Posted on 03/31/2008 12:13:50 AM PDT by maquiladora
SEOUL (AFP) — North Korean jet fighters have tested South Korean defences by flying near the border repeatedly in the past month, prompting Seoul to scramble aircraft in response, news reports said Monday.
Seoul military authorities refused comment on the reports, which comes amid a flare-up in tensions between the two nations.
On Sunday the communist state's official media claimed that Seoul is planning a preemptive military strike and threatened to turn South Korea into "ashes" if it went ahead.
In the past five days the North has expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial complex, test-fired missiles, accused Seoul of breaching a disputed sea border and threatened to suspend all dialogue.
Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted military sources as saying the North's jets, including MiG-21s, had flown near the heavily fortified border 10 times since conservative President Lee Myung-Bak was inaugurated in Seoul on February 25.
Jets scrambled each time to intercept the North's aircraft according to their operational rules, said Chosun, the South's largest-circulation newspaper.
"It is very unusual for North Korean jet fighters to fly southward so intensively in such a short period of time as one month," the paper said.
Chosun also said a North Korean mechanised army unit was recently spotted moving south after a regular field exercise, in what it called an unprecedented military move.
Yonhap news agency, quoting a military source, said the North's military has strengthened its winter land, sea and air exercises. The drills have increased by more than 50 percent this year over previous years, the Seoul agency said.
The North is angry at Lee's tougher stance on cross-border relations, especially his decision to link long-term economic aid to progress in nuclear disarmament.
It blames the United States for delays in carrying out a six-nation nuclear pact and said last Friday it may slow down work to disable its atomic plants.
The North staged a nuclear weapons test in October 2006 but later agreed to scrap all its atomic programmes and material in return for energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions and diplomatic ties with the United States.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) office and the defence ministry refused comment on the Chosun report.
nalysts believe the North is intent partly on swaying the outcome of South Korea's April 9 general election in which Lee's conservative party is seeking a parliamentary majority.
Late Saturday the North's chief delegate to high-level military talks said all dialogue with South Korea may be suspended and called for an apology over reported remarks by the South's military chief.
Last week the new JCS chairman, General Kim Tae-Young, told parliament the South would strike the North's nuclear sites should the North attack it with nuclear weapons.
The North claims the remarks amount to plans for a preemptive strike, something the South strongly denies.
"Our revolutionary army will counter any slightest move of the South's 'preemptive attack' on our nuclear bases with a more rapid and more powerful preemptive attack," the official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday.
"It should be kept in mind that once our preemptive attack is launched, everything will turn into ashes, not just a sea of flames."
North Korea vowed to turn the South into a "sea of fire" during a previous nuclear crisis in 1993-94.
Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korea paper published in Japan, said on its website Monday that tensions were the worst since the 2006 nuclear test.
"The North is firmly responding to the South's provocations," it said.
Only 506 miles from Beijing to Pyongyang.
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The damage and civilian casualties in the first 48-72 hours would be astounding.
Every inch of Seoul is targeted and within easy reach of the 10,000 tubes of artillery that the North has ready to fire. btw....1950 not 1949 was the year that the North attacked.
Yep, and the bad thing is that Beijing is downwind from Pyongyang too during a large part of the year.
No Problem. The Chinese can make it rain enough to wash away the radiation....just in time for the Games.
NK is working up to war or another Bluff. It is taking all the classic War Prep steps.
Kim is probably worrying about his own generals and ministers right now. Starting a war or pretending to is a way of throwing plotters, especially generals, off balance.
Are you kidding? South Korea would immediately go on the offensive once hostilities broke out. Ask the Russians how well mass infantry attacks stop a determined mechanized invader.
I'm going to guess that every one of those tubes has been mapped by drones, and every one has a JDAM pre-targeted. I'm also going to guess that the NK capital will cease to exist within hours of the first shell hitting Seoul
Most of them are in caves...you think there are 10,000 JDAMS in Korea?
I spent a great deal of time in SK in the 80’s and 90’s. In my estimation Seoul would be overrun by the NORKS in 48-72 hours (BTW the US Military has several war plans that have predicted that for decades). The South is not prepared for the shock of it and the NK soldiers are hungry and somewhat bored. In addition, many of the younger generation in the South want reunification. Some may actually turn up to fight for the North. I have seen the results of 14 artillery pieces work in the field. I cannot even imagine 30,000+ releasing a barrage for hours out of hardened locations that have had 50 plus years set-up and exact target coordinates put in from intel gathered by spies. The Government buildings in Seoul would be leveled in the first 4 hours. An artillery barrage of Seoul would be a military nightmare. the South would eventually push the North back when they run out of supplies and air power but the first week would be an incredible event.
A people who have been starved for years and years, repressed and exploited shamelessly like the North Koreans, make for really lousy soldiers.
That’s why I believe a free people, well armed and no doubt really pissed off at an agressor nation they’ve repeatedly attempted to help, would pulverize any invading force. And right now the South is prepared for the worst.
Time will tell.
North Korea warns South of ‘pre-emptive strike’
CNN
Posted on 03/30/2008 5:58:24 AM PDT by maquiladora
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993956/posts
The MIG 21 is still a very formidable fighter, considering it is Vietnam era technology. It wouldn’t hold up for too long however against U.S. airpower, the Raptors would shoot them out of the sky 20 miles away.
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