Wednesday - December 12, 2012
Surprise!
North Korea successfully fired a long-range rocket on Wednesday, defying international warnings as the regime of Kim Jong Un took a giant step forward in its quest to develop the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead.
The United States, South Korea and Japan quickly condemned the morning launch, which came as something of a surprise after Pyongyang had indicated technical problems might delay it. That it succeeded after several failed attempts was an even greater surprise.
The regime’s stated purpose for firing its long-range Unha-3 rocket was to put a peaceful satellite into orbit, but the United Nations, as well as the U.S. and its allies see it as cover for a test of technology for missiles.
About two hours after the launch, North Korea’s state media proclaimed it a success, prompting customers in the coffee shop at Pyongyang’s Koryo Hotel to break into applause during a special television broadcast. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, later confirmed that North Korea did appear to have put an object into space.
Wednesday’s launch is likely to bring fresh sanctions on the North, and the White House called it a “highly provocative act that threatens regional security.”
NORAD said the rocket traveled south with the first stage falling into the Yellow Sea and a second stage falling into the Philippine Sea hundreds of miles farther south. “Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit,” NORAD said in a statement.
A launch had seemed unlikely to take place so soon after North Korea announced Monday that it was extending the launch window into late December, citing technical issues in an engine.
Previous launch attempts by the North in 1998, 2006, 2009 and April this year failed to achieve their stated goal of putting a satellite into orbit and provoked international condemnation.
Pyongyang had said this rocket launch would be “true to the behests” of Kim Jong Il, the late North Korean leader and father of Kim Jong Un, head of the ruling regime.
Kim Jong Il died on December 17 last year, so the first anniversary of his death falls within the launch window that North Korea has announced.
Experts had also speculated that Pyongyang wanted this launch to happen before the end of 2012, the year that marks the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and grandfather of Kim Jong Un.
This year is the centennial of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un. According to North Korean propaganda, 2012 is meant to put the North on a path toward a “strong, prosperous and great nation.”
The launch also follows South Korea’s recent cancellation, because of technical problems, of an attempt to launch its first satellite from its own territory. Two previous attempts in 2009 and 2010 failed.
This is all my fault. It’s 2:30am here now; I had to get up to pee but then I didn’t go back to sleep. Instead I came downstairs, made a chai latte and flipped on the PC to see what was on the news. Serves me right. This wouldn’t have happened until after 9am if I’d gone right back to sleep!
So anyway, the Norks finally got one up. I wonder if this surprise launch is in reaction/a provocation to the “secret” Air Force launch yesterday of their new zillion mph spy plane/interceptor whatsis. Coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not. Or maybe the Kims want to get their little HEMP threat running ASAP. No, not that kind of hemp, OCM. The other kind; the small nukes set off in low orbit kind that fries all the electronics here in the west in half a heartbeat.
After all, we’ve got ... 10 days left ... until the end of the world.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/12/2012 at 02:40 AM
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Permalink • Monday - July 30, 2012
Too Bad
North Korea: Massive Floods Follow Extended Drought
Intense rains wash away the remains of yet another poor growing season. They also washed away large parts of the country, as Haiti-like deforestation plus torrential rains leads to mud slides.
Entire world probably expected to bail them out again, feed and clothe them, build them shelter and reforest and reseed their country, so they can go right back to playing tin pot dictator/terrorist supporting tyrant/neighborhood nuclear bad boy.
WRONG.
Widespread flooding in North Korea appeared to worsen on Monday after 24 hours of torrential rain hit the impoverished state which even in times of good harvest is unable to feed itself.
The floods follow a period of drought and are certain to lift food prices which have been rising sharply. According to defectors contacted by Reuters in neighboring South Korea, rice prices have already risen beyond the reach of ordinary households.
“A heavy downpour on the 29th July, coupled with heavy thunderstorms, have worsened the flood situation for DPRK (North Korea),” the United Nations North Korea office reported
...
North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said 400 mm (16 inches) of rain had fallen in the 24 hours to Monday morning.This comes on top of widespread flooding which North Korea says from July 18 to 25 killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and damaged agricultural areas.
“The flooding will result in more hikes in rice prices until the autumn harvest and which were already seen because of the massive drought,” Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at Korea Rural Economic Institute, told Reuters. “It is simply making things worse,” he said.
The country has become increasingly prone to flooding because of widespread deforestation.
North Korea, which suffered a period of famine in the 1990s, has for years relied of foreign aid to make up for the shortfall in food production.
Even before the latest flooding, a dysfunctional food distribution system, rapid inflation and international sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons programs have created what is thought to be widespread hunger.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said its neighbor had not requested any aid from international agencies.
The U.N. office said the government had requested assistance form resident U.N. agencies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/30/2012 at 12:23 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 11, 2011
No Wonder They Never Visit BMEWS
Axis of Evil much? The “legitimate” government of North Korea is involved in narcotics trafficking. Class act.
Pinched by tightening economic sanctions and faced with what might become a contentious transition of power, North Korea is ramping up production of one of its key foreign currency generators—heroin.
When satellite photos were released last week by Amnesty International showing the rogue nation’s prison camp system, some analysts were surprised by the expansion of agricultural lands around the camps.
“What was really surprising,” one satellite analyst, who studied the images but asked not to be identified, said, “was how farming acreage on the land around the Yodok camp had expanded. These are poppy fields and have been since we first looked at the camp in 2001.”
That assessment was underscored by Chuck Downs, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, who said that the regime’s military, which runs the camps and the nation’s illicit heroin production, “do not allow food production by prisoners because they would steal it. They would rather grow drugs.”
Most analysts agree that the expansion of the drug-producing fields is a sign of a regime in deep economic trouble.
Because of the secrecy of the regime there are no firm figures on drug profits, but estimates put the earnings on exports of heroin from $500 million to $1 billion annually.
“To put that in context,” Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, pointed out that “the total for legitimate exports is estimated at around $1 billion annually.”
North Korea first turned to large scale heroin production in the mid 1990s when the nation’s manufacturing sector collapsed. Kim Jong Il, the nation’s dictator, decided that the heroin was the quicker way to make up for the export losses and ordered all collective farms to dedicate 12 acres to poppy production.
...
Over the past dozen years more than 50 Korean diplomats or other state workers have been caught carrying drugs into more than 20 countries, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
...
According to Klingner, one of the reasons that happens is that foreign embassies for the regime get no state funding for their legations.“Diplomats are expected to fund themselves,” he said. “And this is one way they do it.”
Posted by Drew458
on 05/11/2011 at 08:36 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - December 23, 2010
One Line Posts, Part I
These people are certifiably rabid batshit insane. As if that’s news. Nerve gas the entire country then start over. The NorKs are King of the Axis of Evil.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/23/2010 at 02:24 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - November 23, 2010
South Korea May Seek Deployment Of US Tactical Nuclear Weapons .
They gotta be kidding. Don’t ya think?
I don’t see that happening although, not too sure I’d bet the house on it. This is after all, a topsy-turvy world.
South Korea’s defense minister says his country may consider having U.S. tactical nuclear weapons deployed on its soil for the first time in 19 years.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young raised the possibility Monday during talks with a parliamentary committee about North Korea’s latest nuclear escalation. He said the issue could be raised when a joint U.S.-South Korean military committee meets next month to discuss North Korea’s nuclear programs.The United States removed its last tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in December of 1991. A Defense Ministry spokesman told VOA that until now, the country had not considered having them reintroduced.
The Associated Press quoted a ministry spokesman saying the effect of the weapons would be mainly psychological since South Korea is already protected by the American nuclear umbrella.
The Seoul government was prompted to consider the step by reports that North Korea has a sophisticated uranium enrichment program and claims to have 2,000 working centrifuges. A U.S. scientist who visited the facility said it appears to be designed to produce fuel for electricity-making reactors but could be adapted to make fuel for nuclear weapons.
Posted by peiper
on 11/23/2010 at 12:41 PM
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Permalink • Another Round of Stupid with the NorKs
These people are nuts. Conflicting reports from around the world say somewhere between dozens and hundreds of shells rained down on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island. Civilians either evacuated or rushed to get into bomb shelters. Several - at least 2 so far - didn’t make it and were killed in the barrage.
This is the largest land based escalation between the two nations in nearly 60 years.
North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto a South Korean island on Tuesday, killing one person, setting homes ablaze and triggering an exchange of fire as the South’s military went on top alert. In what appeared to be one of the most serious border incidents since the 1950-53 war, South Korean troops fired back with cannon, the government convened in an underground war room and “multiple” air force jets scrambled.
The firing came after North Korea’s disclosure of an apparently operational uranium enrichment programme—a second potential way of building a nuclear bomb—which is causing serious alarm for the United States and its allies. Some 50 shells landed on the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong near the tense Yellow Sea border, damaging dozens of houses and sending plumes of thick smoke into the air, YTN television reported.
One South Korean marine—part of a contingent based permanently on the frontline island—was killed and 13 other marines were wounded, the military said. YTN said two civilians were also hurt.
“A Class-A military alert issued for battle situations was imposed immediately after shelling began,” a military spokesman said. Sporadic firing by each side continued for over an hour before dying out, the military said.The shelling began at 2:34 pm (0534 GMT) after the North sent several messages protesting about South Korean naval, air force and army training exercises being staged close to the border, a presidential spokesman said.
North Korea has warned it will continue to launch attacks if the South violates its disputed sea border and blamed Seoul for starting major clashes that killed two soldiers. South Korea said around 200 North Korean artillery shells hit one of its islands, prompting Seoul to return fire. But the communist state claimed its arch-rival fired first, after the North warned Seoul to halt military drills in the area. Two South Korean marines were killed and 16 other soldiers hurt, some seriously, after the shelling on the island of Yeonpyeong. Around 70 houses were also ablaze.
It was one of the heaviest bombardments on the South since the Korean War ended with a truce in 1953. This means the countries are still technically at war. North Korea has now threatened to continue launching strikes if its neighbour violates their western sea border “even 0.001 millimetre”. [ more video at this link.
South Korea Vows ‘Enormous Retaliation’ After North’s Deadly Island Bombardment
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting shortly after the initial bombardment, said that an “indiscriminate attack on civilians can never be tolerated.”
“Enormous retaliation should be made to the extent that (North Korea) cannot make provocations again,” he said.
The United Nations Security Council could hold an emergency meeting in the next day or two over the attack, saying “It’s in the works for either today or tomorrow. We are for it and planning is ongoing,” Reuters reports.The United States, which has tens of thousands of troops stationed in South Korea, condemned the attack and called on North Korea to “halt its belligerent action,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in Washington. He said the United States is “firmly committed” to South Korea’s defense, and to the “maintenance of regional peace and stability.”
The North’s artillery struck the small South Korean-held island of Yeonpyeong, which houses military installations and a small civilian population and which has been the focus of two previous deadly battles between the Koreas.
Fat lot of good that will do. By the time the UN schedules and actually holds a meeting, both countries could be piles of glowing glass.
The countries’ western maritime boundary has long been a flash point between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.
North and South Korea have fought three bloody skirmishes near the maritime border in recent years, most recently in November 2009. That battle left one North Korean officer dead and three others wounded, according to South Korean officials.
Two deadly clashes have previously erupted around Yeonpyeong. In a gunbattle in June 2002, one South Korean warship sank, killing six sailors. The North said it also suffered casualties, but didn’t confirm how many. In a 1999 clash, South Korea said several sailors were wounded, and that up to 30 North Koreans died.
In a sign of North Korea’s anger over the South Korean drills, North Korea’s state news agency said in a dispatch Monday that South Korea was readying war games with the United States for aggressive purposes against North Korea. The dispatch quoted what it said were sympathetic Swiss groups that called the drills “a criminal act of aggression for provoking another Korean war.”
The existence of North Korea’s new uranium enrichment facility came to light over the weekend after Pyongyang showed it to a visiting American nuclear scientist, claiming that the highly sophisticated operation had 2,000 completed centrifuges. Top U.S. military officials warn that it could speed the North’s ability to make and deliver viable nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, one North Korean expert believes Tuesday’s attack was nothing more than a calling card for its 26-year-old dictator in waiting.
North Korean expert Zhang Liangui told the Sydney Morning Herald that the attack was a deliberate act of brinksmanship to rally the military behind Kim Jong-il’s anointed successor, Kim Jong-un.
Let’s not forget that the NorKs sunk that SK destroyer in the spring, killing dozens of sailors. That was also in the western ocean border area.
So here is the real, and only question: Is this act of war a sufficient act of war to restart a war that has been slowly bubbling away for the past 6 decades? In all that time the two sides haven’t been able to find more than an iota of peace.
“The provocation this time can be regarded as an invasion of South Korean territory,” President Lee Myung-bak said at the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff here, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
“Given that North Korea maintains an offensive posture, I think the army, the navy and the air force should unite and retaliate against [the North’s] provocation with multiple-fold firepower.”
The incident “the first direct artillery attack on South Korean territory since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a formal peace treaty” in the 1950s, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
It has prompted great concern across South Korea and in the United States, which has 28,500 troops deployed in South Korea. [ video at this link too ]
And now the NorKs are showing off their new nuclear enrichment facility? Horry clap. These people are rabidly insane.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/23/2010 at 11:54 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 30, 2010
Today’s Version Of Events
I guess this lie d’jour is CYA in case video of the sunken ship leaks out, and the whole world sees that the side of South Korea’s corvette is blown IN, and not OUT, as would be the case with the “internal explosion” story from the other day.
Let’s face the truth: North Korea torpedoed the ship, sinking it and killing about 50 of the crew. And if they didn’t do it, then China did. Most likely culprit would be a submarine. All because the South Korean ship was too close to some imaginary line in the ocean.
But South Korea isn’t quite ready for an actual war with the Norks, so they’re backing down and creating cover stories left and right. No doubt with some major arm twisting coming from Washington DC.
So here is today’s lie. DO NOT attempt any research into military history that could prove that that bit of salt water was never mined. Never mind! Accept Today’s Truth and move on like a good world citizen.
Korean War mine ‘sunk’ South Korean navy ship
A mine dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War might have been responsible for the sinking of a South Korean naval patrol ship last weekend, according to the country’s defence minister.
His explanation came as hopes of finding 46 missing South Korean alive faded further after navy divers finally reached the upturned hull of the sunken ship but reported no signs of life within.
The 1,200-tonne corvett Cheonan sank on Friday night in the Yellow Sea along a disputed sea border with North Korea, sparking fears that Pyongyang had attacked the ship and temporarily sending shares lower in New York.
However, Kim Tae-Young, the defence minister, told a South Korean parliamentary committee that initial reports of a North Korean torpedo attack appeared unfounded, citing accounts from rescued sailors who had been operating the ship’s radar at the time of the explosion.
“It is possible that a North Korean sea mine could have drifted into our area,” he said, pointing out that North Korea had deployed some 3,000 Soviet mines in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan during the war.
“Though many mines were removed, it must have been impossible to retrieve them all,” he added.
One mine was found in 1959 and another in 1984, the minister said, although an extensive South Korean search in 2008 did not trace any, however it was impossible to rule out that a mine could have come adrift from its mooring.
The UnTruth you must ignore here is that the South Korean Navy is unable to locate the North Korean Navy’s submarines, even with one of their anti-submarine ships like the Cheonan. To not ignore this would be to imply either that the crew was not doing their job, or that the ship’s detection equipment is not good enough. Both would be Questioning The State, an activity that is so forbidden that it is not possible to even think of it.
Instead you must believe with all your heart that an old mine, still active after 57 years, did the deed. No one is at fault. The mine had escaped detection for all that time even though this is some of the most heavily patrolled water in the world, under constant sonar scrutiny, and that several intense and specialized searches had failed to find it. Even though the last mine was found 26 years ago, others may still be out there waiting to serendipitously rust through their chains and come bobbing to the surface just as a South Korean Navy vessel comes by while accidentally sailing too close to the border. This is the Truth, there is no other Truth than this Truth.
Until tomorrow.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/30/2010 at 12:07 PM
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Permalink • Friday - June 26, 2009
Growl
You know what I hate? I hate when a blogger puts up a post that really, really begs private comment, and then supplies a false email address. I spent the better part of an hour doing research, running numbers, and building graphics - to scale, no less - and then put it all in an email ... that got rejected, because the account didn’t actually exist.
So here’s the picture. I won’t give the details, but they’re obvious: we are vulnerable as all hell to EMP. I have no doubts at all that the USA is the most integrated circuit intensive nation on earth. Sure, Japan may have more per person, and way cooler cell phones too, but we’re about 500 times the size of them.
And this is just about the one and only way Mr. Me So Ronery can make good his threat to destroy the US that he came out with the other day, that the Pentagon sneered at. All it takes is ONE MIRV MISSILE. Just one, with just 3 warheads. Heck, our ICBMs had 10 or more each.
60 miles up isn’t even half the altitude of Low Earth Orbit. Maybe we should nuke the NorKs on July 3rd, just to play it safe.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/26/2009 at 11:13 PM
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Permalink • Monday - June 22, 2009
Getting Ready For The 4th of July
U.S. beefs up Hawaii’s missile defence amid warnings North Korea could fire rocket towards Pacific islands
A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials have said.
The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches.
Military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost US state if it tried, officials said.
The North’s Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
A senior defence official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten US territories in the Pacific.
Great idea. I hope they brought in quite a number of high altitude interceptor missiles as well.
Did you know we had SBX? I didn’t. And the thing has been around for years. SBX is a self-propelled seaworthy radar system, built on a semi-submersible Russian oil platform. It cost $900 million to build, and usually lives in Anchorage Alaska. However it can sail to anywhere in the Pacific, although when time is of the essence a ship carrier like the MV Blue Marlin (the same one that brought home the injured USS Cole from Yemen) can transport it much faster.
Sea-Based X-band (SBX) Radar is the tracking and discrimination radar used for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. SBX will consist of a large X-Band half-populated radar mounted on a modified fifth-generation semi-submersible platform with Battle Management Command Control and Communications, which includes In-flight Interceptor Communication System Data Terminals and associated communications; power generation; facility floor space; and infrastructure, similar to a fixed radar installation.
The SBX provides detailed ballistic missile tracking information to the GMD system, as well as advanced target and countermeasures discrimination capability for the GMD interceptor missiles. The ability of the SBX to deploy to operating locations under its own power allows it to support actual GMD operations as well as realistic testing.
The SBX vessel, a self-propelled semi-submersible modified oil-drilling platform, was modified and payloads installed at shipyards in Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas. The initial sea trials took place in the Gulf of Mexico to ensure maneuverability and control of the vessel. In addition, the sea trials may include full power operation for satellite and calibration device tracking. Following the sea trials, the completed platform would transit from the Gulf of Mexico to its primary support base at Adak, Alaska. SBX performs tracking, iscrimination, and assessment of target missiles in support of missile defense tests, as well as, operation of the GMD system.
The platform is approximately 390 feet long, with a 238-foot beam, and an operations draft of approximately 75 feet. The height from water surface to the top of the radar dome is 250 feet. The deck area will be approximately 270 x 230 feet. The SBX has a displacement of 50,000 tons, and a hull weight is about 15,000 tons.
The radar antenna itself is described as being 384 square meters. It has a large number of solid-state transmit-receive modules mounted on a hexagonal flat base which can move plus-or-minus 270 degrees in azimuth and 0 to 85 degrees elevation (although software currently limits the maximum physical elevation to 80 degrees). The maximum azimuth and elevation velocities are approximately 5-8 degrees per second. In addition to the physical motion of the base, the beam can be electronically steered off bore-sight (details classified).
There are currently 22,000 modules installed on the base. Each module has one transmit-receive feed horn and one auxiliary receive feed horn for a second polarization, so there are 44,000 feedhorns. The base is roughly 2/3 populated and so there is room for installation of additional modules. The current modules are concentrated towards the center, so as to minimize grating lobes. This configuration allows it to support the very-long-range target discrimination and tracking that GMD’s midcourse segment requires. The array requires over a megawatt of power.
The radar is described by Lt. Gen Trey Obering (director of MDA) as being able to track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco in California from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, approximately 2,900 miles (4,700 km). The radar will guide land-based missiles from Alaska and California, as well as in-theatre assets.
The SBX is compliant with existing national and state environmental regulations and laws and will pose no threat to people or wildlife in Hawaii. It has completed many major milestones in its development, the two most recent being tracking satellites and completing sea trials. Early on Oct. 12, 2005, the radar aboard the SBX successfully tracked several orbiting satellites over a three-hour period. The radar acquired each object and maintained tracks for several minutes, demonstrating this key functionality for the first time. Achieving this milestone demonstrates the radar software is able to control thousands of individual transmit and receive modules.
That’s some amazing technology. Wi-fi the thing in to several Aegis ships, a couple land batteries, and a few missile barges ( surely we have some of them, yes? Mate up another booster stage to some of those old Sprint missiles to give them an extra 20 miles of loft and mount the works on something the size of an oil tanker. Say, about 200 per ship. That seems right. ), and we should be able to knock out ‘Lil Kim’s Limpi-Dong missile as soon as we know it’s headed our way ... and with the super computers we’ve got these days, that should be figured out when the thing is about 12 feet above it’s launch pad. Ah, if only we had Frank J’s space laser.
PS - yes I cropped the first pic, an AP photo, and didn’t give them credit. Why should I, when they stole it from the Navy and then put their logo on it? Proper photo credit goes to Journalist 2nd Class Ryan C. McGinley, who snapped the shot back in January 2006.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/22/2009 at 11:05 AM
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Permalink • Monday - March 09, 2009
WOO-HOO … I THINK THE NORTH KOREANS MIGHT BE A TAD UPSET WITH US.
Gee, Maybe we should just apologize since we’re busy in other places.
No wait. Before we do anything or try and respond, we should check first with Europe to see what they say. Maybe they’ll be able to help since they like us now. ? Hmmm. Maybe they only like Barry. Maybe we could just send him? Hey. I like that. Lets send Barry over there to talk with them.
They so seem a bit touchy here but I wonder if they’re bluffing.
What? Me Worry?
btw ... Are you folks back home getting this story this way?
North Korea threatens full scale war if rocket is intercepted
North Korea says it will wage war on America, Japan and South Korea if any attempt is made to intercept the launch of a rocket it claims is intended to put a satellite into space.
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 7:13AM GMT 09 Mar 2009It has also cut off its border and telephone links with the South in protest at military exercises by American and South Korean troops which began on Monday.
Plans for a launch were first picked up by satellite imagery, with foreign intelligence agencies saying it was a test of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile with the capacity to hit parts of the United States.
The United States said it would shoot down the missile if it headed towards its territory. Japan has suggested it might try to intercept any launch, even if the payload is a communications satellite as claimed by Pyongyang.
“If the enemies recklessly opt for intercepting our satellite, our revolutionary armed forces will launch without hesitation a just retaliatory strike operation,” the general staff of the North Korean army said in a statement on state media. It singled out the United States, Japan and South Korea as targets.
“Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,” it said.
The North has put its army on full alert in the face of the annual spring military joint exercises begun today by the South Koreans and Americans.
It shut the border point which allows South Koreans to visit a special industrial zone in the city of Kaesong which is funded and run by South Korean companies. The South said 726 people had been turned back.
“It is nonsensical to maintain a normal communications channel at a time when the South Korean puppets are getting frantic with the above-said war exercises, levelling guns at fellow countrymen in league with foreign forces,” the North said.
Last week it also said it could not guarantee the safety of civilian aircraft which approached North Korean airspace during the exercises, causing airlines to adjust their routes.
This threat in particular is beyond the standard fare of North Korean rhetoric. It comes after six months of political uncertainty in relations between North Korea and the West, which had been improving slightly in the wake of a deal supposed to bring an end to its nuclear weapons programme.
Most western analysts linked the uncertainty to the stroke believed to have been suffered by the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, last August.
This weekend he emerged to cast his ballot in elections for the country’s official parliament, in which he was a candidate.
Voting was expected to be unanimous. Only one candidate’s name appeared on each ballot, and while it was theoretically possible to cross that candidate’s name off, electors had to do so in a special booth, making clear they were dissenters.
The main focus of interest during these elections was rumours that Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-woon, would stand.
There is as yet no clear sign of a succession to the leadership. If the rumours were confirmed, Jong-woon would be the only one of the three sons to have been appointed to any official position, a clear sign that he was being marked out.
But as yet no names of candidates other than Kim senior have been given to the outside world.
Posted by peiper
on 03/09/2009 at 11:35 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - January 10, 2009
No kidding
Gee, I wonder why not?
Camp Rules: The 10 Commandments
1. Do not attempt to escape. The punishment is death.
2. Never gather in groups of over three people or move around without the guard’s authorization. The punishment for unauthorized movement is death.
3. Do not steal. If one steals or possesses weapons, the punishment is death. The punishment for failure to report the theft or possession of weapons is death.
4. Obey your guards. If one rebels or hits a guard, the punishment is death.
5. If you see outsiders, or suspicious-looking people, report them immediately. The punishment for abetting in the hiding of outsiders is death.
6. Keep an eye on your fellow prisoners and report inappropriate behavior without delay. One should criticize others for inappropriate behavior, and also conduct thorough self-criticism in revolutionary ideology class.
7. Fulfill your assigned duties. The punishment for rebelling against one’s duties is death.
8. Men and women may not be together outside the workplace. The punishment for unauthorized physical contact between a man and a woman is death.
9. Admit and confess your wrongdoings. The punishment for disobedience and refusal to repent is death.
10. The punishment for violating camp laws and rules is death.
No wonder these guys get along so well with the Iranians. They’re the exact same kind of scum, only the NorKs are godless scum, which might be even worse.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/10/2009 at 06:30 PM
Filed Under: • No Shit, Sherlock • North-Korea •
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Permalink • Monday - February 25, 2008
Don’t bet on it
CNN Editor’s note: CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour recently toured North Korea’s nuclear plant. CNN was one of only two U.S. news organizations at the facility.
YONGBYON, North Korea (CNN)—The North Koreans haven’t seen this many Americans since the Korean War, but they are pulling out all the stops.
CNN was one of only two American news organizations ever allowed to visit the main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
For a nation President Bush labeled as part of the “axis of evil,” it was not an impressive sight: a dilapidated concrete hulk, built with few resources back in the early ‘80s.
But it did produce plutonium, enough to make a few bombs and to test-fire a nuclear weapon 18 months ago.
Today is a very different story though. North Korea shut down Yongbyon last summer under an agreement with the United States and four other nations in the nuclear disarmament negotiations. We were shown the extraordinary sight of heavy metal pipes, chopped down and laid on the ground: They had been part of a coolant loop that sent steam to the turbine generators to produce electricity. We saw the distinctive bell-shaped cooling tower, just a shell, the inner guts of the system cut out. We saw the vital nuclear fuel rods being removed and neutralized under 20 feet of water. And we even were shown the reprocessing plant where plutonium was extracted from the rods, plutonium that was used for nuclear weapons, the chief engineer admitted. Parts of the plant are now dismantled, wrapped in plastic and put into storage.
And there are American technicians from the Department of Energy on-site helping with all of this. It seems a far cry from the hostility conjured by the axis of evil.
For all of this, North Korea expected a million tons of heavy fuel oil, a lifting of sanctions and removal from the U.S. list of terrorist sponsors. This has not happened yet, so North Korea has slowed down the disabling process at Yongbyon.
CNN, the most gullible name in news. When it suits our purposes of course.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/25/2008 at 12:29 PM
Filed Under: • Commies • North-Korea • Terrorists •
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Permalink • Sunday - July 29, 2007
“How close were we to seeing an armed nuclear conflict?”
Mangun sends us this story:
US Sinks North Korean Ship Bound for Iran
“How close were we to seeing an armed nuclear conflict?” That is the question being asked as Syrian nationals temporarily vacated Beirut, Lebanon and the Jordan Valley during mid July according to sources close to ACG-CIS. Many security and intelligence officials believe that this behavior may have been related to the US sinking of a North Korean ship approximately 100 nautical miles from the coast of Iran.
It was not immediately clear why, around July 10, 2007, the Syrian nationals, primarily engaged in construction, trades and agricultural occupations, should have vacated Lebanon without notice. The nationals were noticed to have returned to Beirut and the Jordan Valley by July 21, 2007.
I’m not familiar with this source, and cannot quickly find anything to back it up, so the BS meter is twitching.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/29/2007 at 07:05 AM
Filed Under: • Iran • North-Korea •
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Permalink • Monday - July 16, 2007
North Korea Shuts Down Its Reactor
Ken McCracken over at Say Anything has a good analysis of the situation.
The North Koreans have shut down their sole nuclear reactor, located at Yongbyon. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei stated today that “our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday.” The 10-person team of inspectors will work for several days applying IAEA seals as the nuclear equipment cools off. The North Koreans are 3 months late in implementing their end of the Denuclearization Action Plan. According to that plan, the nuclear shutdown was to have begun within 60 days of the agreement’s date.
On paper, this is an astounding and world-historic diplomatic victory for the Bush administration, and especially for its chief architect, the indefatigable Christopher Hill. Will this turn out to be a Neville Chamberlain-esque appeasment deal gone awry? It could very well be: North Korea has a history of regarding such deals as merely printed words without meaning. They violated the terms of the much-ballyhooed 1994 Agreed Framework before the ink was even dry. North Korea was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which they also egregiously violated. In short, a North Korean signature on an agreement means exactly nothing. Yet North Korea is in desperate straits, with no fuel, little help from China, and no friends anywhere in the world. Perhaps Kim Jong-Il really does savor normalization and trade with the rest of the world. It is a very encouraging sign.
History will tell whether this is for real, and the little commie has finally woken up, or if it is another ploy to get more time.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/16/2007 at 06:54 AM
Filed Under: • North-Korea •
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