North Korea: Threat or Blackmailer?

Nothing but fear mongering. NK doesn't have the ability to fire a nuclear weapon at this point. They are still in the testing phases.


Also, the people of NK may be blind and pumped full of indoctrination, but why do you think their leaders are? The leaders of NK know the reality of it. They've seen us slap other people around in the world via our military and KNOW without a doubt that a war is a losing battle. Now, that's not what they are telling their countrymen, but they know the truth. People in power want to stay in power, and they certainly will lose their power (and lives) by invading or attacking. To stay in power, they thump their chests, show their people how mighty they are and invigorate the populace once again. NK history at its finest.

1st, we know they can attach a warhead to a missile. We found their last launch vehicle, and the connections were correct for that. I am sure that's in a link somewhere in here, if you need it again, I will try to find it.

2nd, we didn't know the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would work, but we dropped them anyway. If they want to test it out on Guam, I would rather knock it out on the launchers.

3rd, when a dictator is desparate, they do desparate things. NK is starving it's people beyond the point of the famous "let them eat cake" quote, and at the same time building a false luxury for the elite in Pyongyang. The US hasn't demonstrated great staying power in battles. Look at Iraq/Afghanistan, yeah we stayed a long time, but a little blood, and our population wants out. They may do the calculus (wrong I believe) that a blitz attack, plus a nuke launch successful or not will, will give them enough standing with China that we wouldn't dare do more than get back to the DMZ point, with them recognized as a nuclear power. The elite doesn't care if they sacrifice 2,000,000 NK's or 1,000,000 SK's, they want to maintain their power.

4. it could all be talk, but this is the longest, most sustained talk in decades, and they are giving themselves very little wiggle room to back out.

The question remains, do you accept NK as a nuclear state, and if not, what steps, what price are you willing to pay in order to prevent it?

Nothing but fear mongering. NK doesn't have the ability to fire a nuclear weapon at this point. They are still in the testing phases.


Also, the people of NK may be blind and pumped full of indoctrination, but why do you think their leaders are? The leaders of NK know the reality of it. They've seen us slap other people around in the world via our military and KNOW without a doubt that a war is a losing battle. Now, that's not what they are telling their countrymen, but they know the truth. People in power want to stay in power, and they certainly will lose their power (and lives) by invading or attacking. To stay in power, they thump their chests, show their people how mighty they are and invigorate the populace once again. NK history at its finest.

One other point, wars mainly come about through miscalculations by people in power. Do you think the British thought they were going to lose a war with rabble rousing colonists? When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, do you think they thought, oh, now we will lose? Even Korea, when Kim Il-sung attacked SKorea do you think he expected that the US and UN would stand up to them?

Wars are not started by people who are making rational decisions, but most often by people who either feel they cannot lose, or have no other choice but to. Sadly, I think the NK elite is composed by mainly those two beliefs.

The Foal Eagle joint exercises are over. We will see if it was all talk, if so the rhetoric should slow down. A simple question in my mind is did our sheepish exit embolden NK leadership, or did it show appropriate restraint and open the way for discussions. It could play out either way.

from yesterday:
Military Adventure for Nuclear War

A few days ago the United States massed seven nuclear submarines around Guam, strategic point of its forces and hurled Osprey, latest vertical takeoff and landing transporter, into the Foal Eagle joint military rehearsal in south Korea.

Dialogue and negotiation are prerequisite to détente and peaceful environment. But the United States is loudly talking about dialogue and negotiation on the one hand and, on the other hand, is very keen on war exercises and deployment of nuclear striking means.

This clearly shows that it is clinging to a two-faced trick.

In fact, it is not interested in dialogue and negotiation.

The U.S. ruling quarters' noisy advertisement about dialogue and negotiation is aimed at relaxing our confrontation will and guards against the United States and hastening the preparations for provoking a nuclear war.

As the world knows, a danger of nuclear war gravest ever since the Second World War has been created on the Korean peninsula.

It is intensifying nuclear blackmail against us while unprecedentedly opening to the public the drills of strategic nuclear striking means for a real war. It has thus brought the danger of nuclear war to the pitch.

Under this situation, the United States deployed in full earnest the latest vertical takeoff and landing transport planes and nuclear submarines in south Korea and the west Pacific.

Such military movement has nothing to do with dialogue and only leads the situation to the worst crisis.

The United States has never opened its mouth without saying that we perpetrated "provocations". The ballad led by the United States is chorused by all sorts of riffraff. However, the reality goes to prove that the United States is the very "provoker" who is aggravating the situation of the Korean Peninsula to the extreme and trying to unleash a nuclear war there.

It is escalating the nuclear confrontation racket, nuclear blackmail beyond the limit, enraging us.

If the United States starts a nuclear war, it will be crushed by the war. It'd better be mindful that the nukes arsenals in the mainland and the Pacific might be the root-cause of plunging it into the most terrible nuclear holocaust.

Ri Kyong Su
sorry there are no puppets :(

They have been very quiet for a while.
I'm wondering if China told them to stfu.

An interesting take on how NK did all this as an excuse to shutdown Kaesong:

Daily NK - Kim Issued 'Close Kaesong' Order (http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=10532)

The source kind of looks like a national enquirer type publication only about NK, but the concept is interesting.

and Alvin, China pulled some serious military maneuvers on the NK border, that may have been more like STFU!!!

Kaesong is now void of SK's and how it happened sounds like an appeasement strategy to me:
The last seven South Koreans remaining in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex returned home Friday evening, bringing the symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation to a complete close.
...
However, Seoul has reportedly decided not to sever electricity and water supplies to the area, according to government sources. They said that it was a decision aimed at preventing the facilities from becoming obsolete and at the same time not to goad the North.
...
It was a barter resembling the cold war-era swap of American and Soviet spies. South Korea sent two trucks full of cash to the tune of $13 million, according to the ministry.

Originally the discussion was about 7.2Million, instead the SK's paid 13. They are also going to keep servicing the electric/water. It may be the right strategy as you wait it out till dialogue can restart, but I can't help but think that there is some faction in NK that sees these type of decisions as weakness, and proof that the SK's/US wouldn't stand up to a true provocation.

Finally, anyone who thinks that they have reduced their belligerent tone, is listening to our media/government not their press releases. ie from today's 5 oclock charlie report (http://www.rodong.rep.kp/InterEn/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2013-05-03-0009&chAction=T):

NRI Makes Public White Paper on
Response for Danger for Nuclear War on Korean Peninsula

The National Reunification Institute (NRI) on May 1 made public a white paper accusing the U.S. and south Korean puppet forces of pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war.

The white paper said:

The U.S. and its lackeys, south Korean warmongers have been responsible for all incidents of military confrontation that pushed the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a war and stunned the world for several decades. To cite a few examples, they provoked the Korean War in the 1950s and there were the incidents of the U.S. spy warship Pueblo and the U.S. spy plane EC-121 in the 1960s, the Panmunjom incident in the 1970s, the armed skirmishes in the West Sea of Korea and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident in the subsequent period.

The U.S.-led hostile forces prodded the UN Security Council into fabricating an unreasonable "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK over its legitimate satellite launch for peaceful purposes at the end of last year. This was a heinous provocation perpetrated in wanton violation of its dignity and sovereignty.

To cope with this, the DPRK, as it had already warned, decisively countered the provocation of the U.S., the south Korean puppet group and other hostile forces by conducting the third underground nuclear test.

Much upset by it, the U.S. and south Korean puppet group got frantic in their moves to cook up additional UN "resolution on sanctions" against the DPRK.

By putting in motion its hand-raising machine, the U.S. cooked up the UN "resolution on sanctions" 2094 against the DPRK in March, 2013.

This was more provocative than the last UN "resolution" 2087. It was nothing but a vicious document of blackmail and a de facto declaration of war as it calls for isolating and stifling the DPRK by totally blockading its sky, land and seas.

Timed to coincide with the fabrication of the UN "resolution on sanctions", the U.S. and the south Korean warmongers staged the large-scale Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises in south Korea since March last.

These drills were staged according to such extremely dangerous war scenarios as OPLAN 5027 and OPLAN 5029 which are aimed to mount a surprise attack upon the DPRK and occupy it.

The U.S. and the south Korean warmongers didn't conceal that the main aim of such saber-rattling was to mount a preemptive nuclear attack upon the DPRK and a precision strike upon its headquarters.

They went the lengths of staging mock drills to destroy the symbols of the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK after working out a vicious plan for the operations.

The spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, the commander of the U.S. forces in south Korea and the south Korean military openly blustered that the drills were aimed "to demonstrate the capability for a nuclear attack upon the DPRK", and "to mount a preemptive strike upon the strategic bases of the north and to strike its bases of counteractions, supporting forces and even commanding forces in case it launches counterattacks" and "they were staged under the simulated conditions of not only a local war but a total war".

Meanwhile, the south Korean puppet forces and the U.S. inked "the plan for jointly countering the provocation of a local war," making the U.S. forces' involvement in the inter-Korean military conflicts an established fact. They staged drills for implementing the plan for a local war and an all-out war and various war scenarios for provocation in five islands in the West Sea of Korea, widely opening them to public.

The U.S. military and the brass-hats of the south Korean puppet army let loose a spate of such outbursts that "they are simulating the worst scenarios and getting ready to cope with them", "the drills might go over to the phase of actual punishment" and "there is no limit to the scope of retaliatory punishment". They went the lengths of crying out for "wiping out the north government from the surface of the earth".

All facts go to clearly prove that the U.S. and the south Korean warmongers are the arch criminals who escalated the tension and brought the danger of a nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula.

Rodong Sinmun

brought the danger of a nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula
Thats quite amusing coming from the only guy holding nukes in that area.....

China will not accept N. Korea as 'nuclear-armed state': official | YONHAP NEWS (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2013/05/03/92/0401000000AEN20130503008400315F.HTML)

China says....."Not going to happen bro."




The remarks come amid signs that recent tensions might hurt ties between Beijing and Pyongyang, highlighting China's waning tolerance for its neighbor's provocations.

"During the talks, Wu made it clear that China will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"With regard to the issue, I think that we, the U.S. and China have shared a united stance," the official said, adding he "sensed" a growing impatience by China with North Korea's increasing saber-rattling, particularly after the North's December rocket launch and its third nuclear test in February.

One more thing about people who say that they know they would lose. They continually present historical facts (accurate but skewed to their perspective) that show governments losing their power to acquiescing to US demands. IF they view the gap of their military capabilities and SK's capabilities widening to quickly at some point in the future (ie drones, upgraded jets, and missile defense), the military elite may push k-un to believe that now is the time to act, while China is still more on their side than not, while their numerical superiority lets them take the southern half quicker and their missiles are safe from missile defense systems.

Again, their economy is failing, their defense won't keep up, and unlike the USSR of the late 80's, they don't have the option to reunite the split country(germany) and still remain substantially intact.

A cornered beast will lash out before it tamely lies down to die.

What the heck is "slapdash confrontation policy"?

Foolish Act Precipitating Ruin



Now, the inter-Korean relations are in a state of war due to vicious hostile acts against the DPRK by the south Korean authorities hand in glove with the U.S. and their nuclear war rackets.

Their confrontation maneuvers are an unpardonable repeat of the crimes of the former treacherous regime.

They are, in essence, little different from the rash acts of the Lee Myung Bak regime as a revelation of criminal intent to disarm the DPRK and realize their deep-rooted ambition to invade it.

The present south Korean puppet regime is the same with the Lee regime in human rights ruckus against the DPRK.

While working hard to adopt a "law on human rights in the north" at the national assembly, it played the leading role in cooking up an international machinery to breed plot against the DPRK under the pretext of "investigation".

Finding fault with our satellite launch for peaceful purposes and measures to boost the self-defensive nuclear deterrent, the south Korean puppets in collusion with the U.S. are hell-bent on kicking up the rackets of sanction and war games against the DPRK.

It is a culmination of the confrontation act to lead the tension of the Korean Peninsula to the worst pitch and extremely key up the crisis of nuclear war.

The Korean Peninsula has never been faced with such an imminent nuclear war crisis as today.

The responsibility for it rests with the present south Korean puppet authorities who, regarding our satellite launch and nuclear test as the best chance to realize their scheme to attack the DPRK, went crazy with brigandish sanctions and preemptive nuclear attack rehearsals to do harm to the DPRK together with the U.S.

Nevertheless, the puppet trigger-happy elements are vilifying our legitimate countermeasures for self-defense and further exasperating the situation with foolhardy utterances such as "resolute punishment".

The reality clearly proves that as long as south Korea is ruled by traitors to the nation who pursue an anachronistic confrontation policy, the inter-Korean relations can never be improved and the destiny of the Korean nation is to suffer an irretrievable calamity.

Now, the south Korean puppets are calling for dialogue in a bid to evade the blame for today’s grave situation caused by their confrontation policy and veil their treacherous nature.

If the tension of the Korean Peninsula is to be relaxed, it is necessary, above all, to put an end to the confrontation policy in south Korea.

If the south Korean authorities are really interested in dialogue, they should draw a lesson from the catastrophic situation incurred by their slapdash confrontation policy and make an all-out apology for that.

Sim Chol Yong