N.Korea Deploys Rocket Launchers Along West Coast

Chosun.com ^ | Dec. 20, 2010 09:00 KST | staff

[gandalftb]

North Korea has deployed multiple rocket launchers along the shore north of Yeonpyeong, Baeknyeong and Gangwha islands in response to a planned South Korean artillery drill on Yeonpyeong, government sources here say. The North earlier threatened an "unpredicted self-defense counterattack" to the drills.

A South Korean government source said, "After making the threat in a message sent Friday, North Korea raised the alert level at artillery divisions on the west coast and deployed the multiple rocket launchers."

The North also reportedly made coastal artillery ready to fire and put some fighter jets on the west coast on standby.

[roses of sharon]

BreakingNews

1. Sounds of artillery still heard on island where S. Korea has been conducting live-fire drills despite reports exercises had ended - AP 12 minutes ago via breakingnews.com

[caww]

Who can really possibly know what they are imagining is going on. What Kim-bo is pushing on the propaganda media there in the North is anybodies guess.

[caww]

Thanks..am going now to check Steve’s tweets...

[AmericanInTokyo]

I only heard it would be in a two hour window, and then I also heard, planned for 90 minutes. This is not to say they could resume at any moment. So far no DPRK provocation, but still on alert.

Ohhhhh Pyongyang Radio and Korean Central Radio tonight will be frothing with the bile, I bet most of it is directed at the USA and not Seoul. They will try to drive wedges. Between Seoul and D.C. Between Tokyo and D.C. Between Beijing and DC. Between Tokyo and Seoul. But they are just yapping dogs in my book, and they prove it. Methinks they played their little 40 year game of brinksmanship just a little bit too far. Probably some DPRK generals will be liquidated as a result; maybe it will cause even more internal chaos amongst the ruling elite.

Their commentary will spell this out tonight and Rodong Shimun party paper tomorrow will also spell it out.

What is good is that so far, they have in fact blinked. Now one has definitely got to wonder what the position of Kim Jong Il and Kim jong Un will be after all of this. Just guessing more than anything else here.

[AmericanInTokyo]

That is entirely possible—good poins Mariner. There is some inner DPRK cracks appearing it seems, and socially the people in the North are getting restless. I am not completely sold they THEY are sold on this 27 year old piece of crap with no record, “General” Kim Jon Un.

[roses of sharon]

YonhapNews: (URGENT) S. Korea concludes live-fire exercise near N. Korea: official

[Eye of Unk]

Its winter solstice combined with a lunar eclipse, just from the very bottom of my gut it is telling me to be more than usually aware, yes I am in Alaska, no I am not in any branch of the service and yes I can pretend to be an armchair General.

A lot of cultures use significant natural events as turning points of their history, especially warfare.

[caww]

Steve Herman
W7VOA
W7VOA #ROK Defense Ministry: Jet fighters in the air on alert. #Koreas about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA @raburingo apparently in Yeonpyeongdo air raid shelter & posting photos via Twitter. #Koreas about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Yonhap: ROK gov’t official reacting to reported #DPRK nuke offer says it again seems to be trying “to fool the international community.” about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Rodong Sinmun (#DPRK): All Koreans must wage dynamic struggle to frustrate US imperalists & puppet warmongers (#ROK) to provoke new war. about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Reports coming in from Yeonpyeong that the #ROK live-fire drill has ended, lasting 1 hr. #Koreas 47 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA Based on statements leading up to today’s #ROK dril, #DPRK signaled it would retaliate at time and place of its choosing and also blames US. 44 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA Reuters reporter on Yeonpyeong says sound of shelling ceases. #Koreas 32 seconds ago · reply
W7VOA KCNA (#DPRK): NM Gov. Richardson delivered a present for Kim Jong Il. #Koreas 42 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA USFK: 7 UN Command observers were on Yeonpyeong to observe that today’s drill complied with 1953 Armistice. #Koreas 36 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA Statement expected shortly from Chong Wa Dae (#ROK Presidential Blue House). #Koreas 35 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK Pres. spokesman says entire gov’t, all public servants are to stay on emergency alert anticipating #DPRK counterstrike. #Koreas 32 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK defense ministry won’t confirm drill has ended. Artillery firing still heard on Yeonpyeong by AP reporter. #Koreas 24 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA RT @VOA_News: North Korea Offers Concessions as South Korean Artillery Drill Begins http://bit.ly/hIdgnP 21 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK believed to be firing K-9 self-propelled howitzers, 105mm towed artillery guns, Vulcan guns and 81mm mortars. #Koreas about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Yonhap just ran a story saying more in Seoul “suffering from high blood pressure, depression.” Great timing for story release! about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA AP: #ROK says fighter jets launched to deter #DPRK attacks. about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK Defense Ministry: Jet fighters in the air on alert. #Koreas about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA @raburingo apparently in Yeonpyeongdo air raid shelter & posting photos via Twitter. #Koreas about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Yonhap: ROK gov’t official reacting to reported #DPRK nuke offer says it again seems to be trying “to fool the international community.” about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Rodong Sinmun (#DPRK): All Koreans must wage dynamic struggle to frustrate US imperalists & puppet warmongers (#ROK) to provoke new war. about 1 hour ago · reply
W7VOA Reports coming in from Yeonpyeong that the #ROK live-fire drill has ended, lasting 1 hr. #Koreas 45 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA Based on statements leading up to today’s #ROK dril, #DPRK signaled it would retaliate at time and place of its choosing and also blames US. 42 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA KCNA (#DPRK): NM Gov. Richardson delivered a present for Kim Jong Il. #Koreas 40 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA USFK: 7 UN Command observers were on Yeonpyeong to observe that today’s drill complied with 1953 Armistice. #Koreas 34 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA Statement expected shortly from Chong Wa Dae (#ROK Presidential Blue House). #Koreas 34 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK Pres. spokesman says entire gov’t, all public servants are to stay on emergency alert anticipating #DPRK counterstrike. #Koreas 30 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA #ROK defense ministry won’t confirm drill has ended. Artillery firing still heard on Yeonpyeong by AP reporter. #Koreas 22 minutes ago · reply
W7VOA RT @VOA_News: North Korea Offers Concessions as South Korean Artillery Drill Begins http://bit.ly/hIdgnP

[caww]

I have heard that the people there are at the very least questioning that their government is not doing as they say they are...and that many are aware of the outside world now and whats going on.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Rotorcraft (of some sort) over Tokyo. Like I said, briefly. A bit difficult to make out if USFJ or JASDF, or somebody else, from my vantage point.

[LayoutGuru2]

;)

[Eye of Unk]

To be quite honest I’m not sure I want to discuss how many and or what IS taking off in your neck of the woods.

Take care.

That would be like me saying a dozen F-22’s just lit out off over Anchorage heading west.

[caww]

This gals in an airraid shelter tweeting...one picture shown...tweets in Korean language to I can’t read it of course..but photo is interesting.

http://twitter.com/raburingo

[Mariner]

I'm wondering if the littlest Kim is the one making all the threats (echoed by all the "media" in the North) and the real generals have no intention of following through for him.

Seems to me the regime is on the verge of collapse and ROK took a calculated risk, based on their own intelligence, to push it over the edge.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yep. If it brushes up against FR and other general rules, I wont be mentioning it until it is generally in the “all clear”. ;-) This is indeed a very sensitive time for all.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Even if that were not the case, things could be engineered through disinformation and false flags, to pin it on the boy and get the Generals angry at him and Dad.

[headsonpikes]

Decapitation - eom.

[Eye of Unk]

This is actually close to my weird early morning hour, I usually wake up at 2am our time though its still before 11pm right NOW Alaska time, I will be monitoring this thread for awhile but I have some other stuff to do.

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is a little “old” (by that I mean, tweeted by her from the island nearly two hours ago), but essentially she says in Korean to the effect, “here I am in an air raid shelter on Yongpyeong do, along with 50 assorted people, citizens (of the island) and journalists alike. We can hear the explosions. Everyone is holding their breath(s) until the maneuver comes to a completion.”

[AmericanInTokyo]

Sometimes like in the military, or in business, or in life in general, the ones who yap and threat and bully the most, have the least amount "under the hood" when you actually take a look-see.

I think they will get really vitriolic now on the airwaves, declaring war, all kinds of things. But the fact of the matter is, their troops have not moved today as they said they would.

Yet.

Paper tigers.

OTOH, they could also hold their bitterness for a spell (particularly if they "lost face") also sink another ROK corvette in the West Sea a month from now, and say it is retalization for the shelling practice today. They would be that spiteful. Must continue to be very very diligent in watching the DPRK, what they do as well as what they say, in cases like this.