Korean Peninsula On The Brink Of War

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2013/04/11 12:17 KST
(LEAD) N. Korea shifts missile locations ahead of imminent launch: sources

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, April 11 (Yonhap) -- As South Korea and the United States brace for a possible missile launch by North Korea, the communist nation appears to be moving several missiles repeatedly on its east coast in an apparent attempt to interfere with intelligence monitoring, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

According to intelligence analysis, the North has moved two Musudan intermediate missiles, which had been concealed in a shed in the eastern port city of Wonsan, in and out of the facility. Four or five wheeled vehicles, suspected to be so-called transporter erector launchers (TEL), were also spotted being moved around in South Hamgyeong Province.

"There are signs the North could fire off Musudan missiles any time soon," an intelligence source said, asking for anonymity. "But the North has been repeatedly moving its missiles in and out of a shed, which needs close monitoring."

South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have been closely monitoring the North Korean facility believed to contain the Musudan missiles mounted on the TELs. The missile can fly 3,000-4,000 kilometers, making it capable of hitting the U.S. base in Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/nati...03151315F.HTML

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US, South Korea on top alert as North missile spotted in launch position

DEBKAfile Special Report April 11, 2013, 10:34 AM (GMT+02:00)

The United States and South Korean armed forces went on the highest level of alert - Watchcon 2 - Thursday, April 11, ready for multiple launches after at least one North Korean ballistic Musudan missile was sighted fueled and ready to launch at any moment on the country’s eastern coast. With an estimated range of more 3,400 kilometers, it places US bases in Guam and the Okinawa islands within range as well as South Korea and Japan.

According to a senior US defense official in Washington, the floating SBX X-band radar is in position for tracking missiles fired by Pyongyang. South Korean officials, commenting on the apparent movement of several ballistic missiles on North Koreas east coast, report that this is an apparent attempt to confuse intelligence monitoring by the US, Japan and South Korea.

The US and Japan, which earlier deployed Patriot interceptors in Tokyo, have said that any missile would be intercepted if it showed signs of heading for the United States or Japan. But neither mentioned a US military target or the possibility of a missile flying over Japan to land in the Pacific Ocean.

Military sources in Washington point to the US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s warning Wednesday that North Korea is skating very close to a dangerous line with its bellicose rhetoric on nuclear arms, and his stress on Americas ability to protect itself and its allies, as the most serious statement to come from the Obama administration so far. It was the first warning of a US military response to a North Korean missile launch.

South Koreans are for the first time showing signs of anxiety about a possible outbreak of war. People have started stocking food and parents were telling reporters Thursday that children are being kept home from school in case of a sudden war emergency.

Several Western intelligence sources attribute Pyongyang’s saber-rattling to a power struggle ongoing in the top ranks of the North Korean military command between supporters of the young leader Kim Jong-Un and his opponents, who say he lacks the qualities befitting a commander-in-chief of the North Korean armed forces.

The latter group of generals urges reducing Kim to a titular role and keeping control of the military in their own hands.

In his drive for military credibility, say those sources, the young leader is constantly photographed on visits to army units accompanied by a bevy of generals and soldiers and demonstratively testing their weapons and barking out operational orders.

In one television segment aired by North Korean state TV Wednesday, hundreds of North Korean soldiers were shown standing in their positions and then, upon catching sight of the president and party, rushing toward him in great excitement, although they didn’t dare get too close.

Such staged scenes, say the sources, point up the North Korean presidents weakness and uncertainty rather than his control and popularity in the army.

Those sources predict that Kim Jong-Un may feel compelled to assert himself by ordering a missile launch. Backing down at this point, a failed launch or a foreign interception would be a black mark against him and seriously undermine a leadership which is rooted in a ruthless personality cult. It might even lead to his ouster.

The Korean crisis heads the agenda of the G8 foreign ministers meeting in London Thursday.

http://www.debka.com/article/22887/U...aunch-position

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4/11 0530 ET Korea Crisis Update: The Quiet Before the Storm


by John Galt
April 11, 2013 05:30 EDT

The eerie quiet in North Korea seems to be an indication, if past patterns are any indication, of a coming storm of action and activity. Overnight the focus seemed to be the shell game of moving and relocating various launchers around airfields and the raising of launch ramps into the firing position only to have nothing happen. Kim Jong-un appears to have a less than unified front in control of his own military and some analysts are wondering if he is calling the shots or if his actions are to mollify the more aggressive elements within the military hierarchy.

Regardless of what is happening with the U.S. military, it would appear that this situation is somewhat different from previous North Korean episodes and approximately 4 hours ago Guam’s Governor Eddie Balza Calvo issued the following advisory:

IMPORTANT: IF Condition RED Is Called: WHAT TO DO

On April 11, 2013, in Press Releases, by Janna Fernandez

Release No. JIC-10

Important TIPS in the Event that RED Condition Is Called

1:45 p.m., Thursday, April 11, 2013

For Immediate Release

The Joint Information Center released four fact sheets over the past three days about what Guamanians can do to prepare for a North Korean emergency. If one does occur:

1. The military immediately will call the Governor, who then will simultaneously place the island in RED condition.

2. The Joint Information Center immediately will notify the people of Guam via media partners, email, government alert systems, the alert siren system, the consulate offices, the school systems, and the mayors that an emergency is upon the island and that everyone is to shelter in place.

These are the most important tips of what to do as soon as you are aware of the RED condition:

- IF YOU ARE AT HOME: Shelter in place. Follow the steps outlined in Fact Sheet 2, including closing and locking all windows and doors, and closing any blinds. Take your family and pets with you to a room without windows or with the fewest windows. Keep a phone with you, preferably a land line. Keep a battery-operated radio with you and stay tuned to official reports from the Joint Information Center.

- IF YOU ARE AT WORK: Shelter in place at work. Do not leave the office. Do not send away customers or co-workers in your office. Close and lock all windows and doors. Stay as far away from windows as possible. Keep a phone with you, preferably a land line. Keep a battery-operated radio with you and stay tuned to official reports from the JIC.

- IF YOUR KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL OR DAYCARE: Do not pick them up. School staff & teachers will help students shelter in place. They are safer in school than on the road. Schools know what to do to keep your children safe.

- IF YOU ARE ON THE ROAD: Pull over. Stay in your car. Keep your body clear from the windows. Keep the radio on, and wait for the ‘all-clear’ from the JIC.
RED condition means the threat level is high. In this case, it may mean North Korea launched a missile. It does not necessarily mean the missile is coming this way. RED condition is a precaution taken because we should not take chances, and we should protect ourselves from the worst. This is why it is so IMPORTANT to pay attention to media partners before, during, and after RED condition.

END

To me that is an interpretation that not only is there the threat of a North Korean missile launch but also a hint that there is a greater potential than normal for a wider conflict to develop. Meanwhile here are the headlines of interest since last night:

In the Shadow of North Korean Threats, South Korea Shrugs

S. Korea to intercept DPRK missile if it strikes territory

Guam ups alert level after N Korea threats

North Korea close to ‘dangerous line’. US warns

North Korea blames South’s leader for Kaesong closure

N. Korea’s expected missile test to dominate Yun-Kerry talks

Delay South Korea travel amid tensions: Taiwan to citizens

N. Korean missile launchpad moved into firing position – report

North Korea to launch nuclear missile ‘within hours’

Two of the most interesting Tweets came from VOA’s Steve Herman last night also:



That silence is usually a precursor to major action by Pyongyang but we shall see. The second Tweet is much more typical of the regime:



Stay tuned gang because if Kim Jong-un does in fact lose control of his military leaders, then all bets are off.

[American Patriot]

well, the old saying "No news is good news" doesn't necessarily apply in this case. By NOT mentioning missiles, cyber attacks, etc is a very interesting turn.

They stopped rattling sabers. Maybe they are going to go back to sleep, but I doubt it.

IF they pull something, they will launch the missiles... and if one goes over areas the US is protecting the missiles WILL be shot down. There won't be anything else heard out of them until that "satellite" gets over the US someplace at which time, if it is a nuke, they will detonate it.

[American Patriot]

CBS/AP/ April 11, 2013, 8:15 AM
North Korea: "Powerful striking means" on standby


PYONGYANG, North Korea North Korea delivered a fresh round of rhetoric Thursday with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby for a launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations.


CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan, reporting from Seoul, South Korea, said on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that conflicting reports say missile launchers have been moved into a firing position.


Brennan reports that, according to U.S. intelligence, North Korea is fully ready to fire off a missile called the Musudan, which is also known as the Taepodong-X. That type of weapon is capable of hitting U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam.


On Thursday, the Taiwanese government became the first country to tell its citizens not to travel to South Korea due to rising tensions, Brennan reports. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in Seoul to meet with South Korean officials to try to calm those tensions.


On the streets of Pyongyang, meanwhile, North Koreans celebrated the anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un's appointment to the country's top party post — one in a slew of titles collected a year ago in the months after father Kim Jong Il's death.


The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a nonmilitary agency that deals with relations with South Korea, didn't elaborate on its warning of a strike. The statement is the latest in a torrent of warlike threats seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea policy.

• Expert: N. Korea dictator has everything to lose in war

A missile launch by North Korea would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the isolated nation from nuclear and ballistic missile activity, and mark a major escalation in Pyongyang's standoff with neighboring nations and the U.S.


North Korea already has been punished in recent months for launching a long-range rocket in December and conducting an underground nuclear test in February.
Analysts do not believe North Korea will stage an attack similar to the one that started the Korean War in 1950. But there are concerns that the animosity could spark a skirmish that could escalate into a serious conflict.


"North Korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions ... skating very close to a dangerous line," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Washington on Wednesday. "Their actions and their words have not helped defuse a combustible situation."

Play Video

North Korea missile test expected soon



Bracing for a launch, which officials said could take place at any time, Seoul deployed three naval destroyers, an early warning surveillance aircraft and a land-based radar system, a Defense Ministry official told The Associated Press in Seoul, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department rules. Japan deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors around Tokyo.


But officials in Seoul played down security fears, noting that no foreign government has evacuated its citizens from either Korean capital.


"North Korea has continuously issued provocative threats and made efforts to raise tension on the Korean peninsula ... but the current situation is being managed safely and our and foreign governments have been calmly responding," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters Thursday.


The war talk is seen as a way for North Korea to draw attention to the precariousness of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and to boost the military credentials of Kim.


The Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty, and the U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.


For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have staged annual military drills meant to show the allies' military might. North Korea condemns the drills as rehearsal for an invasion.


Citing the tensions, North Korea on Monday pulled more than 50,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which combines South Korean technology and know-how with cheap North Korean labor. It was the first time that production was stopped at the decade-old factory park, the only remaining symbol of economic cooperation between the Koreas.


South Korea's point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, urged Pyongyang to stop heightening tensions and to discuss the restart of operations in Kaesong.


In Pyongyang, meanwhile, there was no sense of panic. Across the city, workers were rolling out sod and preparing the city for a series of April holidays.

Play Video
Kim Jong Un gives rare speech


North Korean students put on suits and traditional dresses to celebrate Kim Jong Un's appointment as first secretary of the Workers' Party a year ago.


A flower show and art performances are scheduled over the next few days in the lead-up to the nations' biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader.


No military parade or mass events were expected over the coming week, but North Korea historically uses major holidays to show off its military power, and analysts say Pyongyang could well mark the occasion with a provocative missile launch in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring the North from nuclear and missile activity.
"However tense the situation is, we will mark the Day of the Sun in a significant way," Kim Kwang Chon, a Pyongyang citizen, told The AP, referring to the April 15 birthday. "We will celebrate the Day of the Sun even if war breaks out tomorrow."


During last year's celebrations, North Korea failed in an attempt to send a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket. The U.S. and its allies criticized the launch as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.


A subsequent test in December was successful, and that was followed by the country's third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12, possibly taking the regime closer to mastering the technology for mounting an atomic weapon on a missile.

[American Patriot]

Hitler look alike? Only younger, shorter and impotent?

[American Patriot]

North Korea missile test: What's a Musudan? (+video)

If North Korea test-fires a Musudan, it could settle a debate within the expert community about the capabilities of the intermediate-range ballistic missile – or whether it exists at all.


By Peter Grier, Staff writer / April 10, 2013

• 

South Korean soldiers look at North Korea through binoculars from Dora Observation Post near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday. The prospect of a North Korean missile launch is 'considerably high,' South Korea's foreign minister told lawmakers Wednesday as Pyongyang prepared to mark the April 15 birthday of its founder.


Lee Jin-man/AP







Washington


North Korea appears set to conduct a missile test at any moment. That’s what South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told lawmakers on Wednesday, saying the prospect of such a launch is “considerably high.”

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April 15, next Monday, might be the date around which the test would take place. That’s the day North Korea marks the birthday of founder Kim Il-sung, and the Pyongyang regime often puts on a display of some sort of military might around that time.


The main weapon involved appears to be the “Musudan,” an intermediate-range ballistic missile named by the United States after the town near which North Korea has a testing range.


RECOMMENDED: Kim 101: How well do you know North Korea's leaders?

“As has been widely reported ... there’s been a Musudan movement to the east coast,” Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of US Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.


A Musudan has a minimum range of about 400 miles and a maximum range of about 3,500 miles, Locklear said. That means it could not reach the US mainland or Hawaii.
“I assume, if it was pointed in that direction, it could put Guam at risk. But let me reiterate again: We’ve got the capability in place to monitor and to be able to protect the homeland, protect Guam, and protect our forces that are fielded there as well as our allies,” said Locklear, referring to American missile defenses in the region.
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If North Korea does in fact test-fire a Musudan, the US and its allies will reap at least one large intelligence benefit. The launch could settle a debate within the expert community about the Musudan’s capabilities – or whether the missile exists at all. That’s because as far as is known, Pyongyang has never tested the missile in real flight.


The Musudan is a road-mobile intermediate-range ballistic missile that physically resembles a 1960s-era Soviet submarine missile named the SS-N-6. Reports of its existence first appeared in the Western press in the mid-2000s. The world outside North Korea got its first good look at the Musudan in 2010, when it took part in a military parade in Pyongyang.


The US is pretty sure North Korea has had access to SS-N-6 technology, because of reports that members of the Soviet design bureau that produced the missile have traveled to Pyongyang, wrote nuclear and proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis last year on his Arms Control Wonk blog. Some of that technology appears to have been used in other North Korean long-range missiles, and perhaps in Iranian weapons. According to news reports, North Korea sold Iran a number of SS-N-6 kits in 2005.


For the Musudan, “[a]ll that is missing is a flight test," wrote Mr. Lewis, who is director of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. "Of course, there are rumors that Iran tested the missile for North Korea.”


A Musudan missile based on SS-N-6 technology would represent a huge technical advance for North Korea’s arsenal. Most of Pyongyang’s short- and medium-range ballistic weapons are based on old Soviet Scud technology. The SS-N-6, however, has a much more advanced engine and uses propellants that pack much more energy than does Scud fuel. Its airframe is light and fragile.


“Though being an almost 50-year-old design, the [SS-N-6] missile’s technology is still close to the technical limits, and its performance is state-of-the-art,” German missile-technology expert Markus Schiller wrote in a RAND Corp. report on the North Korean missile threat.


Look at it this way: A Musudan is about the same launch weight as North Korea’s Scud-based Nodong missile, but has more than twice the range. It’s a Ferrari where the Nodong is an old pickup truck.


But Mr. Schiller is not convinced that the Musudan missile is in fact North Korea’s version of the Soviet sub weapon. Among pieces of evidence, the warheads that Pyongyang has displayed on Musudans in parades match the SS-N-6 warhead too exactly, he notes.


The Soviet warhead is nuclear, and it was designed by a separate organization. North Korea almost certainly does not have it. That could mean Pyongyang is trying to fool the US and its allies into believing North Korean missiles are more advanced than they are.


“It seems more plausible to assume that North Korea is still limited to Scud technology at best, than to assume that North Korea has mastered the SS-N-6 technology,” wrote Schiller and fellow German technology expert Robert H. Schmucker in a 2012 paper on North Korean missile designs.
A Musudan missile test could settle this question, albeit in a highly provocative manner.

[American Patriot]

North Korean missile in upright firing position, official says

By Jethro Mullen. Barbara Starr and Joe Sterling, CNN
updated 8:38 AM EDT, Thu April 11, 2013


(CNN) -- North Korea has raised at least one missile into its upright firing position, feeding concerns that a launch is imminent, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.


This comes as the world continued to keep watch for a possible missile launch by the secretive government, and a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in the region.


In the latest daily tough talk from the North, a government agency is quoted by the state-run media as saying that "war can break out any moment."


The South Koreans -- who've heard the cross-border bombast before -- are taking the swagger in stride. Washington regards much of the North's saber rattling as bluster.




At the same time, both countries and their allies aren't taking any chances as the daily clamor of threats from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's government shows no sign of letting up.


North Korea's "actions and their words have not helped defuse a combustible situation," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, and the United States "is fully prepared to deal with any contingency."


After the raising of the missile Wednesday, it was not clear to U.S. officials why the North Korean government did not proceed with the firing.


The U.S. official cautioned that the raising of the missile could have been just a trial run to ensure the equipment works or an effort to "mess" with the United States and the allies that are watching for a launch at any time.


The official declined to specify what type of intelligence led the United States to conclude the medium-range missile -- a Musudan -- was in a firing position.


The Musudan is an untested weapon that South Korea says has a range as far as 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles).

rest at: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/11/world/...ons/index.html

[American Patriot]

Just found this article from March time frame.

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 | Posted by Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely
Russia: North Korea nuke was plutonium device test

Support the Scott Vallely Soldiers Memorial Fund

By Scott W. Winchell

Paul E. Vallely

In light of the seemingly unending saber-rattling coming from North Korea, the US military is starting to make moves to prevent the rogue regime from launching anything toward America.

The DPRK (North Korea) has threatened a preemptive nuclear strike on the US and everyone is taking things a lot more seriously since the young successor Kim Jong Un is yet to be fully understood if that is possible:

North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric as the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against the reclusive country.


The White House said North Korea’s threats would only lead to Pyongyang’s further international isolation and declared that the United States was “fully capable” of defending against any North Korean missile attack. (Read the rest here.)

Though the general wisdom says they cannot yet achieve a nuke launch that would reach us or that they could mount a nuclear warhead, some are not taking chances, just in case they are underestimating what the DPRK can do; this is a prudent, yet late move. This is doubly important since the North vows to vacate the 60 year old “Cease-Fire Treaty.”


That means the US is changing its deployments of missile intercepts and naval ability:

Littoral Combat Ships Capable of Close to Shore Combat.

The U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday.


The new interceptors will be based at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are projected to be fully deployed by 2017, Hagel said.



The additions will bring the U.S.-based ground interceptor deployment from 30 to 44, including four that are based in California.



That will boost U.S. missile defense capability by 50 percent and “make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression,” he said in a briefing at the Pentagon. (Read more here.)

The Navy is now deploying some interesting new ships for ‘Littoral’ use in and among islands and shorelines; there is whole new line of craft for this use and they are formidable.

The U.S. Navy’s hottest new ship and the centerpiece of its renewed focus on Asia isn’t its largest vessel, or its most technologically advanced. But it has advantages that its bigger siblings lack.


The 388-foot USS Freedom is small enough to move among the many islands and shallow waters of Southeast Asia, a trait that allows the Navy to train alongside similar-sized vessels in the region’s navies and build relationships with them. (Read more here.)

This is important as they continue maneuvers in South Korean waters and the DPRK is moving huge batteries to challenge disputed islands above the 38th parallel, but still in South Korean waters. We must remember what the DPRK did in March of 2010 off the country’s west coast near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea where they sunk a South Korean ship named the Cheonan and shelled the island. The alert level is high and no one is sitting idly by:


WATERS TO THE EAST OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA (March 13, 2013) The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), right, conducts tactical maneuvers with ships from the Republic of Korea Navy during exercise Foal Eagle. Foal Eagle is a series of 20 separate but inter-related joint and combined field training exercises conducted by Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea components spanning ground, air, naval, expeditionary, and special operations. Fitzgerald is part of forward deploy Destroyer Squadron 15, which operates from Yokosuka, Japan. (U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ricardo R. Guzman)


The chance that we are not fully aware of their true capabilities is a big question. Recent rhetoric from all sides is one thing, but the sense that we the public are not being made fully aware is also distinct because of moves being made.


Why do we say this? Well it turns out that the latest nuke test was much different than early reports indicated according to the Russians and the Obama Administration is making moves on previously requested and denied placements, but have just now been granted.


It is important to also remember that what happens with North Korea is not isolated to the Korean Peninsula. We have to always remember the ties with Iran and others, along with the whole macro concerning our ever weakening stance as the world’s sole super power. Major General Vallely spoke of this disturbing aspect posted here on SUA from this week’s Newsmax interview.


Now it seems, plutonium is in the NK game, that alone is a game changer. Including the article below, also see this article by Bill Gertz on intercepting and defending against DPRK missiles here. Originally, the yield was estimated at a much lower level:

…the detonation—about 380 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang—touched off a seismic event measuring between magnitude 4.9 and 5.2, which corresponds to a weapon with an estimated explosive yield of six or seven kilotons, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, as reported by the Associated Press.

The explosion surpasses the yield of North Korea’s 2009 nuclear test (estimated to have been between two and six kilotons) and a one-kiloton test in 2006. (Read more here.)

Unfortunately, we have much more to fear, and it is a matter of much discussion what may lay ahead – it likely will not be just one theater and more likely, a concerted effort across the globe and Plutonium raises the ante to 20 kilotons. Please read on, you judge the situation:


The Big One: Russian government says N. Korean nuclear test used plutonium and was larger than earlier blasts by Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon
North Korea’s third underground nuclear test last month was fueled by plutonium and was not a device that used enriched uranium, according to the Russian government.
Retired Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin, a consultant to the Russian Defense Ministry and former commander of strategic nuclear forces, told the Washington Free Beacon that Russia’s government had obtained new details of the Feb. 12 underground test.


South Koreans Watched as the Missile was Prepared and Away it Went – Successfully!



Yesin said the North Koreans’ most recent test blast was “an implosion-type nuclear explosive device that used plutonium for fissile material.”


Additionally, the test produced a larger nuclear yield than Pyongyang’s two earlier tests.


“In comparison to its previous nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009, this time North Korea tested a more powerful nuclear explosive device,” Yesin said. “According to the Russian Ministry of Defense it had an estimated yield of 10 to 20 kiloton”—the equivalent of 10,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT, he said.


Yesin did not disclose how the Russian government was able to make the determination.


However, an intelligence source said the information was obtained by Russia’s SVR intelligence service, indicating it may have been provided by human agents rather than through technical means that can detect traces of radiation in the atmosphere after a test.


Yesin currently is a researcher at the state-run United States and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in addition to advising the Russian Defense Ministry on nuclear and strategic issues.


An official of Russia’s atomic energy agency said after the February nuclear test that Moscow no longer had “working relations” with North Korean nuclear engineers or technicians.


However, a North Korean scientist is known to work at Russia’s Joint Institute of Nuclear Research near Moscow. U.S. officials identified the scientist, Li Je Sen, as the North Korean.


Russia operates three regional Special Control Service laboratories that are part of the 12th GUMO of the Defense Ministry, the unit in charge of Russia’s nuclear forces. The Russians also operate nuclear monitoring sensors in the Eastern Military District.


The office of the director of national intelligence stated in a short announcement the day of the nuclear test that U.S. intelligence “assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Punggye on Feb. 12, 2013.”


“The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues,” the ODNI statement said.
An ODNI spokesman had no information beyond the statement issued Feb. 12.


U.S. intelligence officials said that despite multi-billion dollar sensors and other equipment devoted to foreign nuclear monitoring spy agencies have been unable to determine either the type of nuclear fuel used in the blast or its yield.
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Intelligence agencies are trying to determine if the latest underground test used highly enriched uranium that would indicate the North Koreans have developed a second path to a nuclear weapon by producing enriched uranium for weapons. North Korea’s arsenal is known to be based on plutonium pits for its nuclear weapons.


The intelligence failure also is a setback for international nuclear monitoring efforts and the Obama administration’s plan for a second attempt at Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, considered a high priority of the president’s arms control agenda during his second term.


The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, a group based in Vienna, Austria, set up under the CTBT, said Tuesday that a month after the North Korean test it was unable to find proof of a nuclear test from radioactive traces normally vented into the air.


As a result, the agency has been unable to determine the type of fissile material used in the blast.


The CTBTO has a network of international monitoring stations and its sensors failed to detect any traces of the test.


“It is very unlikely that we will register anything at this point … at this late stage,” CTBTO spokeswoman Annika Thunborg told Reuters News Agency.


One reason no traces of the test were detected is that North Korea may have taken steps to prevent venting in order to thwart international intelligence-gathering efforts.
A congressional aide said the test monitoring failure does not bode well for the administration’s efforts to seek Senate ratification of the test ban treaty.


“It’s clear from even the CTBTO that they haven’t collected the ‘smoking gun’ evidence of a test,” the aide said. “Just like in 2009. It goes to show that CTBT was a bad idea in 1999—when the Senate defeated it—and it’s a bad idea today.”


North Korea (DPRK) at Night, from a Satellite Shot – it is Dark and if they go for it all it will be Dark for a Much Different Reason.



The Senate voted down the treaty in 1999 after determining that the pact was not in the U.S. national security interest.


Due to a procedural move by Senate supporters, the treaty was withdrawn and thus can be ratified at a later time.


President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have said since 2008 that they plan to again seek Senate ratification of the CTBT.


Many Republicans however, are opposing the idea, as banning tests under a treaty increases the risks for the reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as it begins to be cut to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads under the 2010 New START arms treaty and as the president plans to seek a further one-third warhead cut in negotiations with Moscow.
“We are confident that the system works very well,” Thunborg said of CTBTO’s 270 monitoring stations.


According to U.S. officials, North Korea gave up plutonium production in 2007 under international pressure.


However, the North allowed visiting nuclear specialist Siegfried Hecker in 2010 to visit Pyongyang’s secret uranium enrichment facilities. The disclosure raised new concerns that the communist regime was running parallel nuclear programs to produce both plutonium and uranium cores for nuclear bombs.


North Korea recently ramped up threatening rhetoric against the United States and South Korea following the imposition of new United Nations sanctions on the country for its latest nuclear test.


The threats included warnings for the first time that the North will use nuclear-tipped missiles for strikes against the United States.


The regime also withdrew from the 1953 armistice with South Korea that ended hostilities during the Korean War and canceled a communications hotline.


Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at a briefing on security threats Tuesday that he is “very concerned about the actions of the new young leader … and the rhetoric that has been emanating from the North Korean regime.”


“The rhetoric, while it is propaganda-laced, is also an indicator of their attitude and perhaps their intent,” he said. “So for my part I am very concerned about what they might do and they are certainly, if they so chose could initiate a provocative action against the South.”


“There’s perhaps nowhere else on earth where the capacity to wreak enormous damage is matched by the possibility of North Korea using their nuclear weapons,” said Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) during the annual threat briefing.

[American Patriot]

Things about to go hot.....

http://n2yo.com/?s=39026

This is the tracking of the Korean Satellite.

It is coming over Greenland right now and will travel over the DC area, NYC etc shortly

[American Patriot]

The East Coast is "at risk" on this orbit for the next 12 minutes

0753 MDT

[American Patriot]

The next pass will be in roughly 90 or so minutes and the satellite will pass directly over Minn, Nebraska, Kansas. Pretty much dead center of the United States.

0755 MDT

[American Patriot]

Over New Bruswick, coming into Maine momentarily.

[American Patriot]

Satellite has passed US and is going over Panama right now: 0806 MDT.

[American Patriot]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmy...%8Fng-3_Unit_2

[American Patriot]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

I am good. But these guys predicted this a few days ago I guess. I just found the article.

N. Korean Satellite Flies Over America Over And Over And Over Again In The Next 5 Days…

Sunday, April 7, 2013 22:33


(Editor's Note: The entire satellite tracking website has now been taken offline, that's right, disabled as of at least 10:46 pm 4/8/2013)

Hattip to Beforeitsnews reader Jason Glass for the heads up on this story.

The North Korean satellite launched into space back in December of 2012 that is said to be for weather forecast purposes but is being widely portrayed in the West as a veiled ballistic missile test passes over the East Coast of America and as far west as just west of the New Madrid fault line over and over and over again in the next several days. You can check out the flight path of KMS 3-2 yourself right here. Be sure to click the 'show all passes' button. You can also see an absolutely bizarro North Korean video report showing America being nuked from space to the sound of 'We Are The World' below while the video at the very bottom of the story shows KMS 3-2 filmed over Africa. You may be able to see it yourself if you're in its flight path with a telescope; where the green lines are below, the satellite is illuminated by the sun and may be visible if the sky is dark enough. Why so many times over the population hubs of America? Why are they leaving the Western half of America alone? Why 'We Are The World"?

[American Patriot]

But I found the tracking site on my own, and it's NOT offline.

Also, I didn't know these guys posted this.

[American Patriot]

I just don't think the timing of all this is coincidental at this point.

[American Patriot]

Passing over India now... headed north on the opposite side of the planet.

Will hit the top of the world soon and start back "down" across the US

[American Patriot]

satellite over Hudson Bay now....

Now Ontario headed south. Should pass Minn. shortly.

0929