North Korea threatens war

[Toad]

Toad~ It's Thursday, time for North Korea to threaten war.

http://australianetworknews.com/stor...27.htm?desktop

North Korea threatens war



Activists launch balloons into North Korea. The balloons have tiggered a threat of war from the North. [ABC]







Last Updated: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:39:00 +1100

North Korea has threatened war against South Korea over balloons drifting over the nations' border that contain leaflets denouncing Kim Jong-il's regime.

Pyongyang is warning the drifting balloons, which look like five-metre long condoms and are inflated with helium, are a deliberate provocation from the South and could lead to war.

The offending balloons are attached to bags filled with 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets and hundreds of DVDs. The bags are also stuffed with $US1 bills: an inducement for nervous North Koreans to pick up the contraband.

With favourable wind conditions, and after a quick chant, South Korean activists released balloons near the border and then watched them float peacefully into North Korea.

The balloon launches enrage Kim Jong-il's regime, which likes to starve its populace of any information about the outside world.

Rhetoric from the North always remains strong and threatening, as demonstrated by this week's news report from state TV in Pyongyang.

"The North side reminds the South side once again that the army and people of North Korea are compelled to make physical reaction against the South's ceaseless provocative war moves," says the newsreader.

"The North is fully ready for it," she warned.


Military build-up


South Korea's military says it's boosting vigilance after noticing unusual activities by North Korea, similar to actions before Pyongyang shelled the South's island of Yeonpyeong last year.

Citing a Government report, Yonhap News Agency says the North's military recently moved an unidentified number of fighter jets to a base near the Yellow Sea.

Pyongyang's also reportedly deployed ground-to-air missiles to a region near the South's northernmost island of Baengyeong.

North Korea shelled the island of Yeonpyeong in November 2010, killing four South Koreans.


Assassination attempt

The threats of war are being taken seriously in the South and the man driving the anti-Pyongyang balloon campaign was recently the target of an assassination attempt involving a North Korean agent.

Last week, authorities in the South charged a North Korean man, identified only as An, with trying to assassinate balloon campaigner Park Sang-hak.

Authorities say An arrived in Seoul in the 1990s posing as a defector. Last month he arranged a meeting with Mr Park, whose suspicions led him to notify authorities.

At their rendezvous point, An was found armed with weaponry akin to that of a Bond film.

When prosecutors showed off his arsenal it included a poison dart gun disguised as a torch and a pen equipped with a poison needle.

[BRVoice]

N.Korea Moves Arms Closer to Border

North Korea has recently moved fighter jets near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and ground-to-air missiles close to Baeknyeong Island. There is speculation that it plans a minor provocation while South Korean president Lee Myung-bak visits the U.S. since any show of unity between the two allies tends to incense the North.

"The North Korean military was seen moving mobile missile launchers at a ground-to-ship missile base near the NLL," a government source said. "There's likelihood that the North will launch a military provocation" while Lee is away.

The government is closely watching movements of North Korean artillery units.

An intelligence source said, "The North Korean Army is showing movements similar to those seen right before it shelled Yeonpyeong Island last year."

Lee was quoted by a source as saying prior to his departure for Washington, "If the North launches a provocation during a Seoul-Washington summit, it will become an international issue rather than a domestic one." He instructed the military to "strongly respond" if the North does.

englishnews@chosun.com / Oct. 13, 2011 09:16 KST

[BRVoice]

Here's a map....posted for fair use.....



Description Map of Korean maritime border.svg
English: Map of Korean maritime border, language neutral version.

1. Yeonpyeong Island
2. Baengnyeong Island
3. Daecheong Island and Socheong Island
4. Yeongjong Island (Incheon Intl. Airport)
5. Seoul
6. Incheon
7. Haeju
8. Kaesong
9. Ganghwa County
10. Bukdo-myeon
11. Deokjeok-myeon
12. Jawol-myeon
13. Yeongheung-myeon

* A. Northern Limit Line (NLL, the border claimed by South Korea since 1953)
* B. Military Demarcation Line (the border claimed by North Korea since 1999)

[BRVoice]

(2nd LD) Lee makes unprecedented visit to Pentagon
By Chang Jae-soon and Lee Chi-dong

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak paid an unprecedented visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday and received a briefing from top American military officials on North Korea and other security issues, the presidential office said.

Lee is the first South Korean president to visit the Pentagon.

[BRVoice]

U.S. Fighter Jets Deployed in Korea


Twelve F-16C "Fighting Falcons" and 200 personnel have arrived in Korea from the U.S. mainland and will be stationed here for six months, the U.S. Seventh Air Force Command here said Tuesday.

The F-16Cs and personnel from the 466th Air Expeditionary Squadron under the 419th Fighter Wing headquartered at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, arrived at Gunsan Base last Friday.

They will be stationed there for three months and then replaced by the 421st Air Expeditionary Squadron under the 388th Fighter Wing for another three months.

A press release quoted Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Remington, the commander of the Seventh Air Force, as saying the deployment "reaffirms the U.S. commitment to provide appropriate deterrence in the defense of the Korean Peninsula."

The F-16C also is the South Korean Air Force's main fighter model. It has a combat radius of 1,300 km even with two 1-ton bombs and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. It is capable of both aerial combat and ground attack.

The U.S. deployed the F-16C squadron in apparent efforts to ease South Korea's concern about a vacuum in the U.S. Forces Korea after the withdrawal of the AH-64D Apache squadron.

englishnews@chosun.com / Oct. 12, 2011 10:55 KST

[Luke]

I agree with Toad, North Korean law dictates war to be declared on the US every Thursday. Still should not be ignored.

[BRVoice]

North Korea Seen Shifting Weapons Closer to South

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011

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North Korea has shifted some of its warplanes and missiles closer to its heavily militarized boundary line with South Korea, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Oct. 12).

A South Korean official said the Stalinist state had moved ground-to-air missiles to an area not far from the South's Baengyeong Island and fielded an unspecified quantity of fighter planes at a forward-operating base close to the two nations' sea border. Portable launchpads were also seen moved at a land-to-sea missile installation.

The detected movements are not unlike those observed just before North Korea fired on South Korea's populated Yeonpyeong Island last November -- an attack that killed four people.

The South Korean military has heightened its monitoring of the maritime boundary and ordered an increased state of readiness for army, naval and air forces, officials said.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and his defense chief, Kim Kwan-jin, are in Washington this week for a state visit. A Lee aide traveling with them played down the implications of the weapon movements.

"As far as I know, there is no unusual movement in the North's military," the unidentified official said without providing specifics (Yonhap News Agency , Oct. 12).

During a press conference with Lee on Thursday, President Obama warned Pyongyang that future acts of North Korean aggression would result in "even stronger sanctions and isolation," the Associated Press reported.

Lee urged the North to "abandon its nuclear ambitions," adding that Seoul and Washington "speak with one voice" regarding the matter (Matthew Pennington, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Oct. 13).

Along with the state visit White House, Lee today is set to address a joint session of Congress, AP reported (Matthew Pennington, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, Oct. 13).

Obama and Lee were anticipated to discuss whether attempts to reach out to North Korea through diplomacy should be continued, Reuters reported.

Diplomats from South Korea and the United States have in recent months met directly with officials from Pyongyang to discuss conditions for relaunching the long-paralyzed North Korean denuclearization negotiations (Matt Spetalnick, Reuters, Oct. 13).

[BRVoice]

Obama: North Korea's choice is disarmament or isolation



– 2 hrs 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Thursday North Korea poses a threat to U.S. and South Korean security and it faces a choice between accepting international demands it scrap its nuclear arms or facing deeper isolation.

"North Korea continues to pose a direct threat to the security of both our nations," Obama said at a White House news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak.

"The choice is clear for North Korea: If Pyongyang continues to ignore its international obligations, it will invite even more pressure and isolation. If the North abandons its quest for nuclear weapons and moves toward denuclearization, it will enjoy greater security and opportunity for its people," he said.

Lee said Seoul and Washington were in complete agreement on North Korea policy and on their insistence that Pyongyang must first take concrete steps to show it is serious about getting rid of its nuclear weapons as it pledged to do in a 2005 international agreement.

"When it comes to cooperation between our governments, we speak with one voice and we will continue to speak with one voice," Lee said.

Ties between the two Koreas have been frosty since Lee took office in 2008 and linked aid to progress on North Korean nuclear disarmament. They deteriorated further after the North's deadly attacks on the South last year -- the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of an island.

[vector7]

Senior N. Korean naval commander visits Russia


Russia's Pacific Fleet warship
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Tsyagonov

03:03 20/10/2011

VLADIVOSTOK, October 20 (RIA Novosti)

Tags: Russia’s Pacific Fleet, Kim Min-Sik

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Commander of N. Korea’s East Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Kim Min-Sik, will start on Thursday an official visit to Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

“The visit will continue until October 27…and will include tours of the Admiral Tributs missile destroyer and the Varshavyanka diesel-powered submarine,” a Pacific Fleet spokesman said.

Kim Min-Sik will also meet with senior Pacific Fleet officials and visit the Russian military contingent on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The admiral’s visit is a follow-up to the visit of Russia's Eastern Military District Commander Admiral Konstantin Sidenko to Pyongyang in August. The sides agreed at the time to expand military ties, hold joint military exercises and exchange friendly visits of warships.

The Russian military has recently said Russia and North Korea could hold joint naval drills in the Yellow Sea in 2012 with the focus on sea rescue and humanitarian missions.

[BRVoice]

Thanks for the warning vector7

[vector7]

Thanks for the warning vector7

It was news to me as well.

[BRVoice]

2011/11/07 23:25 KST

N. Korea's uranium program close to being operational: source


JEJU ISLAND, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is close to being able to produce a small number of nuclear weapons per year through its uranium enrichment program (UEP) at the country's main nuclear plant, a senior South Korean official claimed Monday.

The official claimed the UEP at the Yongbyon nuclear complex is a "small industry" that can be used to mass produce atomic weapons, citing reports that there are some 2,000 centrifuges located there.

"It seems that North Korea has completed 70 percent of the process to be able to make one or two nuclear weapons per year," the official, asking for anonymity, told Yonhap News on the margins of a disarmament conference on the resort island of Jeju.

Pyongyang may have spent at least nine years establishing its UEP at Yongbyon, the official said, adding it is hard to monitor the nuclear facility in the communist state.

Seoul and Washington have insisted that Pyongyang suspend the program and allow international inspectors to verify the suspension ahead of the aid-for-disarmament six-party talks, which have been suspended since late 2008. Pyongyang insists on reopening the forum without any preconditions.

Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons, providing Pyongyang with a second way of building nuclear bombs in addition to its existing plutonium program.

ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

[vector7]

Up to 400,000 Troops Required In Case of N. Korean Regime Collapse: US



Research Two leading US experts say up to 4-hundred-thousand troops would be required to stabilize North Korea if the regime collapsed.

An analyst from a leading US think tank, the RAND Corporation, Bruce Bennett and Dartmouth College scholar Jennifer Lind published their study in the fall issue of a renowned academic journal called "International Security".

They said that, if the collapse happened after a war on the peninsula, the number of military personnel needed would grow adding that neighboring countries would have to perform several military missions to stabilize North Korea as a response.