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North Korea (Superthread)

Part 3
September 14, 2017: In coincidental, nearly simultaneous, events North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan while South Korea fired two Hyunmoo 2 ballistic missiles. One of these failed while the other accurately hit the target area (at sea) 250 kilometers away. The North Korean missile travelled about 2,200 kilometers and landed in the Pacific. Japan said it tracked the missile and did not try to intercept because it was obvious the missile was following a trajectory that would take it far from Japan. The identity of the North Korean missile was not known.

South Korea has developed a longer (500 kilometer) version; Hyunmoo 2C. South Korea developed a 180 kilometer range ballistic missile (Hyunmoo 1) and a 300 kilometer one (Hyunmoo 2) in the 1980s. Both are about 13 meters (40 feet) long and weigh 4-5 tons. Both of these were based on the design of the U.S. Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missile, which South Korea used for many years.

September 13, 2017: Google and YouTube have banned videos from North Korean media, apparently because it is a source of income for North Korea and now in violation of sanctions. This reduces open source access to North Korean TV although intelligence agencies will still be able to get these.

China has restricted access to Mount Paektu, apparently for safety reasons related to the recent North Korean nuclear test, which was conducted 110 kilometers away. Mount Paektu is a dormant volcano on the Chinese border. In fact, half the volcano is in China, where it is a popular tourist destination for South Koreans. That’s because Koreans and Manchus (as in Manchuria, the native people of northeast China) both consider Mt Paektu as a sacred place where their tribes originated thousands of years ago. In 2013 North Korea put some silos for their long range (2,000-3,000 kilometers) ballistic missiles up there because that part of North Korea is a triangle, surrounded on two sides by China. This makes it difficult for the Americans to launch air attacks without entering Chinese territory and makes it easier for North Korean anti-aircraft forces to defend against cruise missile. On the down side, Paektu is a dormant volcano that is active (lava flows and the like) about once a century. The last time it erupted (throwing large quantities of rocks and dust into the atmosphere) was in 1703 and an eruption in the late 10th century blew the top off the mountain and created the current 4.5 kilometers wide crater lake. Volcanologists consider Paektu capable of another major eruption but North Korea considers that less likely than an American air attack. So the silos stay, despite the risk of destruction by lava flows and earthquakes. Before all these silos were built North Korea planned to keep its long range ballistic missiles mobile and launch them from any number of launch sites (a flat field where the missile could be fueled and the guidance system programmed before launch.) Bad weather could complicate the use of mobile launchers (washing out bridges or blocking roads with snow). The quality of North Korean roads has also declined sharply (from lack of maintenance) since the late 1990s. Then there is the increased American surveillance (from satellites, U-2s and high-altitude UAVs) that makes mobile missiles more vulnerable to air or missile attack. Silos can also be attacked from the air, but in a war the more numerous and shorter range ballistic missiles to the south would also be subject to air attack as these missiles would be aimed at the South Korean capital. North Korea apparently believes that silos protected by a sacred volcano are a worthwhile investment to ensure that some of long-range missiles will get launched during a crises. China is more concerned about nuclear radiation coming from North Korea.

September 12, 2017: Chinese radiation monitors on the North Korean border recorded levels were up seven percent since the September 3rd test and have appeared to have peaked. This data was released because the population along the border know that they face some health risks if radiation levels increase too much for too long.

September 11, 2017: The UN approved new economic sanctions against North Korea and China said it would enforce them all and repeated that it had been enforcing sanctions since March. The new sanctions limit the export of refined petroleum product to two million barrels a year and ban North Korea from importing liquefied natural gas. This followed China condemning North Korea nuclear tests openly in the UN for the first time.

Meanwhile the United States continues to call on China and Russia to do more to halt the North Korean evasion of sanctions via corrupt officials and businesses in China and Russia. China in particular does not want too much international attention focused on that corruption, which has long been quite active along the North Korean border and still is. The United States is not being diplomatic in pointing this out but it is correct in showing how Chinese enforcement of sanctions does not really work unless China effectively curbs the Chinese corruption that enables North Korea to continue doing whatever it wants. For the North Korea the increased sanctions pressure merely increases costs (larger bribes are required in China and Russia).

September 10, 2017: Chinese banks have been warning its customers to stay away from bitcoin because of the threat from North Korean hackers, who are believed to be responsible for several recent multi-million dollar thefts from bitcoin exchanges. North Korea is believed to be targeting bitcoin and other Internet based cryptocurrencies even though North Korea has used bitcoin exchanges as a substitute for sanctions that ban it from accessing the international banking system. The Chinese government fears that North Korean hackers are now going after Chinese firms, something they are not supposed to do because China is still the main source of foreign trade. This sort of irrational behavior leads China to fear that North Korea would even be foolish to become a real military threat to China.

September 9, 2017: China orders all Chinese banks (including foreign banks licensed to operate in China) to not only stop opening accounts for North Koreans but also to close any such accounts immediately. This is a very harmful economic sanction and the North Koreans respond by ignoring the new rules any way they can.

September 8, 2017: North Korea has quietly freed a Russian yacht it had seized in mid-June. A North Korean warship seized the Russian yacht when both were 80 kilometers off the coast. The yacht and the vessel towing it to Vladivostok were definitely in international waters and the Russian ambassador demanded the release of the yacht and three man crew. North Korea was not responsive until now. This was similar to a May 2016 incident where North Korean warship seized a Russian sailing yacht some 160 kilometers from the east coast of North Korea (very much in international waters). The yacht and crew of five were taken to a North Korean port. The yacht was released two days later and continued on its way to its original destination (Vladivostok) for a sailboat race. In both cases North Korea would not say why they took the yacht and then released it.

September 7, 2017: South Korea has completed deploying an entire THAAD battery to a site some 300 kilometers south of the North Korean border. The United States will share radar data generated by the high-powered radar installed as part of a THAAD anti-missile battery that began arriving in early 2017. The THAAD battery is operated by American personnel and costs $3.5 million a year to operate. The battery consists of six truck-mounted missile launchers (eight missiles per launcher), a fire control and communications unit and an AN/TPY-2 radar. Villagers living near the site of the THAAD base oppose the presence of the anti-missile battery because it will be a target for North Korean (or even Chinese) attack. Locals also fear (without any evidence) that the powerful THAAD radar will cause health problems.

September 6, 2017: A recent online opinion survey in China showed that 66 percent believed North Korea was a larger military threat to China than the United States. Only 10 percent felt the Americans were a larger threat and 15 percent believed the U.S. was no threat at all. This is consistent with earlier surveys only the degree of hostility towards North Korea keeps increasing. Chinese see North Korea has a poorly managed nation that is ungrateful towards China and unpredictable.

September 4, 2017: North Korean living near the site of the recent underground nuclear weapons test are demanding compensation for the damage done to their home by the earthquake (estimated to be 5.6 on the Richter scale) the test produced. Across the Yalu River some Chinese buildings also suffered damage from the quake and several aftershocks.

South Korea announced that its policy towards North Korea will now on “punishment” rather than negotiation.

September 3, 2017: North Korea carried out its sixth nuclear test. This one appeared to be the largest one yet indicating a yield of 100-200 tons and described as a hydrogen bomb. The first nuclear test was in 2006 (less than one kiloton) but the first one that was truly successful occurred in 2013 (6 kilotons) and despite the fact that the test was not a complete success, the nuclear bomb program continued with two tests in 2016. In late 2015 Kim Jong Un claimed that North Korea had developed a hydrogen (fusion) bomb. Foreign experts openly expressed skepticism given that North Korea didn’t really have a reliable fission type nuclear bomb yet. You need an efficient fission bomb to trigger the fusion reaction that makes the “H-Bomb” so much more destructive than a fission bomb of the same weight and size. Nuclear test number four in January 2016 was described by North Korea as a fusion (H-bomb) test when it clearly was not, or not a successful one. That would be in contrast to the 2013 test which appeared to be seven kilotons and a complete detonation. The second test was a two kiloton weapon in 2009. Western intelligence believed that the original North Korean nuclear weapon design was flawed, as the first two tests were only a fraction of what they should have been. The first one was less than a kiloton and called in the trade, a "fizzle." The second test was less of a fizzle and apparently a modified version of the original design. Thus North Korea needed more tests to perfect their bomb design and was still years away from a useful nuclear weapon even though the second bomb appeared to be more effective. The third test in 2013 was considered overdue and that may have been because more time was spent designing and building a smaller device that could fit into a missile warhead. The second 2016 test is still something of a mystery. U.S. intelligence agencies have collected air samples (as have most other neighboring countries) from the test which can tell much about the design of the bomb. The January 2016 nuke appeared to be the same as the 2013 one. The second 2016 test in September appeared to be a better design and was about ten kilotons. North Korea insisted this was a fusion bomb. Air samples are still being collected on the test today but it will take weeks to analyze the samples and come to some useful conclusion. The sheer size of the most recent test indicated either a fusion bomb or an enhanced fission bomb. But for a yield of over 100 tons a fusion bomb is more likely. Such designs have been around and in use since the late 1940s. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 a lot of Russian nuclear weapons designers and technicians were out of a job and the pensions of the retired ones were suddenly worth a lot less. The security for nuclear weapons designs, especially much older ones, became a lot more lax. There were plenty of opportunities to obtain previously unavailable tech.

August 29, 2017: North Korea fired a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile over Japan. This was the 18th North Korean ballistic missile test of 2017 and this one appeared to break into pieces before it fell into the ocean after travelling 2,700 kilometers from North Korea. This was the second successful test of the Hwasong-12.

August 28, 2017: South Korea announced its largest increase (6.9 percent for 2018) in its defense budget since 2009. This is a direct result of the increasing threat from North Korea. Next year South Korea will spend $38 billion, which is more than a third larger than the annual GDP of North Korea (which spends about a third of GDP on defense compared to less than three percent in South Korea). South Korea is in the top ten of national economies, something which annoys North Korea but is admired by the other neighbors (including China). Meanwhile Japan is also increasing its defense spending by 2.5 percent in 2018 (to $48 billion). Japan, like China and the U.S., are among the top five economies on the planet. Japan, because of the post-World War II constitution the United States insisted on (and Japan did not much object to) has been largely demilitarized considering the size of its economy. That is changing and the U.S. has dropped nearly all restrictions on what weapons it will export to South Korea and Japan and is ignoring treaties it has with both nations that restrict what types of advanced weapons (like ballistic missiles and nukes) they can develop. The Americans would still prefer that South Korea and Japan not build nukes (which both these nations could easily and quickly do). China and Russia would also prefer that Japan and South Korea remain non-nuclear weapon nations. But if North Korean military ambitions and threats (especially against South Korea and Japan) are not curbed popular opinion in South Korea and Japan is becoming more comfortable with the having their own nukes.

August 25, 2017: China banned North Korea from establishing any new businesses in China or expanding existing ones. Russia has done the same, but the Chinese are a much larger market and apparently intent on following through. Meanwhile the August 15 order for Chinese firms to halt imports of minerals and seafood cost some Chinese firms with physical operations (trucks, mines) and warehouses in North Korea to suffer losses because they were given only 24 hours to get this stuff back to China and that was not enough time. This was especially true when many North Korean officials demanded special payments before these goods could be moved.

August 24, 2017: A Russian Tu-95 bomber flew south from a base north of Korea until it got close enough to South Korea to cause South Korean F-16s to come up and investigate. Russia said it was a scheduled training flight.
 
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/lawrence-solomon-why-israel-might-take-out-north-koreas-nukes

Lawrence Solomon: Why Israel might take out North Korea's nukes



North Korea’s rhetoric, like its promise earlier this year to unleash a “merciless, thousand-fold punishment” on its enemy, is familiar to us. But the target of the invective may surprise some. That particular threat was levied against Israel, and understandably so. Kim Jong-Un has reason to fear and loathe Israel.

The United States, South Korea and Japan—the three Pacific countries the Western press focuses on—haven’t been willing to kill North Koreans. Israel has. The U.S., South Korea and Japan haven’t blown up North Korean facilities. Israel has, many believe, and for good measure it also exercises control over North Korean shipping. Kim knows that Israel acts militarily and covertly to thwart his plans at home and abroad and that Israel is far likelier to take pre-emptive actions than his appeaser-neighbours. Unlike Trump, who issues loud threats of his own but is restrained in action, Israel acts and remains silent.

One of the highest profile, if initially unpublicized, military attacks in the undeclared war between North Korea and Israel occurred a decade ago, when Israeli jets destroyed a nuclear reactor that the North Koreans were building in Syria, and with it 10 North Korean officials. Three years earlier, shortly after a Mossad agent surreptitiously entered North Korea using a stolen Canadian passport, a massive explosion in a North Korean freight train carrying nuclear material killed at least a dozen Syrian nuclear scientists, and many more North Koreans. Israeli intelligence, which is thought to have played a role in the attack, reported that there was so much radioactive material onboard that the scientists were flown back to Syria in lead caskets.

Kim Jong Un has reason to fear and loathe Israel

Israel, sometimes in co-operation with the U.S., is also believed to have intercepted shipments from North Korea to Middle Eastern nations involving technology for missiles, conventional arms and chemical weapons as well as nuclear weaponry. In 2017 alone, according to a UN report leaked last month to Reuters, two North Korean arms shipments bound for the Syrian agency responsible for chemical weapons were intercepted by two unnamed governments.

North Korea’s hatred of Israel is ideological, dating back to the West vs. Communist Cold War era. It is the only non-Muslim country to have never recognized the state of Israel and the only one to have taken Israel on militarily. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli air force’s first and last dogfights in the skies over Egypt involved North Korean pilots flying Soviet MIG fighters. North Korea has trained and armed the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas and Hezbollah. One North Korean specialty—tunnel technology—is valued by Iran, which needs to protect its nuclear facilities against attack, and by Hamas and Hezbollah, who use it to infiltrate Israel. Iranian scientists have been special guests at North Korean nuclear bomb tests.


Israel has more than North Korea’s ideology to worry about, however. North Korea’s chief source of revenue is arms and its chief customer is Iran. It was Iran that financed the Syrian nuclear reactor—price tag estimated at U.S.$1 billion to $2 billion—and it is Iran that has been importing North Korean missile technology as well as nuclear technology. Now that North Korea has miniaturized nuclear bombs, it is able to sell Iran ready-made bombs as well.

Iran has missile technology and lacks only the nuclear warhead

Iran has missile technology and lacks only the nuclear warhead. Now it has in North Korea a willing seller, one that will be in increasing need of funds if the economic sanctions imposed by the UN take hold. Israel thus faces a nightmare scenario in which the U.S. refrains from disarming North Korea, leaving North Korea free to ship unlimited numbers of nuclear bombs to Iran, whose mullahs are bent on destroying the state of Israel.

North Korea poses a major threat to the U.S. but not an existential threat, and if U.S. intelligence agencies are correct, not an imminent one. North Korea, in league with Iran, poses an existential threat to Israel—with its tiny land mass, Israel could not withstand a successful nuclear attack. 

Israel has a history of taking pre-emptive action against mortal threats, even when opposed by the U.S. and world opinion. It will do so again if it must. If it does take out North Korea’s nuclear capability, especially if Israel is perceived to have acted alone, North Korea would have no reason to retaliate against the U.S., South Korea or Japan. A tragic carnage in the Korean peninsula would be averted.

Thoughts?


Cheers
Larry


 
While it makes sense, how in gods name would they pull it off? launch a F-35 strike off a container ship? wait...... Israel could do something like that. Problem is North Korea would then blame the US and it would go out of control from there.
 
milnews.ca said:
From POTUS45's speech @ the U.N. today...
I think that this pic is worth the thousand words:  White House Chief of Staff, General John Kelly at the UN.

7e1bb7dd7a738cf89d892fb535e425fb-2-410x220.jpg


 
Not to mention the look on Mrs. Trump's face.  She looks as if she's having a hard time believing what she's hearing.  Career diplomats in the US Corps must be just cringing and howling in torment like doomed souls from Dante's inferno whenever the boss opens up his mouth.  ;D  Poor bastards.
 
The US has the means to take out the North's electrical grid in part or toto. Meaning take out the power to their missile launch area for example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo2mNFF6uGw
 
The latest from POTUS45:  text of latest executive order here, letter to Congress & President of Senate here, White House highlights package below (source) ...
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Increases Pressure to Cut off Funding for North Korea
The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, September 21, 2017

STRONG FINANCIAL SANCTIONS: President Trump today issued a new Executive Order (E.O.) imposing additional sanctions with respect to North Korea.

    The provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies of the Government of North Korea constitute a continuing threat to the national security, foreign policy, and, economy of the United States and a disturbance of the international relations of the United States.
    The United States is committed to targeting all means used by North Korea to earn, access, and transfer funds that North Korea uses to further its WMD programs.

    We must maximize pressure on North Korea to demonstrate to its leadership that the best and only path is to return to denuclearization.

    The E.O. also authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to impose sanctions on persons involved in:

    Industries: The construction, energy, financial services, fishing, information technology, manufacturing, medical, mining, textiles, or transportation industries in North Korea;
    Ports: Ownership, control, or operation of any port in North Korea, including any seaport, airport, or land port of entry;
    Imports/Exports: at least one significant importation from or exportation to North Korea of any goods, services, or technology.

TARGETING TRADE AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: These new authorities target individuals and entities that engage in trade with North Korea as well as the financial institutions that facilitate this trade.

    Trade: The E.O. directly targets North Korea’s shipping and trade networks and issues a 180-day ban on vessels and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the United States. This ban also targets vessels that have engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer with a vessel that has visited North Korea within 180 days. North Korea is dependent on its shipping networks to facilitate international trade.

    Financial Institutions: The E.O. provides the authority to impose sanctions on any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts or facilitates any significant transaction on behalf of certain designated individuals and entities, or any significant transaction in connection with trade with North Korea, on or after the date of the E.O.

    Under this new authority, the sanctions measures can be either restrictions on correspondent or payable-through accounts or blocking sanctions.
    The E.O. also provides the Secretary of the Treasury additional authority to block any funds originating from, destined for, or passing through accounts linked to North Korea that come within the United States or possession of a U.S. person.

Foreign financial institutions must choose between doing business with the United States or facilitating trade with North Korea or its designated supporters.
 
Financial pressure works unless the North has an alternate revenue source - like Iran. Obama did give them $150b in cash.
 
Rocket Man speaks (screen capture of PRK statement via Ministry of Foreign Affairs page also attached) ...
Statement of Chairman of State Affairs Commission of DPRK
Posted on: 2017-09-22

Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, released a statement on Thursday.

The full text of the statement reads:

The speech made by the U.S. president in his maiden address on the UN arena in the prevailing serious circumstances, in which the situation on the Korean peninsula has been rendered tense as never before and is inching closer to a touch-and-go state, is arousing worldwide concern.

Shaping the general idea of what he would say, I expected he would make stereo-typed, prepared remarks a little different from what he used to utter in his office on the spur of the moment as he had to speak on the world’s biggest official diplomatic stage.

But, far from making remarks of any persuasive power that can be viewed to be helpful to defusing tension, he made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors.

A frightened dog barks louder.

I’d like to advise Trump to exercise prudence in selecting words and to be considerate of whom he speaks to when making a speech in front of the world.

The mentally deranged behavior of the U.S. president openly expressing on the UN arena the unethical will to “totally destroy” a sovereign state, beyond the boundary of threats of regime change or overturn of social system, makes even those with normal thinking faculty lose discretion and composure.

His remarks remind me of such words as “political layman” and “political heretic” which were in vogue in reference to Trump during his presidential election campaign.

After taking office Trump has rendered the world restless through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world. He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician.

His remarks which described the U.S. option through straightforward expression of his will have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last.

Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.

Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say.

As a man representing the DPRK and on behalf of the dignity and honor of my state and people and on my own, I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK.

This is not a rhetorical expression loved by Trump.

I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue.

Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation.

I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.
 

Attachments

According to this story from CTV News, reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act, Canada would be willing to help broker a settlement between NK and the USA. Are visions of a Nobel Peace Prize circulating in Ottawa?

Canada willing to broker peace between U.S. and North Korea: McCallum
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-willing-to-broker-peace-between-u-s-and-north-korea-mccallum-1.3602727

CTV QP: 'Canada has a role': McCallum on tensions

Canada's Ambassador to China, John McCallum says Canada has spoken to both countries and stands ready should it be useful to broker a peace.
CTV National News: Rockets ‘inevitable?'
Mercedes Stephenson reports on the escalating tension between U.S. President Trump and North Korea, which says rockets are now 'inevitable.'
CTV News Channel: N. Korea responds to Trump

The North Korean foreign minister responded to Trump's UN address, saying his country is just trying to defend its sovereignty.
Daniel Otis, CTVNews.ca Writer
@dsotis

Published Sunday, September 24, 2017 11:00AM EDT
Last Updated Sunday, September 24, 2017 1:27PM EDT
Canada’s ambassador to China, John McCallum, says that Beijing is angry with North Korea, but Canada is willing to “help to broker a peace” on the Korean Peninsula.
“I think China, to use an undiplomatic word, is getting more and more pissed off with North Korea,” McCallum, who took over Canada’s diplomatic post in the country after nearly two decades in Parliament, told CTV’s Question Period. “They seem to be goading their only friend, so China is doing more to implement the sanctions than it had before.”
With multiple nuclear and missile tests this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has increasingly tested the resolve of the international community. That has led to several United Nations-backed sanctions packages as well as an escalating war of words between the young autocrat and U.S. President Donald Trump.
But China, McCallum said, has no interest in seeing a regime change in North Korea -- something that could potentially bring hordes of North Korean refugees to its borders. North Korea, he added, will also never willingly give up its growing nuclear arsenal.
“I'm not a fan of Vladimir Putin,” McCallum said, “but I think he got it right when he said that North Korea would rather eat grass than lose its nuclear weapons. I think they see this as existential to them.”
On their own, sanctions will also likely fail to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula, McCallum said. He firmly believes that there needs to be a diplomatic solution.
“I think you have to get the parties to the table,” he said. “But the challenge is to decide what would be on the menu at the table and whether there's any menu that would be remotely feasible for both the United States and North Korea."
That, he added, is where Canada could potentially play a role as “an honest broker.”
“Canada stands ready should it be useful for us to help to broker a peace,” he said. "If there was anything we can do, either to help to set what would be on the table, or to persuade either of the two parties to come to the table, or to be a broker if negotiations begin, I am sure that we would be happy to do that."
While Canada continues to engage China and the United States on the issue of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, no such formal offer to mediate has been made.
"I don’t think there’s been a crisis of this magnitude facing the world perhaps since the Cuba crisis, or certainly for a long, long time,” McCallum added. “There is an urgency to try to come to some solution to this, but so far I think that solution is eluding the whole world."

- mod edit to add link -
 
I find the gnashing of teeth over Trumps speech and approach interesting. People seem to be unaware that the “reasonable approach” is what has led us to this current state of affairs. The latest article I say said that Trump has no considered the safety of the SK and Japanese citizens who are unprepared for any retaliation, but then fails to point out that those governments have been slow to do much of anything constructive on that point for the last decade. Sort of like standing on a rail track and seeing a train coming in the distance, but believing it won’t hit you, because somebody else might build a siding for it in the meantime.
 
Meanwhile ...
North Korea's foreign minister has accused US President Donald Trump of declaring war on his country.

Ri Yong-ho told reporters in New York that North Korea reserved the right to shoot down US bombers.

This applied even when they were not in North Korean airspace, the minister added. The world "should clearly remember" it was the US that first declared war, Mr Ri said ...
Yeah, that sounds like a really healthy COA for North Korea, Mr. Foreign Minister ... :pop:
 
Colin P said:
I find the gnashing of teeth over Trumps speech and approach interesting. People seem to be unaware that the “reasonable approach” is what has led us to this current state of affairs. The latest article I say said that Trump has no considered the safety of the SK and Japanese citizens who are unprepared for any retaliation, but then fails to point out that those governments have been slow to do much of anything constructive on that point for the last decade. Sort of like standing on a rail track and seeing a train coming in the distance, but believing it won’t hit you, because somebody else might build a siding for it in the meantime.

Including Canada and it's policy of not joining the US anti missile defense program.
 
Someone should inform the PM that the US is still technically at war with the North. There was no peace treaty just an armistice. If he could get the North to agree to conclude the state of war that would be wonderful. But after 64 years it doesnt look like the North wants to end the war. Perhaps they need an enemy to stay in power ?

https://www.army.mil/article/190943/commemorating_korean_war_armistice_day
 
milnews.ca said:
At least in part ... :nod:


Worked for Argentina... till they actually invaded the falklands, North Korea knows it would be national suicide if they launched an attack, I don't think any of their provocations that happened back in the late 00's would fly now, pretty sure if one round crosses the DMZ, hell will come down on the north.
 
tomahawk6 said:
Someone should inform the PM that the US is still technically at war with the North. There was no peace treaty just an armistice. If he could get the North to agree to conclude the state of war that would be wonderful. But after 64 years it doesnt look like the North wants to end the war. Perhaps they need an enemy to stay in power ?

https://www.army.mil/article/190943/commemorating_korean_war_armistice_day
I believe that we too are still technically at war with NK so none of these discussions should forget that.
 
Apparently the NK has pulled out of the Armistice: "North Korea has announced that it will no longer abide by the armistice at least 6 times, in the years 1994, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2013"  [lol:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Armistice_Agreement
 
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