satellite photos show a nuclear reprocessing plant in Youngbyon.

1994 - Former President Jimmy Carter flies to Pyongyang to try to broker a deal over its nuclear program.

1998 - North Korea launches its first long-range ballistic missile.

2002 - President Bush names North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, as part of an "Axis of Evil."

2003 - North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program begin in Beijing.

2005 - North Korea says, for the first time, it has nuclear weapons.

2006 - North Korea conducts its first nuclear test.

2007 - Passenger trains traverse the North-South border for the first time in more than 50 years.

2008 - North Korea dynamites a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility as a commitment to "denuclearization." The US later removes North Korea from its list of terrorist nations.

2009 - North Korea arrests two US journalists at the Chinese border, sentencing them to 12 years of hard labor. Former President Bill Clinton travels to North Korea and wins their release.

In April, North Korea launches a long-range rocket and announces intent to quit the six-party talks. A second nuclear test is conducted in May, which draws further UN sanctions. Ballistic missiles launched in July.

2010 - In January, North Korea imprisons Aijalon Gomes, an American who taught English in South Korea, after he crosses the border. Mr. Carter helps negotiate his release in August.

In March, a North Korean submarine fires a torpedo at a South Korean naval ship - 46 sailors die.

In November, North Korea shells a South Korean island near the disputed Yellow Sea border, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians. Days later, the US and South Korea proceed with scheduled war exercises in the Yellow Sea.

[vector7]

U.S. brings 'clouds of nuclear war', North Korea warns

The Associated Press
Date: Monday Dec. 13, 2010 5:27 AM ET


South Korean marines patrol by a wall damaged by North Korea's shelling on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010. (Yonhap / Kim Ju-sung)

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned Monday that U.S.-South Korean cooperation could bring a nuclear war to the region, as the South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island.

The South's naval live-fire drills are scheduled to run Monday through Friday at 27 sites. The regularly scheduled exercises are getting special attention following a North Korean artillery attack on front-line Yeonpyeong Island that killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.

The Nov. 23 artillery barrage, the North's first assault to target a civilian area since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, began after the North said South Korea first fired artillery toward its territorial waters. South Korea says it fired shells southward, not toward North Korea, as part of routine exercises.

After the attack, South Korea staged joint military drills with the United States and also pushed ahead with more artillery exercises, despite the North's warning that they would aggravate tension.

A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer tried to play down the significance of this week's drills, saying they are part of routine military exercises and would not occur near the disputed western Korean sea border where last month's attack took place. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policy, gave no further details.

North Korea, however, lashed out at Seoul, accusing South Korea of collaborating with the United States and Japan to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang.

That cooperation "is nothing but treachery escalating the tension between the North and the South and bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean peninsula," Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea has often issued similar threats during standoffs.

In a show of unity, top diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan met in Washington last week and said they would not resume negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program until the country's behavior changes. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited South Korea last week and warned Pyongyang to stop its "belligerent, reckless behavior."

On Monday, South Korean and U.S. defence officials met in Seoul for one-day discussions on North Korea and other issues that are part of regular defence talks, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

At the opening of the meeting, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Schiffer said "the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with the Republic of Korea and with the Korean people in the face of recent North Korean provocations," referring to South Korea by its formal name.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg was also set to visit China later this week for talks on North Korea amid international pressure for Beijing to use its diplomatic clout to rein in North Korea, its ally. After the China meeting, senior U.S. officials accompanying Steinberg will travel on to Seoul and Tokyo.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, meanwhile, leaves the United States for North Korea on Tuesday. Richardson, who has often acted as a diplomatic troubleshooter, has made regular visits to North Korea and has also hosted North Korean officials in New Mexico.

[American Patriot]

Countdown to Oblivion: North Korea artillery strike - the Start of the First Nuclear War?



By Tom Cain
Last updated at 6:08 PM on 27th November 2010

Top thriller writer Tom Cain imagines what would happen if the North and South Korea stand-off detonated the world's First Nuclear War in this fictional account.


At the time, people called it the Third World War. Now though, we refer to the ­terrible events of late 2010 in a different way. We call this the First Nuclear War.


It began on November 23, 2010, when North Korean artillery bombarded the small island of Yeonpyeong, which lies in the Yellow Sea, just south of the maritime border between the two Koreas.



More than 60 properties were set ablaze and four people were killed. South Korea’s staunch ally President Barack Obama immediately ­dispatched an aircraft carrier to take part in ­exercises with the South Korean Navy in the Yellow Sea.



Forward march: North Korean soldiers during a massive military parade

Meanwhile, China — a traditional supporter of North Korea — remained ominously silent, pointedly refusing to join in the chorus of ­international criticism that had followed the shelling. In the South Korean capital Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak called for restraint. But it was a lone voice of peace.

Meanwhile, the official North Korean news agency declared that: ‘North Korea will wage second and even third rounds of attacks ­without any hesitation, if warmongers in South Korea make reckless military provocations again.’

Inexorably, the rhetoric on both sides became ever more heated. Now, two of the most militarised nations on earth — North Korea had the world’s fourth-largest army, South Korea the sixth — found themselves trapped aboard a runaway political train.

Its ­momentum was unstoppable. And its destination was war.

The two nations faced one another across a border that ran across the Korean peninsula, roughly along the line of the 38th parallel.

President Barack Obama: Ally of South Korea

Their joint forces, including regular personnel and reserves, comprised a staggering ­13.7million trained men and women, enough to turn the two nations into a gigantic killing-ground. Added to them were the 28,500 personnel of the United States Forces Korea, based at Yongsan Garrison, Seoul, the former Korean HQ of the Imperial Japanese Army.

The two sides squared off across the most heavily fortified national border on earth, their forces separated by a two-and-a-half-mile-wide Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ. At its nearest point, the border was barely 25 miles from downtown Seoul.

If the North Koreans could cross the border and get to Seoul quickly enough, they could strike a blow from which the South would never recover.

For decades they had been planning just such a strike. On the North Korean side of the DMZ, gigantic underground caverns had been dug in which whole armies could ­assemble undetected. Four times they had tried to tunnel under the DMZ, attempting to get their forces in behind enemy lines. Each time they had been detected.

But no one detected tunnels five and six. Each had been dug more than 500ft down and was big enough to allow a 3,000-man division to pass through in an hour. At midnight on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, the first North Korean Special Forces went into the tunnels. At 3am they struck.

A thunderous barrage of heavy artillery tore into the American and South Korean defensive positions across the DMZ.

A dozen of the projectiles used were atomic shells, miniature atom-bombs with an explosive power equivalent to 400 tons of TNT, enough to ­devastate even the most hardened enemy bunker.

As the forces along the South Korean side of the DMZ struggled to recover from this hammer-blow, they were hit from the rear by what seemed like a never-ending surge of highly-trained, ruthless and utterly merciless North Korean troops.

By 5am, the North Koreans had punched a two-mile-wide hole in the South’s defences.


The start of something more? A South Korean Marine base burns after being hit by North Korean artillery shells on Yeonpyeong island in this November 23

Now their tanks, artillery and motorised infantry overran any ­pitiful remnants of resistance and raced south, heading for Seoul.

U.S. and South Korean pilots were scrambled and hit the advancing North Koreans from the air. The remaining U.S. troops at Yongsan ­Garrison were dragged from their beds and trucked north to meet the oncoming hordes. The South ­Koreans, too, charged to the defence of their capital.

The North Korean advance was finally halted on the outskirts of Seoul, along the line of Highway 100 which runs in an arc around the north of the city.

Washington DC is 14 hours behind Korean time. So it was lunchtime there on November 30 when the North Korean attack began.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

All through the afternoon, ­President Obama was locked in frantic ­discussions with his military and ­diplomatic advisers, fellow western leaders and his counterparts in ­Moscow and Beijing.

The use of nuclear shells against U.S. forces had shocked the nation and Middle America wanted revenge.

A few voices urged caution and a sprinkling of peaceniks took to the streets to demonstrate against the looming war. But they were far outnumbered by the masses baying for blood.

At 9pm, Washington time, just as the North Korean advance was grinding to a halt outside Seoul, President Obama addressed the people.

He informed them that he had issued an ultimatum to North Korea. Withdraw across the border within 24 hours, or face the might of U.S. ­military power.

Any sane opponent would have taken this warning seriously. But ­sanity has never been a concept ­associated with North Korea.

The country’s leadership was in ­transition as the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il prepared to hand over to his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong-un.

This war was the young man’s rite of passage and — bitterly frustrated at his army’s inability to take the South’s capital — he wanted to force the issue.

Shortly after 2pm Korean time (midnight in Washington) Kim Jong-un gave the order for two nuclear missiles to be fired at the 24.5million people who lived in Seoul and its suburbs.

The first missile obliterated Incheon International Airport. The second hit the Yongsan district, instantly killing more than 250,000 people, sending a cloud of deadly nuclear fallout drifting across the city and wiping the U.S. forces’ HQ at Yongsan Garrison off the face of the earth.

President Obama did not act at once. In one final bid to avert all-out nuclear war, he amended his ultimatum.

Now the North Koreans had six hours to retreat across their border and surrender unconditionally, or he would, as he put it, ‘bring down the wrath of the American people on your heads’.


Respect: South Korean veterans salute during a memorial service for the marines killed in the bombardment this week

Meanwhile, in Moscow hardliners were urging Vladimir Putin to stand back and do nothing to stop the looming conflagration. Why not let Russia’s two greatest enemies destroy one another?

Moderates, however, saw this as a chance for Russia to appear ­statesmanlike on the world stage. They urged Putin to offer his help to avert catastrophe.

A similar argument was being played out in Beijing. The case for peace was very simple. China held $2trillion of U.S. debt. The U.S. was also its biggest overseas market.

The economic links between the two nations made war a financial disaster. But China was in a belligerent, ­muscle-flexing mood. With two hours to go before the U.S. deadline, Beijing made an announcement of its own. Any use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. on North Korean soil would be seen as an incursion into China’s sphere of influence and thus an attack on China itself.

Obama could not be seen to back down. When his deadline passed without any response from North Korea, he ordered cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads to be fired at North Korean military and government ­installations in the ­capital, Pyongyang. The country’s leadership was torn apart, but there were inevitably tens of thousands of civilian casualties too.


US military carrier: The USS George Washington set sail from Yokosuka naval base, south of Tokyo on Wednesday as tensions rose

But this attack meant that China had been defied and thus lost face. To reclaim its pride, it had to be seen to retaliate. For their target, the Chinese chose the massive new £8billion U.S. military base on the Pacific island of Guam.

One CSS-5 ballistic missile, armed with a 300 kiloton warhead, equivalent to 300,000 tons of TNT, ­crippled American power in the region at a stroke.

The U.S. was locked in a deadly game of tit-for-tat. China’s nuclear submarine base at Sanya, on the very southernmost tip of the Chinese mainland, vanished from the earth as another gigantic mushroom cloud spread across the sky.

The scale of the conflict was ratcheted even higher as the Chinese retaliated with a multiple strike on American missile silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base, ­Montana.
Chinese computer scientists launched a massive cyber-attack, hoping to cripple America’s ­computer and internet systems. On land, Chinese forces began moving into North Korea, coming to the aid of their North Korean brothers.

In response to a nuclear attack on American soil, Pentagon plans called for retaliation using weapons far more powerful than any that had yet been deployed.
But that could plunge the world into a nuclear winter and risk the ­destruction of civilisation itself.

It was a crazy gamble, yet no one dared back down. China and America were engaged in a nuclear-­powered game of chicken. And the survival of the planet was at stake.
Around the world, billions watched helplessly as Armageddon loomed.

In Britain, while a few jokers tried to raise spirits with old Dad’s Army catchphrases such as ‘Don’t panic!’ or ‘We’re all doomed!’, most people were gripped by gut-wrenching ­tension, fear and despondency.

In Whitehall, old Cold War-era plans for coping with nuclear attack were hurriedly dusted down. Meanwhile, for the first time in half a ­century, the Royal Navy ­prepared to use its ultimate weapon.

Britain’s nuclear deterrent, comprising 160 nuclear warheads (roughly comparable with China’s nuclear stockpile) was based aboard four Vanguard-class nuclear submarines, operating from Clyde Naval Base on the west coast of Scotland.

As always, one of the submarines was at sea on patrol — on this occasion on a secret route in the Pacific —- and David Cameron was privately thankful that its payload had not yet been halved from 16 Trident missiles to eight, as the 2010 Strategic Defence Review had suggested.

With Washington seemingly ­committed to nuclear war, Britain could find itself dragged into yet another American-led conflict.

On land, strategists and weapons technicians frantically attempted to select targets in China that would give the Prime Minister options from a single warning shot to a multi-­warhead attack.


Collapse: A damaged house on Yeonpyeong Island

Yet any UK action would be entirely dependent on the U.S. guidance satellites, without which British missiles could not find their targets.

And it would only happen in the event of a total nuclear war, in which Britain itself could well be annihilated by missiles fired from Chinese nuclear submarines.

So in the end, David Cameron was effectively helpless. All he could do was to sit, watch and pray, just like everyone else.

Others, however, were not sitting and waiting.

Just as 9/11 had been a good day to bury bad news, so this was a good day to get away with bad behaviour. For Israel, it presented a golden opportunity to strike at a target on which it had long had its cross-hairs sighted: Iran’s two ­uranium enrichment plants at Esfehan and Natanz.

Kim Jong Il: North Korean leader visits newly built apartment houses in Pyongyang

Israel had never confirmed or denied that it possessed nuclear weapons, but had long been assumed to do so. The assumption proved to be ­correct as a volley of submarine-launched Cruise missiles, each armed with nuclear warheads, ensured that, whatever its purpose, Iran’s enrichment programme no longer existed.

Israel’s enemies were equally opportunistic.

From his base in the mountainous Waziristan region of Pakistan, Osama bin Laden sent messages to Al Qaeda’s satellite organisations in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, North Africa and Europe.

Long-term plans for terrorist ­missions were to be activated as soon as possible.
On the basis that his enemy’s enemy was his friend, Bin Laden had sided with China. Now he would cause the maximum possible havoc as a means of demonstrating his support.
In Washington, Obama tried again for peace, pleading with the ­Chinese to see reason. He called for them to cease all attacks on the ­U.S., its forces and its allies, and withdraw Chinese troops from the Korean peninsula.

Arguing that the Chinese had made an unprovoked nuclear attack on the U.S., President Obama demanded the cancellation of all American debt to China as reparation for the destruction of the U.S. facilities on Guam and in Wyoming. The Chinese government were given just one hour to respond.

Twenty minutes went by...30...no word from Beijing. At the 40-minute mark, the launch procedure was initiated for more than 50 U.S. ­missiles armed with multiple warheads, each of which could destroy a city.

Worryingly, U.S. spy satellites were now reporting activity at all known ­Chinese nuclear missile sites. They were preparing for action.

Fifty minutes...at the UN, more than 150 nations called on the U.S. and China to seek peace.

Fifty-five minutes...the hardened tops of the U.S. missile silos drew back to reveal the apocalyptic weapons that lay within.

In Moscow, Putin was lost in thought, running through different moves in his head like a chess grand master.

Fifty-six minutes...57...Obama looked to the heavens and ­muttered a prayer of forgiveness for what was about to be done at his command.

At 58 minutes, Vladimir Putin reached for his telephone and ordered that he be put through to the leaders of the U.S. and China. The connection process took another agonisingly long 30 seconds.


Torched: South Korean activists burn a North Korean national flag and anti-North Korea placards during a protest in Seoul

Putin did not mince his words. He pointed out that any full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and China would cripple both nations.

It would also leave Russia as the one country on earth with an intact, large-scale nuclear arsenal. The lone superpower.

If the two leaders wished to destroy one another for Russia’s benefit, Putin had no objection. But if they wished to seek peace, even at this late stage, he was ­prepared to act as an honest broker.

‘Hold the countdown!’ Obama barked.

Now, silence fell on the line as the Chinese President Hu Jintao ­considered his options.

Obama was the first to speak: ‘Mr President, I can restart the countdown at any time.’
His voice was calm, but the threat in the words was overwhelming.

‘Very well,’ said Hu Jintao. ‘We will talk.’

War had, for now, been averted. The American eagle and the ­Chinese dragon had laid down their arms.

But as the world rejoiced at its deliverance from catastrophe, the Russian bear, its power and prestige restored to all its former glory, was preparing to growl once again.

And as the nuclear fallout from Israel’s strikes settled in Iran, the Islamic world became more ­determined to destroy the Jewish state.

And so, at this moment of ­apparent peace, a second nuclear ­conflict was already looming...


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...#ixzz180P02zV0

[vector7]

North Korea Says U.S., Allies Aiming to Provoke ‘All-Out War’

December 11, 2010, 7:56 PM EST

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea said the U.S. is promoting military hysteria in South Korea and Japan to provoke an “all-out war” that will spread outside the Korean Peninsula.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to the phase of an all-out war due to the reckless provocations of the U.S.” and its allies, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported late yesterday, citing a statement from a spokesman for the country’s National Peace Committee of Korea.

The mobilization of South Korean, Japanese and U.S. air, land and sea forces will mean the conflict won’t be “confined to a local war,” KCNA said. North Korea’s army and people “are ready for both an escalated war and an all-out war.”

North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island last month, the first such attack on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War, raised tensions already heightened by the March sinking of a South Korean warship. An international panel said the sinking was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

The warship case and the island shelling incident have been “cooked up” by the U.S. and its allies, KCNA cited the spokesman as saying yesterday. North Korea has said last month’s shelling was in response to a military provocation after South Korea fired into waters each country claims as its own.

China Talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met with China’s State Councilor Dai Bingguo in Pyongyang last week and “reached important consensus” on issues of the Korean peninsula, China’s Foreign Ministry said at the time.

China must “lead and guide North Korea to a better future,” U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said while visiting Tokyo last week. China suffers from “myopia” in failing to persuade North Korea to change its behavior, he said.

China responded by saying Mullen was increasing tensions in the region rather than defusing them.

“Those persons making accusations against China, I ask what kind of efforts has he done to promote regional stability and peace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Dec. 9. “Military threats cannot solve problems and can only increase tensions.”

China has refused to take sides in the standoff between North Korea and South Korea while criticizing regional military exercises by the U.S., South Korea and Japan in recent weeks as counterproductive.

Six-Nation Forum

The U.S., Japan and South Korea rejected China’s Nov. 28 proposal to reconvene six-nation negotiations over dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program, saying Kim’s regime has failed to fulfill previous agreements. Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week met her Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Washington.

The six-nation talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, China, the U.S., Japan and Russia, stalled in April 2009. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun left Pyongyang yesterday for a visit to Russia, KCNA reported.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will travel to North Korea this week on a “private visit,” State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said Dec. 8 in Washington. Richardson, who has been to North Korea several times, will likely share details of his trip with the State Department when he returns, Crowley said.

Japan plans to deploy additional forces nationwide against the threat of a North Korean missile attack, Kyodo news service reported yesterday, citing unidentified government and self- defense forces officials.

[American Patriot]

The words have ramped up folks. NOW keep your eyes open for outward hostilities that might trigger something bigger.

[BRVoice]

The words have ramped up folks. NOW keep your eyes open for outward hostilities that might trigger something bigger.

I feel the same Rick.

[BRVoice]

North Korean Defectors Ask to Help Fight Their Former Homeland
VOANews - December 13, 2010
Steve Herman | Seoul


Since the November 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong island, there has been rising anger in South Korea. Many South Koreans are angry at what they consider their government's mild response to the attack, which killed four people. Among those who want tougher action is a group of North Korean defectors.


NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS SPEAK UP

North Korean defectors who served in the communist state's military are asking to be allowed to take on their former comrades.

A group called the North Korea Peoples Liberation Front on Monday delivered a petition to the South Korean defense ministry. They want permission to become a special force to help end the communist government in the North.

Kim Seong-min is the organization's chairman. Kim says if they are given rifles, they will march to the front lines, such as Yeonpyeong island, which was hit by North Korean shells last month.

Park Chun-guk says he is a former commander of a North Korean special forces division.

Park says a thief knows what other thieves might do. Likewise, he says, the former North Korean soldiers understand the situation in the North, as well as the tactics and the mindset of its soldiers.


DEFECTORS OUTLOOK

The defectors predict North Korea's provocations against the South will continue. That is because heir apparent Kim Jong Un needs to demonstrate credibility as a leader, much as his father, Kim Jong Il, did in the 1980's before succeeding his late father, Kim Il Sung.

More than 20,000 defectors from the North live in South Korea.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since 1953 when three years of conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Tension between the two has been high since the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in March. An international investigation concluded that the Cheonan was hit by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies any involvement.

The North, however, did acknowledge last month's shelling of Yeonpyeong. It says the attack was justified because a South Korean military exercise on the island fired shells into disputed waters off the west coast.

South Korea is conducting a second consecutive week of live-fire exercises. Officials have not confirmed whether any firing will take place in the disputed maritime region.

Pyongyang says such exercises, along with recent naval maneuvers the United States has conducted with South Korea and Japan, are bringing the Korean peninsula closer to war.

[American Patriot]

Mullen just addressed the troops. Basically he stated that the threat of war has increased drastically. There is no more tit-for-tat with South Korea.
They will certainly defend themselves.

A few moments before this, KT Mcfarland (former Asst. Sec Def under Reagan) was on FNC addressing nearly the same thing. She stated that there was going to be no more attack for attack. If South Korea is attacked again, they will go all out.

And she went on to point out that "the United States is a defensive partner" and all that entails.

We will get dragged into this if NK shoots again.

Thus, China (she pointed out this as well) has done nothing at all to stop the North's belligerence. China will be dragged in as well as the US.

This will get ugly, very quickly.

See the Thermonuclear War thread, and pay heed to the various messages there. Please.

[BRVoice]

Top US officer says risk of war rising in Koreas
By ANNE GEARAN - Dec 13, 2010 2:17 PM GMT-0200
By The Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) - The top US military officer says the danger of war or hostilities is rising on the Korean peninsula.

Adm. Mike Mullen says North Korea has raised the ante in its aggression against South Korea.

Mullen told troops on Monday that the old tit for tat pattern with North Korea has changed. He said the North's provocations are tied to preparations for leader Kim Jong Ill's son to take power.

Copyright © 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.