Korean Peninsula On The Brink Of War

[vector7]

I don't know, we have seen NK go on tirades before in the past; however it usually should have subsided by now...but look who's in office.

This is beginning destabilize the region in ways we haven't fully comprehended yet.

I am wondering if this isn't all being carefully choreographed Axis strategy to permanently wean American Hegemony from the region.

[BRVoice]

Good point vector7. Did you read the Nyquist article that I posted? It has some very thoughtful ideas about the plans of the axis.

[American Patriot]

I think we have begun to understand it.

Remember here most of us are amateurs when it comes to intelligence collection - and some have had some minor experience with it over the years.

Altogether, I think the people on this site have a very good understanding.... I can't in any way say that the "real data collectors" out there haven't figured it out much better than we have at this point.

[vector7]

Yes I did, I like JRN a lot. Thanks for posting it!

JR has some very insightful understanding of Axis war strategy that even slips by some of our Military analysts.

Did you see my post about Japan wanting to go Nuclear?

This is in direct correlation to Japan's confidence in our current political elite.

If Japan goes nuclear because America can no longer be trusted to protect her what does that say to the rest of the region, if not the world?

[BRVoice]

vector7 yes I've read it, it's terrible that the United States have to pass to something like this.

You know, sometimes I think the US in the WW2 must have follow the advice of General Patton.

I don't remember exactly the quote but he said that the US Army should go to Moscow and destroy the soviets, because he saw them as the real threat to the peace.


I'm from Brazil, and, although it's very off-topic, I've had to say, my country is fucked.

My hope still lies in the power of USA to counter this Axis. I don't know if you are aware that our elect president, Dilma Vania Rousseff was member of terrorist groups.


This is an excerpt from the good Blog - Once Upon A Time in the West:


"Following last Sunday’s run-off vote for the Brazilian presidency, South America’s largest country remains firmly in the camp of the Latin American Red Axis. Former urban guerrilla Dilma Rousseff won the election against her opponent Jose Serra, past governor of Sao Paulo state. Rousseff is a cadre of the ruling center-left Workers’ Party (PT) and outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s anointed successor. The daughter of a Bulgarian communist who found exile in Brazil between the two world wars, Rousseff enjoys the glowing endorsement of Venezuela’s red tyrant, Hugo Chavez. The PT governs in coalition with several other parties, including the Communist Party of Brazil.

Following her victory, Brazil’s next leader conferred by telephone with Chavez, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and US President Barack Hussein Obama. Rousseff also met with personal allies like former finance minister Antonio Palocci to discuss her transition to power, Rousseff’s foreign policy adviser Marco Aurelio Garcia told reporters in Brasilia on Monday.

The country’s first female president vowed her main goal is to eradicate poverty in Brazil while controlling spending. “We’ll care for our economy with complete responsibility,” the 62-year-old Rousseff told supporters in Brasilia. “The Brazilian people don’t accept governments that spend at unsustainable levels and for that reason we will make every effort to improve public spending.”

Brazil’s president-elect will benefit from a majority in Congress. The PT scooped up five additional Senate seats in last month’s preliminary elections, bringing to 14 the number of lawmakers the party has in the 81-seat chamber. Parties backing the government will control another 35. In Congress’ lower house Rousseff’s coalition obtained 311 of 513 seats.

Rousseff joins a shortlist of female presidents in Latin America, including Argentina’s Kirchner and Costa Rica’s Laura Chinchilla. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet stepped down earlier this year to make way for center-right opponent Sebastian Pinera. However, Rousseff joins a somewhat longer list of over-the-hill ex-guerrillas who occupy presidential and vice-presidential posts in the Western Hemisphere.

Investors will eyeball Rousseff’s cabinet picks for clues to how serious she is about controlling spending, explained Marcela Meirelles, an emerging-market analyst with TCW Group Inc. Returning campaign adviser Palocci to his former post as finance minister, she predicted, would trigger a “huge rally,” especially in fixed-income assets.

This would be an intriguing development because in 2005 Brazil's Media without Mask website exposed Palocci, Lula's 2002 campaign manager, as the unofficial Brazilian contact for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. For his part, Garcia, mentioned above, is a "hard-line Marxist" and past executive secretary of the subversive Sao Paulo Forum. Marxist Rousseff has surrounded herself with ideological kin who have thus far successfully disguised their true color."

[American Patriot]

Side note... I visited Brazil in the 1980s. When I went there, I forget the exact exchange rate, but it was something like 2000 to 1 USD. When I left (I was there about a month) it was closer to 20,000 to 1 USD.

Inflation was horrendous. However, I have to say I enjoyed the visit to Manaus for most of my trip, and a side stop in Rio for a day. The people were kind and nice, I don't remember seeing any jerks, or idiots. Then again, I wasn't in any bad parts of the cities.

Ok, back to the regularly schedule Korean War....

[BRVoice]

Weather likely to postpone live-fire drill off border island

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) - South Korea's live-fire drill that was expected as early as this weekend off a front-line island will likely be moved back a day or two because of bad weather, a military source said Saturday, following North Korea's warning of a fresh attack.

The decision came less than a day after North Korea warned Friday evening that it will strike back with "deadlier" firepower if the South goes ahead with its planned exercise off Yeonpyeong Island, which the North bombarded last month. The shelling killed two civilians and two marines.

South Korea's military planned to hold the one-day drill between Saturday and Tuesday, in what would be the first such maneuver on Yeonpyeong Island since the Nov. 23 attack. But a military source, requesting anonymity, told Yonhap News Agency that the exercise is not likely to happen during the weekend because of worsening weather conditions.

"Given that the maritime weather conditions around Yeonpyeong Island are expected to worsen from this afternoon, we decided that it'd be difficult for the military to hold a live-fire drill," the source said.

"Weather conditions are the most important factor in deciding the time for a drill. Early next week will be the most likely time to hold it because the weather should improve," the source said.

[BRVoice]

Since the schedule of the drills are between 18-21, to me this is NOT a postponement.

[BRVoice]

DPRK demands withdrawal of US troops from South Korea - paper

PYONGYANG, December 17 (Itar-Tass) - The newspaper Rodong Shinmun, which expresses the opinion of the DPRK leadership, demanded that the United States withdraw its troops from South Korea and conclude with Pyongyang a peace treaty instead of the agreement on armistice which is in force now. The article stresses that the situation in the Korean Peninsula "has extremely aggravated through the fault of the United States which tries by all means to stifle the people's republic."

[BRVoice]

DPRK Spokesman Slams US, Japan and S. Korea's War Moves

Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea issued a statement on Friday denouncing the U.S., Japan and the south Korean puppet forces for further stepping up the moves to tighten the military nexus and ignite a war against the DPRK than ever before under the pretext of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. staged the largest-ever combined exercises with the south Korean puppet forces in the East and West seas of Korea with aircraft carrier involved under the pretext of the warship sinking incident and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident. It also staged joint military exercises with Japan in waters close to the peninsula, letting officers concerned of the south Korean puppet forces and the Japan "Self-Defense Forces" observe them, the statement noted, and went on:

They have intensified the moves to tighten their nexus for aggression and knock into shape a triangular military alliance among them under the pretext of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. This shows with added clarity for what purpose they triggered off the warship sinking case and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident.

The recent development clearly indicates that the Japan-south Korea system of joint military actions and the triangular military alliance with the U.S. imperialists as an axis have already come into being to go operational.

The dangerous nexus between the U.S. and its followers only results in straining the situation on the peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia, sparking off a new arms race and increasing the danger of war worldwide.

The U.S., Japan and the south Korean puppet forces would be well advised to properly know about Songun Korea and behave themselves as it inflicted shameful setbacks and bitter defeats upon the aggressors of two imperialisms in the past big wars fought against them in the last century and is now demonstrating its honor and dignity in the nuclear stand-off with the imperialist allied forces.

The reckless military nexus and the anachronistic moves to knock into shape the triangular military alliance are bound to go bust in face of the trend of the times towards justice and peace.

[BRVoice]

KPA Demands S. Korea to Stop Shelling from Yonphyong

Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- The puppet warmongers of south Korea are set to fire again shells into the territorial waters of the DPRK north of the maritime guard line of the Korean People's Army from December 18 to 21 by mobilizing lots of striking equipment newly introduced into the island, blatantly challenging the unanimous aspiration and demand of the people at home and abroad desirous of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.

They are floating information that the projected shelling from Yonphyong Island is a routine annual drill to be periodically conducted in waters of the south side south of the "northern limit line".

The waters off Yonphyong Island, the target of their shelling, are the inviolable territorial waters of the DPRK.

Newly appointed puppet Minister of Defense of south Korea Kim Kwan Jin and other puppet military warmongers, far from drawing a due lesson from the last provocative shelling incident on Yonphyong Island, are set to perpetrate new military provocations. They are letting loose a spate of such reckless remarks as "the exercise of the right to self-defense," "severe punishment by combined combat forces" including strike flying corps and "not ruling out an all-out war leading to striking enemy's bases" and the like.

It is the ulterior intention of the newly installed puppet military to save the face of the south Korean military which met a disgraceful fiasco by perpetrating the second adventurous shelling from Yonphyong Island. Through this the group of traitors craftily seeks to save its hardline policy towards the north, a policy against the nation, peace and reunification, from total failure and preserve the illegal "northern limit line".

No one in the world would allow those who drew a line inside other's court, without its owner's knowledge, and insist it belongs to them and shamelessly conduct saber-rattling to preserve it.

What should not be overlooked is that even the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces present in south Korea are openly shielding the puppet military warmongers' shelling exercises on Yonphyong Island, asserting that it is "not a violation of the Armistice Agreement."

Even riff-raffs belonging to the already defunct Military Armistice Commission are coming to the island under the guise of "observers" in a bid to take a direct part in providing military assistance to the provocative shelling drill in communication, medical care, etc.

The head of the delegation of the KPA side to the north-south general-level military talks sent the following notice to the south Korean puppet forces at 12:20 on Friday in connection with the fact that the puppet military warmongers' reckless military provocations reached a grave phase under the wire-pulling of their American master:

The puppet military warmongers should take a prompt measure to stop the planned provocative maritime shelling from Yonphyong Island.

In case they conduct the above-said shelling at last despite the warning served by the KPA in advance, it will deal the second and third unpredictable self-defensive blow at them to protect the inviolable territorial waters of the DPRK as it had declared before the world.

It will be deadlier than what was made on Nov. 23 in terms of the powerfulness and sphere of the strike.

The south Korean group of traitors and the puppet military warmongers had better cogitate about the KPA's warning.

[BRVoice]

Implementation of Inter-Korean Declarations Called for

Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- The June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration serve as declarations for preserving peace as they clearly indicate the orientation and ways for the Koreans to tide over the prevailing grave situation, building a lasting peace-keeping mechanism and achieving reunification and prosperity, observes Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article.

The declarations pave the way for preserving peace and reflect the aspiration and desire of all the compatriots for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, the article notes, and goes on:

The U.S. is egging the south Korean warmongers onto confrontation and war in a bid to make the north and the south fight against each other with arms, but there is no ground for them to stand in armed confrontation and fight each other as they should work together for national reunification.

If a war breaks out on the peninsula, it will be Koreans who will suffer from it and it will give outside forces a chance to fish in troubled waters. The Korean nation sufficiently experienced this in the last Korean War.

The Koreans, no matter where they are, call for reconciliation and peace, not confrontation and war as they are well aware that peace alone can bring the country's reunification and the prosperity of the nation.

The said declarations serve as a banner for the Korean nation's struggle to check and frustrate the aggression and war moves of the bellicose forces at home and abroad and achieve the peaceful reunification of the country.

It is only the foreign aggressor forces and their lackeys the south Korean conservative forces that seek confrontation and war on the peninsula.

All the Koreans aspiring after peace and security and peaceful reunification of the peninsula are called upon to hold fast to the declarations and wage a more dynamic nationwide struggle to implement them.

[BRVoice]

US Can Never Evade Its Responsibility for Ensuring Peace in Korea

Pyongyang, December 17 (KCNA) -- With no rhetoric can the United States evade its responsibility for ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article.

It goes on:

The situation is getting extremely tense on the Korean Peninsula due to the U.S. persistent policy to stifle the DPRK. This runs diametrically counter to the ardent desire of the Korean people for the reunification and peace of the country and adversely affects the peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world.

There has never been peace in south Korea and its vicinity due to the movement and deployment of huge U.S. forces of aggression and their war exercises. As a result, the Korean Peninsula has turned into a scene of acute military confrontation.

What is essential for ensuring peace on the peninsula is to put an end to the U.S. military presence in south Korea.

It is an empty talk to discuss the issue of peace of the peninsula with the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces staying in south Korea.

It is sheer sophism for the U.S. to paint its forces in south Korea as "deterrent forces" to cope with the "threat" from someone. It is a revelation of its criminal intention to keep south Korea under permanent occupation and ignite a war of aggression against the DPRK any moment. The U.S. should pull its forces out of south Korea. This is an unavoidable responsibility to be fulfilled by the U.S. for ensuring peace on the peninsula. The continued state of armistice is the biggest hurdle lying in the way of defusing the tension and ensuring peace on the peninsula.

For the U.S. to replace the Armistice Agreement by a peace treaty is its important task for averting a war and ensuring peace on the peninsula.

The Korean Peninsula remains a region fraught with the greatest danger of war in the world. This is entirely attributable to the U.S. pursuance of the policy of aggression against the DPRK.

The U.S. would be well advised to face up to the demand of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the trend of the times and fulfill all its obligations.

[BRVoice]

Steve Herman from Twitter:

1. NM Gov. Richardson, in Pyonygyang, to CNN today: "This is a tinderbox." #DPRK #Koreas 27 minutes ago via TweetDeck
2. #ROK Yeonpyeong live-fire drill, which was to start as soon as today, likely delayed a day or two due to weather, per military sources. 29 minutes ago via TweetDeck
3. Broadcast repeats earlier Korean language statement vowing another strike on #ROK soil if artillery fired into Yellow Sea from Yeonpyeong. 35 minutes ago via TweetDeck
4. #DPRK radio news calls #ROK Yeonpyeong drill a "crafty attempt of traitors to maintain their hardline military policy" against N. Korea. 36 minutes ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

Sam Kim - egalite_twitted:

1. @portlandsam I have seen few reports concerning step-up in border troops. It's already a very fortified border. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to portlandsam
2. Worth serious reading RT @5woodrabbit Defending Korea Line Seen Contrary to Law http://t.co/HvLcVwJ Kissinger in 1973: NLL contrary to law about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

[BRVoice]

This article show what could be an target to the North Koreans:


Korea at risk for power shortage

[NEWS IN FOCUS] Electricity consumption peaked on Thursday
To save energy, Kepco advises people to reduce indoor temperatures from 20 degrees Celsius to 18 degrees.
December 18, 2010
JoongAng Daily

Korea is facing a state of emergency in its electricity supply as the cold weather is requiring families to consume more energy to keep warm.

According to the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the country’s electricity consumption so far this winter peaked on Thursday at 71.3 million kilowatts, which is the highest demand ever.

The previous record for the winter season from December to February was set in January this year when demand reached 68.9 million kilowatts. Power demand was also high in August during the summer season from June to August at 69.9 million kilowatts.

“The sudden cold snap caused power demand to reach its peak on Thursday, putting the country’s power supply at risk,” a Kepco official said, noting that it has devised measures to maintain supply-and-demand balance and will be equipped with enough power reserves in an emergency. Korea’s temperature fell to minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday morning, the lowest recorded so far this winter.

As part of its emergency prevention measures, the corporation saved up to 1.5 million kilowatts of electricity on Wednesday and Thursday, which allowed it to raise the country’s reserve power volume to 4.4 million kilowatts, or 6.2 percent of supply.

On those days, the corporation had offered incentives to families and industrial firms that reduced their power usage by more than 3,000 kilowatts of energy to decrease power consumption.

“To save energy, we advised our employees to reduce the indoor temperature from 20 degrees Celsius - which is the government’s maximum recommended level - to 18 degrees Celsius and to turn off the heat during peak hours - from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m.,” the official said. “We are also asking all families and firms to reduce the volume of energy used in heating systems and participate in energy-saving measures.”

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy had warned last month that the country’s power consumption would hit an all-time high this winter, possibly recording up to 72.5 million kilowatts. This year, demand for electricity has increased 5.1 percent from the previous winter when total energy consumption was 68.9 million kilowatts.

“One of the ways that Korea can overcome the risk to energy supply and demand that it faces every summer and winter is to raise the price of electricity,” said a ministry official.

The government raised the price of electricity for homes and industry by up to 3.5 percent in August, but industry officials argue the price should be raised higher because they blame the excessive energy use on low electricity prices.

A recent report released by the state-run Korea Development Institute noted that the country’s energy usage is 1.7 times more than the average for member nations of the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development.

While the average for OECD nations was 0.339 kilowatt hours per one dollar’s worth of GDP, Korea’s average was 0.580 kilowatt hours.

By Lee Eun-joo [angie@joongang.co.kr]

[BRVoice]

In North Korea, New Mexico governor says situation is a 'tinderbox'
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 18, 2010 - Updated 0129 GMT (0929 HKT)

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Saturday he is concerned about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, where he is urging "maximum" restraint ahead of scheduled military exercises.

"This is a tinderbox," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who is traveling with the governor in North Korea. "Right now, my objective is to say -- tamp things down."

Both Koreas have traded tough talk and conducted aggressive military drills in the weeks after North Korea shelled a South Korean island last month.

The tough talk continued Friday as North Korea warned it would launch a military strike against the South if Seoul goes ahead with live-fire drills near Yeonpyeong Island during the next few days, North Korea's state-run KCNA reported.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that the exercises would take place in the seas southwest of the island between December 18 and 21.

Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, arrived in North Korea Thursday on a four-day trip he hopes will help to ease tensions in the region.

"Let's cool things down. No response. Let the exercises take place," said Richardson, who added: "On all sides, I'm urging restraint."

He met with a vice minister of North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday and is scheduled to meet with North Korea's senior nuclear negotiator Kim Gye Gwan on Saturday. The governor is also expected to meet with a top military leader while in North Korea, though he did not say who.

"Meeting a top military person is significant," said Richardson, who has hosted a North Korean delegation in New Mexico in the past. "Hopefully, we can keep things from firing up."

"My sense from the North Koreans is they are trying to find ways to tamp this down ... Maybe that will continue today. That's my hope," he said.

Richardson is not in North Korea as an official U.S. envoy.

Tensions mounted between the Koreas on November 23, when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, which lies in South Korean territory. The attack killed two marines and two civilians and injured 18 people.

The North has accused the South of provoking the attack because shells from a South Korean military drill landed in the North's waters.

Last month's attack was the first direct artillery assault on South Korea since 1953, when an armistice ended fighting.

The U.S. military has said it is concerned that South Korea's scheduled exercises could spark an uncontrollable clash with the North, but the State Department said the exercises are not meant to be threatening or provocative.

Still, the Obama administration and South Korea have established contingency communication plans in the event North Korea retaliates against the South for holding military exercises, a U.S. military official said Friday.

The scheduled South Korea exercise has sparked concern from Washington to Moscow. Russia asked South Korea to cancel the drills after North Korea vowed to strike back if they proceed.

"It's obviously a very, very tense situation," said CNN's Blitzer. "People are very very worried that one miscalculation could cause a disaster."

[BRVoice]

China urges S. Korea to refrain from planned live-fire drill off border island: source

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) -- China has expressed its concern over South Korea's imminent live-fire drill off a front-line island attacked by the North last month and urged restraint to diffuse mounting tensions, a government source here said Saturday.

The drill off Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea was expected to begin as early as this weekend but will likely be moved back a day or two because of bad weather, according to South Korean military officials.

[BRVoice]

2ID Holiday Reception Postponed
by Secondinfdiv Pao on Friday, December 17, 2010 at 6:05pm

The 2nd Infantry Division Holiday Reception Scheduled for Dec. 18, 2010 at the Dragon Hill Lodge has been postponed until Jan. 2, 2011.
Please accept our apologizes for any inconvenience this will cause. New invitations have been sent electronically. If you have questions or concerns contact the 2nd Inf. Div protocol office at 010-2053-4078.

[BRVoice]

United States Forces Korea | Community Message #8

The ROK will conduct an exercise in the vicinity of Yeongpyeong Island sometime between Dec. 18-21. This is recurring and normal training to maintain the unit's mission readiness. The US Embassy and USFK do not assess there has been an increase in the threat environment in South Korea. We will keep you posted of any changes. Please continue with your normal routines. GEN Walter L. Sharp, Commander UNC/CFC/USFK