Posted on 02/18/2016 10:33:56 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
(LEAD) S. Korea braces for possible terror attacks from N. Korea: official
2016/02/19 11:59
(ATTN: UPDATES with comments by ruling party lawmaker)
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is bracing for any possible terror attacks from North Korea, an official said Friday.
"The presidential office of national security is thoroughly in control of every situation related to terror," presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk told reporters.
Still, he declined to comment on whether National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin or other South Korean officials are included on North Korea's alleged hit list.
South Korea believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered intensified preparations for terror attacks on South Korea, Kim Sung-woo, chief presidential press secretary, told reporters on Thursday.
The warning came amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in recent weeks.
Police said earlier this week that North Korean hackers sent massive amounts of spam emails to South Korean public organizations last month, the latest in a series of cyberattacks against the South in recent years.
Lee Chul-woo, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, said on local radio that North Korea could launch a cyberattack in March or April, citing the North's track record of waging such attacks against South Korea soon after its nuclear tests.
North Korea launched a cyberattack against South Korea in July 2009, two months after its second nuclear test. It also hacked South Korea media organizations in March 2013, a month after its third nuclear test.
North Korea carried out a fourth nuclear test last month, followed by a long-range rocket launch earlier this month.
North Korea also has a track record of staging terror attacks against South Korea in the past few decades, including the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 people aboard.
2016/02/19
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is preparing for the possibility of North Korea disrupting satellite traffic navigation signals in the South to hamper the upcoming allied military exercise here, a military source said Friday.
Since August 2010 Pyongyang has broadcast strong radio signals to the South three times, disrupting Global Positioning System signals in Seoul and other regions and causing mobile phones and other electronic equipment to temporarily malfunction.
"We are preparing for the possibility that around the time (South Korea and the U.S. stage) the Key Resolve drills, the North will discharge electric waves to disrupt GPS signals (in the South)," the source said on the condition of anonymity, referring to the command post drills slated to begin on March 7.
"Military equipment containing commercial GPS systems could be affected by the electric waves."
An official at Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the communist regime has multiple GPS disruption tools with an operational range of more than 100 kilometers.
Some of the South's military equipment carries commercial satellite navigation systems, which are vulnerable to the North's electronic warfare. The U.S. is known to use strictly military GPS for field operations.
North Korea's "Unit 121," also known as the Cyberwarfare Guidance Unit, is known to be in charge of GPS disruption campaigns.
Intelligence officials estimate that the unit has some 3,000 personnel. It belongs to the General Reconnaissance Bureau, an organization that has masterminded a series of fatal provocations against the South, including a torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan in 2010.
Meanwhile, Seoul is considering establishing an additional national-level anti-terrorism unit as part of its efforts to address rising concerns over Pyongyang's possible terrorist attacks, according to a military official.
"As we prepare for the possibility of North Korea's terrorist attacks, we plan to focus on strengthening anti-terrorism organizations," the official said, declining to be named. "One of the measures we are considering includes designating an additional national-level anti-terrorism unit."
Currently, the Special Warfare Command and the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Defense Command run separate strategic units to counter terrorism.
The military is also seeking to expand its training facilities for anti-terrorism operations and increase related equipment and facilities, officials said.
In recent months, senior defense and intelligence officials, including Defense Minister Han Min-koo, have repeatedly warned that the North could mount surprise attacks on the South, including in cyberspace.
The National Intelligence Service reported to the National Assembly on Thursday that in line with instructions from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the reclusive state has been beefing up its offensive capabilities to launch terrorist attacks.
They are up to no good, no doubt. Careful, please.
I have always liked the Korean people when I have been there. Very hard-working, responsible, understand the value of an ordered society and have a positive desire to advance their country. But another good thing about them is they don’t take any crap and there is no political correctness there to screw decision-making up. So they will defend themselves, and if the North Koreans start something they won’t sit back and have an internal debate about what to do.
You have no idea what comfort your words bring to me. Thankyou for them.
I get concerned for family over there.
I love Korea (although really I’ve only spent time in Seoul and the nearby area). I would move there if I could find a job.
hey u guys ever seen the TV series Taejo Wang Geon. I wish PBS would show it again
When will the North Koreans reach out and push a button on the fat kid with the bad haircut? There has to be some disaffected general or group of them tired of his nonsense.
Where is the Carver Media Group in all this again, please?
BOY Chia Chub is asking for it
I put the RoK’s up there will Israel’s military. They will kick serious butt and like doing it.
Yes, the fact they have universal military service for men (that they rigorously enforce) makes a difference. So almost all men from their twenties up have had some sort of national service (although a bunch are doing their two years of service in the national police—considered a branch of the military—and some as firefighters or other emergency personnel). So although Korean men gripe about having to be in the military, if there were a national emergency or attack, they are basically all trained already if there has to be an organized response.
Ironically, I recently had a Japanese woman say to me that that is the difference between Korean men and Japanese men, and why a lot of women in Japan now find Korean men attractive. She said that because of the military service they are more masculine and physically fit. (I think Korean men are also naturally taller and bigger than their Japanese counterparts, which also makes a difference.) Interesting comment, because historically the Japanese really looked down on the Koreans as inferior (and Koreans, especially the older generations, often still have pretty bad feelings towards the Japanese because of the Japanese occupation from 1910 until after WWII and the historic discrimination against Koreans by the Japanese).
I should have mentioned that the RoK forces got quite a reputation in Vietnam. Basically for taking no prisoners and responding with overwhelming force. If the Vietcong attacked, the RoK troops would just go back into the village they were hiding and level it. If civilians were harboring the Vietcong, too bad for them.
After what they went through in the Korean war, the RoK forces had no love for any form of communism and responded appropriately.
So while the libbies will talk about RoK “atrocities” in Vietnam, the fact is that the Vietcong and North Vietnamese got the message and instructed their troops not to attack the RoK forces. So you had the anomaly that while U.S. forces were often under attack, they would generally leave the RoK forces alone.
China has been actively sabotaging any attempt to pressure N. Korea to change her way. China inserted herself into the problem again and again. So they have only themselves to blame if we widen the scope of pressure to include her.
So there is no choice but to make China held accountable in some way. The pressure on China is to be applied, starting with sanctions on Chinese business entities doing business with N. Korea.
To the surprise of China, that is what happened:
China is voicing concerns after U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bill imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea.
The bill, which aims to cut the last remaining lifelines to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile technology, will blacklist third-party individuals and entities that engage in North Korea trade.
Many of the targets are likely to be Chinese enterprises. Banks and trading firms along the North Korea-China border with offices in Dandong would be found in violation of U.S. sanctions.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/02/19/China-Sanctions-wont-resolve-North-Korea-tensions/7811455890709/
If China ended up breaking a recalcitrant Kim dynasty by sanctioning oil and food, the result could be extraordinary hardship and armed factional combat followed by mass refugee flows across the Yalu - multiply the desperation and number of Syrians heading to Europe. Then toss in loose nuclear weapons and a possible South Korean/U.S. military push across the Demilitarized Zone to force reunification.
The result would be a first-rate nightmare for Xi.
Beijing, in response to the criticism, pushed back, taking the position that it is America’s responsibility to solve the nuclear issue, not China’s. In effect, China absolved itself of responsibility to support international efforts to curtail Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and essentially declared that North Korea was not its problem.
The Obama administration, however, is about to make it so. It is now persuading Seoul to accept and deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. THAAD, stationed in China’s neighborhood, will give the US the ability shoot down North Korean missiles - and help knock down Chinese ones. Beijing summoned the South Korean ambassador over the missile-defense discussions with the US, and a senior diplomat said THAAD makes China “furious”.
Now that the South Koreans appear amenable to accepting THAAD, Beijing is beginning to reconsider its refusal to apply pressure on Pyongyang. Although China is still trying to deflect responsibility, American policymakers may have found the key to bringing Beijing around.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/gordon-g-chang/could-missile-defense-plan-turn-china-north-korea
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