I would think this sale would certainly heat things up with China. With our business, I have been there several times. I noticed the tremendous infrastructure, massive highways, bridges, etc., with very few people traveling on them. (the cities are another story) I asked our driver why this was so. His comment, "to move the military" I found that rather chilling.
The global chess pieces seem to be moving.
I just found, and posted, a more in depth article:
North Korea plans total mobilisation within 24 hours for war
Urdu Times(News): North Korea has issued plans for mobilisation of the entire country within 24 hours in the event of war and for protection of the communist state's leaders in underground bunkers, a South Korean newspaper said on Wednesday. The Kyunghyang Shinmun daily quoted what it said was leader Kim Jong-il's secret operations plan revised last April and addressed to key officials throughout the country.
"All sectors and units will execute the detailed war-time operations plan when a war is declared," a two-page directive included in the plan quoted Kim as saying.
North Korea is the world's most militarised country relative to population, with close to 1.2 million troops on active service.
"Issuing a detailed wartime operations plan to counter modern warfare conducted on land, air and sea carries the significance of putting all the party, the military and the public under one uniform command in preparation of contingency and to fully mobilise human and material resources of the country," Kim said.
A South Korean intelligence official said the plan as quoted by the paper was genuine but declined further comment.
That is exactly the rationale for the interstate system in the United States. It is to move military assets. There is a requirement for stretches of perfectly straight road to act as impromptu landing surfaces for aircraft.
"To move the military" was Ike's excuse for the Interstate System. I understand a lot of the design specs for the Interstates were DOD (minimum heights for overpasses, strenght of road surface,. . .)