Korean Peninsula On The Brink Of War

[American Patriot]

China urges calm, talks between North and South Korea






BEIJING | Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:13am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday urged North and South Korea to show "calm and restraint" and engage in talks as quickly as possible to avoid an escalation of tensions after a deadly shelling incident that killed four South Koreans.


The statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was Beijing's first detailed official response to the incident on Tuesday when North Korea shelled a South Korean island. Unlike other governments in the region, China did not single out North Korea for condemnation.


"China takes this incident very seriously, and expresses pain and regret at the loss of life and property, and we feel anxious about developments," Hong said in a comment on the Ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).


"China strongly urges both North and South Korea exercise calm and restraint, and as quickly as possible engage in dialogue and contacts," said Hong.


China "opposes any actions harmful to the peace and stability" of the Korean peninsula, he also said.


(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

[American Patriot]

Opinion: North Korea manufactured this crisis

By Andrei Lankov, Special to CNN
November 24, 2010 10:22 a.m. EST



Editor's note: Andrei Lankov, a historian of Korea, and a professor of Kookmin University in Seoul, has been watching North Korea for 25 years. He is the author of numerous books on Korea, North and South, including his latest "North of the DMZ: Essays on daily life in North Korea."


(CNN) -- Yesterday afternoon, the worst artillery attack since the end of the Korean War happened in the vicinity of Seoul. North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, killing two civilians and two marines, and destroying a number of buildings there.


Is this attack just another sign of Pyongyang's alleged "irrationality?" Not really. As a matter of fact, the North Korean leaders might be brutal and ruthless, but they are very rational, and always know what they are doing (and normally get what they want.)


This time, North Korean leaders merely reminded Seoul that they are capable of making a lot of trouble if their demands are ignored.


A week earlier, a similar message was delivered to Washington, albeit in a less violent manner: A group of visiting American nuclear scientists was shown a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment plant.


This is a reaction to the current U.S. policy which is known as a "strategic patience," and to somewhat similar approach of Seoul.





The Koreas clash



Geography of the Korea dispute



South Koreans react to crisis



A new leader for North Korea?


This policy came to dominate Washington's thinking after the second nuclear test in May 2009 which demonstrated that North Korea had not the slightest intention to surrender its nuclear program (but, perhaps would not mind freezing it at its current level if payment was good.)


In essence, the "strategic patience" policy implies that the U.S. will not provide any concessions until North Korea demonstrates its "sincere willingness" to denuclearize -- something which is not going to happen, actually.


The right-leaning government of South Korea has adopted the same approach. It decided not to increase the amount of unilateral and unconditional aid to the North -- which has grown dramatically under the earlier leftist-nationalist administrations -- unless North Korea makes some concessions, too.


Washington and Seoul expected that sooner or later the international sanctions will start making an impact on North Korea, so it will have to accept their demands and become a bit more reciprocal. Otherwise, they were in no hurry to deal with Pyongyang.


However, Pyongyang leaders have grown quite impatient with "strategic patience."
Sometimes this is explained as a testimony that sanctions are beginning to bite, but this seems to be a wishful thinking: If anything, the food situation in North Korea is better than it has ever been in the last 16 years (albeit still bad by the standards of the modern world), and the North Korean military is not short of money, as their new and shiny uranium enrichment facility demonstrated.


Nonetheless, it appears that North Korea would like to squeeze more aid from Washington and Seoul largely because they do not want to be too dependent on China which now is the nearly sole provider of aid.


So, North Korean strategists chose to hit the weakest spots of both major donors. Americans worry about proliferation, so they were shown that Pyongyang's nuclear program is advancing fast.


The South Koreans have a different vulnerability. Their efficient but outward-oriented economy depends on the whim of the international markets. Incidents like Yeonpyeong Island shelling are likely to scare markets, which damages the economy, and voters are likely to eventually blame the government for this damage.


The South Korean voters are remarkably indifferent to North Korea, but they are not going to be happy about economic troubles, so a government must know how to keep North Korean regime reasonable or face problems during the elections.


Read more on theories about the attack


It is often stated that the incident has a lot to do with the succession issue in Pyongyang. Perhaps, the unusually violent nature of shelling is indeed related to North Korea's domestic policy. Kim Jong Eun, recently promoted to four-star general, needs the support of the old generals (real ones,) so this might be his way to show himself as a tough warlord, not a spoilt brat who spent his youth in Swiss schools.


However, this is not the major reason: The succession politics might have made the incident more violent than it would be otherwise. But something like this was bound to happen.


This fits well into North Korean established pattern of actions. When Pyongyang believes that more aid and concessions can be extracted, it first manufactures a crisis and then, when tensions are sufficiently high, suggests talks in order to get paid for returning to less dangerous behavior.


Will the crisis lead to a war or prolonged confrontation? Most certainly, not, and North Koreans know it. Neither the U.S. or South Korea are going to start a war. They will win, but the price - especially for Seoul -- will be prohibitively high.


Surgical strikes against military installations will not help, either. The lives of common North Korean soldiers are expendable, and their death will have no impact on Pyongyang's policy.


So, it seems that South Koreans will bite the bullet and, after a healthy portion of the face-saving rhetoric, return to the business of usual.


But it is also likely that in few months time the North Koreans will repeat the lesson. They want to show that "strategic patience" is not an option in the long run, and they seem to be right.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andrei Lankov.

[Toad]

This looks to be a good resource for anyone wondering about NorK firepower: Bluffer's Guide: Fortress North Korea.

That site has another good thread about the current attack from N. Korea going.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...s-at-SK-Island

[American Patriot]

Retired General Jack Keane on TV right now saying "It's all over, they did what they wanted" which was to get "attention".

[American Patriot]

As Senate Debates New START, North Korea Fires Rocket Attack While President Barack Obama spends every waking second pressing for ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), North Korea is running amok. Yesterday, the North Koreans fired artillery rockets at South Korea setting dozens of residential homes ablaze, wounding three civilians and fifteen soldiers, and killing two South Korean Marines. >>Now Is The Time To Take Action. Despite what is said by the Obama Administration, New START offers the U.S. no new tools to deal with North Korea and Iran which are the clear and present threat. Instead, all New START does is tie our military's hands by limiting our capacity to build the missile defense systems necessary to deal with these regimes. The world remains a dangerous place and now is not the time to weaken our defenses. This is why Americans need to pay attention to the harsh reality that a missile launched from anywhere in the world would hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy in 33 minutes or less. Join The Movement. Support A Strong Missile Defense. All across the country, communities are gathering together to educate themselves about the need for missile defense. 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age exposes the life-threatening myths about defending America from missile attack. America's enemies, like North Korea and Iran, are working as diligently as ever to advance and test their ballistic missile capabilities. In response, America must continue to develop ballistic missile defenses to counter this devastating threat. Whether your group is 1,000 people strong or 10 concerned citizens, The Heritage Foundation will provide all of the materials necessary to plan and publicize your screening. When you submit your information, a representative from The Heritage Foundation will contact you to confirm the details. From there you'll receive the 33 Minutes screening kit that includes a copy of the one-hour documentary, a planning guide, promotional materials and so much more! >>Click Here To Host Your Own Screening of 33 Minutes! forward message visit 33minutes.com Facebook Twitter YouTube The Heritage Foundation - 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC Call us at 202-546-4400

[Toad]

N Korea does have an extreamely well established history of belligerence and provocation prior to talks. It creates an artificially skewed starting point to negotiate from in their favor. We've seen this time and time again.

[American Patriot]

Mullen: North Korean Attack Tied to Leadership Succession


Published November 24, 2010
| FoxNews.com

Reuters
Oct 10: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, left, walks in front of his youngest son Kim Jong Un as they watch a parade in Pyongyang.



North Korea's attack on a South Korean island appears to be tied to the leadership succession, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday, as the elderly and frail Kim Jong Il prepares to hand control of his regime to his son.



Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview on "The View" that Kim is generating these kinds of high-profile and dangerous confrontations to coincide with the ascension of his 27-year-old son to power.



Mullen said the United States is working with its South Korean and Japanese allies and also looking to China to exert its influence. The State Department said Wednesday that the administration wants China to restrain the North from further provocative acts. Spokesman P.J. Crowley, calling China "pivotal," said U.S. diplomats sent the message to Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing that the country has to make clear to Pyongyang that its actions are not acceptable.



The deadly strike on the tiny island came just six weeks after the North Korean leader unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent. Analysts described the attack, which followed a claim that the country has a new uranium enrichment facility, as a cry for attention at a critical juncture.



Recent reports show the damage on the South Korean side to be worse than previously thought. Rescuers found the burned bodies Wednesday of two civilians. That was after two South Korean marines were killed and nearly 20 people were injured.



As South Korean troops remained on high alert and buildings continued to burn, a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group set off for Korean waters. President Obama called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Tuesday night, saying the U.S. would work with the international community to strongly condemn the attack.



The White House said the two presidents agreed to hold combined military exercises and enhanced training in the days ahead to continue the close security cooperation between the two countries.



Obama described North Korea's attack as a "provocative" show of force that "needs to be dealt with."



"This is a -- just one more provocative incident in a series that we've seen over the last several months," Obama said in an interview with ABC, adding that he will be consulting with South Korea's president about their response. "We strongly condemn the attack, and we are rallying the international community to put pressure on North Korea."



He wouldn't comment on the likelihood of military action, but called it "a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with."



Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, said the strike and its timing raises "serious questions" about Kim's succession.



"Could the increase in high-profile attacks by North Korea in advance of Kim's expected succession by his son Kim Jong Un signal a period of increased hostility on the peninsula?" Hoekstra said in a statement. "Will there be more deadly, unprovoked attacks leading up to and following his ascension to power?"



That possibility had many leaders calling Tuesday for tough action against North Korea.



Hoekstra urged the United Nations Security Council, which is set to hold an emergency meeting, to "condemn this attack in the strongest terms."



South Korea's president called for "enormous retaliation" in the wake of the clash. While pushing for "peace and stability" in the region, the White House also vowed to stand by its ally and labeled North Korea's attack an "outrageous act."



The attack on the island of Yeonpyeong was the latest in a series of provocations from the Communist country. South Korean officials said the North launched the attack after warning the country to halt military drills in the area.



A senior U.S. military official told Fox News the attack was nevertheless "unprovoked."



"No one is interested in escalating this, but we are taking this very seriously," the official said.



It's unclear whether there were any casualties on the North Korean side. There are about 28,000 U.S. military personnel in South Korea.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...#ixzz16E9gqPlh

[American Patriot]

Home » Links » Sarah Palin: “We Gotta Stand With Our North Korean Allies”
Sarah Palin: “We Gotta Stand With Our North Korean Allies”

Nov 24th, 2010 // No Comment



Share
Sarah Palin has been dropping hints that that she is considering a run for the presidency in 2012. Her critics have said that she could never win because of her embarrassing lack of expertise, knowledge, or interest in foreign policy.
Her appearance on a Fox News radio show today hasn’t helped…
click here to listen
DJ: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea?
PALIN: But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies. We’re bound to by treaty –
CO-HOST: South Korean.
PALIN: Eh, Yeah. And we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes.

[American Patriot]

/chuckles

I only posted that for the picture you know.

[American Patriot]

Schwartz: AF ready to respond to Korea attack



By Scott Fontaine - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 24, 2010 11:06:31 EST

www.airforcetimes.com. To view the contents go to:" type="hidden">

The Air Force stands ready to respond if hostilities between North Korea and South Korea escalate, the service’s top uniformed officer said, but American fighter jets remained at their normal alert status a day after a North Korean artillery attack.


The North fired artillery shells at the island of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday, killing two people and dramatically raising tensions between American-allied South Korea and the nuclear-armed north.


Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, in a meeting with reporters later that morning, said his service has plenty of firepower in the region and listed the bases from which the service could send planes for a response: Osan Air Base and Kunsan Air Base in South Korea, Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, bases on mainland Japan and bases in the Pacific.


“The bottom line is that U.S. Forces-Korea certainly is monitoring the situation carefully,” he said. “[Commander Gen. Skip Sharp] has operational control of Air Force assets on that reside on the peninsula and can be augmented if required.”


Schwartz said the South Korean air force, which had eight F-15s flying combat air patrols, was leading in the air response.


He declined to give his opinion about the idea of sending tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula, an issue raised earlier this week by South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-yong. The U.S. removed its tactical nukes from South Korea in 1991.


Schwartz said the issue had not been discussed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but any advice he has would be offered confidentially to Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.


“The bottom line is, we have substantial capability on the peninsula and in the immediate environments to sustain a very credible deterrent posture,” Schwartz said.

[American Patriot]

Alright... Folks are really, honestly worried this time. From the Philippines:

No need to evacuate Pinoys in South Korea - Palace
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 25, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (1) View comments

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said measures are in place to ensure the safety of Filipinos in the Korean peninsula but there is no plan yet to evacuate them at the moment.

“There are no plans yet of evacuation but certainly, precautionary measures have been undertaken by the Philippine embassy in Seoul,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

He also voiced President Aquino’s appeal to North and South Korea to end their hostilities.

“We are calling for an end to the provocative actions and calling for sobriety on the part of the two Koreas,” Lacierda said.

There are currently 60,000 Filipino nationals in South Korea and nine in North Korea.

Lacierda said Philippine Ambassador to Seoul Luis Cruz relayed the information “that all is quiet as of this time.”

“We are in touch with most of the Filipino community leaders in the area so through them we are assessing the situation and many of them said they are carrying on with their normal lives in places where they are but we have advised them to keep abreast of developments,” Cruz told ANC News.

Lacierda said Special Envoy Roy Cimatu, who had led many evacuation efforts, reviewed the contingency plan and concluded that “this is one of the most prepared plans in all the plans that he had seen, principally because the Korean people as a whole are always on a state of alert.”

“They’ve always prepared themselves in the event of an invasion from North Korea. So, yes, the Philippine embassy in Seoul is well-prepared to undertake any measure required to protect their citizens, our Filipino nationals,” Lacierda said.

He also ruled out issuing an advisory against traveling to Korea because everything was okay at present.

“Furthermore, the citizens of (South) Korea have been apprised of the situation there. Right now, if and when the situation would escalate, then they will revisit that decision,” Lacierda said.

North Korea shelled a South Korean island last Tuesday, killing two soldiers and setting 19 houses aflame.

Aquino immediately convened the Cabinet’s security cluster to discuss the situation and assured the public that the government was “presently working and ensuring the safety of our countrymen there.”

Military assistance

The military said it is ready to send a peace-keeping contingent to the Korean peninsula if requested by the United Nations.

“As far as the Armed Forces of the Philippines is concerned, we are ready. That shall be the decision of our policy makers,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo David Jr. said.

“Your armed forces is prepared to help any nation, particularly under the United Nations flag, to pour troops or any undertaking around, particularly near our shores,” he added.

“Even if we have limited tools, kahit na palakol lang pwede nating gawin (even if we only have axes, we can do it). We will defend ourselves (using) the available resources of your Armed Forces of the Philippines,” David said.

“We need to modernize. This is being addressed by our Congress and we hope that in the succeeding years, we can acquire ample equipment, ample tools to defend ourselves,” David said.

The Philippines deployed more than 7,400 soldiers to Korea to help repulse a North Korean invasion of South Korea in the 1950s. A total of 112 Filipino soldiers were killed in the conflict, which ended in an armistice.

Worried of losing jobs

For many Filipino workers in South Korea, the prospect of losing their jobs as a result of a full-blown war in the Korean peninsula was giving them jitters.

“The people here in Seoul are used to tension. That’s why even if there is really tension, the people remain calm and continue with work,” Rev. Anselmo Balabo, who is taking up Masters in Theology at the Methodist Theological University in Seoul, told The STAR in Filipino in a phone interview. Balabo is a pastor of the United Methodist Church in Bulacan.

He said foreign workers and students in Seoul have told their families back home not to worry.

But he said Filipino workers were worried about being sent home in the event of a full blown war.

Like most local residents of Seoul, he said Filipinos expect the capital to be targeted by the North Koreans if the conflict escalates because the city is the seat of power and commerce.

He said the Blue House or the presidential palace is just about two kilometers from the Methodist Theological Seminary.

“In case of war, we will be lucky if Seoul will not be targeted first,” he said.

He said undocumented Filipino workers feared Korean immigration agents more than getting caught in a full scale war.

Meanwhile, fewer South Korean nationals have arrived in the country through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport since Tuesday’s outbreak of hostilities in the Korean peninsula.

Authorities said tourists arriving from South Korea dropped by as much 60 percent after the attacks.

Mostly returning Filipinos disembarked yesterday from Korean Airlines flight KE 621 with some 316 passengers and Asiana Airlines flight OZ 701 with 282 passengers.

In a related development, Philippine Airlines
(PAL) announced that there would be no changes in the flight schedule to South Korea despite the rising tension, unless advised to make adjustments by Philippine or Korean authorities.

PAL currently flies to Seoul twice a day, to Busan four times a week, and daily from Cebu to Seoul. With Dino Balabo, Rudy Santos, and Alexis Romero

[American Patriot]

Super-Silent Jimmy Carter Ready to Spy on North Korea

• By Spencer Ackerman
• November 24, 2010 |
• 11:25 am |
• Categories: Navy

It’s not the diplomacy-minded former president who is ready to spy, it’s the secretive nuclear submarine named for him. The surveillance and attack capabilities it’s supposed to have could keep the tense situation on the Korean peninsula from spiraling out of control.


In the wake of yesterday’s North Korean artillery barrage against a South Korean island, the U.S.S. George Washington is sailing to South Korea to participate in joint exercises.



A statement from the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, which patrols the western Pacific, says the drill was planned before the “unprovoked” North Korean attack, but will demonstrate “the strength of the [South Korea]-U.S. Alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence.” In other words: to stave off another attack, not to initiate a retaliation.


The George Washington aircraft carrier is equipped with 75 planes and around 6,000 sailors. But it’s not coming alone. It’s got the destroyers Lassen, Stethem and Fitzgerald with it, and the missile cruiser Cowpens in tow. Rumor also has it that the carrier strike group will link up with another asset in area: The undersea spy known as the Jimmy Carter, which can monitor and potentially thwart North Korean subs that might shadow the American-South Korea exercises.



According to plugged-in naval blogger Raymond Pritchett, word’s going around Navy circles that the first surveillance assets that the United States had in the air over yesterday’s Korean island battle were drones launched from the Jimmy Carter.



“North Korea couldn’t detect the USS Jimmy Carter short of using a minefield, even if they used every sonar in their entire inventory,” Galrahn writes. That’ll matter in case North Korea decides to launch another torpedo attack from a submarine, as it did in March to sink the South Korean corvette Cheonan.


The Navy doesn’t say much about what the Jimmy Carter can do, but the consensus is that it’s used for “highly classified missions.” Reportedly, it can tap undersea fiber-optic cables, potentially intercepting North Korean commands.



It carries Navy SEALs to slip into enemy ports undetected. And its class of subs have 26-and-a-half-inch-diameter torpedo tubes, wider than the rest of the submarine fleet, in case the Carter has to take out rival ships. “That’s a Seawolf, the most powerful attack sub in the world,” says Robert Farley, a maritime and international-relations scholar at the University of Kentucky.


All that might be intended to keep the North Koreans from trying something during the exercises, scheduled to run from December 3 through 10. As bellicose as they’ve been this year, they’d be up against a carrier strike group on the lookout for North Korean aggression.



The North’s 10 Yeono-class midget submarines — tiny subs with a crew of only a few sailors designed mostly for firing torpedoes — is “only mildly more capable than the submarines the Nazis were using in 1945,” Farley says, but “if there’s a nervous or adventurous North Korean sub skipper out there, we could have a real problem.”


The real role of the George Washington’s carrier strike group is floating diplomacy and deterrence, signaling “the close security cooperation between our two countries, and to underscore the strength of our Alliance and commitment to peace and security in the region,” as the White House’s account of a phone call between the U.S. and South Korean presidents last night put it.



And the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s influential NightWatch newsletter doubts that North Korea is really preparing for war: It doesn’t appear to have issued new military alerts, and it’s competing in the Chinese-sponsored Asian Games.


But should its submarines get ready to harass the United States during next month’s exercises, chances are the Jimmy Carter will see it first.
Photo: Wikimedia

[American Patriot]

The Korea crisis, 'The Sirens of Titan' and Col. Bonesteel's line on a map

By Eric Black | Published Wed, Nov 24 2010 9:53 am
REUTERS/Korea Coast GuardMembers of South Korean Coast Guard evacuate a girl from Yeonpyeong Island after an artillery attack by North Korea.


If the world gets into a totally stupid existentially threatening mess, the odds are decent that North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability will set it off. (I’m not predicting this, by the way; just sayin’ the North Korean nukes are definitely on the list of imaginable causes.)


When I think about the North Korean government (quite possibly the most repressive and craziest in the world) starting the latest chapter in the long-running drama called will-a-new-Korean-war-break-out-and-can-the-world-survive, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or reread my old favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel, “The Sirens of Titan,” which explained the overall purpose of life on Planet Earth.


“The Sirens of Titan” involves (among other things) a war between Earth and Mars, a chrono-synclastic infundibulum (say it out loud; it feels good), and a sect called The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. In that cult, it is prophesized that in a particular time and place, a weary Space Wanderer would appear, naked and confused, and when asked, “What happened to you?” would reply:


“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”


In the book, the prophecy comes true, of course, confirming what we might call the truthiness of the faith.


This next part comes not from a Vonnegut novel, but from the true history of how Korea came to be divided.


The Korean peninsula, a poor, backward place for much of its history, buffeted by the might of its neighbors Russia, China and Japan, had been occupied by Imperial Japan in the late 19^th century and officially annexed by Japan in 1910. (The United States secretly agreed not to oppose Japanese control of Korea, in exchange for which Japan agreed not to interfere with U.S. control of the Philippines. Japan didn’t keep its word.)
Japan’s hideous mistreatment of the Korean people took many forms, perhaps most notoriously, the use of Korean women as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.


Soviet help
Liberating Korea was not a top-five war goal for the Allied Powers, especially during the early years of the war when the United States and their Soviet allies were focused on defeating Nazi Germany. But as Germany retreated, the Americans hoped for Soviet help in finishing off Japan. At the Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945), Soviet dictator Stalin promised President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Soviet forces would join the war against Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe. Be careful what you wish for.


Germany surrendered on May 7 and the Allies declared victory in Europe on May 8, meaning Stalin was due to join the war against Japan on Aug. 8, and he told his allies he would enter Korea (the northernmost corner of Korea borders Soviet territory) and drive the Japanese out as his first contribution to the joint effort against Japan.


That kind of help was what FDR wanted. But by July, FDR had died and the Americans were starting to think more about the post-war. That included the possibility that the U.S.-Soviet alliance might turn into something less friendly. (It did.) In that scenario, Soviet troops liberating Korea they might stay and add it to the Soviet sphere of influence.


Plus, President Harry Truman learned (during the Potsdam Conference, with Stalin at the meeting) of the successful A-bomb test. That changed the calculation of what it might take to finish off Japan. Now it was Stalin who was anxious to get his troops into Korea and the Americans not.


On Aug. 6, the United States dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima. On Aug. 9, Stalin declared war on Japan. On Aug. 10, the second A-bomb hit Nagasaki. (The U.S. didn’t have any more bombs ready for use, but the world didn’t know that. On a happier note, no nuclear weapon has been used since that day.)


Back in Washington, the idea was floating that U.S. troops should land in the south, move north, and meet the Russians in the middle.
At the Pentagon, a colonel with the wonderful name of Charles H. (Tick) Bonesteel III (say it out loud; it’s fun) was ordered to propose a line dividing Korea into a northern portion in which the Soviets would accept the surrender of the Japanese occupation force (and presumably run things for a while) and a southern portion in which the United States would accept the Japanese surrender and administer the territory until a more permanent arrangement was worked out.


Drawing the line
This version of the events, which comes down to the short story of why Korea is divided where it is, comes from the U.S. Army’s own Center of American History treatment of the matter:


The Chief of the Policy Section, Col. Charles H. Bonesteel, had 30 minutes in which to dictate Paragraph 1 [proposing a dividing line for Korea] to a secretary, for the Joint Staff Planners and the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee were impatiently awaiting the result of his work His thoughts, with very slight revision, were incorporated into the final directive.


Bonesteel’s prime consideration was to establish a surrender line as far north as he thought the Soviets would accept. He knew that Russian troops could reach the southern tip of Korea before American troops could arrive. He knew also that the Russians were on the verge of moving into Korea, or were already there. [It turned out, they crossed the border the next day and swarmed quickly down the peninsula.] The nearest American troops to Korea were on Okinawa, 600 miles away.



[Bonesteel’s] problem therefore was to compose a surrender arrangement which, while acceptable to the Russians, would at the same time prevent them from seizing all of Korea. If they refused to confine their advance to North Korea, the United States would be unable to stop them.


Here’s the amazing part. Bonesteel had the assignment, but he didn’t have a decent map of Korea that showed, for example, the boundary lines of the Korean provinces, nor even major geographical features like rivers and mountains, that might enable him to work out a rational, relevant line on a map. Bonesteel and his partner on this mission, Lt. Co. Dean Rusk (yes, the Dean Rusk who later became secretary of state and one of the architects of the Vietnam War) found a wall map that showed the entire region but the level of detail was such that all they could tell was that the 38^th parallel seemed to cut across roughly the middle of the country. They apparently noted that the Korean capital, Seoul, was south of the parallel, which seemed a good thing since the U.S. was going to occupy the south.
The higher brass in the Pentagon agreed to the Bonesteel-Rusk proposal.



The only suspense was whether Stalin would accept it, since everyone from the U.S. side realized they had no way to prevent the Soviets from occupying all of Korea. Surprisingly, and scholars still struggle with why it turned out this way, Stalin not only accepted the 38^th parallel as the line, but by the time he did, some of his troops had made it further south and Stalin called them back to the line.


The 48^th parallel
The official Army history notes the following about the 48^th parallel:
The new dividing line, about 190 miles across the peninsula, sliced across Korea without regard for political boundaries, geographical features, waterways, or paths of commerce. The 38th Parallel cut more than 75 streams and 12 rivers, intersected many high ridges at variant angles, severed 181 small cart roads, 104 country roads, 15 provincial all-weather roads, 8 better-class highways, and 6 north-south rail lines. It was, in fact, an arbitrary separation.
South of the 38th Parallel, the American zone covered 37,000 square miles and held an estimated 21,000,000 persons. North of the line of latitude, the USSR zone totaled 48,000 square miles and had about 9,000,000 people. Of the 20 principal Korean cities, 12 lay within the American zone, including Seoul, the largest, with a population of nearly 2,000,000. The American zone included 6 of Korea's 13 provinces in their entirety, the major part of 2 more, and a small part of another. The two areas, North and South Korea, complemented each other both agriculturally and industrially. South Korea was mainly a farming area, where fully two-thirds of the inhabitants worked the land. It possessed three times as much irrigated rice land as the northern area, and furnished food for the north. But North Korea furnished the fertilizer for the southern rice fields, and the largest nitrogenous fertilizer plant in the Far East was in Hungnam. Although North Korea also had a high level of agricultural production, it was deficient in some crops. The barrier imposed serious adverse effects on both zones.


It’s important to note that neither Bonesteel, nor Stalin nor anyone else involved in these tumultuous days, had any idea that they were drawing what would turn into a boundary between two separate Korean states and remain so with only minor adjustments for 65 years and counting (leaving aside the major events of the Korean War five years later which wiped out the boundary for a while but ended up with an agreement to put it back where it had been).


If Korea was ever to stumble naked out of this strange dreamscape and be asked: "What happened to you?" It might reply:
“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”

[American Patriot]

Honore: U.S. commander in S. Korea faces 'balancing act'








By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 23, 2010
Updated: 11/23/2010 08:31 pm

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Buzz Russel Honore has a pretty good idea of what is going on right now in the mind of Army Gen. Walter L. "Skip" Sharp, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, which has just been hit by a deadly barrage of artillery by the North Koreans. "Right now, he is thinking, what does he do to not escalate the situation and at the same time be prepared to defend South Korea?" says Honore, the commanding general of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division in Korea between 2000 and 2002.
The answer, says Horore – who gained fame for overseeing the National Guard's recovery efforts in New Orleans and is now retired and on the board of a St. Petersburg-based international security firm called Grand I.S.S. – is not simple.
North Korea has 1.2 million troops compared to South Korea's 680,000, says Honore. North Korea has twice as many artillery pieces, 1,000 more tanks and more than 10 times the number of missiles.
There are nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea facing an army that vastly outnumbers and outguns them – with about 15,000 in range of North Korean missiles, says Honore. And, unlike when Honore was in South Korea, there are now many troops' family members living in harm's way.
Though the South Korean military is currently in charge, Sharp, as U.S. and UN commander, will take control should the battle escalate.
The attack comes at a time when news has surfaced about a new North Korean uranium enrichment facility. And China is an ever-looming presence that sometimes reels in its client state and sometimes looks the other way, Honore says.
Sharp "has a balancing act," says Honore. "Both the U.S. and UN forces are in a wait-and-see mode. Is this another mad act by North Korea, or are there other indicators" of something more serious?
Honore says Sharp and his staff will be closely monitoring satellite imagery of North Korea's military and its medium-range missiles, which can easily reach Seoul, South Korea's capital and most populous city.
He won't have much time to act. While the North Korean army takes time to move, the impoverished nation built a massive underground bunker system to hide its missiles.
"The missile warning system is now a matter of minutes, not hours," says Honore.
As a show of force and measured response, Sharp will be looking at a number of options, including bringing in additional fighter planes from Guam and Japan and asking for an aircraft carrier from the 7th Fleet, stationed in Japan.
Tuesday's attack comes as South Korea is still protesting the suspected North Korean torpedo attack that sank the South Korean navy ship Cheonan in March, killing 47 South Korean sailors. Though tensions, already high in the region, have increased, Honore calls the latest military action by North Korea "standard operating procedure during a transition."
With North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said to be ailing and his son, Kim Jon Un said to be next in line, Honore calls the artillery barrage the sound of "a bad kid in the family acting up."
North Korea, he says, also acts belligerent when it wants something from the outside world – like food or fuel - says Honore.
"To old Korea hands," the latest attack "was not an accident," says Honore. "Each time they act up, the world gives them what they want."
Contact reporter Howard Altman at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/haltman.

[American Patriot]

MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:

Today's hostilities complicate what's already a very daunting picture for U.S. officials trying to figure out how to deal with North Korea. That's been a challenge of generations of U.S. diplomats. And for many years it was Evans Revere's job. He's a long-time State Department diplomat, now a senior director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, and he joins us now on the line. Hello.

Mr. EVANS REVERE (Senior Director, Albright Stonebridge Group): Hello. It's good to be with you.

KELLY: And glad to have you with us. So, let me start with some perspective because if you're watching the headlines today, people are hearing things like crisis status on the Korean Peninsula, brink of war, that type of thing. Tell me, based on what's unfolded so far, how would you rank this situation in terms of seriousness?

Mr. REVERE: I'd say it's quite serious. As a matter of fact, in my recollection, I do not remember another incident in which there has been an actual exchange of artillery fire, particularly North Korean artillery fire directed at a land target since the Korean War.

And this is now the second virtually unprecedented military activity that we've seen in this area. The other, of course, being the sinking of the South Korean ship, the Cheonan, back on March 26th of this year.

KELLY: Well, and part of the backdrop to the situation now is, as we just heard from Duoaly in Seoul, that this comes at such a tense time, just days after the revelation that North Korea has built this secret new nuclear facility. And as everyone is watching to see how the transition of power that is apparently underway, from Kim Jong-Il to his son plays out, do those factors all combine to make the situation more dangerous than it might have been?

Mr. REVERE: Well, I think they combine in an interesting way and then perhaps the way to look at it is to ask the question as to whether this military incident is connected with a North Korean effort to ratchet up to the level of crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

KELLY: And do you think it is?

Mr. REVERE: I personally think it is. I think those things taken together suggest to me that the North Koreans are trying to ratchet up tensions and send a very clear message to the South Koreans, to the United States and to the international community that they need to be taken into account, that their position is going to be a strong one, if and, when talks begin.

And they intend to go into these talks with a strong hand and that they will expect the United States and South Korea to make some concessions. And I think these actions that we've seen are meant to tee up that sort of approach by the North Koreans.

KELLY: Well, which prompts the million dollar question, which is aside from condemning today's attack, which the White House has done, how should - how can the U.S. respond?

Mr. REVERE: I think the critical thing for the United States to do is to do something similar to what we did after the Cheonan incident, the sinking of the ship in March of this year. And that is, number one, to take the lead from our South Korean allies. We need to understand exactly what it is that South Korea needs and wants from us as its ally and major supporter.

Beyond that, getting into another level of granularity here, I suspect that the United States and the ROK will probably be thinking about sending some very strong messages in the form of additional military exercises and perhaps deployments. But I also think there needs to be a diplomatic component to this in the U.N. Security Council and I understand that that is being actively discussed.

KELLY: Evans Revere is someone who's had the change to watch a number of administrations grapple with the North Korea conundrum. How would you rate the Obama administration's efforts so far?

Mr. REVERE: I think they've done a very good and very effective job overall in dealing with this issue. The broader question, of course, is the same question that's faced every U.S. administration. There are no good options here. If this was an easy problem to solve, it would've been solved a long time ago.

North Korea clearly is on the path to developing a more sophisticated nuclear weapons capability. And that's the problem that landed in the lap of this administration, which wanted to rely on diplomacy, which still wants to rely on diplomacy. But the North Koreans have not been cooperative. And so that's a continuing conundrum for this and any future U.S. administration.

KELLY: Okay, thanks very much.

Mr. REVERE: You're quite welcome.

KELLY: That's Evans Revere, he's a career State Department diplomat, now a senior director at the Albright Stonebridge Group. And he's also at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

[American Patriot]

ND Expert: No need to panic over N. Korea uranium enrichment
As diplomats meet in Asia to discuss new revelations surrounding North Korea's uranium enrichment program, nuclear weapons policy expert David Cortright, director of policy studies for the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, says there is no need to panic.



(Media-Newswire.com) - As diplomats meet in Asia to discuss new revelations surrounding North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, nuclear weapons policy expert David Cortright, director of policy studies for the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, says there is no need to panic.

“The new revelations are troubling but do not significantly alter the security calculus for the United States,” Cortright says. “The North’s program and the new enrichment program are violations of UN Security Council sanctions, but they do not pose an immediate danger of further nuclear weapons production.”

Suspicions about a North Korean nuclear enrichment program have now been confirmed by the new findings.

“A new light water nuclear reactor is in very early stages of construction, but it is primarily for civilian purposes and in any case is quite small,” Cortright says. “The nuclear enrichment program is also still small, although potentially more worrisome since it could be expanded and the low-enriched fuel could be enriched further to bomb grade levels. There is no need to panic or to increase military threats against the North. The redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula, as some officials have urged, would be dangerous and counterproductive. Military action could ignite a catastrophe in the region. North Korean officials have said repeatedly, and reiterated last week, that their nuclear program is in response to external military threats and will not be eliminated as long as those threats remain.”

Cortright says imposing additional sanctions will not work.

“The new revelations indicate that sanctions measures are not working, and that suspected supply routes to the North from Pakistan and Iran, facilitated by China, are enabling Pyongyang to continue its nuclear development,” he says. “The best solution remains diplomatic engagement. The U.S. and its allies need to go back to the formula that has produced occasional progress in the past: ending military threats, and offering to reduce economic sanctions and normalize diplomatic relations.”

A graduate of Notre Dame, Army veteran and long-time scholar, teacher and advocate of nonviolence, Cortright is an expert on nuclear weapons policy, prevention of conflict through economic sanctions and counter-terrorism. He is the author or editor of 16 books, including most recently “Towards Nuclear Zero”, co-authored with Räimo Vayrynen, a volume that argues for diplomatic bargaining to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Other recent books include “Uniting Against Terror: Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Military Threat” and “Peace: A History of Movements & Ideas.”

Cortright has advised various agencies of the United Nations, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the International Peace Academy and the MacArthur Foundation. Along with his research collaborator and Kroc professor George A. Lopez, he has provided research and consulting services to the Foreign Ministry of Sweden, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the Foreign Ministry of Germany.

Media advisory: Cortright’s comments may be used in whole or in part. He is available for interviews and can be reached at 574-631-8536 or dcortrig@nd.edu

[American Patriot]

The media is ALL OVER THE MAP.

The Markets, however, are not.

They are wobbling.

[American Patriot]

N Korea intentions 'hard to understand'
2010-11-24 20:20

Johannesburg - South Korean ambassador to South Africa Kim Han Soo told a seminar in Johannesburg that "it is very hard to understand the intentions" of North Korea.

Kim was one of the panelists at a Frontier Advisory seminar on the outcomes of the recent G20 rich and developing nations meeting which took place in Seoul, South Korea and what they mean for developing economies.

North Korea on Tuesday fired artillery rockets at a South Korean island near a disputed Western maritime border.

The clash killed two South Korean marines and set numerous buildings on fire. South Korean forces then fired back.

He said that they were still in shock over the developments.

"We still need more time (to know) about their intentions," he added.

The ambassador made it clear that they would fight fire with fire, saying that they have tried to "manage carefully" their disagreements with the North.

"We delivered our warnings. If they made further acts we will retaliate," the ambassador concluded.

Several countries have issued statements condemning the attacks.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)

[American Patriot]

2 S Korean bodies found on island
2010-11-24 10:18

Seoul - South Korea says the burnt bodies of two male civilians have been found on an island attacked by North Korea.

The South Korean Coast Guard says the two construction workers were found on Wednesday. They're believed to be in their sixties. The discovery comes a day after a frightening military skirmish between the Koreas ratcheted tensions on the peninsula to new extremes.

North Korea's artillery attack on a small South Korean island near their disputed border killed at least two marines and wounded civilians in what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called one of the "gravest incidents" since the end of the Korean War.

[American Patriot]

North Korea defiant over artillery attack

euronews - 29 minutes ago

24/11 19:46 CET

With tensions at boiling point on the Korean peninsula, state TV in the North says relations with the South have been irreparably damaged.

A defiant broadcast, illustrated with images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, insisted that Seoul provoked Tuesday’s attack by Pyongyang.

The North rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, killing two South Korean soldiers.

Authorities say the bodies of two civilians have also been found.

It was the heaviest attack since the Korean war ended in 1953.

Pyongyang says Seoul fired shells into its territory first. The South denies doing so but did fire in response to the North Korean strike.

Standing firmly behind Seoul, the US has sent an aircraft carrier group to Korean waters for what it says are pre-planned joint exercies. The US believes Pyongyang’s attack was an isolated action. The American military considers it is linked to the succession of the North’s leadership.