North Korea (Superthread)

[Jammer]

It might be an intersting Easter weekend....

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Pre game warm up ?

http://www.smh.com.au/world/movement-at-nkoreas-missile-sites-source-20130329-2gyqj.html

 

[GnyHwy]

More from CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/29/north-korea-south-us-threats.html

 

[CougarKing]

It might be an intersting Easter weekend....

Speaking of which...

National Post link

North Korea orders rockets on standby after U.S. military drills

Russia warned North Korea and the United States Friday to tone down their rhetoric, warning that a flare-up in tensions between could spin out of control.

“Unilateral actions are being taken around North Korea which manifest themselves in an escalation of military activity. We can simply see the situation getting out of control, it would spiral down into a vicious circle,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

“We believe it is necessary for all not to build up military muscle and not to use the current situation as an excuse to solve certain geopolitical tasks in the region through military means,” he said, while calling for the resumption of diplomatic talks.

Lavrov’s comments came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready “to settle accounts with the U.S.,” unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea.

Kim’s warning, and the litany of threats that have preceded it, don’t indicate an imminent war. In fact, they’re most likely meant to coerce South Korea into softening its policies, win direct talks and aid from Washington, and strengthen the young leader’s credentials and image at home.

But the threats from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed UN sanctions over Pyongyang’s Feb. 12 nuclear test do raise worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.

Kim “convened an urgent operation meeting” of senior generals just after midnight, signed a rocket preparation plan and ordered his forces on standby to strike the U.S. mainland, South Korea, Guam and Hawaii, state media reported.

Kim said “the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,” according to a report by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Later Friday at the main square in Pyongyang, tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for a 90-minute mass rally in support of Kim’s call to arms. Men and women, many of them in olive drab uniforms, stood in arrow-straight lines, fists raised as they chanted, “Death to the U.S. imperialists.” Placards in the plaza bore harsh words for South Korea as well, including, “Let’s rip the puppet traitors to death!”

Small North Korean warships, including patrol boats, conducted maritime drills off both coasts of North Korea near the border with South Korea on Thursday, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing Friday. He didn’t provide more details.

The spokesman said that South Korea’s military was mindful of the possibility that North Korean drills could lead to an actual provocation. He also said that the South Korean and U.S. militaries are watching closely for any signs of missile launch preparations in North Korea. He didn’t elaborate.

North Korea, which says it considers the U.S.-South Korean military drills preparations for invasion, has pumped out a string of threats in state media. In the most dramatic case, Pyongyang made the highly improbable vow to nuke the United States.

On Friday, state media released a photo of Kim and his senior generals huddled in front of a map showing routes for envisioned strikes against cities on both American coasts. The map bore the title “U.S. Mainland Strike Plan.”

Portions of the photo appeared to be manipulated, though an intriguing detail — a bandage on Kim’s left arm — appeared to be real.

Experts believe the country is years away from developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could strike the United States. Many say they’ve also seen no evidence that Pyongyang has long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.

Still, there are fears of a localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999. There’s also the danger that such a clash could escalate. Seoul has vowed to hit back hard the next time it is attacked.

North Korea’s threats are also worrisome because of its arsenal of short- and mid-range missiles that can hit targets in South Korea and Japan. Seoul is only a short drive from the heavily armed border separating the Koreas.

“The North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict,” analysts Victor Cha and David Kang wrote recently for Foreign Policy magazine. They also note that North Korea has a history of testing new South Korean leaders; President Park Geun-hye took office late last month. “Since 1992, the North has welcomed these five new leaders by disturbing the peace,” they wrote.

U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters Thursday that the decision to send B-2 bombers to join the military drills was part of normal exercises and not intended to provoke North Korea. Hagel acknowledged, however, that North Korea’s belligerent tones and actions in recent weeks have ratcheted up the danger in the region, “and we have to understand that reality.”

U.S. Forces Korea said the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri and dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island range on Thursday before returning home. The Pentagon said this was the first time a B-2 had dropped dummy munitions over South Korea, and later added that it was unclear whether there had ever been any B-2 flights there at all.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the joint military drills.

Pyongyang uses the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a justification for its own push for nuclear weapons. It claims that U.S. nuclear firepower is a threat to its existence and provocation.

The two Missouri-based stealth bombers used in the South Korean drills probably weren’t nuclear-armed, but experts say they’re the aircraft that would likely be sent if Washington ever decides it does want to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea. The United States doesn’t forward-deploy nuclear weapons in South Korea, Okinawa, Guam or Hawaii.

“The B-2 can reach targets from North Korea to Iran directly from Missouri, which is what the United States did in the early stages of operations against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq,” analyst Jeffrey Lewis wrote in a post on ArmsControlWonk.com earlier this month.

With files from wires. AP writers Jon Chol Jin in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sam Kim in Seoul and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Glimpse of North Korea's plan of attack on US?

link

 

[CougarKing]

North Korea declares "state of war" with the South and pledges to first "dissolve America"

UK's Mirror link

other sources:
AFP link

Telegraph link

North Korea today claimed it was in a "state of war" with its neighbours to the South - and threatened to "dissolve" the United States.

Early this morning, the country's state news service said it "will not limit (itself) to limited warfare but to all-out war and nuclear war."

The report included a direct threat to America, warning: "We will first target and dissolve mainland United States, Hawaii and Guam, and United States military based in South Korea.

"And the (South Korean presidential office) will be burned to the ground."

The two Koreas have technically been at war since 1953, when their conflict ended with an armistice but not a peace treaty.

Earlier leader Kim Jong-un said he was ready “to settle accounts with the US” after the Pentagon sent Stealth nuclear bombers to drop dummy munitions on a South Korean island range.

His outburst was made in a meeting with his generals, with pictures showed him signing the order with maps in the background marked “US mainland strike plan”.

Missile tracks on them appeared to lead to Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington would not be cowed and stood ready to respond to “any ­eventuality”.
. 

China – North Korea’s main ally – reiterated its calls for restraint.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said he was increasingly concerned about a situation that could “get out of control”.

North Korean leaders are furious about international sanctions imposed after its third nuclear weapons trial in February.

The secretive Stalinist state sees the US as a direct threat and claims America’s once-a-year military exercises with the South are a preparation for war.

It is also using Washington’s nuclear arsenal to justify its push for nuclear-tipped missiles that can strike the US. Experts believe this is years away.

Analysts say it is unlikely North Korean rockets could even hit America but they could target South Korea.

The North has torn up the 1953 armistice that ended its conflict with the South.


But North Korea has a long history of making threats without taking action.

Some believe its underlying aim is to distract its people from appalling conditions at home.

A famine is feared to have killed up to 10,000 in Hwanghae, with cases reported of parents eating their own children.

Kim, 30, is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea’s 24 million people.

Some believe the chubby figurehead – who took over when his father died in 2011 – is a puppet of the hard-line military.

 

[a_majoor]

Funny, they stamped their feet and threw a tantrum in the 1990's and got plenty of goodies from Uncle Sam. Why isn't it working now?

This must be frustrating the hell out of the leadership of the DPRK, hence the surreal ratcheting up of rhetoric.

 

[The_Falcon]

Some part of me thinks, that the dear leaders Generals are stringing him along for some kind of Operation Valkeryie ride or something.  Basically turn up the rhetoric to the point were the US is about to obliterate them, and then overthrow him for being too  reckless.  ;D

 

[dimsum]

Isn't it really "reaffirming" vice "declaring" the state of war, since the Korean War really never ended?  I mean, technically speaking, the two countries have been only on a "hiatus" since 1953.

 

[muskrat89]

Missile tracks on them appeared to lead to Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.

What's the strategic value of Austin? They don't like country music and bluegrass?

 

[Scott]

What's the strategic value of Austin? They don't like country music and bluegrass?

Kim Jong whatever has Lance Armstrong bobbleheads and is pissed that he was doping.

Too obvious?

 

[KaptKain]

Kim Jung whatever is a fool. His people think of him as a descendent of god(his grand daddy).
I just hate that this kid (and future gens) of the Kims will continue to get away with this rheteric(sp?). I was shocked at the non-action taken in 2010 when the north shelled the south islands. As well as the sinking of the souths Naval ship by the north. If it wasnt for Africa and the Middle East I am sure the warmongers in US and NATO would be wanting to take care of the Kim's. We need to do it soon before theres a REAL arms race in the Asia sector....or another wingnut gets control of a country and tries the same BS again.

 

[GnyHwy]

.

 

[cupper]

I was going to say it was all bluster, and you only need to worry if they shut down the factories in the special economic zone.

Well, according to today's report, we may need to ratchet up the anxiety level a touch.

North Korea warns South Korea of ‘state of war,’ threatens to close joint factory park

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-says-it-is-in-a-state-of-war-with-south-korea-in-latest-threat-against-rival/2013/03/29/84516940-98db-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html?hpid=z1

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered “a state of war” and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that’s the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

...

Hours after the statement, Pyongyang threatened to shut down the jointly run Kaesong industrial park, expressing anger over media reports suggesting the complex remained open because it was a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

“If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK even a bit, while speaking of the zone whose operation has been barely maintained, we will shut down the zone without mercy,” an identified spokesman for the North’s office controlling Kaesong said in comments carried by KCNA.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry responded by calling the North Korean threat “unhelpful” to the countries’ already frayed relations and vowed to ensure the safety of hundreds of South Korean managers who cross the border to their jobs in Kaesong. It did not elaborate.

 

[Old Sweat]

What's the strategic value of Austin? They don't like country music and bluegrass?

They may have hauled out an old map. Crawford, ranch of Bush 43 who lives in Dallas, is near the Texas capital.

 

[Jarnhamar]

North Korea should man up and shoot a missile at the US or STFU already.

The US should turn off NKs internet access and let the citizens do that they're bound to do with no starcraft or facebook.

 

[Robert0288]

South Korea has the facebooks and starcraft.  North Korea literally has just gotten it's first cell tower a couple of months ago.  I don't know what the point of these threats are.  In the past North Korea threatened, then relented in order to get things like food and oil.  Now there just doesn't seem to be any sense to what's going on.  Unless it's part of a larger internal power struggle within North Korea.

 

[Nemo888]

The threats all all about getting attention. The North has have roughly 10,000 artillery pieces pointed at Seoul. 80%+ of South Korea's industry will be destroyed within hours of a conflict starting. Not even the US can attack 10,000 targets at once. Little Kim has nothing to lose.  South Korea's economic destruction is guaranteed without nukes or ballistic missiles.

The map says,  'US Mainland Strike Plan'. That is so awesome.

 

[Jarnhamar]

You know an awful lot about North Korea, "Robert" from Ottawa..

Nemo, stop being a defeatist.

 

[George Wallace]

The map says,  'US Mainland Strike Plan'. That is so awesome.

So?  The North Koreans Wargame as well.  Is this something new?  Duh!

 

[Robert0288]

You know an awful lot about North Korea, "Robert" from Ottawa..

Nemo, stop being a defeatist.

Denis Rodman was in North Korea at the beginning of march posting tweets during a basketball game from his phone over their 3G network in Pyongyang, by Korean news they where pleased it was one of their first. 

Also creating external problems is often used to unify a country or a group.  Some of the other options include Kim Jong Un is no longer a rational actor.  Or we really have no idea what the hell is going on in a nation that has millions of troops and tens of thousands of arty pieces ready to level all of South Korea.  I'm personally hoping for a warped reason rather than insanity.

And I just have way too much spare time on my hands.