BS: WAR declared by North Korea

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 09:47 AM

"North Korea vows blitz attack on South warning 'retaliation will start without notice'

NORTH Korea's military has today issued a stark warning saying it will launch retaliation against South Korea without warning if "anti-North Korean" activities continue.

By: Charlotte Meredith
Published: Tue, April 16, 2013

North Korea has upped the temperature on its neighbours in the South

"The supreme command of the Korean People's Army Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the South Korean puppet group," Pyongyang's official news agency, KCNA, said.

Threatening that it would not give any advance notice before attacking South Korea, the North warned: "Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now."

North Korea said it was responding to insults from the "puppet authorities" in the South, who yesterday held a rally against the North in Seoul.

Branding the rally a "monstrous criminal act," the North warned "all the service personnel and people of the DPRK are simmering with towering resentment" towards the South.

"Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now as such thrice-cursed criminal act of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK is being openly committed in the heart of Seoul under the patronage of the puppet authorities."

"The DPRK's revolutionary armed forces will start immediately their just military actions to show how the service personnel and people of the DPRK value and protect the dignity of the supreme leadership."

"The military demonstration of the DPRK's revolutionary armed forces will be powerful sledge-hammer blows at all hostile forces hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK."

North Korea celebrated the 101st anniversary of its founder's birth yesterday

The renewed threats came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the regime in Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program and tame its fiery rhetoric if it wants to hold talks.

However, today the North responded by saying "if the puppet authorities truly want dialogue and negotiations, they should apologize for all anti-DPRK hostile acts, big and small, and show the compatriots their will to stop all these acts in practice."

The Secretary of State's visit followed weeks of dramatic threats by Kim Jong Un's regime, including that of a nuclear strike on the United States and South Korea."

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 09:06 AM

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — After a day of festivities to mark the 101st birthday of its first leader, North Korea on Tuesday offered new prickly rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, which are watching closely for signs whether it will conduct a medium-range missile test in defiance of international concerns.
State media said the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued an ultimatum demanding an apology from South Korea for "hostile acts" and threatening that unspecified retaliatory actions would happen at any time.
The statement, relayed through the KCNA state media agency, came after a day of festivities in North Korea's capital that featured art performances, public dances and crowds thronging to giant bronze statues to pay homage to the late leader Kim Il Sung,
The renewed rhetoric was sparked by a protest in downtown Seoul, where effigies of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, late leader Kim Jong Il, were burned. Such protests are not unusual in South Korea and this one likely gave the North a pretext to react negatively to calls for joining in dialogue with its neighbors than an actual cause for retaliation.
The North's statement said it would refuse any offers of talks with the South until it apologized for the "monstrous criminal act." North Korea often denounces such protests, but rarely in the name of the Supreme Command, which is headed by Kim Il Sung's grandson and North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un.
"If the puppet authorities truly want dialogue and negotiations, they should apologize for all anti-DPRK hostile acts, big and small, and show the compatriots their will to stop all these acts in practice," the statement said, referring to North Korea's official name.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had received no such ultimatum officially, noting that there is no communications line between the two Koreas.

http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-marking-leaders-birthday-shows-more-ire-052153500.html

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 Apr 13 - 11:59 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-tipped-hand-084500657--politics.html

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: bobad
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 04:01 PM

Missile launch is North Korea's exit strategy, analysts say

Faced with annoyed allies and unblinking enemies, North Korea is likely to pull the plug on the current crisis by test-firing a missile or two and declaring victory ahead of a national celebration on Monday, analysts say.

http://nbcnews.to/YQRfsR

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 12:34 PM

The U.S. defense analysts quoted have "moderate confidence" that Kim has a bomb he can mount on a missile, and if he does have one it will "probably" be unreliable.

Other intelligence estimates are that Kim "probably" doesn't yet have the right kind of bomb and/or missile.

Net result: "Maybe he does, and maybe he doesn't. Can't really be sure. It'd be better if he didn't.... But if he does....Huh!"

Your high-tech intel tax dollars at work.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 08:52 AM

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-north-korea-video-photos-1826234

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: GUEST,Lavengro
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 05:24 AM

If this situation does escalate into anything other than words and posturing I'm afraid that KJU will be safe from harm in some bunker, whilst the civilians in NK will be very much on dangerous ground.

I personally would be surprised if the USA and her allies would want to commit yet more ground troops to another potentially protracted conflict. I think we would more likely see (relatively) short term bombing raids throwing down a lot of ordnance with the inherent risk to civilians despite best efforts.

Also, does anyone know why the NK news readers all sit there like shouty ventriloquist dummies? I would rather watch Fox "News" than sit watching that stuff!!

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 04:12 AM

Wall street Journal
A new U.S. military intelligence assessment says for the first time that North Korea may have developed a nuclear device small enough to mount on a ballistic missile, but said such a weapon's "reliability would be low."

In an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, a branch of the Pentagon, analysts appeared to upgrade U.S. estimates of North Korea's nuclear-weapons abilities, according to a portion of the report disclosed by a lawmaker at a House hearing on Thursday.

There was disagreement in Washington over the extent of North Korea's capabilities, with Obama administration officials and the Pentagon press office saying there isn't evidence that the country could use such a weapon.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 04:06 AM

US intelligence reports that they could have a nuclear warhead.
If they have they would want everyone to know.

That makes it a little more worrying that a missile test looks imminent.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Apr 13 - 09:09 AM

When I speak about Korea it's from knowledge gained from personal experience there when the Defcon went to Two. When US and other people from other nations died because of the actions taken under Kim Il Sung, and no, this was much later than 1953. In 2010 the United Nations Command had listed an average of slightly more than 28 violations of the 1953 Armistice per day.

The Koreans are wonderful people. I do not want to see war or even "provocations" imposed upon them.

I shan't post here again. It would be too personal.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Apr 13 - 07:44 AM

Was not sure you could even read, Greggie, much less find your own ass.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 06:21 PM

Another timely installment from Beardie's Clipping Service - thank God, we'd never be able to find or read the news for ourselves without his help.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 02:11 PM

South Korea raises alert with North to 'vital threat'

The BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from the Korean border

South Korea has raised its alert level to "vital threat" amid indications the North is preparing for a missile test.

At least one ballistic missile with an estimated 3,000km (2,000-mile) range is fuelled and ready for launch, US and South Korean sources say.

Pyongyang has been making bellicose threats against South Korea, Japan and US bases in the region.

The threats follow tough new UN sanctions imposed on North Korea last month after its third nuclear test.

Separately, an initial investigation by the South into a major cyber attack last month that affected a number of banks and broadcasters has said the North is to blame.

'Anytime now'
North Korea is believed to have completed preparations for a missile launch after it moved two Musudan missiles to its east coast, Yonhap news agency says.

In anticipation, the South Korea-US Combined Forces have raised their alert level to Watchcon 2, to increase surveillance monitoring, Yonhap quoted a senior military official as saying.

North Korea unveiled the Musudan missile during a military parade in 2010 but has yet to test it. There are reports, however, that it may have been sold to Iran and tested there.

The launch could happen "anytime from now", South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told parliament.

A test launch would be a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, passed in 2006, which states the North "must not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile".

North Korea has tested intermediate range missiles before and during periods of crisis and tension, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul.

So while another test launch would certainly be seen as provocative, it is unlikely to have any major, short-term military significance unless it goes wrong, our correspondent adds.

The Musudan, also known as the Nodong-B or the Taepodong-X, is an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Its likely targets are Okinawa, Japan, and US bases in the Pacific
Range estimates differ dramatically. Israeli intelligence suggests 2,500km, while the US Missile Defense Agency estimates 3,200km; other sources put the upper limit at 4,000km
These differences are due in large part to the fact that the missile has never been tested publicly, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Its payload is also unknown

He says one key date for a launch could be Monday - the birthday of the North Korean state's late founder, Kim Il-sung.

Yonhap also reported that the South's National Police Agency had raised its state of alert by one level from "attention" to "caution".

It said that patrols had been increased at 770 sites, including at embassies and key underground stations.

Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said his nation was on "high alert", with anti-missile defences deployed in Tokyo as a precaution.

A number of travel agencies in China have reported that tourist trips into North Korea have been suspended.

One travel agent in the north-eastern city of Dandong told Reuters news agency: "All [tourist] travel to North Korea has been stopped from today and I've no idea when it will restart."

The border remains open to commercial traffic.

Meanwhile, an official investigation by the South into last month's cyber attack traced the malicious codes used to six computers in the North.

"We've collected a lot of evidence to determine the North's Reconnaissance General Bureau led the attack, which had been prepared for at least eight months," a spokesman for the Korea Internet and Security Agency said.

The attack on 20 March severely affected the KBS, MBC and YTN broadcasters and operations at the Shinhan, NongHyup and Jeju banks.

'Uncontrollable'
The North has warned foreigners in South Korea to take precautions in case of war.


"Looks comical but is deadly serious" - John Sudworth profiles the North Korean leadership
On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula may become "uncontrollable".

He once again urged North Korea to tone down its "provocative rhetoric" and to keep open a joint North-South Korean industrial complex.

North Koreans failed to report for work at the Kaesong complex on Tuesday, suspending one of the few points of co-operation with South Korea.

Since the UN sanctions were imposed, Pyongyang has threatened to use nuclear weapons and has said it will restart a nuclear reactor.

The North has also shut an emergency military hotline between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Last week, it warned it would not be able to guarantee the safety of foreign embassy staff after 10 April, and that countries should begin evacuating their diplomatic staff.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: bobad
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 10:55 AM

Ex-North Korea spy says Kim Jong-Un struggling to control military

"A former North Korean spy who bombed a South Korean airliner said Wednesday that the North's leader Kim Jong-Un is struggling to control his military and using war talk to shore up support.

Kim Hyun-Hee, who said she was ordered by Jong-Un's father Kim Jong-Il to bomb the airliner in 1987 killing 115 people, said she believes the son is still trying to establish himself following his father's death in December 2011."

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 09:05 AM

North Korea: US 'ready to intercept up to THREE missiles'

NORTH Korea has completed preparations for up to three missile launches, sources in Seoul have revealed, while the South has appealed to China and Russia to intervene over the provocations.

By: Charlotte MeredithPublished: Wed, April 10, 2013

South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se confirmed today that North Korea has moved a mid-range Musudan ballistic missile to its east coast and Pyongyang is prepared to launch the missile "at any time."

"According to intelligence obtained by our side and the U.S., the possibility of a missile launch by North Korea is very high," Yun said, adding that North Korea can launch the missile "at any time from now."

The Foreign Minister said the Musudan missile has a range of 3,500 kilometers – which could hit the U.S. territory of Guam – and "it's up to North Korea how far it would fly."

South Korea fears Pyongyang could launch up to three missiles after weeks of threats, according to local reports.

One unnamed official told the Yonhap news agency: "There are clear signs that the North could simultaneously fire off Musudan, Scud and Nodong missiles."

Yun added that his government has asked China and Russia to help restrain North Korea from making military provocations as tensions on the Korean Peninsula mount over the expected mid-range missile launch by the North.

"Throughout close coordination with China and Russia, the Korean government has been continuing to make efforts to persuade North Korea to change its attitude," Yun told a parliamentary committee meeting.

South Korea and the United States have meanwhile upgraded their surveillance status in preparation for the imminent missile launch.

The United States "is ready" to intercept a ballistic missile launched by the North, the top US military commander in the Pacific has said.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said yesterday that she is exasperated by the "endless vicious cycle" of hostile behaviour from the North.

The worrying appeal to Russia and China from the South came as speculation heightened that North Korea has pulled its ambassador out of the UK after a shipping container was pictured outside the London embassy yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 09:27 PM

Yeh, well, never misunderestimate what the good ol' U S of A can get up to, either - the record is pretty sordid..

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 08:25 PM

Nothing is patently obvious in love or war. Sometimes people do what they say they are going to do. Someone with a big ego and a small..intelligence.. can do some awful things and can back her/himself into a corner.

Never ever underestimate Koreans, North, South, DMZ, whatever.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 07:04 PM

My prediction: no war, just an awful lot of hot air and posturing in an effort to gain internal PR points on the part of Little Penis.

It seems patently obvious that if he were planning to start a war he would not be broadcasting advance warnings. The fact that he is broadcasting them indicates his intent is otherwise, possibly to seek reparations or some other benefit. Anyone see the Mouse that Roared?


A

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 06:55 PM

And all the liberals keep quiet, and just let you do it...

You bet, Beardie - that vast, left-wing conspiracy is persecuting the piss out of you. Poor pitiful you.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 03:09 PM

Nothing wrong with HOPING for no "Fireworks"...




What if we reacted to any attack by carpet bombing N Korea- WITH BAGS OF RICE?

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 03:05 PM

Let's get past April 15, Kim Il Sung's birthday, first.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 02:56 PM

Agreed. The real victims here are the starving people in N Korea, who have no say in whether they live or die.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 02:54 PM

I hope it goes as we sort of expect it to..."thanks to negotiations from Switzerland/Camaroon/Bolivia we have postponed the planned attack but will not tolerate further provocation." That is what we hope, if this registers on us at all. But you can not predict what fanatics who are backed up against a wall with famine etc...will do. They can talk themselves into their rhetoric. I do think that they will be totally destroyed if they try anything at all and their people will either die or suffer tremendously..as will some of our allies. They could be helped to be so much better off in terms of mining, manufacturing, tourism, farming if they would just not be so paranoid.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 11:33 AM

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into "thermonuclear war".
The North's latest message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean capital, where the city center was bustling with traffic and offices operated normally.
Pyongyang has shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong army for war, indicating the threat could be aimed partly at bolstering Kim Jong-un, 30, the third in his family to lead the country.
The North, which threatens the United States and its "puppet", South Korea, on a daily basis, is marking anniversaries this week that could be accompanied by strong statements or military displays.
The warning to foreigners in the South, reported by the KCNA news agency, said once war broke out "it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war to be waged by (North Korea).
"It does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war," the agency quoted the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying.
"The committee informs all foreign institutions and enterprises and foreigners, including tourists...that they are requested to take measures for shelter and evacuation in advance for their safety."
None of the embassies in Seoul appeared to have issued any directives to their nationals and airlines reported no changes in their schedules. Schools catering to foreign pupils worked without interruption.
The warning, read out on North Korea's state television in a bulletin that interrupted normal programming, was the latest threat in weeks of high tension following U.N. sanctions slapped on Pyongyang for its latest nuclear arms test.
It followed the North's suspension of activity at the Kaesong joint industrial park just inside North Korea, all but closing down the last remnant of cooperation between the neighbors. North Korean workers failed to turn up on Tuesday.
North Korea had said South Korea was trying to turn the Kaesong complex into a "hotbed of war".
Speculation remained high that the North may launch some provocative action this week - perhaps a missile launch or a nuclear arms test.
In a previous appeal, its authorities urged diplomats in Pyongyang to leave on grounds their safety could not be assured beyond Wednesday. None appeared to have taken any such action.
"VERY DANGEROUS" SITUATION
Also featured in broadcasts were country-wide reports of celebrations marking Saturday's 20th anniversary of the current leader's father, Kim Jong-il, taking over North Korea's leadership and next Monday's birth date of his grandfather, post-World War Two state founder Kim Il-Sung.
A spokeswoman for South Korea's presidential Blue House dismissed the warning, saying no one felt under threat.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 11:29 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday that North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles represents a clear and direct threat to the United States and its allies in the region.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Kim Jong Un, the country's young and still relatively untested new leader, has used the past year to consolidate his power.
Locklear concurred with the assessment that the tension between North Korea and the West was the worst since the end of the Korean War in the early 1950s. The admiral insisted that the U.S. military and its allies would be ready if North Korea tried to strike.
Locklear said North Korea is keeping a large percentage of its combat forces along the demilitarized zone with South Korea, a position that allows North Korea to threaten U.S. and South Korean civilian and military personnel.
"The continued advancement of the North's nuclear and missile programs, its conventional force posture, and its willingness to resort to asymmetric actions as a tool of coercive diplomacy creates an environment marked by the potential for miscalculation that, and controlled escalation, could result from another North Korean provocative action," Locklear told the panel.
Increasingly bellicose rhetoric has come from Pyongyang and its leader, with North Korea urging foreign companies and tourists to leave South Korea and warning that the countries are on the verge of a nuclear war.
During an exchange with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Locklear said he was confident that U.S. missile defenses are capable of intercepting a ballistic missile launched by North Korea. But Locklear said a decision on whether such a missile should be intercepted should be based on where the missile is aimed and expected to land.
The admiral said that assessment can be made very quickly.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Locklear that the North Korean regime's threats "appear to exceed its capabilities, and its use of what capabilities it has against the U.S. or our allies seems highly unlikely and would be completely contrary to the regime's primary goal of survival.
"Nonetheless, its words and actions are not without consequences," Levin said.
The Democrat did question the Obama administration's decision to delay a long-scheduled operational test of an intercontinental ballistic missile amid the North Korea rhetoric.
Locklear said he agreed with the decision to delay the test through a tenuous time.
"We have demonstrated to the people of the region, demonstrated to the leadership of North Korea, our ability and willingness to defend our nation, our people, our allies and our forward deployed forces," Locklear said, citing several of the other steps the U.S. military has taken in recent weeks.
The U.S. has moved two of the Navy's missile-defense ships closer to the Korean peninsula, and a land-based system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam. The U.S. also called attention to the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercise that included a practice run over South Korea by B-2 stealth bombers.
Levin mentioned that President Barack Obama recently talked to China's new president, Xi Jinping, about the U.S. efforts to deal with North Korea. Locklear said he has not had similar conversations with his Chinese counterparts.






SIDEBAR: When I post with just my comments, or the link, after the link is no longer available I am accused of false statements. Thus I post the entire article.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 09:57 AM

So, greg, would you care to explain why you post attacks on me that do not even attempt to relate to the thread you post in, and are quoting MY REPLIES to your scumbag lies???

And all the liberals keep quiet, and just let you do it, since you support whatever it is I am disagreeing with.

What's wrong with THIS picture?

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 09:43 AM

Beardie #1 post:

What ever became of the ban on posting only to attack a person, and stalking?

Beardie #2 post:

GregF is cheap as well as a racist scumbag

Beardie #3 post:

Tell that to your fellow Klansmen, Greg

Beardie Post #4:
you are harassing me...you are a bigger scumbag

Beardie Post #5:

GregF- I don't have a feed from the Racist Nazi sites that YOU look at

Beardie Post #6:
Don't you have some sheets to wash before the next Klan meeting?


What's wrong with this picture (or mind?)

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 08:50 AM

Less than half the screen on a MacBook 17".


Not my fault if GregF is cheap as well as a racist scumbag.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 08:49 AM

Sometimes I don't read any screens at all. Sometimes I read several. It depends on the content.

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea should stop its provocations that are posing a threat to regional and international security, the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Monday, expressing deep concern over recent developments on the Korean Peninsula.

   "We are watching the development in the Korean Peninsula with great concern," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency Monday at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

   "North Korea's rhetoric, attitude and actions are provocative. North Korea's actions pose a threat to regional and international security. They're irresponsible; they are in defiance of the international community.

   "So I have a very clear message to North Korea. Stop what you are saying. Stop what you are doing."

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 08:37 AM

beardedbruce ought to know by now, no one reads over one screen length anyway.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Apr 13 - 08:15 AM

Attn: Mudelves

What ever became of the ban on posting only to attack a person, and stalking???

Or does that only apply to those yu disagree with?

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 05:04 PM

ATTN: MudElves: what became of the 1 screen limit for cut-and-paste jobs? Just curious.....

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 03:52 PM

TOKYO (AP) — It's easy to write off North Korea's threats to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster: it has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam, let alone the mainland U.S.
But what about Japan?
Though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, Japanese officials have long feared that if North Korea ever decides to play its nuclear card it has not only the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Japan's main island. And while a conventional missile attack is far more likely, Tokyo is taking North Korea's nuclear rhetoric seriously.
On Monday, amid reports North Korea is preparing a missile launch or another nuclear test, Japanese officials said they have stepped up measures to ensure the nation's safety. Japanese media reported over the weekend that the defense minister has put destroyers with missile interception systems on alert to shoot down any missile or missile debris that appears to be headed for Japanese territory.
"We are doing all we can to protect the safety of our nation," said chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga, though he and Ministry of Defense officials refused to confirm the reports about the naval alert, saying they do not want to "show their cards" to North Korea.
North Korea, meanwhile, issued a new threat against Japan.
"We once again warn Japan against blindly toeing the U.S. policy," said an editorial Monday in the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of its ruling party. "It will have to pay a dear price for its imprudent behavior."
Following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Japanese experts have increasingly voiced concerns that North Korea may already be able to hit — or at least target — U.S. bases and major population centers with nuclear warheads loaded onto its medium-range Rodong missiles.
"The threat level has jumped" following the nuclear test, said Narushige Michishita, a former Ministry of Defense official and director of the Security and International Studies Program at Tokyo's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
Unlike North Korea's still-under-construction intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, program, its arsenal of about 300 deployed Rodong missiles has been flight tested and is thought to have a range of about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles).
That is good enough to reach Tokyo and key U.S. military bases — including Yokota Air Base, which is the headquarters of the U.S. 5th Air Force; Yokosuka Naval Base, where the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and its battle group are home-based; and Misawa Air Base, a key launching point for U.S. F-16 fighters.
Michishita, in an analysis published late last year, said a Rodong missile launched from North Korea would reach Japan within five to 10 minutes and, if aimed at the center of Tokyo, would have a 50-percent probability of falling somewhere within the perimeter of Tokyo's main subway system.
He said Japan would be a particularly tempting target because it is close enough to feasibly reach with a conventionally or nuclear-armed missile, and the persistent animosity and distrust dating back to Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula in 1910 provides an ideological motive.
Also, a threat against Japan could be used to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington. North Korea could, for example, fire one or more Rodong missiles toward Tokyo but have them fall short to frighten Japan's leaders into making concessions, stay out of a conflict on the peninsula or oppose moves by the U.S. forces in Japan to assist the South Koreans, lest Tokyo suffer a real attack.
"Given North Korea's past adventurism, this scenario is within the range of its rational choices," Michishita wrote.
Officials stress that simply having the ability to launch an attack does not mean it would be a success. They also say North Korea is not known to have actually deployed any nuclear-tipped missiles.
Tokyo and Washington have invested billions of dollars in what is probably the world's most sophisticated ballistic missile defense shield since North Korea sent a long-range Taepodong missile over Japan's main island in 1998. Japan now has its own land- and sea-based interceptors and began launching spy satellites after the "Taepodong shock" to keep its own tabs on military activities inside North Korea.
For the time being, most experts believe, North Korea cannot attack the United States with a nuclear warhead because it can't yet fashion one light enough to mount atop a long-range ICBM. But Japanese analysts are not alone in believing North Korea has cleared the "miniaturization" problem for its medium-range weapons.
In April 2005, Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea had the capability to arm a missile with a nuclear device. In 2011, the same intelligence agency said North Korea "may now have" plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles, aircraft or "unconventional means."
The Pentagon has since backtracked, saying it isn't clear how small a nuclear warhead the North can produce.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 03:50 PM

China confirms military exercises near N. Korean border
   
   
BY: Bill Gertz        
April 8, 2013 4:59 am

China's military and defense ministry on Sunday confirmed that military forces in a border region near North Korea conducted live-fire drills amid tensions between North Korea and the United States.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, canceled a planned test launch of a Minuteman III ballistic missile to avoid further upsetting ties with North Korea.

Intelligence sources said signs continue to indicate that North Korea is planning to conduct a flight test soon of its intermediate-range Musudan missile that has enough range to reach Guam.

Two Musudan missiles have been readied and the flight test may take place around April 15, the anniversary of the birth of the late leader Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.

Additionally, North Korea may conduct another underground nuclear test in the coming days, the sources said, based on intelligence indicators of increased activity at North Korea's northern nuclear testing facility.

Tensions remain high as North Korea's communist regime in recent weeks issued a string of threats to conduct nuclear missile attacks on the United States and South Korea, whose militaries are currently engaged in large-scale military exercises that include flights of B-52 and B-2 strategic nuclear bombers near the peninsula.

Regarding the Chinese troop movements, the Communist Party newspaper Global Times reported Sunday that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried out live fire maneuvers in Shenyang, near the North Korean border, on April 1.

The newspaper, quoting the official newspaper PLA Daily and the Chinese Defense Ministry, said tanks and armored vehicles from a Shenyang military region mechanized infantry unit took part in the drills during a snowstorm.

The forces "zigzagged through bomb craters, muddy holes, while climbing over small hills that were training items designed to constantly prepare for real combat capabilities," the report stated.

The brief item published in Global Times included photos of two weapons systems used in the exercises, including a Type 07 122 millimeter automatic cannon and a Type 59 tank painted white for camouflage during winter operations.

In an unusual twist that apparently sought to link the exercises to tension in Korea, the same headline for the article, "The military disclosed in the Shenyang Military Region, April 1st armored brigade combat exercises," appeared above two photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, one showing him standing with soldiers in what appears to be a border observation post and a second photo of Kim standing behind a soldier firing a pistol.

The Free Beacon reported April 3 that PLA troops and tanks were mobilized in several locations in northeastern China, including in Daqing, located in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, and in the border city of Shenyang, in Liaoning Province.

U.S. officials said the movements were mainly part of 190th Mechanized Infantry Brigade based in Benxi, Liaoning Province. The brigade is believed to be part of PLA's Shenyang Military Region and is the frontline combat unit that would respond to any regional conflict or refugee flows. Troops and tank movements also were reported in Dandong, in Liaoning Province.

Regarding the U.S. missile flight test, a senior defense official confirmed that a Minuteman 3 ICBM test planned for launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., was postponed.

"This test was long planned and was never associated with North Korea to begin with," the official said. "But given recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it's prudent and wise to take steps that avoid any misperception or chance of manipulation."

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel canceled the test on Friday, the Associated Press, which first disclosed the action, reported on Sunday.

Another flight test will be conducted "soon," the official said, adding the United States "remains strongly committed to our nuclear deterrence capabilities."

White House official Daniel Pfeiffer, appearing on Fox News Sunday, denied the administration was caving in to North Korea in canceling the test.

"No, absolutely not," Pfeiffer said when asked if canceling the Minuteman 3 flight test was "caving into threats" from Kim Jong Un.

However, it is not the first time the Minuteman 3 test was postponed for political reasons. Defense officials said last year that political factors were behind several such delays.

The Air Force Global Strike Command, located at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., had planned the Minuteman 3 flight test for early 2012 and delayed the test three times.

The command blamed a faulty mechanism in the missile's self-destruct mechanism for the delays in a planned flight test of a Minuteman 3 that was put off until after the November presidential election.

Three ICBM launches were put off last year, including launches March 1, April 10, and May 16, all due to the same technical problem, officials said.

The command had planned to conduct four test launches in 2013.

Defense officials said concerns that the flight tests would upset China or Russia were behind earlier delays.

The officials said many senior policy officials in the Obama administration hold views similar to anti-nuclear weapons activists who are opposed to modernizing and testing of strategic nuclear forces.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said the latest North Korean crisis is the result of Pyongyang's "brinksmanship." McCain criticized China for not reining in its communist client.

"China does hold the key to this problem," McCain said on CBS Face the Nation. "China could cut off their economy if they want to. Chinese behavior has been very disappointing, whether it be on cybersecurity, whether it be on confrontation in the South China Sea, or whether their failure to rein in what could be a catastrophic situation which—more than once, wars have started by accident. And this is—this is a very serious situation."

China's leader Xi Jinping issued a veiled criticism of North Korea on Sunday in a speech that "no one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain."

The Free Beacon first reported last week that Chinese military forces were mobilized in border regions near North Korea. The Free Beacon also was the first to report that North Korea was planning a test launch of the Musudan, a mobile intermediate-range ballistic missile, after movements of the mobile launchers were detected traveling from west coast areas to an expected launch location on the east coast of North Korea.

However, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters last week that there were no large-scale troops movements in North Korea or China. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden also told reporters there were no unusual troops movements last week, a comment contradicted by news reports.

Several newsletters and blogs disputed the Free Beacon's reporting on the Chinese military movement, incorrectly asserting there were no unusual troop movements.

The Nelson Report, a newsletter that reflects liberal State Department officials' views, dismissed unspecified reports of Chinese troop mobilization as "rumors." The newsletter quoted a source "up on the China-North Korea border" April 5 saying, "Chris, the only thing 'massing' up here is the news media. Hasn't been any PLA movement or reinforcement worth mentioning. The whole story is nonsense."

Nelson declined to comment.

The Foreign Policy blog "Passport" reported April 1 that Carney was "pushing back" against a report in the Free Beacon on North Korean missile movements and asserting North Korea "has not altered its military posture" amid heightened tensions.

"Despite the harsh rhetoric we are hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces," Carney said April 1.

Four days later, asked about the missile movements, Carney said: "We've obviously seen the reports that North Korea may be making preparations to launch a missile, and we're monitoring this situation closely, and we would not be surprised to see them take such an action."

Commenting on the Free Beacon's report, blogger John Hudson wrote that another spokesman "reiterated that all was quiet in North Korea."

"Jay mentioned a couple examples, but his broad point was that we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture," National Security Council spokeswoman told Foreign Policy.

However, a day later, reports contradicted the statements indicating North Korea was moving two Musudan missiles.

The Foreign Policy report suggested the Free Beacon report was tenuous because it "did not display the satellite imagery relevant to its report."

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: kendall
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 01:11 PM

All he wants is respect. This is a strange way to go after it. He can only end up looking foolish. For them to attack us would be like them throwing corn flakes at a tank.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 09:35 AM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Monday it will suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, pulling out more than 53,000 North Korean workers and moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.
The Kaesong industrial complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone is the biggest employer in North Korea's third-largest city. Shutting it down, even temporarily, would show that the destitute country is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the United States.
Pyongyang's move follows weeks of threatening rhetoric and provocations aimed at Seoul and its U.S. ally following U.N. sanctions punishing the North for its third nuclear test, on Feb. 12. In recent days there have also been signs in Seoul pointing to an even larger provocation from Pyongyang, including another possible nuclear test or rocket launch.
The point of the threats and possible future provocations, analysts say, isn't a full-scale war, which North Korea would certainly lose. It's seen instead as an effort to force new, Pyongyang-friendly policies in South Korea and Washington and to boost domestic loyalty for Kim Jong Un, the country's young, still relatively untested new leader.
The statement about Kaesong came from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of a key decision-making body, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It did not say what would happen to the 475 South Korean managers still at the Kaesong industrial complex. The statement also did not say whether the North Korean workers would be recalled immediately, and a South Korean manager at Kaesong said he had heard nothing from the North Korean government.
"North Korean workers left work at 6 o'clock today as they usually do. We'll know tomorrow whether they will come to work," said the manager, who declined to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to media. North Korea had asked South Korean managers to say when they intended to leave by Wednesday; the manager said he did not know whether he and his South Korean colleagues now will be forced to leave.
Members of South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for relations with the North, were meeting Monday to discuss the South Korean managers' status but had yet to issue a statement.
The Kaesong complex is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement projects. Other cooperation projects such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain became stalled amid confrontation between the rival Koreas in recent years.
The complex combines cheap North Korean labor and South Korean know-how and technology. It is the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project from previous eras of cooperation.
North Korea previously cut the communications with South Korea that had helped regulate border crossings, and last week barred South Korean workers and cargo from entering North Korea. Operations continued and South Koreans already at Kaesong were allowed to stay, but dwindling personnel and supplies had forced about a dozen of the more than 120 companies operating at Kaesong to close by Sunday.
"The zone is now in the grip of a serious crisis," Kim, the party secretary, said in remarks carried by the Korean Central News Agency. He said it "has been reduced to a theater of confrontation with fellow countrymen and military provocation, quite contrary to its original nature and mission."
"It is a tragedy that the industrial zone which should serve purposes of national reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification has been reduced to a theatre of confrontation between compatriots and war against the North," said Kim, who visited the complex Monday.
Kaesong is a rare source of foreign cash for North Korea. South Korea's Unification Ministry estimates 53,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong received $80 million in salary in 2012, an average of $127 a month.
North Korea objects to portrayals in the South of the zone being crucial to the impoverished country's finances. Kim said North Korea "gets few economic benefits from the zone while the south side largely benefits from it."
South Korea's finance minister, Hyun Oh-seok, said Monday that it is "quite ridiculous" for North Korea to be closing the border at Kaesong. "North Korea has nothing to gain from these kinds of things," he said at a news briefing.
Hyun said the government is looking at ways to help Kaesong firms.
A South Korean worker in Kaesong reached by the Associated Press on the phone said she did not know if North Korean workers would come to work Tuesday. She also said she didn't know when she would return to the South.
"Everyone left work (for their living quarters at Kaesong) before we heard the news from North Korea," she said. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not allowed to speak to reporters without authorization.
Daemyung Blue Jeans Inc., which does business in Kaesong, has not received any news from North Korea, CEO Choi Dongjin said. He said he heard news of the withdrawal on TV. He said he was trying to get in touch with his managers in Kaesong and hadn't spoken with them since Monday morning.
"We have seven (South Korean) workers in Kaesong. We don't know what to do about them," Choi, who is in Seoul, said by phone.
North Korea has unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast in recent weeks. It has threatened to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and claimed it had scrapped the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War.
Last week it told foreign diplomats based in Pyongyang that it will not be able to guarantee their safety as of Wednesday. Embassy workers appeared to be staying put as of Monday but foreign ministries around the world were continuing to evaluate the situation.
North Korea has found itself increasingly isolated. China, its most important ally, drafted the U.N. sanctions with the U.S. and expressed unusual disappointment when Pyongyang announced last week that it was restarting a plutonium reactor to produce more nuclear-bomb fuel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Germany, praised the U.S. for postponing a missile test in California that had been set for this week, in the name of lowering tensions. Putin said at a press conference that a conflict on the Korean Peninsula would make the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl "look like a children's story."
The North's threats against the United States are widely dismissed as hyperbole. North Korea is believed to have a handful of relatively crude nuclear weapons, but analysts say they've seen no evidence it can build a warhead small enough to put on a missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. A direct attack on the U.S. or its allies would result in retaliation that would threaten the existence of the ruling Kim family in Pyongyang, but there are fears the North could launch a smaller-scale attack.
Another possibility is a fourth nuclear test, or a missile test.
The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch. His description suggests that the missile could be a Musudan missile, capable — on paper at least — of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).
Pyongyang's warning to diplomats prompted South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director to say Sunday that North Korea may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.
During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks — which also include China, Russia and Japan — that it abandoned in 2009.
The possibility of a fourth North Korean nuclear test has existed for some time. South Korea has long said the North prepared two tunnels for a nuclear test, but used only one Feb. 12.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae generated confusion about South Korean intelligence on the issue Monday in a parliamentary session. When a lawmaker asked whether there was an indication of increased personnel and vehicles at the North's nuclear test site, Ryoo said "there is such an indication."
After Ryoo's initial comments, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said there are vehicle and personnel activities at the northeastern test site but they are seen as "usual" activities, not an "indication for a nuclear test." Kim said North Korea can conduct a nuclear test anytime if decides to do so.
The comments in a parliamentary session were recorded on video, but Ryoo later told lawmakers he couldn't remember making them and didn't mean to say them. He said he was "startled" by reports carrying his earlier comments.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 08 Apr 13 - 08:50 AM

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [e-mail] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5895dd0e-9f98-11e2-968b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2PsLu39bT

April 7, 2013 5:28 pm
Seoul on alert over North Korea threat
By Anna Fifield in Washington, Song Jung-a in Seoul and Jamil Anderlini in Bo'ao, Hainan
©Reuters
The crisis over North Korean belligerence deepened on Sunday as officials in Washington and Seoul warned that Pyongyang could act on its threats to launch a missile this week, ahead of the anniversary of founding president Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15.
The former leader's birthday is usually marked with great fanfare, sometimes including demonstrations of military might, and North Korea often chooses significant dates for provocations such as missile tests.
More
ON THIS STORY
China warns against Asia troublemakers
US delays missile test amid Korea tensions
White House takes N Korea threat seriously
North Korea to restart nuclear facilities
Seoul vows tough response to North Korea
ON THIS TOPIC
North Korea to suspend Kaesong operations
UK diplomats in North Korea to stay put
US to send missile defence unit to Guam
Kurt Campbell US best to play long game on N Korea
IN NORTH KOREA
The World North Korean threats
US stealth bombers fly to South Korea
Seoul plans 'green détente' with Pyongyang
North Korea blames South for cyber attacks
The US postponed an intercontinental ballistic missile test originally planned for this week, amid concerns it risked heightening tensions further.
In Seoul, a senior South Korean security official said North Korea might fire a missile on or around Wednesday, following Pyongyang's warnings that foreign diplomats and South Korean companies operating in the joint Kaesong industrial park on the northern side of the border should submit departure plans by that day.
Kim Jang-soo, President Park Geun-hye's national security director, said the notice to diplomats and Kaesong workers were all "calculated acts".
"We think North Korea may engage in some provocative acts such as a missile launch around the date," Mr Kim told other security officials at a meeting on Sunday, adding that the threats appeared to be aimed at pressuring Seoul to change its North Korea strategy and start dialogue with Pyongyang.
Earlier, Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, said in a speech to the Bo'ao forum in Hainan province that no country should be allowed to throw Asia into chaos, in a veiled rebuke to Pyongyang, which counts Beijing as its closest ally.
Mr Xi, who has come under pressure from the US and its allies to do more to rein in North Korea, said "no one should be allowed to throw a region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," without naming any specific country.
"Countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all contribute their share in maintaining and enhancing peace," he said at a Chinese business forum attended by dozens of national leaders from Asia, Africa and Europe.
Western diplomats attending the conference on Sunday said Mr Xi's intentionally ambiguous wording appeared to be a veiled warning to Pyongyang not to push things too far but could also have been partly directed at Washington, which is often accused by Chinese leaders of meddling in the region.
North Korea's warning to diplomats is the latest in a series of provocations, after the UN tightened economic sanctions following its third nuclear test in February.
North Korea has declared a "state of war" with its southern neighbour, blocked access to Kaesong and threatened a nuclear attack on the US. In response, the US has deployed a missile-defence battery to Guam, a US territory and one of the key American military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, and flown nuclear capable B-2 bombers across the Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to US President Barack Obama, said the White House "wouldn't be surprised" if North Korea conducted a missile test, amid evidence it had been preparing launch sites.
He declined to discuss "hypotheticals" about how the US would respond if North Korea did launch a missile, saying that Mr Obama believed North Korea and its volatile young leader, Kim Jong-eun, "needs to stop its actions".
The Pentagon has also decided to delay the launch of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, initially scheduled for Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test is not related to North Korea or to the joint military exercises that the US and South Korea have been conducting.
"But given recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it's prudent and wise to take steps that avoid any misperception or chance of manipulation," a senior defence official told the Financial Times. "The US will conduct another test soon and remains strongly committed to our nuclear deterrence capabilities."

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 06:06 PM

RE my Post 02:26 PM - QED, Beardie. I appreciate your confirmation.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 02:47 PM

Tell that to your fellow Klansmen, Greg.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 02:26 PM

will let everyone ( of the right viewpoint) hide under his sheet

That doesn't even make sense, Beardie. You're getting more hysterical & incoherent by the hour.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 12:50 PM

'We will NOT back down': West slams North Korea after madman dictator is pictured brandishing a gun and warns that diplomats' safety is at risk after April 10

Rogue communist state issued a deadline of April 10 to every government

Russia in 'contact with U.S., China and South Korea' about staff safety

About two dozen countries, including the U.K., have embassies in North Korea - although the U.S. has no diplomatic relations
N Korea has moved second Musudan missile with 3,000km range
South Korea deployed two warships with missile-defence systems
Pyongyang releases footage of Kim Jong-un joining in with target practice
By JILL REILLY and DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 21:44 EST, 4 April 2013 | UPDATED: 11:21 EST, 5 April 2013


All government embassies have been instructed to evacuate staff from Pyongyang after dictator Kim Jong-un warned he could not 'guarantee the safety of foreigners.'
The rogue communist state issued a deadline of April 10 to every government that is represented in North Korea in a dramatic new escalation of the nuclear crisis.
As tensions escalate in the region, Pyongyang released footage of Kim Jong-un joining in with some target practice during a military drill. The Communist leader was seen brandishing a gun and looking at shots on a human-sized target mark as well as using his binoculars.
Scroll down for videos

Get out: All government embassies have been instructed to evacuate staff from Pyongyang after dictator Kim Jong-un warned he could not 'guarantee the safety of foreigners'

Watchful: The rogue communist state issued a deadline of April 10 to every government embassy that is represented in North Korea in a dramatic new escalation of the nuclear crisis
Advice for tourists is set to change after North Korea moved a second missile to its east coast, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Today the British Foreign Office confirmed it had been told its staff were at risk while Russia said it was in 'close contact with the U.S, China and South Korea' about airlifting workers out.
But it said that it has 'no immediate plans to withdraw' Britain's embassy in Pyongyang and condemned 'provocations' by the North Korean government.
About two dozen countries have embassies in North Korea - the U.S. doesn't currently have diplomatic relations with North Korea and the State Department told MailOnline it doesn't have a figure on the number of Americans who may be in the country.
U.S. citizens in the country are likely to include adventure seeking tourists and some defectors and prisoners who remained following the end of the Korean War in the 1950s. Sweden acts as the protecting power of U.S. interests in North Korea for consular matters.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304287/North-Korea-latest-Get-ALL-embassies-told-evacuate-staff-Pyongyang-Kim-Jong-Uns-warning.html#ixzz2PbmBUjGd
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 11:44 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - At the North Korean embassy in London, they are answering the phone but saying little.
"As far as we know, we are not giving any statements," a North Korean official told Reuters, declining to give his name and saying all necessary information was already available on the website of the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
In fact, the world, well beyond Asia, is perplexed by the mysteries of the nuclear-capable state's bellicosity and many fear mutual ignorance could help turn words into acts of war.
Many foreign analysts offer reassurance. No one, they say, really wants war. Missile and nuclear tests, threats of possible atomic strikes on the United States and military drills on both sides of the divided Korean peninsula, reflect rather a youthful North Korean leader and newly elected South Korean government both finding their feet at home and testing their strengths.
Yet neither 30-year-old Kim Jong-un, who succeeded his late father just over a year ago, nor South Korea's President Park Geun-hye is seen having much room or appetite to back down.
The risk of miscalculation or mistake sparking accidental conflict may be growing by the day - bringing with it the greatest risk in years of a regional nuclear exchange.
"We have had worrying times before, but this is bad," says Victor Cha, former director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.
"The rhetoric is off the charts. We don't understand this new guy at all," added Cha, who is now a senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"And if the North Koreans move to provoke the South, the South is going to retaliate in a way we haven't seen before."
This month's joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises have sparked outcry from the North and could make for the most dangerous weeks on the peninsula in more than two decades.
"COULD GO VERY WRONG"
"There are number of ways this could go very wrong," says Ken Gause, chief North Korea specialist at the Center for Naval Analyses, a U.S. government-funded research institute that advises the U.S. military among others.
"You have two new governments in North and South Korea that are still finding out where each other's red lines are."
While there is uncertainty over whether North Korea is capable of firing a nuclear device across the border or over the sea at Japan or U.S. Pacific bases, even a conventional conflict could be devastating. Meanwhile, the risk of confrontation with Pyongyang's traditional ally China also worries Washington.
The likely human and economic cost, those with knowledge of events say, was one of the key reasons Washington held back from direct military action against the North Korean nuclear program in the 1990s to stop it completing a nuclear device.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 10:47 AM

By Guy Faulconbridge and Ronald Popeski
LONDON/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has asked embassies in Pyongyang that might wish to get staff out if there is a war to submit plans to it by April 10, Britain said on Friday, as it upped the pressure as part of a war of words that has set the Korean peninsula on edge.
Initial reports by Russia's Foreign Ministry and China's Xinhua news agency suggested that North Korea had suggested that embassies should consider closing because of the risk of conflict.
The request came amid a military buildup by the United States in South Korea following the North's warnings that war was inevitable due to U.N. sanctions imposed for a nuclear test and what it terms "hostile" U.S. troop drills with South Korea.
"We believe they have taken this step as part of their continuing rhetoric that the U.S. poses a threat to them," Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement after the reports from Russia and China.
A British diplomatic official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that European Union embassies in Pyongyang had been summoned to deliver their evacuation plans.
Under the Vienna Convention that governs diplomatic missions, host governments are required to facilitate the exit of embassy staff in the event of conflict.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier that North Korea had "proposed that the Russian side consider the evacuation of employees in the increasingly tense situation", according to Denis Samsonov, a spokesman for its embassy in Pyongyang.
A report from Chinese state news agency Xinhua chimed with the Russian report, saying that Pyongyang had asked embassies to consider evacuation if the situation deteriorated.
North Korea, ruled by 30-year old Kim Jong-un, has not issued any statement indicating which of the conflicting reports was true.
TWO ROCKETS DEPLOYED
In a fusillade of statements issued over the past month, North Korea has threatened to stage a nuclear strike on the United States, something it lacks the capacity to do, according to most experts, and has declared war on South Korea.
On Friday, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed two of its intermediate range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or U.S. Pacific bases.
The report could not be confirmed. But any such movement may be intended to demonstrate that the North, angry about joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises as well as the sanctions for its third nuclear test, is prepared to demonstrate its ability to mount an attack.
Speculation centered on two kinds of missiles neither of which is known to have been tested.
One was the so-called Musudan missile which South Korea's Defence Ministry estimates has a range of up to 3,000 km (1,865 miles, the other is called the KN-08, which is believed to be an inter-continental ballistic missile, which is again untested.
The month-long verbal assaults from North Korea have set financial markets in South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, on edge.
South Korean shares slid on Friday, with foreign investors selling their biggest daily amount in nearly 20 months, hurt after aggressive easing from the Bank of Japan sent the yen reeling, as well as by the tension over North Korea.
"In the past, (markets) recovered quickly from the impact from any North Korea-related event, but recent threats from North Korea are stronger and the impact may therefore not disappear quickly," Vice Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told a meeting.
While few observers believe that North Korea will launch a military attack, alarm has grown over the intensification of the threats.
The comments from the North could well continue until the end of April when the joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises are due to end.
"The rhetoric is off the charts," said Victor Cha, former director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council and now senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington.
The youth of Kim Jong-un has become an issue. He is the third member of his family to rule in Pyongyang and took over in December 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.
Counterbalancing that, the young Kim is surrounded by generals and advisers in their 70s who have been through this before, but there are concerns that he may view the risk of conflict as one worth taking.
"We don't understand this new guy at all. And if the North Koreans move to provoke the South, the South is going to retaliate in a way we haven't seen before," said Victor Cha, a former director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: number 6
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 10:40 AM

keep your eyes on Iran ... could this be a strategic ploy to lure the U.S. into a 2 front war ... which would be absolutely disastrous ... as the U.S. cannot even afford a (another) war on 1 front.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 08:50 AM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9973353/China-shifts-position-on-North-Korea.html




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9973577/North-Korea-missile-threat-latest-live.html






http://www.france24.com/en/20130405-north-korea-second-missile-eastern-coast




http://freebeacon.com/shield-up/



But NOY to worry- GregF will let everyone ( of the right viewpoint) hide under his sheet and be protected from anything he disagrees with.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 05:26 PM

also sprach Sun Myung Moon. Its gotta be true and unbiased.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 12:54 PM

"The U.S. would oust the communist regime in North Korea if it uses its nuclear weapons or launches an all-out invasion on South Korea and the 28,500 American troops stationed there, national security sources say.
The Obama administration has not articulated such a far-reaching retaliation, even as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatens to attack both the South Korean and the U.S. mainland.
SEE RELATED: North Korea preparing missile launch on its east coast
But national security sources say it is a common assumption within the Pentagon and U.S. Pacific Command that a full-force attack by Pyongyang would put in place a contingency plan of massive retaliation against the North aimed at bringing down the Stalinist regime. President Obama then would be faced with making the war decision.
"I have been told by a senior general that an attack by the North means regime change," a senior congressional defense aide told The Washington Times. "I was told the same thing when I visited Pacific Command [based in Hawaii]."
The South Korean government would not allow the U.S. to launch a preemptive regime change of the North, as the George W. Bush administration executed in Iraq in 2003.
However, an all-out war by the North would change the reasoning.
The Bush administration was more open about its retaliation plans. Then-Vice President Richard Cheney said an invasion of the South or the use of nuclear weapons would mean the end of the Kim dynasty.
The Pentagon, with new strategic guidance from Mr. Obama in hand, has been updating its war plans for all regions, including the Korean Peninsula.

A source familiar with the thinking has told The Times that the plans include scenarios for the regime imploding on its own and an allied invasion in response to North Korea launching a war on the South.
The plan calls for the South Korean government and its armed forces to take the lead in post-war stability operations to transform the North and achieve unification of the Koreas.
As part of a show of force, last week the Pentagon dispatched B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to take part in joint exercises with the South Koreans.
The B-2 is an overt offensive weapon, and its use in a war would be to hit targets held dear by the North, such as headquarters, presidential sites and nuclear facilities.
"We would respond with massive airpower and destroy their air force and air defenses within 50 hours, which means we could destroy their ground forces, with South Korean ground forces, in less than 60 days," said retired Air ForceLt. Gen. Thomas McInerney. "Yes, there would be carnage, but North Korea would be defeated decisively and quickly."
Gen. McInerney, who did war planning on the Korean Peninsula in the 1980s, said it is China's responsibility to keep Mr. Kim from acting on his threats to attack the United States and invade South Korea.
"Don't worry about China. If they let it happen, it's their problem," he said. "They are not going to war. China is not going to throw in a hundred thousand troops. China has got to keep this guy on a short leash. China is making so much money. They don't want ill will around the world, trade embargoes. It's not in their interest."
Asked Tuesday if the Pentagon has a plan to preemptively strike the North, George Little, spokesman for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said: "Let me be very clear that the United States position is, we want peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. For over 60 years, we've had an alliance with South Korea, and top priority of that alliance is to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula and in the region."
Mr. Little added: "We do have options at our disposal to respond effectively to any North Korean provocation. We have plans in place with our South Korean allies, and naturally we hope never have to put any of these plans into place. The goal — let me reiterate — is to protect peace and stability on the peninsula."
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday: "The United States will do what is necessary to defend ourselves and defend our allies, Korea and Japan. We are fully prepared and capable of doing so. And I think [North Korea] understands that."


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/4/us-would-seek-regime-change-north-korea-if-attack-/#ixzz2PVxFE1jq
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Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 12:49 PM

If Li'l Kim is seriously planning war, trumpeting it to the enemy weeks in advance doesn't seem like the best strategy.

Particularly if the enemy will strike first if it feels sufficiently threatened.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Greg F.
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 10:46 AM

Hi, Jack -

On the other hand. I'll try to stop giving him the exquisite satisfaction of having provoked a reaction if you will. Deal?

Per Beardie,

Typical Liberals- all fascists

and

When I post ANYTHING, GregF and his supporters,

and

To comment on ME , because of my politics, without saying a word about GregF and his stated racist comments

Doesn't seem much point in the deal you propose. In the increasingly deep throes of his paranoia, he doesn't require any provocation whatsoever.

Subject: RE: BS: WAR declared by North Korea
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 09:52 AM

Deteriorating blood. Sounds nasty. China is also moving more troops up to the Yalu River; the best guess is to stop a flood of refugees from entering China if Kim Il Dumb (called "Fatty Kim" by Chinese tweeters and facebookers) pulls the trigger. The UN Command is still active in South Korea....