Korean Peninsula On The Brink Of War

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/egalite_twitted

SKorean stock market already dipping sharply below 2,000-point mark. We NEED a diplomatic breakthrough, not just hope NKorea is bluffing. 7 minutes ago via web

[American Patriot]

This thing about put fake artillery guns on its West Coast is a VERY BAD SIGN

yeah. That means they expect the US to attack. These guys aren't stupid. They KNOW someone is going to start somnething so they want to make sure they dont get the actual guns attacked.

[BRVoice]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...nsions/?hpt=T2


South Korea orders residents to take shelter in anticipation of drills
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 20, 2010 - Updated 0146 GMT (0946 HKT)

(CNN) - South Korea ordered residents of Yeonpyeong Island and four border islands to take shelter Monday in preparation of military exercises on the same day an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council ended with no unified statement on the controversial issue.

The drills have raised fears of a new conflict with North Korea.

An approximate 8,000 residents have been ordered to take cover in Yeonpyeong, Baengnyeong, Daecheong, Socheong and Udo.Typical protocol is for the drills to begin two hours after the notification of residents, though the country's military declined to confirm the exact timing of the scheduled exercises.

North Korea said over the weekend that the planned exercises were designed to violate the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and "ignite war at any cost." At the United Nations, nearly eight hours of emergency Security Council talks on the standoff ended Sunday without a unified statement, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

Russia called for the emergency session over the weekend to defuse the crisis over South Korea's scheduled live-fire military exercises off Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by North Korea in November. Churkin warned darkly that the world could be faced with a "serious conflict" within hours, and that the international community has "no game plan on the diplomatic side."

"Within hours there may be a serious aggravation of tension - a serious conflict, for that matter," he said.

Churkin told reporters that Moscow continues to call for restraint on both sides, but said the Security Council had been "not entirely successful" in reaching consensus among its 15 members. He disclosed few details of the session, but said members disagreed over whether to include a condemnation of the North Korean shelling, which left four dead.

Across the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border set up by the 1953 armistice, South Korean workers were being barred from entering the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the country's Unification Ministry reported. The factory district is the last remnant of South Korea's "Sunshine Policy" of encouraging links with the communist North.

Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday he was "extremely worried" that North Korea will respond militarily to the exercises. But he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer from Pyongyang, "I don't see any action on both sides while the Security Council is meeting."

Richardson has been meeting with high-level officials on an unofficial, four-day trip to North Korea. He said he hoped the Security Council would produce a statement expressing "extreme concern" over the standoff and urging restraint.

"This may give cover to both sides not to act. That's my fervent hope," he said.

Russia requested Sunday's emergency Security Council meeting and proposed a draft statement, proposing amendments which Western nations said would place more of the blame on North Korea, diplomats said. But they said the major holdout was China, the North's closest ally, which refuses to agree on any statement that even mentions the Yeonpyeong shelling.

Russia and China, both permanent Security Council members, have asked South Korea to reconsider its planned drills. Sunday's closed-door session was held with representatives of both North and South Korea present and speaking.

Earlier, a South Korean military official told the country's state-run Yonhap news agency that Seoul would not be deterred by threats from the North.

"The planned firing drill is part of the usual exercises conducted by our troops based on Yeonpyeong Island. The drill can be justifiable, as it will occur within our territorial waters," the official said.

Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since the North fired upon the island last month, killing two marines and two civilians. The South Korean military had said Thursday that the exercises would take place in the seas southwest of the island between December 18 and 21, but adverse weather forced a delay Saturday.

"We won't take into consideration North Korean threats and diplomatic situations before holding the live-fire drill. If weather permits, it will be held as scheduled," the military official said.

Meanwhile, North Korea was beefing up its military forces on its west coast ahead of the South's planned drills, Yonhap reported, citing a South Korean government official.

"The North Korean artillery unit along the Yellow Sea has raised its preparedness level," the source said.

Yeonpyeong is located in the Yellow Sea, just south of the Northern Limit Line -- the maritime boundary drawn in 1953 by the United Nations just after the Korean War. The line is three nautical miles from the North Korean coast.

In the absence of a full peace agreement between the two Koreas, the Northern Limit Line remains in place. North Korea has suggested an alternative line, but South Korea has resisted, as it would bring the North's maritime boundary close to Incheon, a main port.

A North Korean spokesman over the weekend said that the planned military exercises were a "sinister design" to violate the Korea Armistice Agreement and "ignite war at any cost."

"The shelling to be perpetrated by the puppet forces of south Korea at last, trespassing on the prohibiting line would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean Peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster," the spokesman said, according to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea blamed the United States for allegedly egging on the South Koreans.

North Korea "will force the U.S. to pay dearly for all the worst situations prevailing on the peninsula and its ensuing consequences," the spokesman said.

CNN's Jiyeon Lee in Seoul and Richard Roth and Whitney Hurst at the United Nations contributed to this report.

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/egalite_twitted

SKorea says drill to begin at 1:00 PM or later. Window remains open for another two hours or so. 11 minutes ago via twtkr

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/W7VOA

Steve Herman from Twitter:

Yonhap: No live-firing of artillery on Yeonpyeong before 1300 local (0400UTC) due to fog. #Koreas 8 minutes ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/W7VOA

Steve Herman from Twitter:

Re the USAF bombers on Guam, 36th Wing says it "cannot comment on operational status of aircraft." #Koreas 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/W7VOA

Steve Herman from Twitter:

#ROK artillery drill on Yeonpyeong set to begin in 90 mins. & to last 2 hrs per defense officials here. #Koreas 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

1. The Pentagon press folks are starting to get nervous. That is a not so trivial sign of events in #koreas less than 20 seconds ago via Twitter for Android
2. W7VOA #ROK artillery drill on Yeonpyeong set to begin in 90 mins. & to last 2 hrs per defense officials here. #Koreas 7 minutes ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by Galrahn and 24 others

[BRVoice]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news...04500315F.HTML


N. Korea calls for unity as tension soars along sea border with S. Korea

By Sam Kim

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) - North Korea called on its people on Monday to unite in a campaign "to oppose war and uphold peace" as tension soars along the western sea border ahead of South Korea's planned artillery drills.

The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, argued that doing so is "crucial to keeping alive the fate of the Korean nation and rooting out the deepening danger of war," saying the situation on the peninsula is "running toward the brink of war."

The nine-paragraph editorial could be a call for internal unity as South Korea prepares to conduct a live-fire drill off its western frontline island that North Korea shelled last month. It may also be an excuse to justify Pyongyang's action should tension along the inter-Korean border turn more serious.

North Korea has vowed to retaliate with "deadlier" firepower should South Korea go ahead with the drill, which, according to officials, is set to take place at 1:00 p.m. or later on Monday.

North Korea does not respect the de facto Yellow Sea border that the bombarded island is located about 10 kilometers away from. Its foreign ministry said any shells fired from Yeonpyeong are bound to fall on its side.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council failed to work out a statement that would pressure the divided Koreas to stop the escalation of border tensions. U.S. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in North Korea in a last-minute effort to defuse the tension.

Two marines and two civilians were killed when the North bombarded Yeonpyeong on Nov. 23. South Korea imposed a travel ban on North Korea the following day even though exceptions have since been allowed to prevent a halt in production at their joint industrial complex in the North. Seoul said Sunday no exceptions will be allowed until the tension surrounding Yeonpyeong subsides.

samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/egalite_twitted

It feels surreal to see on TV a Korean lady beaming a lovely smile as she forecasts fog will clear up on Y'pyeong ahead of live-fire drill. 4 minutes ago via web

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

Global Strike Command issued special alert in preparation for #korea drill on Dec 18. 1 minute ago via Twitter for Android

[BRVoice]

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

Amateur radio affiliate 'Sky Watchers' in Guam reporting 'unusually heavy USAF traffic' at Anderson Air Force Base. 3 minutes ago via Twitter for Android

[BRVoice]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/...122000935.html


S.Korea to Switch DMZ Floodlights Back On

The military has decided to switch on a floodlight tower at Aegibong Peak on the western frontline for the first time in seven years, amid fears that the North is getting ready to shoot at the contraption.

"We've recently detected signs of the North Korean military watching the tower" at the mouth of the Han River in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province "as if they are preparing to shoot at it," a government source said Sunday.

About a dozen North Korean officers and soldiers at a time have lined up to watch the tower through binoculars as South Korean personnel prepared to switch it on.

The floodlights were turned off when top brass from the two Koreas agreed to stop propaganda activities along the military demarcation line in June 2004. But in the wake of the North's sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, the military decided to resume their operation as part of psychological warfare.

The tower is intact and is expected to be switched on Tuesday. The military suspects that North Korean soldiers will take pot shots at the tower with their rifles once that happens.

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 20, 2010 11:42 KST

[BRVoice]

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/...20101220000673

Gov't to create citizen volunteer unit to beef up civil defense
The Korea Herald
2010-12-20 12:03

The government will create a new civil defense corps next year consisting of volunteers from women and middle-aged men, as part of efforts to beef up the nation's defense posture in the face of North Korea's constant military threats, the home affairs ministry said Monday.

All able-bodied men in South Korea must fulfill about 24 months of military service and are required to serve in the reserves for seven years after completing their active duty. Males aged 20-40 who were not drafted for military service or who complete reserve service are recruited for service in Civil Defense Corps to protect lives and property of civilians during wartime and natural disasters. The existing corps has 3.93 million members nationwide.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said the new civil defense corps will be established by September with about 30,000 volunteers, including men in their 40s or older, technicians and women who do not belong to the incumbent Civil Defense Corps.

The so-called "Volunteer Civil Defense Corps" will have a similar role as the regular civil defense corps -- local reconnaissance and reporting, organization, guidance and control of the people -- according to Kim Hyeong-ho, an official of the National Emergency Management Agency.

He noted that the volunteers will also be in charge of helping recovery and rescue operations and maintaining communications systems during wartime and natural disasters.

Female members, in particular, will be put to various volunteer activities, such as providing free laundry and meal services to residents of disaster-hit areas, Kim said.

The latest plan to beef up civil defense came amid rising cross-border tensions triggered by North Korea's artillery attack on a South Korean island in November, which killed four.

The home ministry reported the new civil defense plan and other major policy goals for 2011 to President Lee Myung-bak in a briefing session at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Other key policies envisioned by the home ministry included the establishment of a pre-warning system for financially unstable local administrations and the creation of about 50,000 new public jobs nationwide for the unemployed youth and the needy.

In addition, police will create a team of "anti-terrorism on-site inspectors" to intensify surveillance on potential terrorist attacks.

In a measure to help stabilize financial conditions of local governments, the government said it will bar financially unstable local administrations from issuing bonds and build a pre-warning system for detecting danger in the financial health of local administrations.

The government will introduce a smartphone-based system for finding locations of children and elderly citizens on a real-time basis next year.

To encourage the use of bicycles as a means of environment-friendly transportation, the government will build a 225 kilometer-long national bike path and designate 10 hub cities of bike riding, the ministry said.

(Yonhap News)

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/W7VOA

Yonhap: 2 #ROK destroyers forward deployed in Yellow Sea. AFP: #ROK Air Force readied in case of #DPRK attack. #Koreas 8 minutes ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

1. Gordon Chang on CNN - all the elements for casualties on a scale of WWIII are possible. #koreas 4 minutes ago via web
2. Gordon Chang on CNN predicting no response tonight, North Korea will respond at a later date of their choosing 5 minutes ago via web

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

Great quote from a friend who is in the know and will go unnamed: "If North Korea has radar, they see us very clearly right now." less than 20 seconds ago via web

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/W7VOA

Steve Herman from Twitter:

It's 1313KST here -- no confirmation yet that artillery drill has commenced on Yeonpyeong. #Koreas 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

[BRVoice]

http://twitter.com/Galrahn

Both Sejong the Great class destroyers (large South Korean AEGIS destroyers) reported in Yellow Sea near disputed islands half a minute ago via web