Notes from NorseRadish — A Tale of Two Koreas

The other day, regular Vladtepes Blog contributor, Richard, commented about Trump’s unprecedented policy regarding North Korea with the following reply:

President Trump knows this, this is shown in his statements that maybe South Korea and Japan should build nuclear weapons.

Feeling inspired, I have converted my original response into the following essay:

Finally, someone at a high level is willing to tell the ugly truth, instead of the usual beautiful lies. At the very least, this is a goad being prodded into China’s ribs about North Korea. If Japan and South Korea both go nuclear, they will no longer have to rely upon America’s protective umbrella or worry about how Democrats like Clinton and 0bama fold it up whenever they get their hands on the tiller.

A nuclear-armed South Korea would send Beijing the unmistakable message that they can unilaterally impose harsh retribution should Communist China continue to prop up the NORKs (i.e., North Koreans). This also is extremely healthy for the USA because we would not have to be dragged into a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula if Psycho Fat Boy Kim causes things to go all pear-shaped (as the following chart details).

Similarly armed, Japan would then have its own lever to counter NORK aggression. Being able to retaliate against Red China for how it has supported Pyongyang (and its nuclear program) for all these years would definitely throw a spanner into Beijing’s gears. There is serious speculation that Japan already has several nuclear devices in an unassembled state (so as not to violate treaty agreements) which could be deployed in a few short weeks. From: “Japan Has Nuclear ‘Bomb in the Basement,’ and China Isn’t Happy“.

“Japan already has the technical capability, and has had it since the 1980s,” said the official. He said that once Japan had more than five to 10 kilograms of plutonium, the amount needed for a single weapon, it had “already gone over the threshold,” and had a nuclear deterrent.

Japan now has 9 tons of plutonium stockpiled at several locations in Japan and another 35 tons stored in France and the U.K. The material is enough to create 5,000 nuclear bombs. The country also has 1.2 tons of enriched uranium.

Technical ability doesn’t equate to a bomb, but experts suggest getting from raw plutonium to a nuclear weapon could take as little as six months after the political decision to go forward. A senior U.S. official familiar with Japanese nuclear strategy said the six-month figure for a country with Japan’s advanced nuclear engineering infrastructure was not out of the ballpark, and no expert gave an estimate of more than two years.

After all, the Japanese have been operating nuclear reactors for decades and the extraction or enrichment processes needed to make use of reactor byproducts are well within Tokyo’s technological abilities. For more information, please see: “Japan Producing Huge, Lightly Guarded Stockpile of Plutonium“.

Also, with South Korea and Japan becoming nuclear armed, they would pose a unique threat to Communist China in that, using cruise missiles (instead of SRBMs or IRBMs), either country could deploy short-range, flat trajectory tracks that are, not just extremely difficult to intercept, but have very short arrival times. It is a fairly safe bet that neither the Chinese nor the NORKs have overcome the formidable engineering challenges posed by warhead miniaturization that is necessary to reliably integrate nuclear devices with cruise missiles. From: “China’s Nuclear Subs Are Ready to Terrorize the Sea“.

The Chinese air force’s H-6 bombers first dropped atomic bombs back in the 1970s—and modern versions of the bombers can fire cruise missiles that are compatible with nuclear warheads.

Please note the language, as in: “… the bombers can fire cruise missiles that are compatible with nuclear warheads.” Which does not mean that, as mentioned above, that China actually has mastered warhead miniaturization.

As an example of why this is so important, one specific technological advance made by America that helped to precipitate the USSR’s bankruptcy collapse, was—not just our device miniaturization capabilities—but using digital electronics to embed terrain mapping into cruise missile guidance systems. Known as Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and DSMACs (Digital Scene-Mapping Area Correlators), these avionic packages could, not just derive their navigational bearings off of nearby mountains or even tall buildings, but also take evasive maneuvers and select alternative tracks upon meeting hostile countermeasures. The final nail in this strategic coffin resided in how hardened ICBM silos must be hit within a radius of about 100 meters to ensure cracking (i.e., disabling) them. That precision was beyond the targeting and incoming course correction capabilities of both US and Soviet ICBMs. American (nuclear-tipped) cruise missiles had an accuracy of 10 meters.

Such a combination of threats (i.e., Japanese and South Korean nuclear arsenals) lends tremendous momentum to Trump’s words. Additionally, it is long overdue for there to emerge some meaningful form of counterbalance or pushback against Communist China’s relentless military buildup. Neither Japan nor South Korea can have any hope of marshaling a tiny fraction of Beijing’s troop strength. This is the last straw that breaks down previous resistance (especially on the part of Japan) with respect to acquiring unconventional (i.e., nuclear) weapons.

After all, were Communist China able to absorb Taiwan—yet another prominent candidate for membership in East Asia’s budding nuclear club—aside from America’s military umbrella, what sort of adequate deterrent would there be to prevent a similar annexation of Japan? Finally, there is the possibility of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all forming a mutual defense pact that would pose a serious level of counter-threat to the Mainland. These are just some of the rich rewards that Red China is deservedly reaping for spending the past few decades enabling North Korea to continuously destabilize the Northeast Asian quadrant as an obstruction to any further spread of Democracy.

From: SitRep: Trump Offers to Talk; North Korea Said to Step Up Nuke Program

Different damage. North Korea is saying that thanks to Washington’s harsh rhetoric over its missile and nuclear programs, it’s stepping up efforts to make progress. (As if they were slow rolling it up to now.) In a statement on Monday, the government in Pyongyang said “now that the U.S. is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called ‘maximum pressure and engagement’, the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence.”

Up and running. The U.S. missile defense system sent to South Korea to counter growing threats from the North is now operational, officials said on Tuesday. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery has emerged as a major point of contention in the South Korean presidential election slated for next week, and has drawn objections from China.

Psycho Fat Boy Kim epitomizes the harsh consequences of Beijing’s short-sighted foreign policies and Command Economy mindset. By nursemaiding this warped and (if it even can be imagined) more totalitarian régime than that of the Politburo’s Mandarins, a threat of unprecedented proportions has arisen from beneath the sheltering wings of yet one more dystopic worker’s paradise. Red China’s current role in this Grand Guignol has its antecedents. Merely examine, “The Communist Roots of Palestinian Terror” (by David Meir-Levi – December 2007), for a glimpse of how the most inhumane and brutal ideologies have been shepherded along by Moscow and Beijing.

It’s all there. These Marxist cesspools continue to make a dog’s breakfast of economic success, geopolitical stability, environmental health, and human rights all around the world. Larding the free governments of East Asia with independently controlled nuclear arsenals represents one of the few acceptable responses to this perverted tradition of Communist-propelled barbarity.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

16 Replies to “Notes from NorseRadish — A Tale of Two Koreas”

  1. Finally, some positive benefits of nuclear proliferation, the link to the Palestinian Communists interaction is a dead link, otherwise a fantastic article!

    • Finally, some positive benefits of nuclear proliferation, the link to the Palestinian Communists interaction is a dead link, otherwise a fantastic article!

      Thank you for the catch, Alan. The URL was omitted from the link. Here it is:

      The communist roots of Palestinian terror by David Meir-Levi (December 2007)

    • Finally, some positive benefits of nuclear proliferation…

      In my haste to provide a patch, I overlooked your excellent observation, Alan.

      Again, this is one of those inconvenient ugly truths that few, if any, people—especially those at the highest political and diplomatic levels—ever want to talk about, much less bring into public awareness.

      The best analogy remains Islam. Just as jihadist terrorism mandates the use of equal or massively disproportionate retaliation greater force, so will the nuclear proliferation of Pakistan, North Korea, and (soon enough) Iran require that pro-Western powers—which have demonstrated prior strategic competence—begin to acquire nuclear weapons.

      Just 20 years ago I would have vehemently denied that nuclear proliferation could have an upside. All that peacenik crap’s over with. Bracketing Communist China and it’s rabid lapdog, North Korea, with meaningful deterrents will be one of the 21st century’s most challenging tasks. The other being complete interdiction of Iran’s accession to nuclear weapons.

      PS: I do not include squashing Islam among those previous chores because that is more a matter of political will than strategic planning.

      • Islam is now embedded in the cities of all Western nations. There is no realistic way to nuke the no-go zones. They will have to be rooted out.

        • Hopefully they will turn the military loose instead of insisting on them acting like policemen, if it is the latter the butchers bill in troops will be horrendous.

          • Hopefully they will turn the military loose instead of insisting on them acting like policemen, if it is the latter the butcher’s bill in troops will be horrendous.

            Just one of many reasons why, for all of his faults, Trump remains a last, best hope. He is America’s first President since the WWII era that gives me the slightest expectation when it comes to understanding how terrorists neither deserve court trials nor merit any legal status as “criminals”.

            The fact that jihadis wage war out-of-uniform totally cancels any ostensible Geneva Convention rights they might otherwise be due. Their only reasonable expectation is summary execution as a spy who has been caught behind enemy lines attired in civilian mufti.

            This nonsense of treating terrorists like criminals—much less the delusional insanity of according them Constitutional rights during regular court trials—all represents a wholly dysfunctional Liberal mentality (a quadruple redundancy, I realize) that already has manifested as absurdly lethal rules-of-engagement in the Afghani and Iraqi theaters (e.g., infantry troops must remove their boots before searching a an Islamic weapons depot mosque and similar abject lunacy.

            Call me overly-optimistic, but I find it difficult to believe that Trump will tolerate such idiocy. Which makes it all the more imperative that these “tipping points” be brought to bear within eight years (at most), and preferably within less than four.

            As a return back to discussion about these tensions on the Korean peninsula, this is why Trump’s brilliant projection of force in the Sea of Japan makes so much sense. By applying this conspicuous and unambiguous pressure, Psycho Fat Boy Kim has to sh!t (on South Korea / China)—America, thankfully, remains out of reach—or get offed off the proverbial warpath pot.

            • He is America’s first President since the WWII era that gives me the slightest expectation when it comes to understanding how terrorists neither deserve court trials nor merit any legal status as “criminals”.

              With all due respect, Ronald Reagan should have been mentioned. As with Trump, for all of Regan’s shortcomings, he may just as well have grasped the urgency of this equation.

        • Islam is now embedded in the cities of all Western nations.

          None of which changes the need for neutralizing Islamic majority nations. Iran tops the list for many reasons, and not just because of their nuclear weapons program. For an in depth analysis of why Tehran comes before Riyadh on America’s Christmas List™ please consider reading, “No Substitute for Victory – The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism” by John Lewis.

          He makes a substantial case for Iran being a primary objective with regard to defeating political Islam. That said, let there be no doubt that Saudi Arabia is the runner-up in this strategic beauty contest.

          There is no realistic way to nuke the no-go zones.

          Warmac9999, thank you for the input. I think you mistook the analogy that I drew between using equal or greater force against the (Middle Eastern) centers of jihad, and the counterbalancing effect that would created against China and North Korea through nuclear proliferation amongst the circle of America’s East Asian allies.

          Again, none of which changes (as previously mentioned) the need to disconnect Muslims in the West from their umbilicus to Middle East support networks. At some point subsequent to such a decoupling, these no-go zones will represent nothing but proverbial “target-rich environments”. This is all part of applying political and strategic jujitsu with respect to the characteristic behavior of Muslims.

          For a fascinating projection about this sort of strategy, please examine an entertaining and informative preview from Matt Bracken, “Bastille Day in the Caliphate. It’s well worth reading, if only for his superb examples of the aforementioned political and strategic jujitsu.

          As to Western no-go zones, simply cordon off such areas, announce an evacuation deadline (as part of a comprehensive deportation program), and then level them as needed. After all, were the situation reversed, we’d be fortunate to be shown even those minor courtesies.

          To close, summoning sufficient political will to hamstring Islamic centers in the Middle East is a necessary precursor to gaining the sort of domestic consensus necessary to rid the West of no-go zones.

    • Thank you so much, Johnnyu. Your praise is deeply appreciated.

      The more that people understand Communist China’s role as puppet-master, the better the odds that there will be continued support and refinement of America’s role in the Middle East.

      Despite my strong personal feelings of opposition to further American involvement in the Middle East—as in, “just stand back let these jihadist maggots feed each other into the Islamic meat grinder”—an understanding of realpolitik forces me to recognize that the USA cannot abandon this oil field to Russia and China.

      At present, that duo embodies the supreme set of “bad actors” at a global level. Rest assured as to how there are plenty of others, but a vast majority of those entities are relatively containable by comparison.

      Now that the White House has some adult supervision, let’s all do our best to sort through this mare’s nest of hideous less-than-best options and gain some intelligent consensus with respect to who and what policies get our collective support.

      Again, thank you.

  2. You said there is the possibility of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all forming a mutual defense pact. They are talking about this as we set in front of our computers, here is the link to a google search page on the subject, I am using the search page because all of the articles on the page are pertinent to the discussion.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=Japan+south+korea+tawain+phillipines+australia+join+in+defense+pact&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

    They started these discussions when the Propaganda Media started saying Hillary was going to win easily, all of the above nations knew that if she won they were on their own.

    I have to plead guilty of doing what I keep warning about, I forgot about Taiwan when I was thinking about the nations with the ability to build their own nukes. They are another nation that has the ability and the need to have dismantled nukes in their basement.

    • They started these discussions when the Propaganda Media started saying Hillary was going to win easily, all of the above nations knew that if she won they were on their own.

      A fine summary, Richard—especially in relation to my own mention about how Democrats typically fold up America’s nuclear umbrella whenever they grab the tiller. With no small amount of irony, Hillary’s vastly overestimated 2016 electoral margin (both by her own crew and that of the Propaganda Media) had a counterintuitive effect.

      As you have noted, the ominous ghastly looming prospect of Hillary “Open Borders” Clinton becoming Leader of the Free World™ likely stampeded whatever few remaining sane Western allies in East Asia into a strategic huddle.

      How priceless it would have been to be a proverbial fly-on-the-wall at any one of those meetings!

      I have to plead guilty of doing what I keep warning about, I forgot about Taiwan when I was thinking about the nations with the ability to build their own nukes. They are another nation that has the ability and the need to have dismantled nukes in their basement.

      GUILTY AS CHARGED!!! This court decrees a suspended sentence of five milliseconds. NEXT CASE!

      As I noted, there is (at best) eight years to put all of this in place. Less than four years is a more realistic schedule. How to get this done in that time-frame will be one of the greatest modern challenges that America’s genuinely patriotic conservatives will have faced for many decades.

  3. Thank you for the analysis, it is very informative and has to be giving China nightmares. It also is setting a time limit for China to start their version of The Game of Thrones in the far east. A nation that has the ability to join the Oriental nuclear club is Australia and they also know that if the Dems win and destroy more of our military they are on their own. Granted their building their own nukes would involve all sorts of political problems with Britain but if it is a choice of pissing off Britain or having the nukes to make China leave me alone I know which choice I would make.

    • Thank you for the analysis…

      You are most welcome. Please know that your own observation about Trump’s suggestion that Japan and South Korea triggered this whole meghilla.

      … it is very informative and has to be giving China nightmares.

      In my dreams. All the same, I sincerely appreciate your belief that this sort of analysis might disturb the otherwise unruffled sleep of Beijing’s Mandarins. Those autocratic b@stards deserve a massive dose of their own Unintended Consequences™.

      A nation that has the ability to join the Oriental nuclear club is Australia and they also know that if the Dems win and destroy more of our military they are on their own.

      Given the routine and outstanding performance, in Afghanistan and Iraq, of Australia’s diggers (at least according to many American troops), Oz most certainly has earned a place at the anti-China table. Those remaining few down under well-enough remember the WWII Japanese threat, so it’s difficult to think that they are unable to recognize the yellow peril Chinese danger.

      … if it is a choice of pissing off Britain or having the nukes to make China leave me alone I know which choice I would make.

      Australia, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and numerous other East Asian nations (e.g., South Korea, Japan & Taiwan) currently face this same issue. To repeat—it’s far better that this lot are made to decide in the next three years than allow some other Democrat administration to either abandon them in a time of need, or simply leave them to slowly twist in the breeze.

  4. Thank you for an enlightening article. Until I read it, while it is certainly obvious if you think a minute, it never occurred to me that North Korea would want to re-unite Korea under the authority of that government….