U.S.-U.N. Command: North Korea violated Korean War armistice

USA Today / AP ^ | 12/27/2002 | AP Staff

[ex-Texan]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)

[maquiladora]

North Korea has started to tighten public control, conducting military drills and ideological indoctrination. Public military training -- like anti-air raid drills and Red Guard training -- has been underway on a major scale since late October 2002. The National Defense Committee put all the people's armed forces on a "semi-war status" in early November 2002.

[maquiladora]

Don't worry, Gandalf is on the South Korean's side in this one.

[Right Brigade]

Comments??

---

Why don't we just surrender now?

[orfisher]

>>Also, Bush doesn't care much about his re-election<<...You must be from outer space. It means everything to him....and Daddy.

[MonroeDNA]

Know what? If they attack, they attack. That has been a risk for 50 years, and it may happen tomorrow. Many will die.

That should not deter the US from making the tough choice of leaving the troops there, and waiting.

NK is dying as a country, and dying countries, like people, sometimes go nuts right before they die. That is a risk.

That should not stop us from watching over the deathbed. Running away, which will breath new life into the soon-to-be corpse, will only guarantee a stronger enemy later.

[maquiladora]

Correct, unlike any war with Iraq which would only throw up minimal US fatalities, a NK invasion, even if beaten back and crushed in the swiftest and most optimistic scenario would still result in the deaths of hundreds of US troops due to the unique nature of the conflict.

In the event of a war, the current plans call for over 600,000 US troops to be moved to the region within 60 days.

[MonroeDNA]

Keep thinking that, and keep underestimating Bush.

[maquiladora]

It all depends on how quickly the NK's can move south. If we can't move reinforcements over in time then things could get very nasty indeed. NK has been planning and refining it's options for decades and it's whole military revolves around the single purpose of a lightning invasion of the South.
I think it would be inevitable that a NK will have the upper hand in the early days of a war, but how quickly will SK/US turn the tide, that's the question.

[marshmallow]

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Communists are not Muslims. The spectre of incineration is something that focuses their minds wonderfully. The atheist has no desire to exit this mortal coil.

North Korea is doing their usual blackmail act. Give us food, give us money, give us oil or we make mighty bad medicine for imperialist pigs. It's time to call their bluff and face them down as Reagan did to the Soviets. Immediately cease all economic assistance and let the law of gravity take its course. It's time to send these Stalinists to hell. Might and power are the only things communists respect.

We should make it quite clear that any military incursion into the South will result in Pyongyang becoming another Hiroshima.

[MonroeDNA]

"North Korea has started to tighten public control, conducting military drills and ideological indoctrination. Public military training -- like anti-air raid drills and Red Guard training -- has been underway on a major scale since late October 2002. The National Defense Committee put all the people's armed forces on a "semi-war status" in early November 2002. "

Of course they have. They've been sending hints for awhile now. If they were serious, they would not have; they would just do it, and invade. They won't; heck, they can't. It's winter, they have no food, and have no shoes.

But they are not serious. They are bluffing, blackmailing, testing. Just like they did with Klinton. Klinton caved, though. Bush won't.

They are dying as a country, as communist countries always do. Their blackmail won't work, this time.

They are a small time bully beating it's chest, with a couple shots left in the revolver. Should we run away?

[maquiladora]

Are the SKs capable of an offensive in the north direction?

Not really, only in terms of a joint SK/US counter-offensive at some later point after an invasion. SK will try to concentrate on slowing the NK advance while US reinforcement fly/sail in. When the US force is built up strong enough, there will be a counter attack, but no pre-emptive stuff from SK till then.

[MonroeDNA]

Ditto what you said.

BTW, have you read "Reagan's War,", by Schweizer? Great read.

[maquiladora]

Not strictly true, a winter assault would open up, though not completely, a larger number of avenues of approach and make US/SK air sorties more difficult.
Also, if they wanted to just get the attention of the US and blackmail them they would have picked a better time, and not when the US is focused on Iraq.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

N. Korea is not only led by a loony Communist leader who calls himself a "God", but N. Korea is willing to sell weapons of mass destruction to our enemies. They are a clear and present danger and are making noise now that we've caught them in the act and they have no way to deny what our surveillance proved.

The world owes the Bush administration a big debt. Why didn't the UN atomic energy folks or the Clinton admin. officials know what was going on in N. Korea? On the day our sailors were murdered aboard the USS Cole near Yemen, SOS Albright finally made it to the waiting microphones (fresh from celebrating 50 years of Communist tyranny in N. Korea), beaming from ear to ear she crowed about her trip as the USS Cole smoldered in the water.

Forewarned, we can deal with N. Korea. We have no choice...no matter that most of the socialist wienies want to pull the rose colored glasses back on, forcing the Bush administration to clean up one more problem created by their international Utopian dream nightmare lies. Without the Bush team's focused efforts, the first you may be hearing about N. Korea's nukes is after they or one of their terrorist thug customers take out LA.

Clinton's debt to the civilized world is too big for human accounting. Let God sort it out. We can only work to strengthen our defenses and make sure no politician ever puts personal politics before our national security ever again.

[Swiss]

In other words do exactly what Bill Clinton did after Black Hawk Down in Somilia.

Bin Laudin and his buddys saw that as weakness and we have paided with Two Skyscrapers and 3000 dead because we took the easy political way out.

[maquiladora]

Agreed.

[RightWhale]

how quickly will SK/US turn the tide

NK could take the whole penninsula. It's a possibility. Whether they could keep it is unknown. But they will probably be stopped in a couple of days and the fighting will continue for probably three weeks until NK is essentially gone as a fighting force. At that point China should come in, not to drive the UN forces out as was attempted 50 years ago, but to administer the country of NK until unification with SK.

[ASA Vet]

still necessary to track OBL in Pakistan.

Dead people leave no tracks. He's been dead over a year.

[MonroeDNA]

What better time to blackmail the US than now?

When we are not about to start a war with someone else?

[maquiladora]

I'm not sure if they could take the whole of SK, it all depends of a lot of unknown factors really. I do think that it would take weeks rather than days to stall a NK advance. The SK's might hold them up in some areas, but there are weakpoints and NK can the expolit the terrain to find gaps.
Having said all that, I can't see this coming to war, not now anyway. It just doesn't feel right. What the NK's seem to be doing now is political, the key to their degree of success in a war lies in surprise. And right now, with talk of war all over the world media, is hardly a good time.

Look for an invasion when you least expect it.

On the other hand, if the US decides to launch an airstrike against NK's nuclear facilities...well...who knows.
Dangerous times.