Category Archives: Koreas
And the cognitive dissonance award goes to, The International Institute of Social Scientists
Be good to know more about where this took place. And interestingly partly in English.
H/T Magic Martin
Below the fold, the stuff they typed at the NORK youtube propaganda channel.
North Korea reportedly warns Japan it would target Tokyo first
H/T Fjordman
FOX News:
Published April 12, 2013
FoxNews.com
April 12, 2013: Japanese Self Defense Forces personnel refuel a PAC-3 missile interceptor, deployed at the compound of Japan’s Defense Ministry amid a tense situation over a possible missile launch by North Korea in Tokyo. (AP)
<
N. Korea may be able to deliver nuke, Pentagon intel says
H/T Ted L
CNN
(CNN) — The Pentagon’s intelligence arm has assessed with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon with a ballistic missile, though the reliability is believed to be “low.”
Disclosed first by a congressman at a hearing on Thursday and then confirmed to CNN by the Defense Department, the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency is the clearest acknowledgment yet by the United States about potential advances in North Korea’s nuclear program.
The surprise development comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Damn those North Koreans are odd.
Magic Martin posted the video below in a comment on another post. It never ceases to amaze me how odd and, well, laughable really, North Korean Vogon style poetry is and Mad Magazine style graphics are. Who are those two guys they drew cartoons of and then ran over in tanks. I think one of them is Commander Spock and the other one I think is Margaret Thatcher. And how much fuel would it take to run over those cartoon figures which, had it gone into tractors, could have maybe fed a few people in the slave labour camps.
On the other hand I think there may be a touch of genius in this. Perhaps the strategy here is to lull us into a false sense of confidence and then attack us with brooms.
North Korea ‘preparing for fourth nuclear test’
The Telegraph:
North Korea may be preparing a fourth nuclear test, it has been reported, one day after China’s president issued an indirect call for the country’s leaders to avoid sowing “chaos for selfish gains.”
The Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Korea Photo: AFP/Getty Images
By Tom Phillips in Shanghai
3:56AM BST 08 Apr 2013
Signs of possible test preparations had been detected at Punggye-ri in North Korea, suggesting a fourth test could be imminent, an unidentified South Korean official told the JoongAng Daily newspaper.
“There are recent active movements of manpower and vehicles at the southern tunnel at Punggye-ri,” the “high-ranking” official said.
“We are monitoring because the situation is similar to behaviour seen prior to the third nuclear test.”
North Korea warns all embassies to leave North Korea
Frankly I am kind of surprised that there are any there at all.
Kim Dum Fuq’s latest appearance and warning
H/T Magic Martin
Very odd Arabic/NORK video. No idea who did it or why. Russia appears to ratchet up
Its like peeking into a cathode ray TV in the 1950s. Some old doomsday Science fiction show.
I think it was anti Ikhwan people who made this. Kinda cool from that perspective.
At the end of the day, the US can and really should fly a few thousand surgical sorties into the DPRK and destroy their ability to make war utterly while killing as few people as possible. This would enrage the leadership so much they would have to slaughter a few of their own people just to claim it was America’s fault.
H/T Magic Martin.
This appears to be Russian hardware being prepared and moved.
North Korea Warns Embassies to Evacuate Before April 10
It still stuns me how an entire nation can talk as if they were reading Vogon Poetry.
H/T Bear:
North Korea asks Russia to consider closing its embassy in Pyongyang
North Korea asks Russia to consider evacuating embassy staff
April 05, 2013 01:32 PM (Last updated: April 05, 2013 01:46 PM)
MOSCOW: North Korea has asked Russia to consider the possibility of evacuating staff from its embassy in Pyongyang due to increasing tension on the Korean Peninsula, a spokesman for the Russian embassy said by phone from Pyongyang on Friday.
The spokesman, Denis Samsonov, said that Russia was examining the request but was not planning to evacuate at this stage, and that there were no outward signs of tension in the North Korean capital.
Ready for nuclear war: U.S deploys huge battalion to fight chemical and biological attack in South Korea after North Korean madman’s nuke threat
H/T Ted L
Daily Mail:
- N Korea has moved what appears to be a Musudan missile to its east coat
- U.S deploys missile defence system to Pacific island of Guam
- ‘The moment of explosion is approaching fast,’ warned North Korea
- U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: ‘Real and clear danger’ from North
- Chinese soldiers and weaponry massing on border with Korean Peninsula
- John Kerry warns that North is ‘provocative, dangerous and reckless’
- North Korea’s Twitter account has been hacked
- David Cameron: North Korea is an ‘unpredictable and aggressive regime’
By Jill Reilly
PUBLISHED: 02:16 GMT, 4 April 2013 | UPDATED: 15:50 GMT, 4 April 2013
The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to fight chemical and biological attacks in South Korea following North Korea’s declaration that troops have been cleared to use ‘smaller, lighter and diversified’ nuclear weapons.
The battalion – which left South Korea in 2004 – will provide nuclear, biological and chemical detection, equipment decontamination and consequence management assistance to support the U.S. and South Korean military forces.
North Korea today warned ‘the moment of explosion is near’ as it declared that troops have been cleared to ‘mercilessly’ attack the U.S.
North Korea seen moving mid-range missile to east coast: reports
H/T Magic Martin
Baltimore Sun:
Reuters9:17 p.m. EDT, April 3, 2013
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Thursday, quoting multiple government sources privy to intelligence from U.S. and South Korean authorities.
It was not clear if the missile was mounted with a warhead or whether the North was planning to fire it or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.
“South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities have obtained indications the North has moved an object that appears to be a mid-range missile to the east coast,” the source said.
The Musudan missile is believed to have a range of 3,000 km (1,875 miles) or more, which would put all of South Korea and Japan in range and possibly also the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea is not believed to have tested these mid-range missiles, according to most independent experts
South Korea’s defense ministry declined to comment.
“Nuke Up Fast”
Gatestone Inst:
by Douglas Murray
April 1, 2013 at 5:00 am
Disarmed despots are soon-to-be-dead despots.
If you like what is happening with North Korea at the moment, you will love what happens when Iran goes nuclear.
In case anyone is in any doubt, it is always worth remembering that North Korea is a basket-case of a country – probably in the most abysmal situation of any country on earth (not forgetting the Middle East). Its people intermittently starve by the millions, and all of them lack even the most basic of amenities. As Shin Dong-hyuk and a few other unbelievably fortunate escapees have attested, concentration camps (for once the term is not inaccurate) are maintained across the country. And even those fortunate enough not to be in them are cut off from the outside world by a regime which has the unique selling point of being the world’s only Stalinist monarchy. The authorities have no ability to provide the most basic services to the majority of its population; and after years of sanctions, can do almost nothing either internally or externally to alter the situation it finds itself in. Yet here it is, dictating the news agendas of the world.
And why? For two straightforward reasons. First, because it has a new leader of whom everyone is ignorant. No one – no other government, intelligence agency or foreign office – is entirely sure of his intentions. We do know that he spent some time at a school in Switzerland and has a fondness for basketball. But apart from that and a few other tiny details, there is almost nothing known about him. It was the same with his father and indeed his grandfather. We knew what type of sushi the current Kim’s father liked, and we knew he was a fan of Hollywood movies, but aside from such ephemera we had almost no idea of the type of man he was or the type of things he thought. Now his son – the third generation of the family to reign – is even more of a mystery. So there, undoubtedly, is the first problem.
US sends missile defence to Guam on N. Korea ‘threat’
France24
© AFP
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced plans to install an advanced missile defence system in the US-administered Pacific island of Guam. The US defence secretary spoke of a “real and clear” danger of a North Korean missile attack.
By News Wires (text)
The Pentagon said on Wednesday it was sending an advanced ballistic missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks, as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel cited a “real and clear” danger from North Korea.
North Korea has singled out U.S. military bases in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, and Hawaii among its potential targets in threats in recent weeks that have put the Korean peninsula on edge and triggered a change in the U.S. defense posture and missile defense planning.
N. Korea approves nuclear strike on United States
H/T Magic Martin
Google News:
By Jung Ha-Won (AFP) – 2 hours ago
SEOUL — North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.
“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow”.
Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.
Tension was also high on the North’s heavily-fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un’s isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.
In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People’s Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be “smashed by… cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means”.